Toffee Apple Pie

Apologies that it has been quiet on the blog front. Mr Birdie and I jetted of to the west coast of America during half term and then we have been busy catching up with friends and meeting our gorgeous new nephew Elliot (congratulations Ian and Steph!) I plan to do a blog post on our foodie adventures in America and have a couple of recipes to catch up on but for now here is my most recent adventure in baking.

Autumn is in full swing and comforting, warming baking is the order of the day. This recipe for toffee apple pie is from Ruth Clemens of 'The Pink Whisk' which you can find on her blog here. I'd never made an apple pie before and as I think I've mentioned before pastry scares me. This recipe uses flaky pastry which I was surprised to find was actually quite easy (for someone who has a pastry phobia!) I am quite tempted to try it again for some mince pies this Christmas. I was pleased with my first attempt at this recipe however I did find that the toffee sauce separated and a lot of butter was at the bottom of the dish (having read comments on The Pink Whisk website other people have had this problem too). It did meet my husbands approval despite this!

You will need an 8 inch pie dish which was something I didn't possess so this was an excellent opportunity to go shopping. I purchased this lovely teal number in TK Maxx.

Ingredients:

For the pastry
300g plain flour
225g butter
35g caster sugar
6-8 tbsps cold water (I needed 10)

For the filling
475g tart, firm or cooking apples (I used Gala apples as these were cheapest in Aldi!)
150g butter
75g light muscovado sugar

1 egg for egg wash
Caster sugar for sprinkling

Method:
1) Begin by making the toffee sauce as it needs time to cool down. Melt the butter and light muscavado sugar in a pan over a gentle heat. Stir it gently and often until the toffee sauce is smooth and well combined. Remove from the heat and set it to one side.

2) Then start to make the pastry. Measure the flour into a large bowl.

3) Dice the cold butter into small pieces. Use a plate to slice the butter and add a spoonful of the flour for the pastry to it. This will help it to stop sticking.

4) Add the butter to the flour and start to rub it in with your fingertips. Only rub it in half way so that you are left with little lumps of butter.

5) Stir through the caster sugar.

6) Start to add the water, a couple of tablespoons at a time. Mix it together using the blade of a table knife until it just comes together with being crumbly.

7) Lightly knead the pastry in the bowl to form a ball. Then wrap it in cling film or a freezer bag and place it in the fridge to chill for 1 hour.

8) Dust your work surface and your rolling pin lightly with flour. Divide your pastry into two halves.

9) Grease your pie tin. Roll out one portion of the pastry and line the base of the tin. Trim off any excess neatly.

10) Peel, core and slice the apples. Add them to the lined pie dish and pour over the toffee sauce (this is where I started to have some issues as my toffee sauce was starting to solidify and was not really pourable - it didn't really look that appetising as you will see in the photo!) 

11) Roll out the second portion of flaky pastry and lay it over the top. Use a pair of scissors to trim the pastry so that there is 1.5cm extra over the side of the tin. Fold this extra pastry underneath the lip of the base layer and gently press to seal them together. Then chill the pie in the fridge for 30 minutes. 

12) Preheat the oven to 180C(fan)/200C/Gas 6. Crimp the chilled pie crust by gently lifting the pastry lip around the edge and using the thumb and forefinger of your left hand to press the top of the pastry over the forefinger of your right hand to make the fluted shape. Work your way around the pie - alternatively you can use a fork. 

13) Brush the top all over with egg wash and sprinkle with some caster sugar. Cut a couple of slits in the centre of the pie with a sharp knife to allow the steam to escape.

14) Bake for 35 minutes until golden brown.

15) Enjoy with cream, ice cream or custard!

Happy baking! 

Mixed Berry Plaited Pie

I will start today's post with a confession. I am a hoarder. I find it difficult to throw things away. In the process of moving I have had to address this (well I like to think I have addressed it!) Whilst packing I have had to sort through many food magazines. At various points over the last few years I have had subscriptions to Delicious, Good Food and Olive and had kept them all. My husband was not going to let me pack up and move boxes of magazines but I didn't want to throw them away. The solution to my reluctance to throw these away - to rip out all the recipes I liked the look of or thought I might like to make one day in the future. I now have a lever arch folder fit to burst with recipes. It was when I was ripping and filing that I spotted this recipe. I am a bit obsessed with blackberry recipes at the moment and this not only contained blackberries but also looked pretty impressive.

This is an Olive recipe that you can find on the BBC Good Food website here. It is a cross between a pie (it has a pastry base and pastry twists on top) and a cake. It is very easy to prepare as you make both the base and filling in a food processor (I didn't even bother washing it out!)

Ingredients:

100g butter (softened)
2 tablespoons golden caster sugar (plus extra for dusting)
200g plain flour
1 egg (beaten)
1 x 375g pack ready-rolled shortcrust pastry
plain flour (for dusting)

Filling:
150g butter (softened)
150g golden caster sugar
50g ground almonds
3 eggs
150g self-raising flour
250g mixed berries (I used raspberries, blueberries and blackberries)

Method:
1) Heat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4 and line the base of a brownie tin approximately 20cm x 30cm (I used a roasting tin slightly larger than this and it was fine). In a food processor whizz together the butter, sugar and flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Add the egg and whizz until it looks like coarse breadcrumbs.

Tip into the tin and press firmly to make an even layer (I struggled at this point - so much so my husband said I would never survive on the Great British Bake Off! It was difficult to press the pastry so I had to take the paper out of the tin and roll the pastry using a rolling pin to roughly the right size before putting the paper back in the tin.)

Chill the pastry base while you make the filling.
2)  Whizz the butter and sugar in a food processor until combined.

Add the ground almonds, eggs and flour until smooth. Pour over the base and spread with the back of a spoon.
3) Scatter over the mixed berries to cover the top.

4) On a lightly dusted surface unroll the pastry and cut into 18 lengths (short strips rather than long).

Arrange half, spaced out on top of the fruit, twisting each strand on the diagonal. Then repeat with the remaining lengths but in the opposite direction. Trim the overhanging pastry. Sprinkle with extra sugar, about 2 tablespoons.

5) Bake for 40 minutes until light golden. Cool a little before removing from the tin. Serve warm.

Banoffee Pie

Summer has finally arrived and it is barbecue season. Our friends Simon and Louisa (and their super cute son Finn) joined us this afternoon for a barbecue in the sunshine and to cheer Andy Murray on (well done Andy!) I was tempted to make Nigella's Forgotten Pudding or her Strawberry Shortcakes but Mr Birdie requested banoffee pie so banoffee pie it was!

There are hundreds of recipes for banoffee pie on the Internet. After much perusing I opted for a Hairy Biker's recipe from the BBC website which you can find here. I made some changes such as not putting banana in the cream on top and not putting any banana on the top. It is a simple recipe and it is super tasty. After a few baking disasters recently I was happy to get back on track and enjoy some baking success!

Ingredients:

For the base and sides

75g butter

300g oaty biscuits (the recipe states chocolate oaty biscuits but I decided to use plain)

For the filling
115g butter
115g soft dark brown sugar (I didn't have any and used light brown instead - it didn't make any difference other than the colour of the caramel)
397g can sweetened condensed milk

For the topping
450ml double cream
4 ripe but firm medium bananas (I ended up using 3 large ones as I didn't put any on the top or in the cream)
25g coarsely grated plain dark chocolate or chocolate curls

Method:
1) To make the base, melt the butter in a small pan. Break the biscuits into chunky pieces, put in a food processor and blend into crumbs. Alternatively you can put the biscuits into a strong food bag and bash with a rolling pin. Tip into a bowl and stir in the melted butter.
2) Tip the crumbs into the centre of a deep, 23cm/9in fluted loose-base tart tin and press firmly into the base and sides (I didn't have one large enough so used a 23cm springform tin which worked just as well). Make sure the biscuit is evenly distributed and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes, or until set.

3)To make the filling, melt the butter in a medium non-stick saucepan and stir in the sugar. Cook over a low heat as the sugar dissolve, stirring constantly until the butter and sugar look smooth and no oil floats to the surface. Add the condensed milk and bring to a gentle simmer, stirring constantly. Cook until the mixture turns a deep, creamy caramel brown (You need to be very paitent - the recipe states this will take three minutes but mine took a lot longer than this).

4) Pour the toffee gently onto the biscuit base and quickly smooth the surface. Leave to chill for at least one hour (I left mine overnight) before topping.

5) Just before serving, lightly whip the cream in a bowl. It should stand in soft peaks. Diagonally slice the bananas and scatter them over the toffee. (The recipe suggests putting half the bananas on top of the toffee and folding the rest into the cream but I decided against this).

6) Spoon the cream gently on top. If you want to decorate your pie with banana on top the recipe suggests slicing some banana and pouring lemon juice over it to stop it from going brown. You can then decorate the top with the lemony banana, poking it into the cream randomly. Finally, sprinkle the pie with grated chocolate or chocolate curls. 

7) To serve cut into slices and enjoy!