Hungarian apple pie is my favorite dessert. Its grandeur lies in the recipe’s simplicity. Apple and cinnamon wrapped in short pastry – the world’s best flavour combination. It turns the grey weekdays into holiday. I always make this pie as soon as the first summer apples grow ripe. In Hungary we use baking pan instead of pie pan to bake pie.

photo: zserbo.com

Ingredients:
For the short pastry:

• 400 g (~3 1/4 cups) flour
• 150 g (~2/3 cup) butter
• 100 g (~1/2 cup) sugar
• 8 g (~2 tsp) baking powder
• seeds of a half vanilla bean
• 1 egg
• 90 g (~1/3 cup) yogurt
• pinch of salt

For the filling:

• 2 kg (~4 1/2 lb) apple
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 100 g (~1/2 cup) sugar
• 1 tbsp. semolina

For the topping:

• 1 egg

Size of the baking pan: 32×32 cm /  12×12 inch

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Cut the cold butter into small cubes, then sprinkle the cubes over top. Rub them into the flour, dispersing it throughout. Add one hole egg and the yogurt, and knead with quick movements until the dough is well mixed. Divide the pastry into two equal balls. Wrap them up with cling film and place in the refrigerator.

Meanwhile prepare the apple filling. Wash, peel and core the apples. Grate them on the large hole-side of the box grater. Take a handful of grated apples and squeeze out the juice and place the squeezed out grated apple into a pan. Put the pan on the gas stove, add sugar and season with cinnamon. Simmer until tender. 5 minutes before it’s ready, stir in semolina. Turn off the heat and set aside to let it cool.

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 356°F.

On a floured pastry board roll out the first dough ball into a rectangular shape and place it into a buttered baking pan. Poke the pastry with a fork at intervals. Spread the prepared apple filling on the pastry layer.

Roll out the second dough ball and place it on top of the apple filling. Beat the egg and with a pastry brush, brush the beaten egg onto the top. Poke the top with a fork and place in the preheated oven. Bake until top is golden brown (for about 35 minutes). Cut into squares and serve slightly warm.