Apple Pie according to Yvette

I've written about lots of apple pies and apple cakes here; apples are my favourite fruit. The latter are the easier ones; I am more of a cake-baker than a pie-baker. Put even stronger; I always feel like channelling Gargamel when talking about pies; I hate pastry. I've only ever made one pie in the history of this blog, back in 2013: a pecan pie. There is a reason for this.
Pastry is horrible to make. It is 'just' flour, butter, some kind of liquid, rubbed together and chilled, then rolled out and put into a case. Simplicity is very much not bliss. Simplicity can go wrong every step of the way. I've had my pastry break, stick, shrink, become chewy or simply reduced to crumbs. In a way, I'd already decided never to try and make it again. But then I read this article about 'flow'; that productive state of mind in which you are completely zen. People generally only achieve flow when they're at work, but you can get into that state with every task that is taxing but not too difficult in an area you are somewhat accomplished in. In my case; baking. More specifically; baking with pastry. So I decided to give it another go.

I picked a recipe from my new-found favourite Yvette van Boven. It is an apple pie recipe, according to her 'the way it should be'. Indeed, it is a far cry from the classic Dutch apple pie I like to make for my birthday (which doesn't count as a 'true' pie, as the dough is completely different). It contains blackberries and ginger, apparently some of Yvette's favourites, which can of course be left out. As this was my first try, I made it exactly the way it was supposed to be.

Ingredients
For the pate sucree/sweet pastry:
500 g flour
250 g cold butter in small cubes
6 tablespoons icing sugar
salt
2 eggs, beaten
ice cold water

For the filling:
about 1,5 kg apples in small chunks
150 g blackberries
a thumb of ginger, peeled and diced
175 g sugar
juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
1 tablespoon of flour

Finally:
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon ground ginger

First make the pastry. You can do this in a food processor, but I like to work by hand. Put the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Add the butter and rub together until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the eggs and knead quickly into a ball. If the dough is too dry, add a few drops of water (or milk) to make it come together. Shape into a ball, wrap it clingfilm, and put in the fridge for half an hour to an hour. Take it out, and leave to rest for about 15 minutes.

Then make the filling, by combining all ingredients except the flour into a bowl. Let this sit for about 20 minutes, then drain off the excess liquid. Finally, add the flour and combine.

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Grease a pie tin; I used a 'normal' tin of 24 cm in diameter.
Now for the difficult bit: divide the pastry into three quarters for the case, and one quarter for the 'lid'. Roll out the big part onto a lightly floured surface, until it is large enough to cover the bottom and sides of your tin. Put it in the tin, leave the edges hanging over the side.
Fill the pastry case with the fruit filling. Divide the 3 tablespoons of butter over the top.
Roll out the pastry for the lid, cut into strips, and weave a nice basket shaped lid. Make sure there are enough holes in the lid for the excess liquid in the fruit to evaporate. Push the sides together in any shape you like (or can manage), so the bits hanging over the edge make a nice side to the lid.
Brush the milk on the top of the pastry. Sprinkle the sugar and ground ginger on top.
Turn the oven down to 180 C and bake for 1,5 hours.

Right, that is the theory. How did this work out in practise? Let's have a look:

Pretty apple pie

Not too bad. I would even dare to say that my cake looks quite a bit like the one in the picture (I was in no mood to shape strips of pastry in any kind of lattice work, so it looks a bit like a basket-shape, but upon closer inspection it is really a lazy piece of work).

However, when cutting into it, the pie turned into somewhat a bloody mess:

Pretty bloody pie

Ah, not all liquid had been properly drained off. The bottom of the pie was somewhat undercooked from all the moisture still in the filling. However, the pastry on the side was flaky and crumbly, a bit on the dry side, but all in all way better than I'd expected. Also, the moisture was trapped inside the pastry, meaning the case hadn't broken or shrunk. No patch up jobs needed to keep the filling on the inside.
The filling itself was moist, sweet, with a spicy heat from the ginger, with the blackberries adding another layer. I agree with Yvette that it is a great combination of flavours, but I wouldn't call it the best ever. However, it leaves lots of room for variation. And with this new positive pastry experience under my belt, there may be more pie baking in my future!