Salted Caramel Apple Pie

Happy Easter everyone!

As per usual, today I was in charge of dessert, so armed with Edd's "Say It With Cake," I arose on Easter Morning (minus an hour in bed, pah!) to make us a delicious treat - salted caramel apple pie.

My Dad absolutely loves apple-y puddings in any way, shape, or form, and my Mum is an absolute fool for anything with the words "toffee" or "caramel" in the name - so I thought, why not combine the two with this recipe? Plus, it gave me a chance to delve into my new book for the first time, thanks The Boy Who Bakes!

My pet hate is peeling and chopping apples, so first I employed some trusty helpers in the form of a sibling and a Mother! We sliced up 1.3kg of eating apples (pink lady and granny smith) then tossed them in cinnamon, nutmeg and cornflour.

Apple elves peeling, coring and slicing!

First to make the caramel filling - melt the sugar in a medium pan over a medium heat until its browning around the edges. Then add half the cream, it bubbles up furiously so watch yourself! When the bubbling has calmed, add the rest of the cream, stir in the butter and the mixture should turn a golden brown color.

The caramel bubbling away. (NOT baked beans as it looks like)

Leave to cool while you make the pastry and assemble the pie. As you can see, when the caramel cools it goes rock solid (or this may just have been mine...), but just zap it in the microwave when you're ready to use it!

Er... Ed, we have a problem.

Next up - the pastry. Rub the butter into the sugar and flour, add water to bind together, and form into a ball. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Remove from the fridge, and divide into two balls, one slightly larger than the other. Roll out the larger ball into a disc large enough to line a 23cm pie dish, like this one, demonstrated by the Easter bunny:

Fill with one third of the apple filling, then top with some of the caramel. Repeat twice until you have used all the apple. Roll out the rest of the pastry and top the pie, using your fingers to crimp the edges. Glaze with the beaten egg and water. Use a sharp knife to make some ventilation holes in the top.

Layer one...

Layer two..

Bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees Celcius (fan oven) for ten minutes, then turn the oven down to 170 degrees and bake for another hour. If the pastry is browning too fast then cover it with a foil tent. Remove from the oven, leave to cool slightly then dig in!

The finished product!

*DISCLAIMER - NO CHICKS OR BUNNIES WERE
HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS PIE*

Served warm with a blob of vanilla ice cream after a yummy pork roast, this was absolutely gorgeous. The salted caramel taste wasn't as prominent as I thought it would be, but it really bought out the cinammon coating the apples and made for a really rich apple pie, so I would definitely make this again!

All in all, a superb pudding, perfect for feeding a hungry family.