Ingredients

Step by step

1. To make the pastry, pulse the flour, spices, icing sugar and butter in a food processor until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Next, add the egg a little at a time, and mix. Do this in a food processor, or by hand with a knife. Once the mixture comes together into a ball, wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.

2. Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4. Peel and core the apples, then chop into 2cm chunks and put them in a large pan. Mix the lemon juice with the cornflour to make a paste and add to the apples. Heat gently and add the caster sugar and spices. Reduce the heat to very low and cook for 10 minutes, stirring regularly, then remove from the heat. Stir through the caramel to coat the apples, then leave to cool.

   Tip

   Use up the rest of the caramel sauce by drizzling over vanilla ice cream with toasted pecans and chopped bananas, or mix with cold milk for an easy milkshake treat.

3. Meanwhile, break off ¾ of the pastry (set the other ¼ aside for the lattice) and roll out on a lightly floured surface to about 5mm thick to line a 24cm pie dish, about 4-5cm deep, with an overhang. Line with scrunched- up baking paper, fill with baking beans and blind-bake for 20 minutes. Remove the paper and beans and cook for another 10 minutes or until the pastry looks crisp and golden. Once the base is baked, add the cooled filling.

4. Roll out the remaining pastry to a 5mm thickness and slice into strips about 1cm wide, long enough to reach right across the pie dish. Create a lattice over the pie using the strips, sticking them to the pastry with a bit of beaten egg. Trim off excess pastry, brush the top with beaten egg and sprinkle with demerara sugar. Bake for 35-40 minutes on a baking tray until the pastry is golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Let the pie cool for 15-20 minutes before serving with ice cream.

5. Watch this...

   How to make a toffee apple pie