Accidental Valentines Day Homemade Apple Pie

homemade apple pie

I was trying to make the crumble of apple crumble. Usually I make a great apple crumble topping.

Sustainable gift wrap course

However, what I got this time was an apple pie.

My usual recipe is to take some organic plain flour, some mild olive olive, some water and some sugar.  I chuck a bit of each in the bowl. Rub it together with my fingers into a crumble consistency and normally it works out great.  

This time though I decided to measure out:    

Pie topping ingredients:

  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 1/2 cup of olive oil
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 cups of flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

(You will also need some extra flour and sugar)

Pie topping method:

I mixed the ingredients together with a fork and the whole thing clumped together to make a fairly moist dough.  To rectify this I started adding a bit more flour. Then a little more sugar, then a touch more flour and then I stopped.  I didn’t want to waste and sugar trying to rectify the problem. I then phoned an expert – my mum. She was a home economics teacher, so she knows everything there is to know about cooking.

Apparently what I had made was pastry.  My mum instructed me to roll out the dough fairly thin and use it as a topping. If I was going to use it as a pie base, I would have needed a metal tin as this is a much better conductor of heat.

Pie filling ingredients:

Bramley apples. 1 for each person e.g. if you want pie for 4, use 4 bramley apples

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons apple juice

Method:  

In the same way I would have if I was making crumble, I cored, peeled and sliced some bramley apples.  I then cooked them for 1 minute in the microwave in a small amount of water. I poured the apples into the glass dish with the apple juice and mixed in the cinnamon.  

TIP: You don’t have to part cook the apple first, but the pie will need to stay in the oven 10 to 20 mins longer (depending on your oven) to ensure the apples are fully cooked.

Putting it all together:

homemade apple pie

Lastly, I rolled out the dough, brushed some olive oil over the top and placed the dough on top of the pie.  I allowed it to drape over the edge of the dish and chopped off the excess with a knife.  However, this isn’t a great idea as it all got stuck to the side.  Next time I will chop it off so it just covers the apples.  To not waste dough I made some dough heart shapes and put them on top of the pie.  Next I brushed the pie topping with some milk and put it in the oven for 30 mins at 180 degrees C.

It tasted just like the apple crumble I usually make with a different texture to the topping.  Still yummy and it all went in one sitting.  

I’ve always wanted to make apple pie, so I was quite excited when I made dough instead of crumble mix! I still had a lot of dough left over, so I put it in a container which I labelled and dated and then popped in the freezer for another time.  

So we will be having this apple pie again, but this time on purpose.  With all those hearts and Valentines Day coming up I might make it for a romantic dessert for 4 (me, my husband and my 2 kids)!

If you want to make individual portions rather than the whole family, you could scale down the ingredients, top the pies with one heart each and cook the pies in oven safe ramekins!

Have you ever made a dish by accident?  Was it something you would eat again?   

Homemade Apple Pie For Valentines Day