The Core Facts

Overall verdict: I feared the worst from an apple pie with no pastry base. But it was actually very tasty – crumbly pastry with soft apple containing a subtle hint of cloves. Ideal for when you don’t have much flour and don’t need tidy slices.
Timings: 15 mins prep + 30 mins chill + 40-45 mins
Sugar: 75g
Butter: 55g + 55g white baking vegetable fat
Type of apple: Bramley

The Long Peel

I’ve been putting off trying this recipe from Mary Berry’s Baking Bible, despite it being one of the few cookbooks I own. I love Mary Berry – her recipe for mince pies with orange zest in the pastry is one that I cherish above all things and for that alone I would usually not have a word said against her. But a Classic Apple Pie recipe with no pastry base? Really?

I ended up attempting this one twice for reasons I will go into below. A second attempt usually means I’m a bit faster. It definitely doesn’t mean that things turn out any better, so there’s no advantage – just to be clear on that.

The Pastry

This was the first recipe without a pastry base but there was also a new ingredient that I hadn’t used before: white baking vegetable fat. I had absolutely no idea what that was, so I Googled it. Up popped something on Nigella Lawson’s website saying “it’s called Trex in the UK and Crisco in the US”. So that also solved the mystery of ‘what is Trex?’. (Coincidentally, I made the Nigella Lawson Double Apple Pie the next days and she also uses Trex.)

My first attempt at the pastry was a disaster and I actually blamed the Trex for that. I just could not get the rolled pastry to transfer into the dish. It broke up every time, sticking to the worktop and the rolling pin. In the end I called on a tactic from the Raymond Blanc apple tart recipe – I rolled the pastry out on some cling film and transferred it over that way. It just about worked – I still ended up doing some patching.

I had initially suspected that the Trex was to blame as it had become very soft by the time I put it into the food processor. But the same thing happened on my second attempt when the Trex was properly refrigerated, so I’m not sure what I was doing wrong.

The Apples

Mary also takes a different approach to the spices by using whole cloves. Otherwise, the apple prep was relatively simple – peel, core, and cut the apples into thick slices then put half the slices in the dish, cover with sugar, add the four cloves, put the other slices on top and add some water.

I found the four cloves to be quite subtle in flavour. The Delia Smith English Apple Pie recipe uses six cloves and that worked better for me.

The Bake

Mary came through for me with the sprinkling of sugar – I’m a massive fan of a bit of sweet crunch on top of the pastry. Mary suggested covering the pie with foil if it started to go too brown and I did that for the final 15 minutes.

The Dish

In another first, the instructions for this recipe ask for a 900ml dish. I have no idea what that means in cm or inches but as I only have one dish anyway I just went with the 23cm.

The Hot Slice

Because there’s no pastry base, this is not a pie for slicing. Instead you spoon a portion onto the plate. And I’m not making that up to justify a messy situation – the picture in Mary’s Baking Bible clearly shows a serving spoon. .

The Rested Result

In this section, I usually lift half of the pie onto a plate to get a close-up view. However, I obviously wasn’t going to attempt that with a baseless pie. So here it is in the baking dish. You can see the lovely softness of the apple:

If We Repeeled

• I would use ground cloves or more whole ones – four cloves had a limited impact

Scores

Simplicity of bake: Simple
Pastry texture: Crumbly but retained some lid shape when dished up with a spoon
Pastry taste: I initially thought it lacked flavour but it grew on me
Apple texture: Very soft
Apple taste: I couldn’t always taste the clove
Apple to pastry ratio: Could have maybe done with a bit more apple
Overall score: 7.5