The Core Facts

Overall verdict: A complicated recipe that delivers an underwhelming pie
Timings: 50 mins prep + 30 mins blind bake + 45 mins final bake
Sugar: 147g
Butter: 200g + 72g of lard
Type of apple: Granny Smith

The Long Peel

There’s a streaming platform called MasterClass where you can watch tutorials from world experts on anything from acting to chess. I decided to see which chef had been entrusted with the apple pie lesson and an apple pie recipe from Thomas Keller popped up.

The recipe looked complicated – I almost abandoned the idea when I saw the words “grate the apple” – but I decided to persevere.

The Pastry

The unique ingredient in Thomas’s recipe is white wine vinegar. I was really careful not to overdo it but it still came through very strongly in the pastry – almost to the point where in every mouthful I was thinking “lovely pastry – shame about the vinegar”.

It was also the first recipe in this project where the pastry base is baked blind. The pastry was heavier and more present as a result, although it remained nice and flaky.

The Apples

You’ll need a lot of apples for this one: 16-18 Granny Smiths. It’s not much fun grating 10 apples, although I admit it’s easier than you’d think.

Once you’ve grated 900g of apple and heated it on the hob for 15 minutes, Thomas asks for the rest of the apple to be cut into chunks and mixed in, which I did. But somehow, despite 10 minutes on the hob and 45 minutes in the oven, the chunks of apple remained really hard – the hardest apple that I’ve seen to date on this project, I’m really not a fan of hard apple in apple pie/tart so this caused me some issues.

He also asks for cornflour to be added to the apples, which gives them a slightly jellied texture. The Hairy Bikers’ apple pie recipe also uses cornflour, as does the Bill Yosses apple pie, so it’s not unheard of – it’s just quite rare.

The Bake

The hardness of the apple suggests that this could have done with longer than 45 minutes.

The Dish

Thomas asks for an 8-10 inch pie tin and mine is 23cm/9 inches so I’m calling it a successful match.

The Hot Slice

Tom’s instructions say that the pie must be left to sit for four hours before slicing, so this one wasn’t hot. It sliced very nicely and looked very appealing:

The Rested Result

It looks like a great pie. It just didn’t quite taste like one.

If We Repeeled

• Leave out the white wine vinegar
• Cut the chunked apples into smaller piece and soften more on the hob

Scores

Simplicity of bake: Complicated
Pastry texture: Nice and crumbly
Pastry taste: I wasn’t keen on the white wine vinegar
Apple texture: The chunks of apple were too hard
Apple taste: Nice enough but the texture distracted from the taste
Apple to pastry ratio: Good
Overall score: 6/10