With such a glut of apples at the moment, it seems a race against time to eat the apples before they go off! We are having apple everything at the moment. Some things have been more successful than others. My most successful bakes has been the Apple Meringue Pie. Essentially the same as Lemon Meringue Pie – with the obvious filling change.  I have used Cox apples, only because that is the apple tree I have! I didn’t feel the need to add sugar to the stewed apple because I felt the apples were sweet enough and with the meringue top it balances the sharpness of the apple.

You will get left over egg yolk, with these you can either make your own custard, or extra yolk in a scrambled egg, I even experimented with extra yolk in little cup cakes, they tasted great but were very yellow!

You will need:

For the pastry:

• 140g Self raising flour
• 70g Butter
• Water
• Filling:
• 800g Apples

Meringue:

• 4 x Egg whites
• 100g Caster sugar
• ¼ tsp Cream of tartar
• ¼ tsp Salt

Method:

• Grease a 23cm loose flan tin, if you don’t have a loose bottom one then a glass/china dish will work really well too.
• Peel and core the apples, chop them up into slices about 1cm thick, place then into a pan and gently simmer and reduce to a pulp.  My Cox apples were very juicy, I left the pan lid tilted slightly to allow the steam to escape. You want a firm set but not too dry. Keep an eye on the apples as you don’t want to burn them. Once they are reduced turn the heat off and leave to cool down.
• Mix the flour and butter until it resembles bread crumbs, add the water a table spoon at a time until you achieve a non-sticky ball of dough. (if you have added a little to much water just add another sprinkle of flour).
• Allow the pastry to rest for 10mins.
• Heat the oven to 180degrees.
• Roll the pastry out on a floured surface, slightly larger then you need. Line the flan tin with the pastry. Leave the pastry over hanging the side a little. The pastry does have a tendency to shrink. Trim the excess and with a ball of the excess press the pastry into the sides of the tin.
• Prick the bottom all over with a fork, Line with grease proof paper and beans and blind bake for 10mins.
• Meanwhile prepare the meringue.
• Whisk the egg white to soft peak.
• Add the salt, cream of tartar and then the sugar one spoonful at a time until the egg white is thick and glossy.
• Once the pastry case has finished blind baking remove the paper and beans, trim off any excess pastry and gently spoon the stewed apple into the case. Level it.
• Spoon the meringue over, I like to make a spiky pattern on the top.
• Bake for 20-30mins or until the meringue is golden.
• Serve straight away, or warm or even cold the next day!

Top tip – if you have left over pastry and a mini morsel tin, you can make mini meringue pies. One of our favourites is mini Nutella Meringue Pies – Perfect for lunch boxes!!