I’m usually on the ball and know if I need to stock up but lately, I have been lagging. Maybe it’s a subtle sign of aging. But I’d rather believe that it’s because I’ve been preoccupied with the kids. First, and foremost, there’s been quite a lot to do getting the kids prepared for their respective tests and then Quran classes have become a lot more challenging because the kids have to memorize longer verses. Both of which are time consuming and brain draining. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. On the contrary, it’s been keeping me happily and gainfully occupied and on my toes. The flip-side though is that I’ve not had the time to update my blog nor think about updating my pantry, fridge and cupboards!

So lo and behold, while I was clearing the fridge today, only because I found a small bag of dried up curry leaves and realized I’ve been neglecting my usual routine, I found 9 apples looking very sorry. 1 of which was beyond hope while the rest needed immediate attention. They didn’t look very well. There was a certain weariness about their appearance and I doubt if anyone would want to go near them. Doing a quick assessment of their condition, I figured the best solution to save the day was to make the best of their state and bake an apple pie. The decision proved to be more that satisfactory. Not only were the apples happily tucked in their pie shell revived by the syrup, the kids were jubilant that they got to eat ice-cream with their apple pie and I was patting myself on the back for a very successful mission executed to perfection.

Ingredients for apple pie filling:

8 apples - washed, peeled, cored and sliced into 1/4 inch slices (baking apples would be good. I just used whatever I had which I believe was a mixture of Gala and Braeburn and some other…)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp butter
1 heaped tbsp of cornstarch

Method:

1. Place the sliced apple pieces in a large bowl.



2. Sprinkle both sugars, salt, cinnamon and lemon juice and mix well.



3. Leave it for about 2 hours until you get at least 1/2 cup of juice from the apples.



4. Strain this juice into a small saucepan. Combine it with the butter and bring to a boil. Continue to boil until the juice thickens into a syrupy texture and reduces to about 1/3 cup.



5. Leave the strained apples in the big bowl. Add the cornstarch and mix well.



6. Combine the syrup with the apples.
7. Place the filling in your pie shell only when your oven is preheated and the pie shell (both top and bottom) is ready.
8. Bake your apple pie in a pre-heated oven at 425deg F for 55 minutes or until the the filling is bubbling and the apple feels tender when a knife is inserted into the apples.
9. Remove from the oven and let it sit for 4 hrs so that the apples will absorb the moisture.
10. Serve it cold or warm with vanilla ice cream or on its own.

Original recipe from here.

Tips:

• The recipe will fill a 9in pie plate perfectly.
• Pouring the filling into the pie shell only when everything is ready will prevent the bottom of the pie crust from being soggy.
• If you’re wondering what happens if you can’t wait for 4 hrs, this is what I did. We were too impatient to wait for 4 hrs. We cut the apple pie 1 hr later so there was still quite a lot of liquid. But it tasted awesome and we drizzled the liquid over the ice cream. Mmmmmm…yum!