Cake 8 - Bridie's Famous Apple Pie

This week’s addition has special meaning to me, because it is the first thing I ever baked for Tobey. I invited him round for dinner, which consisted of chicken fajitas, salad, and my famous apple pie. We ate it in front of the telly, watching some channel 4 programme about space. That's romance for you. I remember he really loved the pie, and was impressed that I made it myself. His praise made me think for the first time, that I might have a bit of a flare for baking. “It started with a pie…never thought it would come to this” – isn’t that the lyric?!

The first thing I did for this week's pie was to cook cooking apple with sugar, until soft. Not too soft mind, I didn't want apple sauce on my hands - or in my pie for that matter.

While this was cooling I moved onto the pastry. Making the pastry is an integral part of any pie, and I am going to tell you my secret for perfect pastry. My Dad once joked that I am genetically programmed to make great pastry, as both my Mum and Dad make it especially well. Over the years, I helped my Mum with her baking, and if there was one thing I learned it was (in my Mum's own words), "The less you mess with pastry, the better it is."

The half fat to flour method is the one I usually use, and I favour stork margarine over butter. It's a lot healthier, and tastes just as good. After you have rubbed the margarine into the flour so it resembles breadcrumbs, you then add water or milk and stir with a knife until it forms a ball. At this point you can use your preferably cold hands, to transfer the pastry to a floured work surface.

Try and roll the pastry out in one go, as a second attempt is usually, in a word - a 'faf'. I also try to roll the pastry lid at the same time as the base, so when I add the apples to the pastry case I can put the lid on in a jiffy, and return straight to the oven. I also used my new daisy cutter, to make some cute motifs for the top of the pie.

When the pastry base was safely in the pie dish, it was time to blind bake. I put the pie case in the oven, and turned a blind eye for roughly 10 minutes. I then removed the pie case from the oven, and added the prepared apple mixture. I sprinkled ground cinnamon over the scrummy apple filling, put the pastry lid on, followed by some strategically placed daisies, and returned to the oven for a further 20 minutes.... during which time the smell of apple pie filled the house!

This particular pie could not be eaten straight from the oven. It first had to make the 180 mile journey to Jen’s house in Bristol, and sleep in the fridge overnight. We had a slice straight from the fridge, after a rainy shopping trip to Bristol on Saturday afternoon. Every rainy shopping trip should be followed by apple pie. Jen and Tobey thought the pie tasted lovely, and Mutley the dog was only too happy to lick the crumbs off my knee. That was the biggest compliment of all - no one has ever gone that far before.