Apple pie (or don’t use too much ground almond in shortcrust pastry)

This was my first attempt to make a sweet shortcrust pastry and, as you can guess from the title, I am regretting that I added so much ground almond. My inspiration for this was an earlier attempt at crumble (using said ground almonds) which was incredibly damp and clumped together like a ball of dough! But don’t be mislead… it looks like a well formed ball until you try to roll it out and then it somehow manages to be sticky and yet sandy at the same time!

If, however, like me you love almonds then maybe use this a starting point and play around with the ratios. I will be trying more fat and fewer almonds next time!

Despite all of the above, I did enjoy this pie - perhaps because we ate it sitting in the garden on a summers evening with a glass of wine!

For the (almost) pastry:
140g Doves Farm Free from gluten plain flour
100g ground almonds
35g arrowroot powder
35g sugar
Generous pinch of sea salt
120g chilled butter
1 egg
1 or more tbsp water as needed

For the apple filling:
400g cooking apples, thinly sliced
60g caster sugar
4-6 tbsp water

Method:
I made the pastry the day before and left to rest in the fridge overnight, but it doesn’t need that long (you just have to fit it in around life)
- combine the flour, almonds, arrowroot and and salt in a mixing bowl (I use a stand mixer)
- dice the butter and add to the dry ingredients then use the K-mixer to combine
- after a minute or two add the egg and combine until it clumps to form a dough
- at this point use your judgement re how much water to add, if it is too wet then add a bit more flour and scoop the ball of dough onto a big piece of cling film, wrap and pop in the fridge to rest
- make the filling by combining all ingredients in a saucepan and cooking gently until the apples start to soften, ideally leave to cool for a little while before assembling the pie
- take the dough from the fridge and separate into two pieces - roughly two thirds and one third in size
- roll out the larger piece and use this as your base in a pie dish. The pastry really started to crumble as I tried to lift it from the work surface. I ended up using a fish slice to prise it away, and still needed to patch up a few holes!
- Add as much of the the apple filling as you like, saving some for the freezer if you prefer a smaller pie
- then roll out the second piece of almost pastry, pop it on top
- cook in the oven for about 30 mins at 180
- apologise to your family for the amount of mess you have made in the kitchen