With the clocks going back last week, the winter nights are coming and nothing sounds more ideal than a slice of pie warm from the oven with cream or custard. I think that my Quick Apple Lattice Pie would make everyone happy!!

I’m rapidly finding that this first term of my 2^nd year of uni is so demanding; I have so many classes, tutorials and lectures and I am missing way too many. My nights seem to be taken up with making notes every night so I am always trying to find ways to make quicker versions of food I want and it was apple pie this time!

Instead of stewing apples, leaving the mixture to cool and baking a large pie for an hour or so, I decided to thinly slice apples, mix them with sugar so they cook and caramelise in the oven while the pastry bakes. I find stewed apples tends to be a bit of a nonentity texture wise so thinly slicing and leaving some of the surface exposed through the lattice creates texture and bite. I add flour and line the pastry with oats to absorb liquid and prevent a raw soggy bottom.

You can use shopbought shortcrust pastry if you don’t want to make your own however there’s nothing tricky about making this pastry at all! The food processor is an essential piece of kit for making pastry in my opinion as it is so fuss free and so quick! There’s also less risk of overworking since you only need to bring it together into a ball and then it rests in the fridge before rolling out.

This lattice is very basic and by no means perfect either. I see on Bake Off that the bakers make the perfect lattice on parchment and then flip it onto the top of the pie/tart and I know that I could never do that because it wouldn’t make it in one piece so I do this lattice on top of the filling, alternating over and under the strips of pastry – the filling isn’t sticky so this shouldn’t be difficult.

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For the shortcrust pastry:

250g plain flour

2 tbsp granulated sugar

125g margarine or unsalted butter, cubed

Around 40ml cold water

For the filling:

4 Pink Lady apples, cored and peeled

Juice of a lemon

50g soft light brown sugar

25g sultanas (optional)

½ tsp ground cinnamon

Pinch of ground ginger

Pinch of ground nutmeg

¼ tsp mixed spice

1 tbsp flour

2 tbsp porridge oats (not instant)

15g margarine

Milk, for glazing

Apricot jam, for decoration

Double cream, to serve

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For the pastry, combine the flour, sugar and margarine in the bowl of a food processor until it resembles breadcrumbs. While the food processor is running, add the cold water through the feed tube gradually until the mixture just comes together.

Tip out onto a lightly floured surface and bring together with your hands to form a ball which is even and not sticky. Flatten into a disc and wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.

For the filling, thinly slice the cored and peeled apples. Place into a bowl and squeeze over some lemon juice to stop browning. Add the sugar, dried fruit (if using), the spices and the flour and toss together with a spoon until even. Leave to sit for 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Set aside a quarter of the pastry. On a lightly floured surface, roll the remaining three-quarters of pastry out to the thickness of a pound coin and line a 18cm fluted tart tin with the pastry, ensuring the pastry is tucked into the corners well. Cover the base with the porridge oats and then top with the sliced apple mixture, avoiding pouring in too much of the liquid in the bowl.

For the lattice, roll out the remaining quarter of the pastry into a rectangle which is at least as long as the tin to the same thickness. Use a knife to cut out strips of the pastry and create a lattice on top of the pie by alternating the pastry strips over and under. Use the fluted edges of the tin to trim the excess pastry.

Divide the 15g margarine between the exposed holes of the pie and then brush the pastry with milk before baking the pie for around 25 – 30 minutes until the lattice is golden brown and the apples are soft.

Brush the top of the pie with some apricot jam mixed with some boiling water. Then serve the pie warm straight from the tin with double cream or custard!

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