Apple and Hazelnut Filo Pie
This pie is quite spectacular and is rather fun to make. I make the filling using the first Cox’s Orange apples that I pick from our own tree.
If time is short, or if you don’t have fresh apples, make the pie using a can of apple pie filling, preferably with the suggested added flavourings.
500-600g Cox’s Orange or other apples
1 Tbsp butter
¼ cup orange juice
½ cup white wine
8 Alison’s Pantry Choice Apricots (chopped), optional
¼ cup sugar
1Tbsp flour
¼ cup toasted Alison’s Pantry Hazelnuts (chopped)
8 sheets filo pastry
About 2 Tbsps melted butter or olive oil
4 Tbsps apricot jam, sieved
Icing sugar for dusting
Peel and core the apples and cut into quarters. Cut the quarters in half again. Melt the butter in a large frying pan and turn the apple pieces in it, over a fairly high heat. Add the orange juice and wine, then the finely chopped dried apricots. Sprinkle the apples with the mixed sugar and flour, stir in, and cook gently until the apples are just soft, in a small amount of lightly thickened sauce. Stir in half the chopped hazelnuts.
Trim the rectangular sheets of filo pastry into squares, then place one sheet on a dry surface and brush it lightly with melted butter or olive oil, using about a teaspoonful per sheet. Place another square over it so you have a filo “sandwich”. Use the remaining sheets to make three more sandwiches.
Lie the first sandwich in a lightly buttered or oiled 20-23cm pie plate or low-sided cake tin. Place the next sandwich over the first, but at a different angle. Continue layering the sheets until the four sandwiches are used up.
Pile the prepared filling into the filo lined pan, and sprinkle with the remaining hazelnuts.
Working carefully and gently, fold the filo corners and edges back over the apple filling, one at a time, frilling and arranging them attractively. Bake at 190°C for 20-30 minutes until the filo in the tin is golden. If the top filo browns too fast, cover it with foil or spray it with water at intervals.
When the pie is cooked, brush the exposed apple filling with warmed apricot jam to glaze it, dust the filo edging with icing sugar, and serve warm or reheated, cut into wedges.
VARIATIONS: Put the filling into a single or double crust made of homemade short pastry or bought flaky pastry, if you like. Alter cooking times and temperatures to suit the pastry you use.
Download PDF version: Alison Holst’s Apple and Hazelnut Filo Pie