Traditional Maltese Apple Pies
A perfect tea time snack! This traditional Maltese style Apple Pie is made from a crumbly biscuit crust, filled with apples and raisins, finished with a lot of icing sugar on top!
Ingredients
Pie dough
- 500 g plain flour
- 200 g icing sugar + extra for dusting
- 250 g butter cubed
- 2 eggs
- zest of a lemon
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
Apple Filling
- 5 granny smith apples peeled and chopped
- 40 g butter
- 40 g sugar
- 1 tbsp cornstarch or flour
- 100 ml water
- 30 g raisins
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp mixed spice
Instructions
Pie Dough
- In a large bowl mix the flour and the cubed butter to a crumbly mixture. Work with your fingertips so that you don’t melt the butter.
- Add the icing sugar, lemon peel and vanilla. Combine well.
- Form a well with the ingredients, put the eggs in the middle and start mixing. Knead the dough briefly until all the ingredients are incorporated and a smooth dough is formed.
- Wrap in cling film and let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Apple Filling
- In a saucepan over medium heat, mix together the chopped apples, sugar, butter, cinnamon and mixed spice. Mix the cornstarch and water together in a small bowl and set aside.
- As soon as the apples start to soften, it might take 3 minutes, add the cornstarch mixture.
- Let the mixture cook for another 3 minutes. Take it off heat and mix in the raisins. Let it cool slightly before using in the pies.
Assembly
- Preheat the oven to 180°C or 350°F. Spray the tartlet tins with some baking spray and set aside.
- Roll out the dough on a floured surface until it's about 0.5 cm thick. Cut the dough and fill the tartlets tins. Fill each tin with the apple mixture.
- Cover the pies with another layer of dough and press the edges to seal both doughs together. Cut some slits at the top of the dough.
- If baking: Bake for about 20-30 minutes. (If air frying - at 180°C or 350°F for 15 minutes)
- Let cool slightly before taking out the moulds. Dust plenty of icing sugar before serving.