A Ginny Christmas Pie Crust to You!
As you know i get to make great food using some amazing products which food & drinks companies send me , & this recipe is one i’ve made for Ribble Valley Gin Company. I loved it so much that i had to let you know about it too. Hopefully you’ll love it too and get yourself over to their website to buy yourself some of their gin for the festive season tipple and of course, for a little gin Christmas pie crust too.
Not too sure if it’s up on their website as yet, just in case, i’ve reproduced it here.
Blog, as written for Ribble Valley Gin
How did this happen?
How did it get to be December so soon?
With everything going on in the world, it would be easy to just fly right through this time of year, but no, I won’t let anyone do that, especially when Christmas means getting in the kitchen and making good things to eat with Winters Night Ribble Valley Gin.
Believe me, this Winters Night Ribble Gin & Apple Pie with Winters Night Pastry, has a crisp crumbly, buttery texture, with a filling that is just Christmassy enough to make sure you’ll want to make more than one to pop the spares in the freezer ready for your new year celebration dinner.
It’s your choice to make large pies or smaller individual pies, and if you double or triple the pastry recipe, also how much apples you have in your pies.
I like more rather than less apples in my pies, (you can’t be surprised hearing that), so I always pack in as many sliced apples as I can.
This is one of the reasons I haven’t specified how many apples you’ll need for the recipe. Not specifying how many apples needed also depends on which apples you like to use.
Don’t be fooled!
No longer do you have to seek out tart cooking apples to use in your pies.
I used some of my favourite Pink Ladies with a mixture of gently ‘repossessed’ apples I may have acquired form a few trees around my neighbourhood.
No snitching!
With one batch of pastry, I made a selection of different sized individual pies.
Probably my favourite are the dinky single pies cooked in my muffin tin.
Perfectly bite sized to be frozen, cooked or uncooked, defrosted, and baked when the time comes to see friends and family over the fast approaching Christmas.
If you can’t see your loved ones in person this festive season, get them on the screen, share the recipe with them and enjoy a refreshing Winters Night Ribble Gin, or two, while you all sing carols.
I know that’s what I’m going to be doing.
See you next year
Enjoy Your Sweet Life
Use the pastry for all sizes of sweet pies.
What You Need
Pastry
¼ Cup - Cold Winters Night Ribble Valley Gin
250g Butter – Cold - cut into small Pieces
400g Plain Flour
115g Castor Sugar
Pinch of Salt
1 egg – Beaten – for egg wash
Pack those apples in . Don’t skimp
Filling – See Tip Box
1 Tablespoon Winters Night Ribble Valley Gin
1 lb Apples of your choice (approximate weight) – Peeled cored and sliced – See Tip Box
1 Tablespoon Mixed Spice
100g Soft Brown Sugar
Grind of fresh Black Pepper
Pinch of salt
Winters Night Ribble Gin is perfect for this pastry
How It’s Done
Pastry
Place the flour, castor sugar & salt in a food processor and give it a blitz for a few seconds just to combine the dry ingredients.
Slowly drop the cold butter pieces into the top of the food processor.
Let it run for a few minutes or until the mixture resembles bread crumbs
Slowly dribble the Winters Night Ribble Valley Gin through the top pf the food processor and let it run until the pastry comes together into a soft ball.
Remove from the food processor, wrap in cling film and set aside in a cool place until you’ve finishes preparing the apples.
Pack the apples in nice and tight. Mound them so you get a good lot of apples in each bite.
Filling
Heat your oven to 180c – See Tip Box
Place the washed, peeled and cored apples in a large bowl.
Pour over the brown sugar, gin, Mixed Spice, salt & Pepper
Mix well until all of the apple pieces are coated in the mixture
Set aside until ready to fill the pies.
Cut the pastry in half and use one half to roll out and line your pie dish (mini, full size or muffin pan) with the pastry
Fill the pies with the apple pie filling until it is nice, full and domed.
Bring together the remaining pastry, add it to the second half and roll it out big enough to cover the apple filling.
Press down around the edges to seal - See Tip Box
Brush the beaten egg over the pastry top and place in the oven until piping hot in the middle and golden brown on the top. – See Tip Box
Perfect Christmas apples pies. You can freeze them too!
Tip Box
All Ingredients – This recipe is for one batch of pastry and one batch of pie filling. If you increase the apples for more fillings, increase the rest of the pie ingredients too.
Apples – a) The weight of apples to use is just an estimate – it all depends on the size of your pies.
b) Use whatever type of apples that you prefer. I like a sweetish apple, not the bitter cooking apples for me
Pie Lid – a) Roll out the lid for the pies a little larger than you think you need. If you have piled the apples nice and high, you’ll need more pastry to cover them without tearing.
b) When crimping the edges to seal the pies, out your personal touch there. Make some pretty patterns.
c) If you have leftover pastry after you’ve covered the pies, you can decorate the top or pack the leftovers up and freeze for another time.
Freeze – When freezing, double wrap the pies in foil.
d) Freeze the pies before baking or after baking, it’s up to you.
e) If you make the pies in muffin tins to bring out to treat those elusive guests, I would suggest baking before freezing and then all you have to do is de-frost and serve.
Baking – a) How long you bake your pies depends on how big your pies are. The bigger the pie, the longer it will need to cook.
b) You know when the pies are cooked when they are piping hot in the middle and a lovely golden brown on the top.
Oven – All ovens are different so adjust cook
