After the turbulent episode we endured last week, the now infamous ‘bingate’, the Great British Bake Off returns to calm waters again. Diana has quietly left (off screen) due to illness and the remaining bakers seem a rather cool-headed lot, less inclined to throw their bakes in the bin or loose their heads over pears baked in pastry. In fact the whole bincident was just alluded to in a snide aside ‘don’t throw your tarts in the bin’ and then it was back to carry on baking!

This week’s episode tackled pies and tarts – an area I am not very confident in and precisely the reason I decided to take chocolate tarts to the GBBO audition (hmmm, this is where my son gets his contrary stubborn streak then). But even though I obsessively baked tart shells for a couple of days, as a rule I don’t make pies very often as they require SO MUCH WORK. They are totally worth the effort though. I mean LOOK at this pie. And that’s all I did. Look, I mean. I am on a diet (i.e. not eating dessert round the clock as before) so I only had a tiny forkful to check the taste and then had to turn my back on the rest. It was torture!

This is an American style ‘mile high’ apple pie (my favourite), packed with tons of fruit. The apples are sliced thinly, mixed with lemon, then left to render some of their juices. That way there are a little softer and less likely to cause the dreaded soggy bottom. The pie crust is a doddle to make in the Magimix – just make sure to keep the ingredients cold and handle the pastry as little as possible otherwise it may get tough.

By the way the secret to slicing a pie successfully is to let it cool down completely . If you cut into it while still warm the filling will just spill out everywhere. So wait as long as humanly possible before slicing and serve slightly warmed (in the microwave) with a large dollop of ice cream. I made salted caramel ice cream (seen in the photos) and it was indescribably delicious but that recipe will have to wait for another post…

Crust