Sep 9th, 2014

Author: donich_admin

Can you bake a Pie?

I made a fancy French ‘Tarte aux Pommes’ tonight to use up some of the apples from our trees on something a bit memorable. It was (or is – we haven’t finished it yet) a sweet pastry case (make it like shortcrust pastry only with a bit more butter to flour than usual (8oz flour, 5oz butter), plus add 1 egg yolk and a teaspoon of sugar), filled with a thick puree of cooking apples, and topped with sliced eating apples.

I made the pastry case, chilled it in the fridge for 10 minutes while the oven warmed up, and then baked it for 15 minutes at 200 degrees, and a further 15 at 180.

It tastes pretty good – but I think if I were on the British Bake off that Mary Berry would accuse it of being a bit ‘messy’ – partially because my smart china tart dish gave up the ghost last year and I had to use a metal cake tin.

So that is most of the apples eaten; I still need to walk out towards Ardentinny one of these days and see how the abandoned orchard is doing.