Spiced Apple Crumble pie
These little apple crumble pies with crisp buttery pastry cases nicely round off an autumnal Sunday roast. Serve warm with salted caramel sauce and a spoonful of marscapone cheese.
Ingredients
For the pastry cases:
100g cold salted butter, diced
60g golden caster sugar
200g plain flour
1 egg (medium size)
1-2 tsp cold water
For the filling:
2 apples (medium size), chopped fairly small
20g walnuts, chopped
1 tsp cornflour
½ tsp cinnammon
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp ginger
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 tbs soft light brown sugar
juice ½ orange (medium size)
For the crumble topping:
25g cold salted butter, diced
25g demerara sugar
50g plain flour
Equipment
sharp knife
chopping board
cling film
Preparing the pastry:
1. Starting with the pastry, place the sugar, butter and golden caster sugar in the food processor and pulse to the texture of fine sand.
2. Add the egg and pulse briefly several times, followed by the cold water and repeat. The mixture should still be loose and sandy, holding together when pinched.
3. Turn out the mixture and gather into a ball. Wrap in cling film and chill for a few minutes
while you clear your work surface and dust with flour.
4. Roll out the pastry as thin as you can – 2-3mm works best. Choose the largest circular pastry cutter and stamp out 12 circles, gathering the scraps and re-rolling if you need to.
5. Press a pastry circle into each cup of the muffin tin. If the pastry tears, it doesn't matter, just patch with a scrap of leftover pastry (noone will be any the wiser!). Refrigerate for about 45 minutes while you prepare the apple filling.
Making the filling and crumble topping:
1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius (338 Fahrenheit).
2. Chop the apples reasonably finely and transfer to a mixing bowl.
3. Add all of the other filling ingredients and stir. Set aside for a moment while you prepare the crumble topping.
4. Put the butter, sugar and flour into the smallest mixing bowl and rub lightly and quickly between your fingers until you have a fine-grained rubbly crumble. This should take no longer than 5 minutes.
5. Remove the pastry cases from the fridge and divide the apple mixture evenly between the 12 cups.
6. Sprinkle the crumble over the top and bake for 25 minutes until the pastry is golden and the apple have transformed into golden, bubbly apple sauce.
7. Serve with marscapone cheese or cream and a drizzle of salted caramel sauce.