I found the basic recipe in an old cookery book and it is one of the easiest pastry based puddings to make ever. You do not even need a cake tin or pie dish and you don't need to blind bake the case. I added some spice to the recipe because I find cooked apples bland but they are not essential. I also used a mixture of apples to get a variety of texture in the filling.
Pastry base
Ingredients
225g plain flour
pinch of salt
50g butter and 50g lard, or all butter if lard offends you
about 3 tbsps cold water
Whizz the flour salt and fats in a food processor until they resemble bread crumbs, add the water with the processor running, until it comes together in a ball. Remove from the processor, wrap in clingfilm and put in the fridge to chill.
OR buy a pack of ready made short crust pastry, you need about 350g
Filling
Ingredients
900g apples, about half and half Bramleys and eating apples, peeled, cored and cut into pieces about 5mm thick
Juice of 1/2 lemon
55g caster sugar
40g butter
2 whole cloves (optional)
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
Put the sliced apple in a large frying pan, sprinkle with the lemon juice, add the cloves, mix the cinnamon with the sugar and sprinkle over and stir it all together. Add the butter around the side of the pan and cook over a low heat for about 12 minutes stirring frequently but gently until the Bramley apple has turned to pulp and the eating apples are cooked but still keeping their shape. Remove from the heat and set aside.
When the filling is cool. Pre-heat the oven to 190 deg C/375F/Gas Mk 5
Lightly grease and flour a baking sheet. Roll the pastry to a 30cm round and cut to shape. I used a dinner plate as a guide and guestimated the extra. Transfer the pastry to the baking sheet. Spoon the apple mixture into the middle of the pastry, leaving a 5cm border all round. (remove the cloves if you wish). Turn up the pastry border over the outer apples all the way around. Bake in the centre of the oven for 35 - 40 minutes until the pastry is crisp and brown and the apples lightly caramelised.
Serve warm with cream or ice cream
