Apple Meringue Pie

Those who know me appreciate my insane love of lemons, but since we're in the throws of Autumn - and apple season - I wanted to experiment with an apple version of traditional Lemon Meringue Pie. It came out so well that I've decided to share the scrumptious recipe with you. There is just one warning ... it will probably be gobbled-up within 3 days!

I didn't follow a recipe {because I didn't have one}, so I adapted the lemon one that our family has been using for years - passed from Granny to Mummy to me, although it's probably a fairly standard recipe. 

Basic recipe

For the pastry case
Make 200g / 8oz of short crust pastry. I made mine as follows:
100g plain flour
100g wholemeal flour
100g organic lactose-free butter
approx 4 tbs cold water (enough to make into dough)
Roll out and place into a greased flan dish (I used butter to do this) and my flan dish 24cm. If you want a smaller deeper pie use a smaller deeper flan dish and use half the amount of pastry.
Bake blind for about 15 mins (depending on your oven) at 190°c.

For the filling
​Peel and chop 2 large cooking apples and cook in a tiny amount of water in a saucepan until soft and leave to cool and then sieve to get rid of any lumps of fibrous bits. I prepared the apples first and while waiting for them to cool I prepared the pastry.

In a clean saucepan mix 100g soft raw sugar, 2 egg yolks, the apple purée, 150ml boiling water. In a small glass (or whatever) mix 25g cornflour with enough cold water to get a smooth runny paste and add to the apple mixture. Bring to the boil stirring all the time until the mixture thickens (because the apples are quite moist the consistency isn't as compact as with the lemon version but this doesn't matter).

For the meringue topping
Take the 2 remaining egg whites and whisk, gradually adding 100g of sugar (caster sugar is preferred but I used icing sugar and next time I want to use fine brown sugar).

Baking
Pour the apple  mixture into the pastry case, let it settle for a few minutes then pour the whisked meringue topping on top. Bake at 150°c for about 25 minutes (again, cooking time depends on your oven).
​When it's done it should be crisp and pale golden brown.

Vertical Divider

Warming recipe

Pastry case as for Basic Recipe.

For the filling - the only difference in this recipe is the additional cinnamon (approx 1 tsp), which is added to the apple purée and instead of 150 ml hot water I used 50 ml water, 50 ml cognac (you could also use Calvados) and a little extra sugar to sweeten-up the alcohol.

Baking times are the same.

Notes:
For both versions it's actually better to bake and eat on the same day as otherwise the meringue topping gradually 'deflates' - not that this affects the flavour or enjoyment, it just doesn't look as appealing.  Also, as it's Autumn, I stored my meringue in a cool dry place, but if I was to make this in Summer I would probably store it in the fridge or make a smaller version to be eaten the same day.