Deep-Dish Apple Pie

1. 1Rub the cold butter into the flour, sugar and salt until you have a coarse, uneven rubble with some pieces still the size of a pea. Those flat sheets of butter are what make the pastry flaky — rub it to fine breadcrumbs and you get shortbread instead.
2. 2Add the ice water a tablespoon at a time, cutting it through with a knife, until the dough just holds when you squeeze a handful. Divide into two discs, one slightly larger, wrap and chill for an hour.
3. 3Put both kinds of apple in a wide pan with the brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice and the 20 g of butter. Cook over a medium heat for 10–12 minutes, stirring now and then. The Bramleys will collapse to a sauce and the Braeburns will hold their shape — that contrast is why you use two.
4. 4Stir the cornflour through and cook for another minute, then tip the filling onto a tray and cool it completely. Warm filling melts the pastry before it has a chance to set.
5. 5Roll the larger disc and line a 23 cm pie dish, leaving an overhang. Fill with the cooled apples, mounding them slightly. Roll the second disc, lay it over, trim to a 2 cm overhang, then fold the edges under and crimp firmly.
6. 6Cut four generous steam vents in the lid. Brush with beaten egg and scatter the demerara over. Chill the assembled pie for 20 minutes while the oven heats to 200°C fan.
7. 7Bake at 200°C for 20 minutes, then drop to 180°C fan for a further 35–45 minutes. It is ready when the pastry is deep gold all over — including the base, which you can check by lifting the dish and looking underneath — and juice is bubbling thickly through the vents.
8. 8Cool for at least 3 hours before cutting. Cutting it warm gives you a slice that slumps and a puddle on the plate; the cornflour needs to cool to set.

Tap a step to cross it off. Your place is saved on this device.