Lijena Pita od Jabuka i Oraha - (Lazy Apple & Walnut Pie)
Thick layer of apples and walnuts in between light pastry
Lijena Pita od Jabuka i Oraha - (Lazy Apple & Walnut Pie)
If there is such a thing as a traditional Croatian Lazy Pie, ii don’t know about it, but I’ve seen and tasted, lazy apple and lazy walnut pies and loved them both so couldn’t resist putting my own spin on it and having them both under one pastry
Called lazy pie because it’s pretty easy to make, it’s a pie that’s perfect for this time of year, with apples in abundance.
Of course, I needed to add the walnuts to the same pie because, well, walnuts are my favourite nut so I can never resist putting them in as many dishes as I can.
The pastry on this pie, made with 2 eggs, is so light and crumbly that it would be easy to think that the filing would dampen its flavour and texture.
Not so.It holds its own and adds a lot to the apple and walnut mix so even if this is a lazy pie to make, its certainly worth the little effort that it takes to make it.
Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life.
What You Need
Pastry
450g Plain Flour
200g butter – Room Temperature
3 Tbsp Castor Sugar
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
2 Large Eggs
Zest from 2 lemons
Icing Sugar to dust
Cut in half, wrap it in cling film and in the fridge until needed
Filling
2kg Apples – Peeled and cored weight – See Tip Box
100g Walnuts – Roughly Chopped
1 Tbsp Cinnamon
3 Tbsp Castor Sugar
4 Tbsp Plain Flour
Add he squeezed and seasoned apple & walnuts to the pastry
How It’s Done
Pastry
Place all the ingredients for the pastry into an electric mixing bowl. – See Tip Box
Using a paddle blade, and a medium speed setting, mix the ingredients together until it forms a soft dough.
Once together, take it out of the bowl and knead it just a few times to make it smooth – See Tip Box
Cut the pastry in half, cover in cling film and place into the fridge until the filling is ready - See Tip box
Fold over the edges and poke holes in the top
Filling
Oven 180c
Sit a colander over a large bowl.
Grate the apples into the colander.
Let them sit for about 15 minutes.
After 15 mins ‘ish, take handfuls of the grated apples and squeeze the juice out into a separate bowl.
Repeat until all the grated apples have been squeezed – See Tip Box
Add the rest of the filling ingredients to the bowl of squeezed grated apple, give it a good mix and set it aside
Take a deep sided baking tin, 13” x 9”, rub very lightly with vegetable oil and dust with plain flour. – See Tip Box
Roll out one piece of the pastry big enough to fit the bottom of the prepared tin and up the sides – See Tip Box
Place all of the apple and walnut mix on top of the pastry.
Roll out the remaining pastry for the top of the filling and sit it in top of the apples
Turn over the edges of the pastry and using a fork, press all the way around to seal the edges.
Prick holes all over the top layer of pastry and place the pie in the hot oven to bake for 30 minutes.
Once baked, remove it from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes before sprinkling the top with icing sugar – See Tip Box
Let it cool completely before cutting into portions for serving.
Crisp, crumbly pastry and soft flavoursome filling
Tip Box
Pastry 1) I used an electric mixer to make my pastry but its’ not necessary. Making the pastry in a bowl by hand works great.
2) Kneading the dough – Once the dough is out of the mixing bowl, just knead it enough to make it smooth. Over kneading the dough will make the pastry tough to eat instead of crumbly and soft.
3) Fridge – The pastry needs to be covered while resting in the fridge. Wrap in cling film or even better, place in a pre-used sandwich bag.
Apples – 1) The weight of the apples is approximate – give or take an apple or three.
2) The weight of the apples is without the skin and the core
3) Squeezing as much juice out of the grated apples as possible stops the bottom layer of pastry from becoming soggy.
Apple Juice – 1) The juice that is squeezed from the grated apples is delicious, so drink it rather than throw it away or use it to make apple jelly.
Rolling Pastry – For the bottom of the tin, rolling the pastry doesn’t have to be too perfect to fit. If it breaks a bit, just patch it together
Icing Sugar – Don’t skimp on the icing sugar for the top, this isn’t a very sweet dish, so more icing sugar the better.
Tin – Don’t over grease the tin when preparing it. Too much will make the bottom pastry greasy.
Cut it up dusted with lots of icing sugar
