Classic Dutch apple pie

Autumn is now fully upon us: the wind is howling through the trees, scattering wet leaves everywhere, and the rain is hammering against the windows. For me, this means it's apple pie time.
Now there are many, many different types of apple pie, but the one I prefer to make (apart from a quick apple crumble dessert for dinner guests) is what the Dutch call 'classic' or 'grandmother's' apple pie. In my case it's more like 'mother's' apple pie, as apart from the standard loaf-shaped cake, it is the only pie I could make at an early age.

Ingredients:
300 g self-raising flour
175 g sugar (can be any sugar: I prefer muscavado)
200 g butter
1 egg
mixed spice (optional)

Filling:
apples (I have no idea of the apple quantity I use: generally it's 2 large ones)
sultanas (soaked)
chopped nuts (whatever you like, I had some pecan nuts left over from my pecan pie)
lemon juice
sugar
cinnamon

Make the dough by combining the flour and sugar (and mixed spice if you have some) and then adding the butter in chunks. Some recipes specify cold or room-temperature butter: to me, it makes no difference. I generally mix these three ingredients together using a mixer and then add the egg and continue by hand. Knead the mixture until it becomes a proper dough, then set about 1/5th apart.
Take a buttered and lined springform baking tray and put the big part of the dough in the middle. With your hands, move and shape the dough so that it covers the bottom and most of the sides, creating an even, flat top by putting your finger on the top and running it all the way round. Don't worry if your dough looks woefully thin at this stage: my dough was about 3 mm think and still came out in a nice crust.
Pre-heat your oven to 180C.
Now remove the core of the apples and dice them. I like to keep the skin on for extra texture, but you can of course remove it. Dry your sultanas off and mix them together with the apples and chopped nuts. I generally add a splash of lemon juice to keep the apples from colouring and to add some freshness to the mixture. Generously sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon, and mix again.
Put your apple mixture in your dough casing, making sure the top is level with the top of the sides and that no apple bits are sticking out (they will burn).
From the remaining dough, shape a casing to go over the apples. You can do this as fancy as you like (rolling the dough out flat and then cutting strips), or just by rolling out some doughy worms in your hand and putting those over the top. They will at least double in size in the oven, so don't worry if you only have very little of your apple mixture covered. You can brush some egg mixture over the top of the dough if you want a nice shine.
Bake in the oven for about an hour. If you've used muscavado sugar, the dough will become brown pretty quickly, but don't take the cake out of the oven too early or you will have a wet, under baked dough. Just leave it in the oven with the temperature turned down to about 140C.

Fresh from the oven

We ate it hot from the oven, with the apples still soft and melty and the crust firm and aromatic. The combination of the apples, mixed spice, cinnamon and nuts really gives it a great autumny feel.

But even after being stored cold in the fridge for a couple of days, it still has a nice taste and great texture. Just make sure your dough isn't underbaked, as that will give it a chewy, doughy taste that isn't very pleasant in any thing but American cookies.