In America the homemade pie seems to be the standard dessert staple of every household. Americans love their pie - whether it be blueberry, key lime, chocolate cream, pecan, or even varieties like pumpkin that would seem a little unusual to us Australians. To add to this fascination there are even multiple varieties of pie crust that one can conjure: double or single crust, sour cream crust, graham cracker crust, flaky or a short, buttery crust....

But nothing says pie like the humble homemade Apple Pie. Though popularly baked in Autumn when the leaves turn golden and start falling off their branches, apple pie to me is what pie is all about. A golden, flaky, butter-laden crust, filled to the brim with sweet, soft chunks of disintegrated apple flavoured with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg, eaten with scoops of creamy vanilla ice cream. The crunch and the sloppiness, the hot and the cold.... the ultra perfect homemade dessert.

That 's not to say making a pie at home is easy. In fact, it requires a small amount of skill if you choose to make your own pie crust from scratch. That's not to say you shouldn't make a pie using store-bought pastry - it's great for time-poor home cooks, and we use it often - but it just wouldn't be the same if you wanted a true, real deal homemade pie. And there's just so much satisfaction that comes with making your own pastry dough; you know exactly what goes into it and have the pleasure of rolling and lining the pie dish with a pie crust that you can feel proud of having made all by yourself!



I've been wanting to make my very own pie, crust and all, for a very long time. This is because part of me was always afraid the pastry wouldn't turn out right, and part of me just didn't really feel like going to all the effort to make a whole pie. Up until now.



Part of what persuaded me to attempt this feat was the simplicity of the pastry in this recipe from Curtis Stone, which I stumbled upon in an issue of delicious magazine. The pastry consisted of just plain flour, butter, iced water and a couple of tablespoons of caster sugar, whizzed together to form a loose dough and then rested in the fridge. I followed my own recipe for the filling, in which pieces of Granny Smith Apple were cooked on the stovetop with spices, sugar and water until just tender.



I have to admit that the longer the resting time for the dough, the the easier it was to work with and use to line the pie dish. After a second chilling, the slightly cooled filling was tumbled on top and sealed with another layer of pastry, then crimped and shaped around the edge and slit on top to allow steam to escape. A brushing of milk and sprinkling of raw sugar was all that was needed before popping in the oven to cook for just over an hour.

What came out of the oven was a completely transformed dessert, golden on top and with a crispy, flaky crust. It retained its heat for a long time after being taken out, and so didn't need reheating at the time of eating. Cutting into the buttery layered crust produced a satisfying *crunch* sound, although the dish wasn't greased well enough so the crust was quite resistant in coming out when we tried cutting it up into generous pieces. What resulted was a mess of a piece of pie, a somewhat rustic, deconstructed version that still tasted absolutely divine (albeit a little bit messy and crumbly).






Recipe
Pastry from What's for Dinner? by Curtis Stone; filling an original recipe.
Makes one large 24 cm pie.

Ingredients:

Pastry:

• 2 1/2 cups plain flour
• 250g chilled unsalted butter, chopped
• 2 tablespoons caster sugar
• 1/2 cup iced water