Cast-Iron Apple Crumble Pie

Every year on Valentine's day, I bake my ex-boyfriend and now husband, a cake. Most of the time, I use  my heart-shape pan to mark the day of love and  decorate it as romantic as humanely possible. You know with hearts, flowers, glitters , ribbons and all. I know he tolerates appreciates my efforts, despite of  my non- existent talent when it comes to cake decorating and baking.

This year, I barely got the time to bake, least decorate a cake for Valentine's day .  My heart- shaped cake pan was left untouched  since I honestly got not clue what cake to bake in it and how to garnish it. But I still want  surprise my better-half with something sweet and sugary. So I though, why not bake his favourite cake instead? 

FF's favourite cake is actually a pie. An apple pie to be exact. With its thin and crispy crust, generous sweet filling and a mountain of crumbly goodness, I understand why.

Sometimes, the simplest of things made us the happiest. This year, FF was extremely happy with the warm apple pie waiting for him this Valentine's cake. Not only did it tasted good, there's no need to decorate it whatsoever since it looked good as it is.

Pie Crust:

1 and 1/4 cup flour

1 tbsp. salt

1/2 cup chilled butter

1 tbsp. sugar

1/3 cup ice water

1 tbsp. cider vinegar

Using a food processor, put all ingredients except for the liquids. With a metal blade attached, pulse for about 10  seconds until mixture will look like course meal.

Mix vinegar and ice water. Pour liquid on the flour and butter mixture, 3-4 tbsp at a time. 

Pulse  until the batter holds together. 

Drop pie dough on a floured working surface and knead for about 1-2 minutes .

Form into a ball and wrap dough in a cling foil. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare crumble and filling.

Crumble :

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 stick chilled butter
3-5 tbsp.melted butter

Put all crumble ingredients in a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles wet sand. Refrigerate. Now work on your filling.

Apple Filling:

6-7 apples

5 tbsp white sugar

3 tbsp. brown sugar

1 tbsp. cinnamon powder
2 tbsp. butter

1/2 tsp. salt

Peel the apples. 

Dice or thinly slice your apples. 

Add the rest to the ingredients. Toss everything until each apple piece is coated in cinnamon sugar.

Assemble cake!

 Grease the cast iron pan. You can use a regular pie dish or cake pan, of course. 

 On a floured working surface, roll pie dough into a flat disk which is wide enough to cover the bottom and the sides of your pan .

 Transfer pie dough into your pan .

 Put apple pie filling in it and spread .

Spoon crumble over filling.

Bake at 180°c for about an hour.

The warm apple crumble makes an excellent dessert. Just serve it with your favourite ice cream and some caramel sauce and it will please anyone's palate.