Lattice apple pie

Step 1

Peel your apples, cut into quarters, core and slice into 2mm slices.

Step 2

Coat apple slices in sugar and cinnamon and place in a small pot with a splash of water and a handful of raisins.

Step 3

Simmer gently (covered) until apples release their juices and soften a little (about 15 minutes), but take off the heat before they start disintegrating. The point of simmering down the apples first is that if you put raw apples into your pastry, they will collapse too much during cooking and you will end up with an empty space under your lattice top. Trust me, I've tried it!

Step 4

In a mixing bowl, combine sifted flour, salt and sugar. Add in olive oil. Incorporate the oil into the flour with your hands until the flour resembles coarse crumb. Now start adding the water, just enough to form pastry - the amount of water needed depends on many different factors so add it in bit by bit. Form a pastry ball, but do not knead. Wrap it into a piece of cling film and rest it in the fridge for 30 mins.

Step 5

Divide the pastry into half. Now take 100 g out of the first portion of pastry (best to use scales for this) - this will be the bottom of one pie and the rest will be your lattice top.

Step 6

Roll 100 g of your pastry between two sheets of baking paper until the pastry is about 2 mm thick.

Step 7

Gently roll the pastry with a rolling pin so that it is big enough to cover the ramekin and its sides.

Step 8

Put rolled-out pastry over the ramekin. Gently peel off the sheet of baking paper and work the pastry into the ramekin. Do not trim the edges yet.

Step 9

Prick the bottom of the pastry with a fork in a few places.

Step 10

Repeat steps 6-9 with the other half of the dough.

Step 11

Now roll out the pastry for lattice tops. Roll them out into a rectangle shape that is a bit wider than the diameter of your dish. You'll need 10 x 1½ cm pastry strips for each top in so rolling the pastry into a rectangle maximises the number of strips you'll get.

Step 12

Fill the pastry cases with cooled down apple filling. I like to use my hands for this to be able to cram as many apples as possible to avoid gaps once the pies have been baked.

Step 13

Cut the first rectangle into 10 x 1½ cm wide strips. Place five of them on the top of the first pie like in the 1st photo below.

Step 14

Weave the lattice by pulling back every second horizontally arranged strip, placing one vertical strip on top and then arranging pulled back strips over it - see my photos 2-4 below. Seal the edges by pressing down with a fork and cut off excess pastry using a sharp knife. Repeat with the 2nd pie.

Step 15

Place both pies in the fridge for 45 minutes. After 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 200° C / 390° F.

Step 16

Place the pies on the lower shelf of the hot oven. After 20 minutes, decrease the temperature to 190° C / 375° F and bake for another 55-60 minutes or until the pies have browned nicely.

Step 17

Let the pastry cases cool down. Once cooled, gently remove them from the ramekins and enjoy!