For the pâté sucrée, or sweet pastry:

4oz plain flour, seived
2oz butter, cold, cubed
2 or 3 heaped tablespoons light brown soft sugar
tiny pinch of salt
Enough cold water to make a dough

Method:

As for making pastry, rub the fat into the flour until a very fine breadcrumb consistency is achieved. This usually takes me at least 10 minutes and is very enjoyable ~ don't use a machine, it ruins good pastry (I know, I've tried). Once that's done, add the sugar and salt, stirring until incorporated. Add the water, slowly, and mix. You should have a good, firm dough, but with some 'give' in it to avoid it being like a rock. Wrap in greaseproof paper, or coat in a thin layer of flour and refigerate for 30 mins (or in a freezer for 10 mins).

Once chilled, roll out into a circle and line an 8" dish (I use an enamel pie dish). Prod holes in the bottom with a fork, not too many, and then cover with a circle of baking parchment, adding baking beans or beads (I use trusty re-useable marrowfat peas) and bake in a medium oven (170ºC gs. mk. 3) until the pastry is cooked through at the bottom. Remove parchment and beans, leave to cool.

Now, this bit is up to you. You can either use pre-made supermarket-bought custard (I have tried it and it does work) or you can make a crême patissierre (French vanilla custard). Crême Anglaise works well too. Of course the best tasting, healthiest (ha!) and most satisfying is the crême patissierre/ crême Anglaise, but if you're time-strapped, feel free to use shop-bought. The crême patissierre ingredient quantities I'm giving here is one found on the internet, as I'm not absolutely sure about the quantities I used as I do almost everything by eye. This is the one that looks the most similar to that which I use.

For the Custardy-inner:

150ml milk
2 egg yolks
30g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod (or real vanilla extract), halved and the seeds put into the milk. add the pod as well, however remove this before filling the pie dish.
1 level tablespoon cornflour, made into a paste with some milk
{1oz ground almonds}
{1 handful mixed fruit}

Method:

Boil milk with vanilla seeds and pod. When the milk is heating, in a bowl whisk the egg yolks, caster sugar and the cornflour-milk paste. Once the milk has boiled, remove from the heat and remove the vanilla pod. Whilst whisking voraciously, add the milk slowly, ensuring that it doesn't curdle. If it does, you have a chance of saving it by having a bowl of ice-cold water nearby, and plunging the bowl into that and whisking harder. Or use a blender to blend it back together. When the milk is incorporated it should thicken. Put it back into the pan and place over a low heat to make sure it thickens thoroughly. Keep stirring. Remove from heat and leave to cool. Add almonds and mixed fruit when cool.

For the apple topping:

1 oz butter, cut into smallish cubes
1 tbsp light brown soft sugar
4 approx. apples. Either russets, golden delicious, spartans or jonagold.


Method:
In the blind-baked pastry case add the crême patissierre/almond/fruit mix and spoon evenly around the base. With the apples in pretty slices, arrange in continuous circles, filling any gaps that appear. Pop some little knobs of butter on top, along with the sugar, sprinkling evenly. Bake in a low oven, gas mk. 2 to 3 or 160ºC to 170ºC, on a high shelf, watching carefully. It should take around 30 mins.

Perfect on a cold winter's day, in bed with your beloved, or wrapped up on the sofa all to yourself! Enjoy!