Apple and pear frangipane pie

Who doesn’t love the smell of an apple and pear pie being baked in the oven, filling your home with so much warmth!

There’s something about the Christmas period that makes me want to tuck into a comforting, home-made pie with a generous fruit filling and rich, buttery crust! Apple pie is one of my favourite fruit pies, so I decided to mix up the apple filling by inviting it’s cousin, the pear, to the party. I also decided to add an extra layer of almond frangipane because, if I had my way, I would probably add frangipane to all my pies! Frangipane literally takes 2 minutes to make, but gives your pies a whole new, delicious dimension.

Anyone else think that woven pies look prettier when they’re not baked? The patterns stand out a lot more. This is actually my first time making a woven and it is not as hard as I thought it would be – and I am a BIG fan of desserts that look more complicated than they actually are! It was actually very, very fun to do.

The trick here is to keep your dough cold as it is much easier to work with. You can make your dough a day ahead, film it and leave it in the fridge until you’re ready to roll it out. In terms of design, you can let your creativity run free! There are so many different types of pastry shape cutters than can be applied to any season. If you look up on the internet woven or lattice pies, you’ll be in awe at some of the beauties you’ll find!

Above are a few snaps of the pie being created, I’m not sure how easy it is to understand the weaving process (which is SO hard to explain in writing by the way!), you can find a lot of video tutorials available on the web so I recommend you watch a few!

My dough recipe allows for a very generous amount to play around with for your decorations, so if you find you have a lot left, film it and leave in the fridge for up to a week or make a few little tartlets!

Hope you enjoy this recipe!

RECIPE (makes one 24cm or 26cm round tart pan):

INGREDIENTS: Crust: – 350g flour – 200g cold butter, diced – 2 eggs – 100g brown sugar – ½ tsp salt – 50ml cold water   Frangipane layer: – 100g softened butter, room temp – 100g sugar – 120g almond powder – 1 egg   Apple and pear filling: – 2 apples and 2 pears, sliced METHOD:   Crust (make a few hours in advance or the night before to allow for chilling time): In the bowl of your stand mixer, with paddle attachment, mix the flour, butter, sugar and salt. Once crumbs form, add in the eggs and mix a little more until well combined. Then slowly pour in the water and stop as soon as a dough ball is formed (you may not need to use all of the water, just enough to form the ball). Half the dough equally in two, roll into two separate balls, film and leave in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Once dough is chilled, take out one of the dough balls from the fridge, flour a work surface generously and roll it out to fit into your tart pan. Trim off the edges and place pan in fridge while you make the frangipane. Frangipane layer: Dice up the softened butter in cubes, and whisk it with the sugar. Add the egg, and after the almond powder. Whisk well until fully combined. Take the tart pan out of the fridge, and spread the frangipane layer in the tart shell. If using a 24cm pan, there should be around 2 tablespoons of frangipane leftover – adding all would be too much (it should be fine to use all for a 26cm pan).   Apple and pear filling:  Slice the apples and pears, or cut them into cubes if you wish. Place on top of the frangipane layer, then put the tart pan back in the fridge while you prepare the top pastry layer and decor.   Top pastry and decor: Take the second dough ball out of the of the fridge, roll it out and start getting creative! I used a pizza cutter to cut out straight strips, some thin, some wider, I braided some (as you can see in pictures). To weave, you lay down your strips horizontally (or vertically) first, then you lift up half of the strips to start going over, under, over, under… it really is not the easiest to explain in writing so I would advise you watch the thousands of tutorial videos available on the web! You’ll see it’s not as complicated as it looks! Once your weaving pattern is set up, use pastry cutters (any shape you wish) on the dough and place the cut-outs decoratively on your tart. Once done, place the tart pan back in the fridge for 30 minutes.   Once the 30 minutes is nearly up, preheat your oven to 180C. Take the tart out of the fridge and brush the pastry lightly with a whisked egg. Place in the oven to bake for around 30 minutes or so.   Allow the tart to cool to warm or room temperature before serving.

Did you try out this recipe? Any questions? Any feedback? Would love to hear from you!

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