Romanian Apple Pie

An easy Romanian apple pie with flaky pastry made with oil and a luscious apple filling, the perfect apple dessert this autumn.

Incredibly delicious Romanian apple pie with fake puff pastry, a pastry recipe made with oil that is so much easier and faster to make than regular puff pastry.

I've been meaning to bake this pie at least 10 times during the last year. I even went shopping especially for it a couple of times in between. Only to choose yet another recipe to make in the end.

Why? Because I got this recipe from my dear aunt Geta. So? Geta is a wonderful wonderful cook and baker, I've never eaten anything she made that I didn't like (well, except the fish soup, sorry Geta) and I've cooked many of her recipes over the years.

You should try this creamy spinach in bechamel sauce, this amazing layered lemon cake or these chicken schnitzel in pancake batter. All Geta's recipes.

There is only one flaw with the recipes she gives me: they are always so approximate. Like you need a piece of yeast as big as a walnut or a glass of milk (which size is always a guess) or my absolute favorite: take as much flour as the dough can assimilate. I think this one irritates a lot of other Romanian women of my generation who are trying to cook or bake recipes once made by their mothers or grandmothers.

So that is the reason I put baking this Romanian-style apple pie off for so long. Too bad, too bad! I should have taken the time right away because this is incredibly good. I made it for a small gathering with the neighbors not long ago and it was gone in a flash. Everybody just loved it.

While making the apple pie squares, I really took the time and measured everything exactly, so that I will not have to struggle the next time I bake it. Which I did countless times in the 4 years since I posted this apple slice recipe for the first time.

Ingredients

You will only need super available and cheap ingredients:

• Vegetable oil - choose a neutral-tasting oil like canola.
• All-purpose flour - you will need flour to make the fake puff pastry and the fake butter for layering into the pastry.
• Egg
• Apples - regular apples, I prefer a tart sort like Granny Smith, Jonagold or Braeburn.
• Semolina
• Granulated sugar - a quite small amount for a pie, the pie is not overly sweet, but it shouldn't be, it is perfect the way it is.
• Cinnamon

How to make pastry with oil?

The pastry you need for the apple slice is absolutely amazing, it is what I would call a fake puff pastry. Absolutely genius! There is no endless rolling and folding and butter cutting and so on.

Pastry:

• Mix together the first 12 tablespoons vegetable oil with the water, salt and egg.
• Slowly start adding the first amount of flour, only a little at a time, making sure you incorporate it well.
• Keep stirring the mixture with a spoon as long as you can. When stirring becomes too difficult, add the remaining flour and start kneading the dough in the bowl.
• When the flour is well incorporated, turn the dough onto the floured working surface and knead until smooth. The dough will remain rather soft, that is the way it is supposed to be.

Filling paste:

• This paste will replace the butter that you would use to make a regular puff pastry.
• In a small bowl mix together the second amount of vegetable oil and flour, you should obtain a smooth paste.

Pie filling:

• Grate the apple, there will be no need to peel them. Mix with 3 tablespoon semolina and the sugar.

Assemble:

• You will need a roasting tin of about 20x30 cm/ 8x12 inches.
• Roll the vegan pastry on a floured surface, about 30x40 cm/ 12x16 inch.
• Spread the paste evenly on the rolled pastry.
• Roll the pastry beginning at the smaller end to get a large sausage.
• Cut this sausage in two to obtain two even smaller sausages.
• Roll the first sausage just a little bit larger than the size of the roasting tin that you will use to bake the apple slice.
• Oil the pan and place the rolled pastry inside, pushing the edges of the pastry lightly up the sides of the pan.
• Spread the apple mixture on the rolled pastry.
• Sprinkle the remaining tablespoon semolina and the cinnamon evenly on top of the apples.
• Roll the second pastry sausage about the size of the baking tin and use it to cover the apples.
• Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden and flaky.
• Let cool, cut into squares, and serve dusted with icing sugar.

Multumesc, Getutza!

This is a repost from September 2015.

MORE APPLE CAKES?

Moist Apple and Cinnamon Cake

Apple Caramel Cake

Apple Puff Pastry Rolls

Vegan Apple Cake

Apple Streusel Cheesecake