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Apple pie is my mum’s secret bribery currency. When was living in student dorms in Nijmegen (a city in the Netherlands), my mum often assured me that there would be apple pie when I would come to visit my parents. Especially in autumn she bakes a lot of these delicious pies, using the apples from the apple tree in our garden. Those apples are too sour and solid to enjoy as a snack on its own, but for apple pie they are perfect!
My mum’s best memory of her apple pie:
‘When Jolien and a couple of friends were holding
a road trip to visit their parental homes, I was
pleasantly surprised to hear that Jolien came to
us to approve my apple pie. According to Jolien
my apple pie is the most delicious one of the
world. Especially when it’s still warm with a
dot of whipped cream. There was also another
parental address they went to for tasting apple
pie. But I don’t know the final result ;) ’
This memory shows how food can bring people together. Just like it adds to a feeling of togetherness at the Migrants Connections Festival.
The following recipe is the one my mum use. It originates from the a text on a pack of self-raising flour from more than 20 years ago. However, throughout the years it has changed according to her likings. My mum always alters recipes by striping things away and adds additional written notes to recipes. Therefore, I represent the recipe in that same way, trying to convey some of my mum’s style of baking.
The following recipe is the one my mum use. It originates from the a text on a pack of self-raising flour from more than 20 years ago. However, throughout the years it has changed according to her likings. My mum always alters recipes by striping things away and adds additional written notes to recipes. Therefore, I represent the recipe in that same way, trying to convey some of my mum’s style of baking.
Necessities (dough)
300 g Self-raising flour
1 egg (m)
175 g cold unsalted butter
150 g sieved caster sugar 130 g cane sugar
1 teaspoon salt
For the apple mix
1 kg solid sour apples (+/- 6 medium-sized apples)
50 g sugar
50 g dried currants
50 g raisins 2 or 3 handful of raisins
2 or 3 teaspoons cinnamon (lots of it!)
Kitchenware
Spring form cake pan ⌀ 24 cm
Mum’s instructions:
1. Prepare the ingredients by weighing everything and beat the egg.
2. Put the butter and the sugar in a bowl. Then use two knives to cut the butter into small cubes (which will be covered in sugar).
3. Scatter some of the self-raising flour on a table and place the butter-sugar-mix on top of it. Then grab the rest of the self-raising flour, placing it as a heap on top of the butter-sugar-mix. Make a little hole in this heap with your finger and fill it with about ¾ of your beaten egg (the remains will be used to brush the top of the pie before placing it in the oven)
4. Knead it into a solid ball of dough. Add some extra flour when the dough would stick to the table.
5. Put the ball in a bowl and place it in the fridge.
6. Peel the apples and cut them in slices. When placing the slices in a bowl, sprinkle some cinnamon over the apples every time a new layer of apple slices is added to the bowl.
7. Wash the raisins and drain them in a sieve.
8. Grab the dough out of the fridge. Scatter against some flour on the table and roll the dough with a rolling pin till it is big enough to cover the bottom and the sides of the spring form cake pan, plus some extra to be used for making ‘dough-string’ to put on top of the pie.
9. Preheat the oven on 180 degrees Celsius.
10. Grease the spring form cake pan with butter.
11. Coat the spring form cake pan with the dough (leave the ‘dough-string’ for the top aside).
12. Scatter a bit of flour on bottom of the pie.
13. Fill it with the apples and raisins.
14. Take the dough-strings and place them in a diamond pattern over the pie.
15. Coat the dough on top of the pie with the left-over egg.
16. Put the pie in the oven and bake it for 75 minutes.
Tip: Add some whipped cream when serving the pie to make it even more delicious.
by Jolien: involved with the Migrants Connections Collective