Custard Apple Pie
This custard apple pie is as easy as it gets and takes minutes to make! Made on a biscuit base and loaded with cinnamon apples and vanilla custard, this pie is irresistibly delicious. Topped with pillowy soft meringue and baked to perfection.
Equipment
- 35 x 25cm (14 x 10 inches) rectangular baking tray
Ingredients
Apple Base
- 24 butter biscuits (or graham crackers)*
- 10 medium sweet red apples, grated (approx 1.5 kgs or 52 oz.)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Vanilla Pastry Cream
- 1 L milk (4 cups)
- 6 egg yolks, large
- 120 g sugar (⅔ cup)
- 60 g corn starch* (½ cup)
- 4 teaspoon vanilla bean paste*
- 100 g unsalted butter (½ cup)
Meringue
- 6 egg whites
- 200 g sugar (1 cup)
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to 170°C with fan (340°F). Prepare a baking tray by greasing it with room temperature butter. Be generous with it.
- Place the biscuits in a ziplock bag and crush them using a rolling pin. Place them at the bottom of the greased tray, levelling them with your hand. Set tray aside.
- Grate the apples using a large box grater. Place them in a bowl and mix with the cinnamon (add as much or little as you like). Put the apples over the crushed biscuits, levelling them with a spatula. Bake the apple base for 15-20 minutes to soften the apples.
- Prepare the vanilla layer by following the instructions in my post for Vanilla Pastry Cream. The cream should be thick, not too runny like custard.
- Prepare the meringue by whipping up the egg whites until frothy with a hand (or stand) mixer. Once foamy, add the sugar in 3 parts, mixing the meringue until you get medium-hard peaks.
- Once the apple base has finished baking, pour the hot vanilla cream over it, levelling to make it flat. Pour the meringue over the vanilla cream and smooth out the top with a clean spatula. Bake for 10 minutes or until the meringue starts to look golden in colour.
- Let cake cool for 30 minutes and preferably chill in the fridge for a few hours before serving.
Notes
- I recommend using a kitchen scale in grams for more accuracy. The cups used for the conversion are standard US customary cups (1 cup flour = 136g). There are many different types of cups across the globe, which is why I strongly recommend using grams instead.
- For butter biscuits I recommend the brands: LU, Leibniz or Petit Beurre. You can replace them with plain tea biscuits or graham crackers.
- Corn starch can be replaced with flour, just double the quantity (25g corn starch = 50g flour).
- Vanilla bean paste can be replaced with vanilla extract. It needs to be added at the end with the butter. Adding it before the cooking process will make the flavour less intense.