Rudolph Chocolate Bundt Cake

I love the novelty of this cake, and so did my son. We first saw it at my friend, Sandrine's house, where she had made a fab version, piping on buttercream to create a fur - like look. I decided to go for a chocolate bundt base, as we like this recipe a LOT, with a coconut milk and dark choc ganache as it's not as sweet, and a lot less time consuming. (I like shortcuts!!)

Anyway it went down well with my family...and I may have just had a second slice while I type this...

It's worth noting, this is not a sickly sweet cake. That's one of the appeals of this recipe and why we make it so often.

Oh and did you notice my red and white plate? I made it using American Starlight peppermint sweets. They are placed on a non stick silicon mat and placed into a moderate oven (approx 170 deg C) for 7-8 mins, or until softened and spread slightly. Cool on the mat until hard.

It can be crushed afterwards and used instead of candy canes on biscuits, or just crack pieces off to enjoy - they are sooo yummy!

You can find the cake recipe here and see below for the ganache recipe.

Coconut Milk Ganache

(Dairy free, but without a strong coconut flavour)

200g dark chocolate

1/3 c coconut milk - mainly solid, and a touch of the liquid.

Chop the chocolate into small pieces and place in an heatproof bowl. Gently heat the milk until it is hot but not quite boiling and pour over the chocolate. Mix and then leave until the chocolate has melted.

Mix until it is smooth and silky. Cool and pour onto the cake and use a offset spatula to spread and drip off the edges of the cake.

Any left over ganache is DELICIOUS on top of vanilla icecream.

To make the antlers, I drew an outline on parchment paper, folded it over and the drew it again in symmetry. I then melted 100g chocolate (or candy melts) and using a piping bag, I piped an outline around each antler, filled it in and left it to set - putting it in the fridge helps. Once set, place a skewer or cake pop stick on each antler and cover it with another layer of chocolate. Chill in the fridge to set.

The eyes and nose were made with pre-coloured fondant icing - chocolate chips for the pupils. I anchored them into the cake using skewers.

Christmas Gingerbread House

This is our third year making a gingerbread house of our own, and I think I have finally found a fantastic gingerbread biscuit recipe. This was a dream to work with, from the dough through to cooking it. It does spread quite a lot even with loads of dough chilling time, but I'm yet to find one that doesn't.

This recipe is from Mima Sinclair in the December 2015 edition of Delicious magazine. Due to our inability to use royal icing because of allergies, this year I again used caramel 'glue' to stick the house together. It's so quick to try and bond the sides together. I did use regular icing for the rest, but it needs to be quite thick to hold everything in place.

This dough makes the MOST delicious biscuits - I cooked the trees (and holly leaves/presents I made for the teacher's gifts) for 10 mins and then iced once cool. This made the biscuits soft-ish in the centre, and no word of a lie, they were absolutely amazing!
For the gingerbread house I cooked longer for a crisper biscuit.

We love adding extras like the trees and the marshmallow snowman. I managed to use the Easter carrot sprinkles yet again for the nose...oh and we even added some 'seasonal' mushrooms to the scene this year too!

My son's favourite part (besides the sweeties) is putting the snow on top. 

Gingerbread dough

Ingredients:

• 140g golden syrup
• 200g soft light brown sugar
• 200g unsalted butter
• 4 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp bicarb of soda (baking soda)
• 500g plain flour
• 1tsp salt
• 1 medium free-range egg, lightly beaten

1. Pour the golden syrup into a large saucepan with the sugar, butter and spices, then heat over a low-medium heat until the sugar has dissolved.

2. Increase the heat to bring mixture to boiling point, then take off the heat and beat in the bi-carb of soda. The mixture will froth and bubble at this point as the bicarb reacts - mix briefly until combined and leave to cool for 15 mins, then pour into a large mixing bowl (I used my stand mixer bowl),

3. Sift the flour and salt, then fold into the spiced sugar mixture in batches, using a wooden spoon or stand mixer. Beat in the egg until just combined. Don't over work the mixture of the biscuits will spread too much during baking (they spread anyway, but this may stop it going too far!)

4. The dough can be quite sticky to begin with but don't add any extra flour unless you absolutely have to, and even then use just a sprinkling - the minimum you can to get it less sticky and usable. Scrape out the bowl onto a clean surface and knead together until just smooth.

At this stage you can wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for an hour or until cool. But I prefer to roll the dough out between sheets of baking/parchment paper to the thickness I want the biscuits to be. I then chill the ready rolled dough on trays ready to cut afterwards. It's much easier than rolling out fridge-hardened dough.

5. Cut out the house pieces using the template and place them on the parchment paper straight onto a baking tray. Don't try and lift it off the paper, as it will go out of shape. It will  spread slightly when cooked so to help avoid this, put the tray back into the fridge or freezer for 10 mins before baking. See instructions below for more detail.

6. Bake each tray for around 15-20 mins (depending on the size of the pieces) on 160 degrees C, or until slightly browned on the edges.  Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack ready for decorating.

Caramel 'glue'

Ingredients:

• 200g caster sugar
• 60ml cold water
• a few drops of lemon juice (optional but I found this stops the sugar syrup crystallising)
• sugar thermometer (optional)

1. Put the sugar and water and lemon juice if using, in a large, lowsided frying pan over a medium to high heat. Without stirring, bring to 160deg C on a sugar thermometer. If you don;t have one, the syrup is ready when the sugar has dissolved and it turns a light golden colour.

2. Swirl the syrup gently in the pan to even out the colour. Take the pan off the heat and leave to cool for a few moments to thicken slightly to the consistency of honey.

3. If the syrup begins to harden, put it back over a gentle heat until it has returned to the required consistency.

Royal Icing (basic)

• 500g royal icing sugar, sifted
• 80ml water

1. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl, adding the water andmix until a thick paste forms. Add more water as required but only a drop or two at a time. If you make it too runny, you can add more icing sugar to thicken it up.

2. Put into a piping bag ready to use on the house.

Royal Icing (egg free)

• 90ml (1/3c) aquafaba
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4c icing/powdered sugar

1. Pour aquafaba into a mixing bowl and mix with electric beater until it starts to foam.

2. Add vanilla and sugar and whisk for about 5 mins until the mixture is thick and very white.

3. Add a very small amount of water ( a few drops) if the icing is too stiff. You need it to be thick icing though, as it is used as glue to stick the house together.

4. Put into a piping bag ready to use on the house.

To Make the House

• 2 quantities of the gingerbread dough. You won't need all of it, but you will need more than one. The rest can be used to make biscuits.
• 1 quantity of the caramel glue or royal icing mix
• jelly beans, dolly mix, mini candy canes, marshmallows or any other sweets you like, to decorate
• piping bag
• gingerbread house template
• pizza wheel or sharp knife
• star/heart shaped cookie cutter
• boiled sweets, whole, for the windows

1. Print and cut out the template onto baking paper. Heat the oven to 160 deg C. Cut out two large sheets of baking paper and roll the dough out in batches to 5mm thick. 

2. Place the template onto the dough and cut out the first shape. It's easiest to use a pizza wheel for this, otherwise a sharp knife. Leave the piece of cut dough on the paper and transfer to a baking sheet - this avoids it losing its shape while being transferred. 

3. Place into the freezer for 10 mins while you do the next piece. If adding sweets to the windows, place the colour you want, then bake for 20 mins until golden at the edges.

4. As soon as it comes out of the oven, place the template back onto the shape and re-cut, as it will have spread. This is REALLY important so it fits together properly. Leave to cool for 5 mins and then transfer paper and biscuit to a wire rack to cool completely.

5. Using the icing, add detail to the windows, around the star/heart and around the door. It's easier to do this before you stick it together.

6. While that icing sets, make the caramel glue if using to stick the house together. Once it is ready, dip the ends of one side of the house into the caramel and glue the front and back to the side. Repeat for the other side.

7. To attach the roof, I find it useful to add the tips of toothpicks to help anchor it into the base. I put two per side. Add the caramel/icing to the base and then lay the roof on, pushing it firmly into the base and the toothpicks. Remember to remove them when eating.

8. The caramel glue sets almost instantly, so you can decorate virtually straight away.

9. I like to add a couple of trees, the marshmallow snowman (he has a toothpick in the middle to attach the marshmallows together). The sky is the limit really, be creative!

10. Oh and then add your snow with a fine sieve and icing sugar!

 

 

Chocolate Peppermint Biscuits

The candy cane biscuits (cookies) are a festive twist on my standard ones. When I say 'mine' I really mean Nigella's as it's her base recipe, but you know, I made them, so these particular one are mine!

This month I am part of a Christmas cookie swap, so I need to make two x a dozen biscuits to send to two other ladies who I am matched up with. One of my partners is gluten free, so I have made some cranberry and pistachio biscuits for her and for my other ones, I am sending these. I absolutely love them. I love anything with chocolate and mint, and the addition of the candy cane on top is perfection in my world!

I doubled the recipe and tripled the glaze this time, and managed to get 67 biscuits and some left over glaze, but I was generous with it. Usually I'm scrapping the bottom of the pan to get it all out.
Just a little hint, if the glaze starts to thicken, just put it back on a low heat for a few seconds and it will go runny again.

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

Ingredients:
100g soft butter
150g light brown sugar
1 t vanilla extract
1 egg
150g plain flour (all purpose)
35g cocoa powder
1/2 t baking powder
200g dark chocolate chips

For the Glaze
75g icing sugar
1 x 15ml T cocoa, sieved
1.5 x 15ml T boiling water
1/4 t peppermint extract
Crushed candy canes

Method:
1.Preheat oven for 180 degrees.
2. Cream butter and sugar (I use my freestanding mixer), then beat in the vanilla extract and egg.
3. Mix the flour, cocoa and baking powder in a bowl and gradually beat in to the creamed mixture. Finally, fold in the chocolate chips.
4. Using a rounded 15ml tablespoon measure, spoon out scoops of cookie dough (I actually use a small icecream scoop) and place on a  lined baking sheet, leaving a little space between each one.
5. Bake in the oven for 13 mins and then let them sit on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes before moving them to a cooling rack, with some baking paper underneath to catch escaping glaze later.
6. Put the glaze ingredients into a saucepan and heat until combined.
7. Using a teaspoon, zigzag the glaze over each cooling cookie and sprinkle with crush candy cane.

Makes 30+

+.

Cherry Ripe Slice

Cherry Ripes are probably my all time favourite chocolate bar and an Australian institution. If I had a ready and easy supply of the real thing I'm not sure I would make this, however, as they are hard to come by over here in the UK I thought I would look for a way to make them myself. If you have no idea what I am talking about, let me explain, Cherry Ripes are a dark chocolate dipped bar, filled with chopped glacé cherries and coconut filling. I'm not a great fan of glacé cherries, but in this, they are perfect and you simply can't substitute for fresh cherries.

There are a few variations to this recipe online, so I had a look through them all to find one that suited me. Most have a chocolate slice base, and look really nice, but I wanted to have no base so I could make some dipped in chocolate (see below), like the proper bar, and some in a slice form like this above.

This is a no bake recipe, super easy and totally delicious!

What will I change? I'll add more cherries next time, and less condensed milk. The original recipe called for copher (a uniquely Australian product), but I substituted with coconut oil. It was fine with that, and I would say much healthier.

Without further ado, here is the recipe (with adjustments to suit my changes):

Cherry Ripe Slice

Ingredients:

150-200g glacé cherries, chopped (depends on how full of cherries you would like the slice)

250g desiccated coconut

300g sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

115g coconut oil, melted (or copher if available)

few drops pink food colouring until desired colouring

200g dark chocolate, melted

Method:

Line a large 20 x 30cm tray with aluminium foil.

Put condensed milk, vanilla, coconut oil and food colouring into a large bowl. Mix to combine. The oil will stay separate at this stage but will change soon.

Add cherries and coconut, mix well and if desired, add a few more drops of food colouring.

Spoon mixture into the tray and spread out evenly and carefully. I put just under half into a smaller tray to make into the dipped bars, but if you'd prefer the slice, put it all in the tray, it will just be thicker than mine.

Smooth the top with an offset spatula and chill in the fridge for an hour or freezer for 30 mins.

For the slice, once chilled, pour the chocolate over the top, smooth it out and chill in the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight. To slice it up, bring it out of the fridge for about 20 mins before cutting to avoid the chocolate cracking.

For the dipped bars, slice the coconut and cherry mixture into 4cm x 4cm squares, and dip into the melted chocolate, coating all sides. Tap off excess chocolate and then place on to a tray lined with baking paper. Allow to set and harden.

Best kept in the fridge.

Makes 20+ pieces.

Star Wars themed 7th Birthday

This week, is my son's 7th birthday. He is Star Wars mad...and I mean mad for it! My husband thinks he could enter the TV show 'Mastermind', and he's probably correct. Anyway, it was a simple choice for the theme for his party. I knew I had to keep it all simple, as it's also a busy time for me, work wise this month.

Anyway I found some ideas on Pinterest, most completely unachievable for me, some do-able. I love the idea of the Storm Trooper marshmallows, and after making ghosts for Halloween, I knew I could this easily. It just took white marshmallows, cake pop sticks and an edible black pen - all of which I had!

We had bought some Star Wars cookie cutters from Lakeland, and I used the Darth Vader & Storm Trooper ones to make some chocolate biscuits for the take home 'party bag'. I also put in the marshmallow pop, for a tasty goodie bag.

I use Sweetopolita's Dark Chocolate Sugar Cookie recipe for my biscuits. It's a really delicious biscuit, although quite a soft dough, so it needs a lot of chilling, between every stage.

I also used some cupcake wrappers, also from Lakeland, and instead of cupcakes, I made some chocolate crackles for the party.

Chocolate Crackles

Makes about 24

4-5 cups of rice krispies (rice bubbles)

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

1 c mini marshmallows

200g melted chocolate - I like to use Sainsbury's dark chocolate cooking chocolate

Mix all together until coated by the melted chocolate and then spoon into the wrappers. Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to a week.

And now for the cake. These stress me out as I am NOT a good cake decorator and I am nervous and pretty hopeless with fondant covered cakes. I tried to come up with simple ideas and even bought some black and white fondant, but in the end I went for buttercream and ganache and used small Star Wars figures as decorations. They looked like they were playing 'Stuck in the Mud' (cake), and the bonus was my son had some new toys to play with afterwards! I thought the cake looked great.

I've made this cake recipe before, but in a Bundt tin, so this time I split the mixture into 3 x 8 inch tins and cooked them each for 23 minutes on 180deg C and layered them with homemade raspberry jam in the middle. I much prefer this to buttercream between the layers.

The ganache on top is my favourite kind - dark chocolate and coconut milk instead of normal cow's cream.

Coconut Milk Ganache

(Dairy free, but without a strong coconut flavour)

200g dark chocolate

1/3 c coconut milk - mainly solid, and a touch of the liquid.

Chop the chocolate into small pieces and place in an heatproof bowl. Gently heat the milk until it is hot but not quite boiling and pour over the chocolate. Mix and then leave until the chocolate has melted.

Mix until it is smooth and silky. Cool and pour onto the cake and use a offset spatula to spread and drip off the edges of the cake.

Any left over ganache is DELICIOUS on top of vanilla icecream.

Good luck and May the Force be with You!

Halloween Oreo Spider Cake

 

I love Halloween! We didn't celebrate it at all as kids in Australia, and I think even now it's pretty low key, but here in the UK it's bigger and I am loving it. To be honest, we didn't do much for it before we had our son, but for me, having kids is a good excuse to get into it!

Each year now, we hold a party at our place for the kids in our street (and sometimes a few extra friends). It's so much fun, a few games, some fun food and then out trick or treating! The kids get super excited, all dressed up and gorging on sweeties and chocolate.

I love all the baking for the party, with my cake always a centre piece. So, this year I decided to make this Oreo Spider Cake - I had found the idea on Pinterest and adapted it to suit my recipes.

I reuse my cake bunting each year. I painstakingly made it a couple of years ago, cutting all the tiny triangles and sewing the letters together with needle and thread. It's super cute!

 So, basically, this is a chocolate cake with an oreo buttercream inside and out. This cake recipe is a real favourite and one portion of the recipe made all four layers; it's huge! The spiders are made from mini oreos and I piped on some plain buttercream for the eyes. The legs and middle of the eyes are made with a chocolate ganache. More about my ganache later!

 

The cake itself is not overly sweet, but be warned, the oreo and buttercream combo more than makes up for it...good though!

Oreo Spider Cake

• Servings: 15-20

For the Cake:

1 1/4 cups water
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 teaspoons bi carb soda (baking soda)
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 cup sunflower oil - or a similar neutral oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted

1. Place an oven rack in the centre of the oven and preheat to 180 degrees C.

2. Line 4 x 20cm pans with baking parchment on the bottoms only.

3. Whisk water and cocoa powder in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, whisking frequently. Remove from heat and let come to room temperature.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, mix together sugar, salt, baking soda, eggs and egg yolk on low for just one minute. Add the milk, oil and vanilla extract and mix on low again for another minute.
5. Add the flour and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes more.  Add the cooled cocoa mixture and mix on medium speed for 3 minutes. The batter will seem quite loose and liquid.  Pour evenly into the prepared cake pans and cook for 25 mins , or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. 

6. Let the cake cool for about 10 mins in the pan and then invert onto a cooling rack. Once cooled you can trim off any uneven tops to make it level, or just leave it as I did this time.

For the Oreo Buttercream:
I have to now admit I cheated here, and used tubs of Betty Crocker ready made vanilla buttercream. (Shocking, I know! LOL) I almost always use this, as my son is allergic to cow's milk and these tubs are dairy free, and I am yet to find a dairy free 'butter' that makes a buttercream as nice as the real thing. Anyway we like this buttercream and it's easy to use. But it is an expensive way to do it.
(You can, of course, use your usual buttercream recipe, but do keep some aside for the eyes and crumb coat before you add the oreos).

3.5 tubs of vanilla buttercream style frosting
1 x packet of oreo biscuits, crushed

I crushed the biscuits and then mixed them with 3 tubs of buttercream (although I didn't quite use all of it).
The remaining tub I kept plain to use as the spider eyes and for the crumb coat.

Use half the oreo buttercream in between the layers of the cake. Then use the plain buttercream to make a crumb coat. If you have never crumb coated before, check out this video for a quick tutorial.
Chill your coated cake in the fridge for at least 30 mins. I left mine in overnight as I was working in the evening.

Use the remaining oreo buttercream to cover the cake completely.

For the Dark Chocolate Ganache:

200g best quality dark chocolate, chopped (I used Sainsbury's dark cooking chocolate as it is dairy free and I simply like it)
1/cup (125ml) coconut milk (from the tin)

To make the ganache, heat the coconut milk in a heavy pot, just until it begins to simmer. Remove from the heat and add it to the chopped chocolate. Let the chocolate melt for a a few minutes or so, then mix to combine. 

Leave the ganache to cool down and thicken.

For the Spiders
10-12 mini oreos
Ganache (see above)
buttercream eyes (see above)

Separate the mini oreos and scrape out the filling. Pipe on the eyes and leave to dry overnight.
Stick the spiders onto the cake and then pipe the ganache legs on each spider.

Store in an airtight container - this will stay fresh for about 10 days, if you can resist it for that long!

Notes:
The ganache recipe makes FAR more than you will need, so you can reduce it all, but it is such an utterly delicious recipe (and no strong coconut flavour really) so we use to dip fruit in, over icecream etc, so it's worth having a bigger batch! And dairy free- so a real bonus!

Wagon Wheel Slice

Wagon Wheels are a favourite biscuit of mine - they remind me of my childhood, although I swear they were much bigger in those days. Over here in the UK, you get a choice of wagon wheels with or without jam in them. In my opinion, what's the point of leaving the jam out? I am 'Team Jammy' all the way!

Anyway I saw this recipe posted on a fab Facebook group I am in, and knew straight away I wanted to give them ago. The original post came from a FB page called Aussie Tucker - The Great Australian Bite.

The biscuit base is quite soft like the original, not crunchy at all. Interestingly enough I didn't have quite enough jam in the house, so I thought that layer would be quite thin, but in reality it is plenty and any more would be too sickly sweet I think.

Wagon Wheel Slice

From Aussie Tucker - the Great Australian Bite

Ingredients

For the base:
60g (¼ cup) unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 cup + 3 tablespoons plain flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
Pinch salt

For the jam:
1/3 cup raspberry jam

For the marshmallow:
2 dessertspoons gelatine powder
1 cup water
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup sifted icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence


For the chocolate layer:
185g dark chocolate, broken into pieces (I used dark choc chips)
1 T sunflower oil

Method
Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease a 3cm-deep, 16cm x 26cm slice pan. Line base and sides with baking paper, extending paper 2cm from edge on all sides.

Melt butter. Set aside to cool slightly. Add sugar and egg and mix well. Add sifted flour, baking powder and salt and stir until dough comes together. Press mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden. 

Spread warm base with jam.

Meanwhile, soak gelatine powder in 1 cup of water (give it at least 10 minutes to soak properly), after 10 mins add 1 cup caster sugar and dissolve gently in a saucepan over a low heat, then raise heat and boil for 8 minutes. Allow to cool slightly and then add 1 cup of sifted icing sugar. 

In a large, deep bowl, beat with an electric mixer until white and thick (should take about 3-4 minutes). Add vanilla essence, and beat until well combined. Spoon almost all (*SEE NOTE BELOW) of the mixture over jam layer and place in refrigerator to set.

Place the chocolate and oil in a small, clean, dry heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over a small saucepan of barely simmering water over low heat (make sure the bowl doesn't touch the water). Use a dry metal spoon to stir gently for 2 minutes or until chocolate melts and is smooth. Pour evenly over marshmallow layer and smooth the surface with a knife.

Refrigerate for 2 hours or until set. Stand at room temperature for 5 minutes (I waited about 30 just to make sure the chocolate wouldn't crack) before cutting into pieces with a hot knife and serving.

*NOTE: I find that this makes a little more than needed, but this isn't a problem! Just lightly grease a small plastic container and pour excess in. I put my excess into some silicon jelly moulds for a bit of fun!

Place in refrigerator for about 20 mins to set; a nice, but sugary treat for the kids!

Enjoy! xx

Grandma Shipway's Apple Pie

My Grandma made the best apple pies. A simple statement, but true. She also made the best pickles...she used a vegetable called choko to make the pickles. I hated choko with a passion, but I loved her pickles.

Now in my garden I have an apple tree that gives us a pretty healthy crop of cooking apples each year. This year they seem ripe earlier than usual so we started picking them yesterday. I had also been out the back of our street to collect what looked like the last of the wild summer blackberries to add to the apples for this pie.

The pastry for this recipe can very easily be made diary free, in fact up until this year, I HAVE made it dairy free for my son - he can now tolerate butter in baked goods so I used real butter within the recipe.

The photos I took this time aren't great - it was night time, we were all eager to eat and it just didn't cut well....so you are going to see the realities of baking and eating for the family, not just for the blog! Let's face it, that's how most people cook anyway, don't you?

Inside...it was jam packed full of apple and blackberries - possibly the highest pie I have ever made!

I'll add some more photos of other ones I have made with the same recipe - in tart tins, cute little individual ones with just plain apple.

Righto, so I'm guessing you want the recipe?

Grandma Shipway's Apple Pie

Ingredients:

Filling

4 - 6 green apples   (cooking apples preferably)

4 cloves

5-6 tablespoons sugar

1 c water

1 c blackberries (optional)

Pastry                                             

1 cup plain flour (150g)

1 c self raising flour (150g)

1/3 c caster sugar (80g)

2/3 c cold butter (150g)

1/3 c water (85ml more if needed)

Method:
      
Apple filling
1. Peel, core, slice and cook the apples with the cloves in 1 c water for 10-15 mins. My apples cooking very fast and in seconds can go from looking underdone, to being mush, so do watch them.
2. Drain and then add sugar, mix through and then remove the cloves. I added the blackberries in at this stage too.
3. Pre-heat oven to 220°c.

Pastry
4. Cube the cold butter and lightly rub in the sugar and sifted flour, both plain and self raising, until the mixture looks like fine bread crumbs. You could do this in the food processor if you have one, which I tend to do these days.
3. Add water and mix to a soft, but not sticky, dough. Wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.
4. Roll half the dough between two sheets of grease-proof paper to make it big enough to cover the pie dish.
5. Place the pie dish on top of pastry upside down and lift the paper and pastry (and pie dish) up and over to get the pastry onto the dish without breaking it.
6. Fill with apple mixture and top with the rest of the pastry (rolled out).
7. Trim excess pastry from the edge of the dish and use a fork to press down around the edges. Decorate with extra pastry if you want - I always use cookie cutters to match a theme - this time it was woodland creatures.
8.Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle sugar on top. Use a fork to pierce a couple of steam holes on the top. To avoid the egg (allergies!!), I brushed mine with some soya milk - did the same job equally as well, in my opinion.
9. Cook for about 10 minutes and then reduce the oven to 150°c until brown on top - total of about 35-40 mins.

Enjoy this delicious apple pie fresh from the oven, with custard, cream or ice-cream.

Notes: 

• I don't ever blind bake the pastry - and I never have a soggy bottom! However, if you'd like to blind bake, then line the raw base with baking parchment and then fill with baking beads or rice - cook for 10 mins, then remove the beads/rice and paper and bake for another 10 mins. Then, add filling and proceed.
• Add the sugar to the fruit after cooking and draining, or the sweetness (which you really need with cooking apples) will go down the drain too.