Baking my way through cancer treatment week 4: A bounty of apples
Bake Number 4: Mary Berry’s French Apple Pie
This proved to be quite a time consuming and a ‘fair-few-steps’ bake, so if you’re planning on tackling it, make sure that you leave plenty of time.
It was definitely one of those bakes that you feel very chuffed about managing to complete; that is if it all goes to plan and tastes good of course. Luckily, it did and was delicious! No dramas this week and I really loved the flavours and the creaminess of the filling. It really was worth all of the faff.
The only thing I would do slightly differently, is to add a little more butter into the pastry recipe. I felt that it could have benefited from having been a little more flaky.
I had my second round of treatment last week and although the first two days were tough, I’ve definitely had much more energy this time round with less challenging side effects. I’m told that each time will probably be different, so who knows what I’ll experience during next month’s treatment, but for now I’m grateful for any days of feeling good and am making the most of them.
Scout had her first swim in the sea last week and her first encounter with an angry, unimpressed dog! I’m not sure she found either experience very enjoyable to be fair.
Mary Berry’s French Apple Tart Recipe
Ingredients:
For the Pastry:
250g plain flour
175g butter
1 egg
For the Filling:
900g cooking apples (about 5 large ones)
50g butter
2 tablespoons water
4 tablespoons apricot jam
50g caster sugar
Grated rind of half a lemon
2 0r 3 eating apples
1-2 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 teaspoon caster sugar
Glaze:
Apricot jam
Method:
To make the pastry:
Put the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter. Add the egg and mix to a dough. You may need to add some cold water.
Knead the pastry lightly, then wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge until firm enough to roll out.
Set the oven to 180ºC.
Roll out the pastry and use to line a 9″ loose bottomed tart tin. Prick all over with a fork.
The case should be lined with greaseproof paper and filled with baking beans: (I often don’t bother with that and just ensure that the base is thoroughly pricked).
Bake for around 15-20 minutes or until the pastry at the base has dried out: if using baking beans, remove them and the greaseproof paper for the last five minutes or so. Leave the pastry in the tin to cool.
Make the apple purée filling:
Core the apples and chop roughly: there is no need to peel them.
Melt the butter in a large pan, and add the water and apples.
Cover with a lid and cook very gently for about 1-15 minutes, until the apples become soft and mushy.
Rub the apples through a sieve into a clean pan:
Add the apricot jam, sugar and lemon rind and cook, stirring, for about 10-15 minutes until the excess liquid has evaporated. Allow to cool.
Set the oven to 180ºC.
Peel, quarter and core the eating apples and slice very thinly.
Fill the pastry case with the apple purée and layer the sliced apple in circles on the the top.
Brush the apples with lemon juice and sprinkle over the caster sugar.
Bake for around 25-30 minutes, until the edges of the apples are lightly browned. Sieve a few tablespoons of apricot jam into a saucepan and heat so that it becomes runny. Brush over the top of the apples.
Mary Berry’s Result:
My Result: I almost forgot to take a photo, but remembered just as I was about to give it away. The Twin found this unforgivable and did well to make this known to me!
