For the shortcut pastry
Flour- 2 and ½ cups
Butter – 100 gms
Sugar – 1 tbsp
Salt – ½ tsp
Cold water- ½ cup approximately
For the Apple pie filling
Flour – 1 cup
Butter – 100 gms
Brown sugar -1 cup
Apple – 2 medium size
Walnut - handful
Raisin - handful
Cinnamon powder- a pinch
1. For the pastry first we need to butter a 9 inch tart pan. Set it aside.
2. Now for the pastry cut the butter into small pieces. The butter needs to be very cold and not room temperature.
3. Add the sugar and salt to the flour and now add the butter to it. Crumble the butter to the flour mixture till it resembles sand like texture.
4. Now add cold water slowly to the flour and try very gently to bring everything together. Keep pushing everything slowly together to form a squarish block. Now wrap a cling film around this dough and refrigerate for half an hour.
5. After half an hour roll out the dough into ½ inch thickness covering the tart pan and cut off the excess dough. Blind bake for 10-15 mins till the pastry gets a light golden tinge.
6. Now let’s make the apple filling. For the filling mix 50 gms of butter, half a cup of flour, half a cup of brown sugar.
7. Chop the apples into small cubes or you can slice them thinly.
8. Add the apples into the flour, butter and brown sugar mixture. Into this add the walnuts and raisins and the cinnamon powder and mix gently. Place this apple mixture into the baked pie crust.
9. For the topping mix the remaining butter, flour and brown sugar and spread it on top of the apple mixture.
10. With the excess pie dough cut thin strips and make a lattice to cover the top. Brush the top with little mixture of milk and honey. This step is optional.
11. Bake it a 180 degrees for 20 mins or till the pie gets a golden crust on top.
Serve it with a dollop of ice cream.