Yes its party time a while most of us are starting to prepare for Halloween, (well while let the kids have all the fun?) make sure you read my next blog for some great recipes I needed to make the most of some fantastic bramley apples off my tree.

This time of year apples are in abundance, everywhere you go you whould be able to find British apples so make the most of them along with the cooking apples too.  Did you know that 21st October  is Apple Day ?  So get ready to celebrate with apples in your recipes for the day. My sons favourite is sauteing apples in a little water and sugar to caramelise then before serving them with some hand made pork sausages. My own however has to be the classic Apple Pie.

Now its all in the pastry as my gran would say, and like the flours you use there is a variety of pastries too which I will cover in future blogs for you as I am always being asked for different pastry recipes and ideas.

So Apple Pie for this we need Shortcrust pastry. This is probably the most universally used pastry and it can be used for both sweet and savoury items. Shortcrust pastry should be crisp but not too hard and also not to short (short is a term used for the crumbliness of a pastry).

For your shortcrust pastry:

200g flour plain or self raising, pinch of salt, 100g fat (50g margarine & 50g lard), cold water to mix.

Mix your flour and salt together in a bowl, add your fats (which have been cut up in to small peices) and then rub the fats into the flour using your finger tips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add just enough water (about 40ml) to bind the mixture together into a pliable paste. Knead your paste on a floured board lightly turning over to the smooth side and continue.

For your Apple Pie:

500g cooking apples prepared & sliced (make sure you have a corer this eva solo corer is great and it make the job of preparation very easy), 100g soft brown sugar, 1xtsp of cinnamon, 1/2 tsp gound nutmeg, 50g sultanas, 50g chopped almonds and 15g butter.

Place a baking tray in the oven whilst preparing your pie. Grease a 20.5 cm ovenproof plate. Cut your pastry into 2 pieces one slightly larger than the other. Roll out the smaller piece using a rolling pin and line the pie plate with this. Trim the edges to make the pastry fit the plate.

Mix together the sugar, spices, sultanas, almonds and butter. Place half the apples on to the pastry lined plate, cover with the sugar mixture then the remaining apples. Damp the edge and roll out the remaining pastry and cover the pie sealing the edges well and trimming the pastry to fit the plate.

Make a small hole in the centre of the pie and brush the surface of the pie with milk, or egg white and sprinkle with caster sugar. Place onto the baking tray which you earlier placed in the oven and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the fruit is tender at 190 c, 375 f or gas mark 5. Cover with greaseproof paper when the top is brown enough.

Serve warm or cold, just as you like it with homemade custard, ice cream or cream, which do you prefer?