Apple & Custard Pie

This pie was a bit of a cheat's version, but I decided that was okay since Caitie still learnt something. Besides, Nigella is always cheating, why can't we? :P

We started off with a sheet of sweet short pastry (see, I told you we were cheating!) which we used to cover the bottom of a pie dish.
For the filling, we peeled, cored and diced a bunch of apples (maybe 6-8 medium apples). Then we cooked these in non-stick frypan with some butter, muscovado sugar and cinnamon. Mmmm.... Smells so good!
Then we made some custard using Edmond's custard powder (still cheating!) and milk. About a cup of custard.
We put the apples in to the pie dish, then the custard on top. Then we placed a sheet of puff pastry (final cheat, I promise!) over the top and sprinkled it with muscovado sugar.

Caitie's dad was telling Caitie how puff pastry was made, and why it needs a preheated oven. Basically, it's a layer of pastry and then a layer of butter, folded, flattened, folded, flattened, again and again until you have very thin layers of pastry and butter right through your sheet. When you place the puff pastry in to a hot oven, the steam from the butter 'puffs' your pastry up. If you place it in a cool oven, then it doesn't puff, because the butter will just slowly melt instead.

We baked it for quite a while at 180 degrees (I think). Maybe 40 minutes?

I am amused to see the change in our style of cooking already. Even in just six months, we've gone from following the recipes to the letter, to just throwing ingredients in and judging quantities ourselves. I've watched Caitie's dad cook like that for a long time, but have never been brave enough to 'experiment' myself, and yet in teaching Caitie how to cook, I am learning too. It's quite a neat wee cycle. :)

Oh, and the pie was good. Yum!