This is my Mum’s recipe for her famous Apple Pie. I called it Apple Pie, Irena Style.

 

Every holiday, birthdays, family gatherings or any other special occasion my Mum would bake this pie, so we can share it with others. Every family has some speciality; my Gran used to bake yeast dough, my auntie Barbara would bake a Cheese Cake, my auntie Halinka would prepare gingerbread and My Mum would always have her Apple Pie.

When I left home for University I asked my Mum to teach me her secret. I wasn’t visiting home very often and from time to time I just wanted to bake myself this reminder of my family and happy childhood. Now I bake it for my family and friends, so we can all enjoy it.

Try it and you will love it.

 

 

Ingredients:

6 eggs – yolks and whites separated

250g of unsalted butter or margarine

350g of plain flour

250g of icing sugar

2 tea spoons of vanilla sugar

3 tea spoons of baking powder

1kg of apples

Cinnamon (to taste)

 

How to make it:

1. Pastry

Mix flour, baking powder, vanilla sugar and butter (ideally all will be at room temp)

After pastry starts to form add 6 yolks, 1 at the time. Mix all together, form a ball, cover with cling film and put into the fridge.

2. Apples

Peal all apples, use grater to shred into small pieces. Once ready, put into sieve to get rid of excess juice.

3. Preparation for meringue

Take a flat baking form – roasting tin can be used if needed – spread some butter into it.

Split your pastry ¼ and ¾ - ¼ leave in the fridge for now; take the ¾ part, roll flat and placed at the bottom of your baking tin. Once ready fill with apples (make sure that they are not very wet and juicy or you will end up with a soggy base). Add cinnamon on top of the apples. Now you are ready for meringue…

4. Meringue

Put 6 whites into a mixing bowl. Mix until firm. After about 5 min of mixing, add icing sugar slowly. Once extra firm and solid place on top of cinnamon apples

5. Topping

Once meringue is on top of your pie; take 1/4 leftover pastry; split into tiny pieces and put crumbs on top of meringues (you can also use a grater to do this)

 

Bake in the middle of the oven at 220C for about 30min. After the first 10 min, reduce the temp to 180C.

 

Once cooled, you can add a little bit of icing sugar on top to make it look even nicer.

 

Enjoy and please let me know if you had any problems with it and I’ll try and fix it for you. Happy munching… 🙂