The Core Facts

Overall verdict: A very tasty apple sandwich, with sturdy pastry and lovely soft apple with cinnamon
Timings: 20 mins + 5-10 mins for blind baking + 60 minutes in oven
Sugar: 285g
Butter: 250g
Type of apple: Braeburn & Pink Lady

The Long Peel

I struggled to find a Polish chef online with a recipe for szarlotka. Then I came across a brilliant woman called Kasia Kronenberger who runs The Polonist website. She had found a Polish apple pie recipe by Juliusz Zdanowicz in a cookbook called “Doskonałe wypieki domowe” (“Excellent home baking”). And so that’s what I used.

The Pastry

I’m normally a big fan of using icing sugar in pastry, and it worked well in the Paul Hollywood apple pie recipe. But for some reason it didn’t quite work as nicely in this recipe – the pastry didn’t taste very sweet and it was a little on the dry side.

There are 3 eggs in this pastry and so I was expecting a more cakey texture than usual. But it wasn’t spongy at all.

I appreciate this doesn’t look very neat but getting the dimensions right for a rectangular bake was a real challenge after so many round pies : )

The Apples

Kasia recommends Polish apples like Gray & Gold Reneta, Antonovka, Champion, Lobo or Cortland. But she helpfully provides UK alternatives of Cortland, Braeburn, Pink Lady, Egremont or Russet. I went for Braeburn and Pink Lady.

I assumed that Kasia meant 1tsp of cinnamon, rather than the 1tbsp that was noted in the ingredients. Sorry if you really did want a big heap of spice, Kasia.

The Bake

I was expecting to get the foil out to protect against charring, as 60 minutes seemed like a long baking time. But I didn’t need any foil – it baked nicely and didn’t burn. Maybe the greaseproof paper helped.

The Dish

My trusty 23cm pie dish was left in the cupboard again. Kasia says to use a 18x27cm tin. I just used the one I had, as I’m not overburdened with rectangular tins.

The Hot Slice

It sliced beautifully into neat squares, and the squares held nicely – you could eat one while walking along, making it a portable treat:

The Rested Result

You can see the robust pastry and how it held together nicely when sliced:

If We Repeeled

• I’d be a bit neater with my cutting of the pastry to fit the tin

Scores

Simplicity of bake: Simple
Pastry texture: Sturdy – soft to bite into but holds its shape
Pastry taste: Quite dry and not very sweet
Apple texture: Beautifully soft
Apple taste: Gorgeous – the cinnamon is there but the apple is the main event
Apple to pastry ratio: Excellent
Overall score: 8 out of 10