Pastis Gascon

A French apple pie that uses filo pastry. It's flaky, fun to bake and a joy to eat.

Pastis Gascon comes from the rural region of Gascony in Southern France. The apples are traditionally cooked in Armagnac and then covered in layers of filo pastry to give it a flaky, airy and dramatic look. It's a lot easier to make than other apple pies as you can just use store bought filo pastry and the process of scrunching the pastry into a springform tin is very rustic with little precision needed but it gives you a very show stopping pie.

Serves- 8. Makes 1 x 20cm apple pie

Ingredients- 9

Cooking time- 1 hour

Skill Level- Easy

Ingredients

5 (900g) apples, peeled and cut into rough slices. I like to do a mixture of both red and green apples for different textures and flavours in the filling.

⅓ cup (60g) brown sugar

40ml of Armagnac, brandy or similar liqueur, otherwise omit.

1 tsp of cinnamon

12 sheets of filo pastry

125g butter, melted

3 tbsp (40g) caster sugar

2 tsp icing sugar

Method

1. Place apples, brown sugar, Armagnac and cinnamon into a pan and cook the apples until softened. Allow to cool to room temperature.

2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

3. Brush a sheet of filo pastry at a time with melted butter, sprinkle over a pinch of caster sugar and then use your hands to roughly scrunch it and place into a 20cm springform tin. I used about 5 for the bottom of the tin.

4. Pour the apple filling into the centre of the tin, covering the base but allowing a 5cm border for the filo pastry.

5. Continue to brush another 7 or so sheets of filo with butter and sugar, scrunching and placing it around the edges of the apple filling and on top so the filling is fully covered. Don’t scrunch the top layers too tightly as you want to aim for more height and texture for the top section.

6. Bake in the oven for about 35-40 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.

7. Remove and allow to cool slightly before gently removing out of the tin and serving onto a platter. Dust with icing sugar and serve whilst warm. You can also optionally serve with some fresh cream or ice cream if you wish.

Watch the Process