Apple Slice -

Apple Slice

Ingredients

8 oz plain flour (sifted with a pinch of salt)
3 oz white cooking fat
Squeeze of lemon juice
About ¼ pint iced water
3 oz butter

For filling

1 lb cooking apples (peeled, cored and sliced)
1 oz candied peel (finely chopped)
1½ oz sultanas
½ teaspoon cinnamon

To glaze

1 egg white, or 1 egg (beaten)
Caster sugar
½ oz almonds (blanched and halved)

To finish

2 tablespoons apricot glaze

Method

Rub half of the cooking fat into the sifted flour. Add the lemon juice to the iced water and use this to mix flour to a soft dough.

Roll out an oblong three times as long as it is wide. Using half the butter, place small pats of butter over two-thirds of the dough and fold in three, placing plain third against dough with fat. Seal the edges lightly and chill. Give a quarter-turn and repeat the process first with the remaining cooking fat and then the butter, chilling well between each roll and fold. Roll and fold once more (without fat) and chill again.

Now prepare the filling by mixing all the filling ingredients together. Roll pastry thinly to an oblong approximately 14 by 10 inches and divide unequally into two pieces about 14 by 4½ inches and 14 by 5½ inches. Place the smaller piece on a baking tray and, leaving a 1-inch clear edge of pastry, put filling down the centre, piling it up well. Fold the second piece of pastry in half lengthways. With a sharp knife, make cuts through the two layers - at right angles to the fold and at 1-inch intervals - not quite to the open edge. Dampen the edges of the first piece of pastry and open out the slit piece. Place it on the fruit filling, with the cuts gaping slightly, and seal the edges. Set the oven at 425°F or gas mark 7, and chill the apple slice for 10 minutes.

Glaze the top with egg white (or beaten egg), scatter over the nuts and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at the top of the pre-set oven for 20 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 375°F or gas mark 5 for 10-15 minutes until golden and crisp. Remove to a cooling rack and brush lightly with hot apricot glaze.

Related food category:

• Gâteaux and Cakes