Today I’ve been on a baking spree because it was my birthday on Saturday and in the Netherlands it is a tradition to treat your colleagues to cake on (or after) your birthday. It is not necessarily a tradition to bring home-baked cakes, but for me it certainly is 🙂 Apple pie is always a favorite.

Ingredients

For one 24 cm / 9″ apple pie

For the dough:

300 grams (2/3 pound) flour

10 grams baking powder

200 grams butter (room temperature) plus a bit more for greasing the pan

160 grams dark caster sugar

grated lemon zest of one lemon

1 egg

pinch of salt

For the filling:

1 kg (2.2 lbs) apples

50 grams sugar (preferably vanilla-scented, obtained by keeping vanilla beans in the sugar jar)

40 grams raisins

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1-2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp breadcrumbs

Sieve the flour, baking powder and caster sugar in the bowl of the food processor. Add grated lemon zest, a pinch of salt and the butter in chunks.

Process until crumbly. Beat the egg and add 3/4 of it to the dough. Store the remaining 1/4 egg in the fridge.

Process until you obtain a consistent dough. Do not process too long.

Shape the dough into a ball, cover in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Use apples that are not too sweet.

Put the raisins in a bowl and cover with warm water.

Peel the apples, cut into quarters and remove the core carefully. Cut into smaller pieces and sprinkle with lemon juice to prevent the apples from turning brown. (Use 1-2 tbsp lemon juice altogether.)

Butter a 24 cm (9″) springform pan. Take the dough out of the fridge. Keep about 1/4 of the dough separate for the lattice on top. Slice the rest in 3-4 mm (1/8″) slices.

Preheat the oven at 175C/350F. Use heat from below if available in your oven.

Cover the bottom and sides of the springform pan with the dough slices.

Sprinkle the bottom with bread crumbs. This is to absorb the moisture from the apples to make sure that the bottom of the pie will be dry.

Drain the raisins and pat dry with a paper towel. Mix the apples with the raisins, the vanilla-scented sugar and the cinnamon and pour into the springform.

Cover with a lattice made from the remaining dough. Brush with the remaining 1/4 egg.

Put the springform on a baking sheet because it will leak a bit and you don’t want the ‘juice’ on the bottom of your oven.  Put the baking sheet not in the middle but more towards the bottom of the oven. Bake the apple pie for 70-80 minutes at 175C/350F until nicely browned.

Let it cool before you take it out of the springform pan.