On a cold, wet day, nothing warms you up inside like an apple pie. And it’s not that hard to make the best version you’ve ever tasted. Just follow my five chefs’ secrets and you’ll bake a perfect pie every time!

Preparation time: 15 mins plus 20 mins standing time
Cooking time: 45 mins
Serves 6

4 sheets ready-made shortcrust pastry
4 Tbsp caster sugar
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
8 Granny Smith apples
4 Tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground allspice
2 Tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg, beaten
2 Tbsp demerara sugar
Double cream, to serve

1 Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush each sheet of pastry with a little water, then sprinkle with caster sugar. Pair pastry sheets, sugar side in, so each pair forms an eight-pointed star. Roll pastry lightly to increase its size by 20 per cent and to seal.

2 Line a 22cm pie dish with 1 rolled pastry pair, leaving a 2cm margin around the edges. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over the pastry on the base.

3 Peel and core apples. Cut apples into 2mm-thick slices and put in a large bowl. Add brown sugar and spices to apple and stir to combine. Pack mixture into the pastry shell. Top with butter.

4 Brush the pastry edges with beaten egg, then lay the second pastry pair over the top. Crimp well to seal the edges and trim excess. Brush the top of the pie with egg, then sprinkle with demerara sugar. Cut a small cross in the top of the pie.

5 Bake pie for 35-45 minutes or until pastry is golden and juices begin to rise out of the cross. Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool for 20 minutes before serving with double cream, if desired.

Chef’s secrets

• Use bread crumbs to absorb the moisture from the apples, this prevents the base of the pie going soggy
• Place two sheets of pastry together to make an eight- pointed star and roll it out to make larger base for larger pie flans or tins. Commercial pastry mostly comes in one size, which is not large enough for some jobs.
• If you’re scaling up this recipe to a larger dish, place as many whole apples in the flan dish as will fit comfortably in one layer, then add two more. Now you know how many apples you’ll need for the job!
• Use Demerara sugar for the topping to get a beautiful golden crust.
• Sprinkling sugar between the sheets of pastry adds a little extra sweetness to balance the tartness of the Granny Smith apples.