SHE'LL BE APPLES

My father took Sunday drives seriously.....we never knew where we would end up!  Mum packed a picnic lunch of sandwiches and a delicious cake.

Off we went, north, south, east or west... we discovered Western Australia is a big place!

My sister and I sat in the back of the car playing all sorts of games. We loved to drive Dad and Mum crazy ....as kids do!!!

We stopped at petrol stations in various country towns to stamp our passbooks. I'm not sure, I think we purchased the books from a service station. Then the passbook was stamped each time you visited a country town service station. A bit like overseas passports, except they were not official.

One place we visited a few times was Dwellingup, about 2 hours south east of Perth, it was a Sunday drive and Dad took his time! The town was almost wiped out by bush fires in the 1960's. The town's main source of income was the local saw mills where Jarrah trees were brought in, cut up and sent off for various uses.

The local people grew their own produce. I remember the apple orchards. We stopped at the same place every time and they sold us a box of apples for a few dollars. So crisp and fresh........ surprised any made it home!!

Thinking of this has inspired me to give you an Apple Pie recipe.

BEST EVER APPLE PIE

Ingredients

FOR PASTRY
1 and half cups of plain flour

Three quarters of a cup SR flour

Half a teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon of white sugar

250gms butter chopped
A quarter of a cup of sour cream

1 teaspoon of lemon juice

FOR FILLING

2 tablespoons lemon juice to put with apples

4 granny smith apples, cored, peeled and sliced

2 pears, cored, peeled and sliced

Half cup of white sugar

2 teaspoons of mixed spice

1 egg for the top 

Method

Preheat oven to 180c. Grease a pie dish and put to one side.

To make pastry first. In a large bowl, combine flours, salt and sugar. Add butter and work into flour until it resembles bread crumbs.

Add sour cream and lemon juice to the bread crumb mixture. Using hands, knead until a ball forms. Wrap in cling or plastic wrap, refrigerate for about 1 hour.

While the pastry is chilling make filling. Place apples and pears into a bowl, mix in flour, sugar and mixed spice. Using hands, combine all together then add lemon juice. Put into fridge and keep chilled.

Remove pastry from fridge and take off plastic wrap. Flour a board with a little plain flour and cut pastry in half. Put half aside and roll out the other until quite thin, using a rolling pin. When ready, flour rolling pin and wrap pastry around it. This makes it easier to transfer to pie dish. Once in pie dish, press evenly with your hands leaving excess pastry hanging over the edge. Flour board once more, roll out other half of pastry, leave on the board for only a few minutes until ready to put on top of the pie. If you leave the pastry longer than a few minutes, it will dry out.

Take filling from fridge and fill the pie base. Mixture may seem a lot, but it shrinks as it cooks.

Now for the top. Same principle, flour rolling pin again, wrap pastry around it and transfer to the top of the pie. Cut excess pastry from the edges, then pinch around the edge with your fingers. This seals the pastry together and stops the filling bubbling out.

Decorate the pie with excess pastry by forming three little balls about marble size. Place on the top, in the centre of the pie. Cut out two leaf shapes and place either side of balls. It takes 5 seconds and people will be impressed.

Beat an egg and brush over top of the pie. Place in the oven and cook for about 45 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve with whipped cream, ice cream or custard.