Grandad's Apple Pie

I've been dying to bake with the apples from my Grandad's apple tree, probably ever since he planted it. My Grandad was my first best friend. We did absolutely everything together, we were amazingly close and formed an unbreakable bond from the minute I was born to the day he passed away. He taught me a lot of what I know today, including gardening which is one of the things I remember us doing together so frequently. He was so very proud of his garden and he pretty much grew everything from cabbages to some of the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen. So you can imagine how much I cherish what he has a left behind. It's nice to see how strong and determined my Nanny has been in keeping his little legacy going. She's fought off everything from the nuisance children who are  also very determined to destructively pick each and every apple for no reason whatsoever to the very persistent and as it appears hungry fruit bats, who every year are very successful in nibbling away at the apples and pears. I've had my eye on the apples since very early this year and I'd wished with all of the wishes in the world that hopefully towards the end of summer I'd have enough undamaged apples to bake an apple pie with.

Well! My Nan's efforts were not in vain this year as I'd received a call from her stating she had a gift for me, so off I popped only to find a bowl full of the greenest, cutest little apples ever and I knew straight away where they were from!

I already had it in my mind that they were definitely going to be baked in a pie. Not just because they were apples, and what else could I possibly bake with them? But because before my Grandad's diabetes took a turn for the worse, we used to sit in on a Saturday afternoon, watching Westerns and old Musicals stuffing our faces with Mr Kipling's mini Apple Pies and Digestive biscuits, he'd have coffee and me, a grown up cup of tea. So how could I possibly think of baking anything else?

I have no idea what kind of apples they are so I've named them Grandad Wilson's not very creative on my part as we already have Granny Smiths, but very fitting non-the less. The apples are very juicy, crisp and sweet. The closest supermarket-bought apple I can think of is the Pink Lady (my now 2nd favourite apple), so maybe consider using a few of these in this recipe. And I've opted for Golden Caster sugar for my pastry just for something a little closer to the taste of a digestive biscuit. As you can tell I was filled with nostalgia when putting this together. I also left my pastry quite thick, as nontraditional as it may seem, I really like a little bit of a stodgy pastry and I pack my pie full of apple but do feel free to alter to your liking. Hope you enjoy it!

 Grandad's Apple Pie

Ingredients

425g Plain Flour

115g Golden Caster Sugar

3 Large (beaten) eggs

200g cubed butter (cubed)

1/2 tablespoon of Salt

1/2 Lemon zest & juice

2 tsp Cinnamon

For the filling

8 large cooking apples (try a mix of cooking apples & Pink Lady's)
2 tsp Cornflour
1 tsp Lemon juice
40g Demerara sugar (plus extra for sprinkling)
1/2 tsp Cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3.

2.Sift salt, flour, cinnamon and sugar into a large mixing bowl.

3. Grate the zest of half a lemon and add to your dry ingredients.

4. Gradually add butter (make sure the butter has been in the fridge) blend together with fingertips until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

5. Beat together 2 eggs, add to mixture gradually and beat until smooth and well combined. 

6. Lightly dust a clean surface with some Plain flour and bring the dough together further by kneading with clean hands.

7. Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for 45-60minutes.

8. Once chilled, remove dough from the fridge, again on a lightly dusted (with plain flour) surface roll out your dough into a large enough diameter to cover the base and sides of your pie dish.

9. Sprinkle a little plain flour into the bottom of your pie dish. Then using your rolling pin carefully pick lift the rolled out dough and lower it into the dish. Make sure the bottom and sides are covered and be sure to press the dough into the sides of the dish. 

10. Sprinkle a little more plain flour onto the pastry.

11. Peel, core and cut your apples then cut into your desired sizes. ( I like to use a mixture of thick and thin sized apples just to add texture and a little authenticity to it's homemade look.)

12. Add your apples to a pan with lemon juice, demerara sugar and cinnamon  and mix with a wooden spoon on a medium-high heat for around 2 minutes. Be careful not to let your apples stick to the pan, if this happens reduce heat.

13. Add in cornflour give one last mix then add apples to pie dish (do not let any juice go into your dish.) Sprinkle over a little more demerara sugar.

14. Roll out the remaining dough, using heart-shaped cutters proceed to cutting out your shapes. (What I did here was use larger hearts on the outside and got smaller towards the centre.)

15. Place each heart on top of your apple mixture, brush with egg-wash and sprinkle a little more sugar.

16. Place in the oven for 35-40 minutes, or until golden brown.

Your kitchen should smell amazing within 15 minutes! I served with Salted Caramel or Caramel Latte Ice cream. This pie can also be frozen and microwaved when ready to eat. I had apple pie for pudding every night for a week!

Early Grey Cake

I've been meaning to put this recipe up since I baked the actual cake last weekend because I know quite a lot of Earl Grey lovers and I'm dying for them to have a go and tell me what they think of this recipe. 

I can still remember when and where I had my first cup of Earl Grey. It was during Date Day with my other half and we'd decided to go thrifting in the Northern Quarter (I love our cute days) anyway, after all of that hard work shopping we'd decided to stop for lunch at Dough where I'd ordered the tastiest pizza and a cup of Earl Grey tea. I was hooked! I enjoy Earl Grey at any time of year but I really do overdose during the colder months. I enjoy it mostly with zesty sponge cakes or really spicy food.

I wanted to bake a cake that was quite fruity with a hint of spice and a really powerful taste of the Earl Grey tea. I'd spent the most part of last Sunday looking online for a recipe that would combine the right ingredients and give me the exact flavour I was looking for. I'd found a recipe for an Earl Grey Tea Loaf on a blog by Bohemian Mama and changed a few things around just to make sure I was getting the flavours I really wanted in there. There was every chance this wasn't going to work, but I was willing to give it a go and I love a good challenge. So out came my Kidston notebook and my Hello Kitty pen (all the way from my beautiful friends in America!)

The cake turned out soooooo tasty! You can really taste the flavour of the tea and really I was surprised at that, even though I'd nearly used all of the tea bags from the box, so there was no way it wasn't going to taste of Earl Grey! It was the fruit too! They'd soaked up so much of the tea and had kept hold of that juicy, moisture. The sponge itself was just as moist and so, so tasty! The only change I'd make in this recipe is I maybe wouldn't use as much mixed peel, (if any at all) because even though I love the taste of mixed peel in cakes, it is quite strong and could potentially drown out the flavour of the tea. Plus with all zest and lemony flavour it really wasn't needed. But either way this cake is definitely one of my favourite bakes. Happy Baking.

  
 Earl Grey Cake

Ingredients

5 Earl Grey Teabags 

250g Dried Fruit (I used sultana's, raisins, currants & cranberries)

200g Golden Caster Sugar

4 Large Eggs

270g Self Raising Flour

1 unwaxed Lemon

200g softened butter

2 levelled tsp ginger

1 levelled tsp cinnamon 

275ml Boiled water

20ml milk

For the Syrup

1/2 lemon zest and juice

100g Caster Sugar

200ml water (from soaked fruit) 

Method

'I have used an old jam jar with a lid just to lock in the flavour from the teabags and lemon. If you don't have a jar you can use a bowl with cling film or any Tupperware container with a lid.' 

-Place 4 teabags into a jar/bowl then add the fruit with a pinch of lemon zest and 1/2 tsp of lemon juice.

-Place another teabag on top of the fruit and add a slice of lemon on top of the teabag. If you're using a bowl or container just add all of the ingredients together.

-Add 275ml of boiled water to the jar.

-Place the lid/clingfilm onto your jar/bowl and leave to brew for at least 2 hours. (This can be left overnight for an even stronger taste. I recommend no less than 2 hours).

-Preheat oven to 170 degrees and line baking tin (I used 6 inch, round).

-Place butter, sugar and 2 tsp lemon juice into mixing bowl and combine on a medium speed.

-Reduce to low speed, add in milk then eggs one by one. (Mixture does curdle, this is fine). Turn up speed to ensure mixture is well combined.

- In a separate bowl add flour and spices, mix together then add to the mixing bowl. Mix together on a low-medium speed.

-Drain the fruit from the brewed water (do not throw the tea away!)

-Add the fruit to the mixing bowl with 30ml of the brewed tea/water.

-Grate in 1/2 lemon zest on top of the fruit, then fold into the mixture using a wooden spoon.

-Add mixture to your selected baking tin and place in the middle of your pre-heated oven.

-Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.  

(I found that during the last 20 minutes or so I had to increase the the temperature to 180 degrees. I covered the top of my cake with foil to prevent it from burning and then removed and turned back down to 170 degrees. Different ovens do vary, so do keep an eye on your cake towards the end.)

-Once the cake is cooked, leave on a wire rack to cool.

To make the syrup

'The syrup is best added to the cake whilst it is still warm/hot. I chose to add the syrup over the course of the cake's cooling period. You can use as much or as little syrup as you like. I also left my cake in the tin while adding the syrup, but because I added so much it was a little difficult to remove from the tin. Let the cake cool entirely before trying to remove, it will make it a little easier.'

- Place the 2 tea bags in a pan with the water, gently bring to the boil, removing the tea bags after a

couple of minutes.

- Add the the caster sugar and bring back to the boil without stirring, keep it on a medium heat so that you have a steady boil for a round 5-10minutes, or until the mixture has reduced by half and you have a golden syrup.

-Leave mixture to cool a little, this will thicken the syrup up and give it a real nice glossy, stickiness for the top of your cake.

- Once the cake is out of the oven (if not already) prick the cake all over with a cocktail stick or skewer and then brush the syrup all over the top of the cake. Leave to cool in the tin.

 -Once your cake has cooled completely remove from the tin. I then sprinkled mine with a little icing sugar and decorated with Viola's from my garden. 

If using flowers from a garden please ensure they are washed thoroughly and free from all pesticides.