Apple Pie

Years ago, when I was a student, I used to really enjoy apple pie from a bakery (forgot the name) in Islamabad. It had coconut flakes and raisins mixed in with the apple filling.

I have been feeling very nostalgic lately and decided to make an apple pie similar to the one I used to love. Good 'ol times, how much I miss it all :-(

I used a small 7" pie pan, so three small apples were enough to fill it up. While I was searching for a great recipe I found this picture and thought it looked really nice. So I tried to emulate the look using apple and leaf shaped mini cookie cutters. I also used the recipe on that page as a guide.

(prep time 20 mins if using prepared pie crust)
(bake time 45 mins)
(enough for 4 ppl)
Ingredients

2 Pie crusts or use store bought
3 Apples - small size (granny smith, honey crisp, red delicious)
Juice of 1/2 lime
2 Tbs Heavy cream
2 Tbs Butter (chopped into small pieces)
1 Tbs Flour
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/8 tsp Nutmeg
1/4 cup Brown sugar
1/8 cup Regular sugar
1/3 cup Coconut flakes-sweetened  *optional
1/3 cup Raisins - I used golden raisins *optional
1 egg - for eggwash

Method

Line the bottom of a buttered and floured pie dish with one of the pie crusts.

Use a knife to cut off the over hang.

Set aside and refrigerate the pie dish.
Peel and core the apples and slice them thinly.

Put the slices in a large bowl and sprinkle some lime juice on them to prevent browning.

Add the sugars, spices, flour, cream, butter, coconut and raisins and combine well.

Pour this mixture into the pie dish and cover with the decorative crust.
I saved a few slices and arranged them in a neat pattern on the top layer. I figured it would look nice because it will show through the cut outs. But now I think it would have looked better had I not done that, specially because some of the apple pieces got really brown. 

Apply some eggwash on top of only the crust and bake in a preheated 450 oven for 15 mins.

Then reduce the temperature to 350 and cook for another 30-45 mins.

I had to cover the edges of the pie with aluminum foil to prevent over browning.

I removed the foil in the last 15 mins of baking.
Let this sit for 30 mins at least.

You can eat this warm or at room temperature.

Enjoy.