Dutch Apple Pie -Appletaart

When every we took the long car ride or train to my Grandparents home in Michigan from California you knew you would be having pie. She cooked a couple of pies a day from what I remember. Sweets and good food are a Dutch Mennonite passion. I never got a recipe from her since she died in my teens before I really got an interest in foods but I found this traditional Dutch Pie.

Dutch Apple Pie

Crust
2 1/8 cups self-rising flour
3/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence or 1 (8g) package of vanilla sugar
1 pinch salt

Filling
2 1/4 pounds apples
3/4 cups raisins
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 teaspoons cinnamon
2 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

and
1 egg
3 tablespoon semolina (to absorb the juices)

8-12 servings
3 hours 15 minutes

Making the dough:

1.Sieve the flour, brown sugar, vanilla and the salt into a bowl.

2.Cut the butter or margarine into small cubes and add these to the flour mixture.

3.Beat the egg and add 3/4 of it to the flour mixture (you will need the rest for the top)

4. Using two knifes or pastry blender, mix the butter/margarine into the flour mixture.

5.Kneed the dough

6. Put the ball of dough in the fridge for a bout an hour, in the meantime make the filling.

Filling

1.Peel the apples and cut them into cubes

2. In a large bowl, combine apple, raisins, sugar, cinnamon , lemon juice, and half the semolina.

3. Mix well and allow the leftovers to blend, stirring occasionally.

4. Butter a 9" round springform cake pan or spray it with a non-stick spray.

5. Line the pan(bottom and sides) with about 3/4 of the dough-as long as the is covered layer need not be very thick.

6. Cover the bottom with the remaining semolina.

7. Add the filling, but try to leave the juices out.

8. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the remaining dough until it's less than 1/4 inch thick.

9. Cut the dough into strips and layer them over the apple pie to form a lattice, covering no more than one third of the surface-you should be able to see quite a bit of the apple.

10. Use remaining egg to coat the dough strips.

Bake the pie at 175C/340F, for about 75 minutes.
Remove from springform only after pie has cooled.