Legendary Apple Pie from Normandy
I grew up on apples. In communist Czechoslovakia, this was the only fruit available in the winter. In our family, we had our own apples. When my Grandfather was a young man, he set up an orchard with apple, pear, cherry and plum trees, as well as walnut and hazelnut trees. The orchard was almost 5 acres and we had about 20 different kinds of apple trees. This fruit tree paradise was the only land not seized from my Grandfather when the communists took power in 1948 and started confiscating private property. It took us, members of an extended family, several weeks of hard work to pick all the apples. We had to be very careful not to drop the apples while placing them in baskets to ensure they weren’t squashed, which would make them rot. Then we had to pick them again one by one from the baskets and place them gently on large wooden shelves in a cellar where we stored them through winter. All my school snacks must have contained one apple but of course, by February they were no longer juicy and crispy, but rather mealy and flavourless. I still ate them without questioning.
In the fall, the apples taste the best. I still have the need for one apple a day and of course I love the most common desert made from apples in this region, apple strudel. But I wanted to make one of the tasty apple pies you get in northern France. I have tried many recipes, some of them good but not quite perfect. This pie finally met my high expectations and became a fixture on my family’s breakfast table.
Ingredients
Pate brisée:
- 250g flour
- 150g cold butter
- 50g brown sugar
- 1 egg
For the filling:
- 3,4,5 apples (depends on the size)
- juice from one lemon
- 200g cream
- 60g brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 yolk
- 1 tbl cinnamon
- raisins and walnuts (optional)
Method
Preheat the oven for 170°C. Butter the form and sprinkle it with flour.
Mix the ingredients for pate brisée and make the dough. Roll it into 2,3 cm thick circle and place it in the form. Put the form with the dough either in the fridge for about 30 minutes of in the freezer for 10 minutes.
In the meantime, peal the apples and cut them in half moon shapes. Pour the lemon juice on them.
Whisk the sugar, eggs and yolk together. Then add the cream and cinnamon.
Place the apples in the form and pour the cream mixture over it.
Bake it for about 60 minutes.
