Dutch Apple Pie
This recipe is here because I couldn’t find a straight‐ahead one on the web. I’m not big on nationalist titles, but this recipe can carry it. The idea is a deep‐dish, crude‐sliced apple pie, laced with an Empire‐weight of spice.
The English plate pie, the American apple pie, and the French Tart, are not like this. This pie is should be cooled. You are talking about making it then into the fridge overnight.
PS. This is not the well known Dutch ‘strudel’ apple pie, which has a crumble topping. Though I like crumble, hey, I would make a crumble, not add pastry too. See the Discussion.
Ingredients
Pastry,
Half a cup sugar
Two and a half cup flour
Three‐quarters cup butter
One egg
Filling,
Apples. you need a lot, like eight EU apples, preferably a mix of kinds
Teaspoon or more of lemon juice
Tablespoon of cinnamon (see Variations)
Half cup of sugar (maybe brown)
Four tablespoons of brown flour
Extra egg yolk to paint on the top
Tools
Rolling pin, maybe. Sometimes I have got away with a big bottle. Also, with this recipie, you can thumb in the pastry
A deeper oven dish. At a pinch, anything deep and roughly two‐hand‐size will do, a casserole dish, lined cake tin etc. The gentle cooking means the material is not critical
Painting yolk on the top is a hassle. I’ve got away before by wiping with kitchen towel (this time I repurposed a cheap art‐brush)
Oven
About half‐way (Gas 5 or 6)
Make
Make pastry. Mix sugar and flour. Rub, or mix in, the butter. Add the egg and stir into pastry. Add water if you think you need it. With this pastry, not a big issue, throw in flour or water until it’s like modelling clay
(optional) Stick the pastry in the fridge for an hour
Core and peel the apples then chop thumbnail size. As you gather apples, stir in lemon, it stops them browning
Stir in cinnamon or spice mix, sugar, and half the fill‐flour
Cut roughly half–two‐thirds the pastry, enough to split between bottom and a laced top. Roll out or knead the big lump into the cooking dish
Spread the remaining half of fill‐flour into the pastry base
Tip the apples into the pastry
Roll out the remaining pastry, cut into strips, lace over the top
Cover with foil, use the bottom of the oven, bake for half‐an‐hour
Uncover, paint the egg yolk over the lattice
Bake for half–three‐quarters of an hour
Try see if the apples are cooked with a skewer, but there’s slack on all sides here. Leave in the oven to cool, then into the fridge.
Variations
Look, this pastry isn’t shortcrust. Half again, or double it. Knead it into the dish, thick. I’m going to try this next time
Half the apples to use should be tart cooking apples. The original is, I believe, Elstar. In England, where getting hold of apples is difficult (for shame, England can grow apples as good as anywhere), that means Bramleys
If you can’t, a mix of the Granny Smith (tart, bakable) or Braeburn (tart, bakable) and Golden Delicious (sweet too) will do
Some people slice thin. I don’t know the original, but I figure if you are heading that way you may as well make a French Tarte
A bit or orange or lemon zest may add something
The flour you add to the filling and base is to soak up excess juice. It could be white flour. It could also not be flour—one recipe I saw used semolina
The Dutch use a special mix of spices called ‘speculaaskruiden’, which you can imitate by throwing in some cloves, ginger, or allspice. Or all of them. My opinion, the cinnamon should be the load of delivery, especially if it is good and fresh
You can buy pastry cutters that make a lattice. Or make a full round top and stamp some holes in it with something. The thing to get into your head is, ‘A top with lots of holes’
You are aiming at slow cooking, so the oven bottom
Discussion
Pastry has several purposes in cookery,
To act as an ad‐hoc seal on a large dish‐pie
To bulk out expensive leftovers, like meats and fish
As an envelope to make portable food
The pastry/pastries I get in shops serve none of these purposes. It is there to make food products look generic, and to make a cheap bulk of slimes. So I don’t like pastry, and usually refuse to cook it. However, I can make an exception for this pie because it’s deep‐dish. And it’s worth faffing with the pastry to cook the apples well.
References
Wikipedia,
Not this, but interesting,
Feedback
My disaster, I overwatered the pastry and it turned into flour slip. I didn’t have time to fix this, so thumbed the goo into the dish. Reason being, it would cook anyhow. Then, nobody would let me fridge the pie, because the smell was wafting round the house, and everyone wanted a go. So the pastry was never going to hold. I spooned out the contents.
The pie lasted three days, was served alone, then with custard, then with a blueberry sauce I had hanging about. As cooking, it was mid‐level disaster, with burned pastry on one side and fallen to pieces. As supper, it was a smash hit, is fondly remembered, and is on the request list.