Apple Pie

This is the apple pie that we often used to eat when visiting Saba and Savta on Pinsker St. in Tel Aviv. I remember how we all enjoyed eating this pie – and I remember constantly “straightening the edges” until the entire pie was gone!

Luckily, we have the recipe directly from Savta, and I make it often.
Although the pie always comes out very good, we miss the ambience of sitting around the coffee table with Saba and Savta, at the apartment at Pinsker 5, nibbling on the cake piece by piece…..

As you can see in the photo, I grated the dough on top of the pie. Savta always rolled out the dough. You can do it either way. I sometimes roll it out, but when I am lazy, I just grate the dough on a course grater, forming a “crust” on top of the pie. The taste is the same, and so I hope I am forgiven for having strayed from the original instructions…

Ingredients:

For the dough

• 200 grams (approx. 7 oz) butter, cold and cut into little pieces
• 2 cups regular flour
• Almost half a cup of sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• breadcrumbs for sprinkling on the bottom of the unbaked dough

For the apple filling

• green apples – as many as you like (at least 10-12)
• sugar to taste
• a tiny bit of cinnamon (optional)
• approx. 30 grams of butter cut into little cubes

Preparation:D

1. In food processor put the butter and sugar. Blend.
2. Add flour and the egg yolks. Blend only until dough “comes together” and forms a ball.
3. Place, covered, in the refrigerator, for at least an hour. Alternatively, you can pat the dough into the bottom and sides of a springform cake pan, and put in the refrigerator for an hour.
4. When the dough is cold, sprinkle some breadcrumbs evenly on the unbaked crust on the bottom of the pan. This will help absorb some of the liquid from the baking apples.
5. Peel apples, and slice thin, or grate on a coarse grater.
6. Place in the baking pan, on the dough which has been pressed into the pan and refrigerated.
7. Sprinkle sugar evenly over the apples in the pan.
8. If using cinnamon, sprinkle a tiny bit over the apples.
9. Cut about 30 grams (1 oz) of butter into little cubes, and place them around the apples.
10. Top dough: Either you can grate the refrigerated dough on a coarse grater, over the apples., to form a top crust;
    Or, you can roll out the refrigerated dough on baking paper (parchment paper) which has been sprinkled with some flour. Place the rolled out dough on top of the apples, and press down on edges to close the pie. If rolling out the dough, after you put the dough on the cake, make 3-4 little slits in the top dough, with a sharp knife. This will allow for steam to escape while baking.
11. Bake at about 180 C (350 F), for about 45 minutes – the time really depends on each individual oven. Check that the color is a nice brown – not too brown, but be sure also not to underbake the pie. Allow to cool to lukewarm. Serve.

TIP: Whenever making any short pastry or pie pastry such as above, I always take what I call a “tax” – I remove a little piece of dough and put it in a plastic bag in the freezer. I often end up with several little bags with little pieces of dough – and I use them if I feel like making a mini-apple-pie, or an apple crumble, on the spur of the moment. Very convenient.