I Bake For Attention: Apple and Marzipan Pie

Jaysus, I love baking.

And pastry is just one of my favourite things to do. I don’t do it very often due to laziness, but there is something incredibly therapeutic about the whole process. And when the finished product comes out well, then it is one of the most satisfying things in the world, to me.

I would definitely credit my affinity for pastry to my Nanny Margaret. She does a mean apple pie. It is one of my earliest memories of “proper” cooking, getting my grubby little hands stuck into a bowl of flour and butter, and rubbing to get the breadcrumb consistency. My nanny always distracted me with a separate little bit of excess dough to roll out and play with while she got on with the serious business of actually making the pie.

This is a riff on her traditional pie, with a sweet and almondy marzipan base that the apple slices sit on top of. I added a ton of cinnamon, because it’s coming into autumn, and my favourite autumnal flavour combination has got to be apple and cinnamon.

I really wanted to do a fluted edge, but I am not very dextrous, in fact I’m a bit ambisinistrous (the proper word for being cack-handed). So I need to look up some tutorials before I attempt that mess again.

Makes one decent sized pie

Ingredients for the pastry

300g plain flour
Pinch salt
3 tbsp caster sugar
175g chilled butter, diced
1 large egg, beaten
1 tbsp ice cold water

Ingredients for the filling

250g marzipan, diced
100g butter
3 tbsp plain flour
2 large eggs, beaten
3 apples
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
1.5 tsp cinnamon
Caster sugar, to sprinkle over the top

Method

Begin with the pastry. I do mine in a food processor, and put the flour, salt and sugar in first, and pulse to get rid of lumps. Add the butter and process to fine crumbs. Then add in the egg and water down the funnel while the dry mixture is processing. This should form a ball of dough.

Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes, wrapped in clingfilm.

Meanwhile, peel, slice and core the apples. For the slices, quarter the apple and then cut each quarter into 3-4 slices. Place in a bowl with the cinnamon and sugar and stir so that all are coated.

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees.

Again, for the filling, get the food processor out. Blend the marzipan and butter cubes together, then add the flour and eggs and process again until you have a pourable, creamy mixture.

Roll out just over half of the dough, and wrap loosely over the rolling pin. Bring the rolling pin over the loose bottomed pie tin, and drape over, making sure the ends of the dough lip over the edge of the tin. Don’t trim at this point.

Spoon this into the pastry case.

Arrange the apple slices in 2 layers on top.

For the pastry lid, take the remaining pastry and roll it out too. Wet the rim of the already rolled pastry case, then drape the lid over and press firmly. Trim off the excess pastry.

I finished the pie by cutting out small flower shapes using the leftover dough and decorating the sides with them. Attach them by dampening the bottoms slightly and lightly pressing them on.