When I think of autumn, I think of apples. It’s the time of year when they’re at their best, when the apple trees shake off their wares and baskets appear outside homes in our village, piled high with fruit, hand-written signs saying “Delicious apples, please take some!”
For the best pies, I mix soft, tangy Bramleys – which cook down to a rich sauce – with little cubes of crisp eating apples to add bite. You can absolutely make these with shop-bought pastry (and I have, several times) but this sweet and short pie pastry is so delicious that they become utterly irresistible. Add in a spoonful of dulce de leche (or heaven in liquid form) and you have a handheld, warm dessert that’s as perfect round a bonfire as it is as a mince pie substitute for currant dodgers.
Terrific Toffee Apple Pies
Makes 10-12 pies
Ingredients
Filling
2 large Bramley cooking apples, peeled and slices
2 eating apples (Pink Lady or Granny Smith work well), chopped into small cubes
70g golden caster sugar
1 tbsp milk mixed with 2tsp cornflour
1 tin of dulce de leche (you could make your own, but the tinned is just as good. Find it next to the condensed milk)
Mini butterscotch piece (optional, but amazing)
Sweet Pie Pastry
175g plain flour
75g self-raising flour
50g icing sugar
175g fat (I use 125g butter and 50g lard)
1 egg, whisked with a dash of milk
Assembly
1 batch of homemade pie pastry or 1 pack of ready-to-roll shortcrust pastry
1 beaten egg mixed with 1 tbsp milk
1 tbsp Demerara sugar
Method
Filling
1 Place your Bramley apples and a tablespoon of water into a pan with a tight lid
2 Cook for around 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they soften
3 Add your diced eating apples, replace the lid and cook for a further 5 minutes
4 Add your sugar, stir, taste (add more if you feel it’s needed)
5 Add your cornflour and milk
6 Cook for a few minutes to thicken the filling, then leave to cook
Sweet Pie Pastry
1 Mix the flours and icing sugar then lightly rub in the butter and lard
2 Add most of the milk/egg mixture and stir (or pulse in a food processor) until it starts to come together
3 Pull the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes
Assembly
1 Roll out your pastry on a floured surface until the thickness of a pound coin
2 Cut out circles a little bigged than the space in a fairy cake tin
3 Press your pastry into the tins
4 Spoon in some cooled apple and top with a heaped teaspoon of dulce de leche (sprinkle in your butterscotch pieces here if using)
5 Cut out slightly smaller circles and press them on top, sealing the edges
6 Brush with the milk and egg mixture, sprinkle with brown sugar
7 Bake at 175°C for 16-18 minutes until light golden brown
8 Cool in the tin for 5 minutes then carefully remove to a cooling rack
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