This pie was so good.
My uncle is a fantastic cook and when I was in Poland we talked about food a lot and he taught me how to make a few different Polish cakes. This was one of my absolute favourites.
On our first day in my mum’s village, a neighbour came over with a big crate of apples. I thought we could use some of them up baking. And when I was in Paris, I bought some French butter to bake with. So I decided to turn the butter and the apples into a pie.
This pie was a mixture of both of our worlds. He showed me his basic pastry recipe, and I tweaked it to my taste. I added strawberries into what would have been a basic apple filling, and then my uncle taught me how to make a soft meringue layer that sits under the pie crust.
The meringue layer uses something called Kisiel. Kisiel is potato flour mixed with a little powdered fruit for colour and flavour. When combined with water, it makes a cross between custard and jelly. If you don’t have Kisiel available, you can just use potato flour in the meringue. It makes it soft and spongy.
POLISH STRAWBERRY AND APPLE PIE
For the pastry
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
250g unsalted butter
5 egg yolks
For the filling
12 apples
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp cornflour
400g strawberries
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp cornflour
For the meringue layer
5 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
40g Kisiel or potato flour
To make the pastry, place the flour and sugar in a large bowl or on a clean work surface and crumble in the butter with your fingertips.
Add the egg yolks and knead until a smooth dough forms. Form one third of the dough into a log. This will be your crust. Form the remaining dough into a disc. Refrigerate.
To make the apple filling, peel, core and chop the apples into cubes. Combine in a saucepan with 1/4 cup of sugar and cook, covered, over a low heat for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. The apples should be soft but still hold their shape.
Drain the liquid from the apples into a small bowl and combine it with 2 tablespoons of cornflour. Mix the cornflour mixture back into the apples. Set aside to cool.
To make the strawberry filling, finely slice the strawberries and combine them with 2 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons of cornflour. Set aside.
To make the pie, preheat the oven to 180 C and line a 20 x 40 cm dish with baking paper.
Take the large disc of dough out of the fridge and roll it out on a lightly floured surface until it is 50cm long and 30cm wide. Roll the dough onto the rolling pin, and unroll it into the pie dish. This dough is soft and forgiving; I had trouble so my uncle showed me how to cut it into smaller pieces and patch it together in the pie dish.
To make the meringue layer, beat the egg whites and the sugar until soft peaks form. Add the Kisiel or potato flour and continue to beat until well combined.
Spread the apple filling into the pastry case. Spread the strawberry filling evenly over the top. Spread the meringue layer over the fruit filling.
Remove the log of pastry from the fridge and grate it evenly over the meringue layer. Bake for 30 – 40 minutes, until golden. Allow to cool before cutting into squares. Serves 25 – 30.
