Toby Littlewood

Lore

Toby’s bake puts a very apple-pie sort of filling under a lattice that only looks like pastry. The small pies carry vanilla custard, tart stewed apples, and candied walnuts, then the meringue takes on a warm pastry colour with a little instant coffee. It is a lovely bit of tent mischief: the lattice says one thing, the meringue says another, and the whole thing still has to eat like a pie.

Source note

Public recreation from Relaxed Recipes — not Toby Littlewood’s original formula. The ingredients and method below are paraphrased from Apple Lattice Meringue Pies, a public recreation, and are not presented as a baker-original or book-cleared recipe.

Ingredients

Sweet shortcrust pastry

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 10 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 1 large egg yolk
• 3–4 tablespoons ice water

Vanilla custard

• 1 cup whole milk
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• 3 large egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• A pinch of salt

Stewed apples

• 3 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and diced
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons water

Candied walnuts

• 1 cup walnut halves
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon butter

Coffee-tinted meringue lattice

• 4 large egg whites, at room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons instant coffee powder dissolved in 1 teaspoon water

You will also need six 4-inch tart pans with removable bottoms and a piping bag fitted with a medium round tip.

Method

1. Make the pastry. Pulse the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor. Add the cold butter and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Add the egg yolk and 3 tablespoons of the ice water; pulse until the dough just starts to gather, adding the remaining water only if needed. Shape it into a disk, wrap it, and chill for 30 minutes.
2. Heat the oven to 375°F. Roll the pastry to about ⅛ inch thick and cut rounds to fit the tart pans. Press the pastry into the bases and sides, trim the edges, and prick the bottoms with a fork. Line with parchment and pie weights, then blind-bake for 15 minutes. Remove the parchment and weights and bake for another 5 minutes, until golden. Let the shells cool completely.
3. Make the custard. Heat the milk in a saucepan until steaming but not boiling. Whisk the sugar, egg yolks, and cornstarch together, then slowly whisk in the hot milk. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking, for 3–5 minutes, until thick and bubbling. Whisk in the butter, vanilla, and salt. Cover the surface directly and chill until cool.
4. Stew the apples. Put the apples, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, and water in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring now and then, for 10–12 minutes, until tender but still holding their shape. Cool completely.
5. Candy the walnuts. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Cook the walnuts, sugar, water, and salt in a skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar crystallises around the nuts, about 8–10 minutes. Add the butter and keep stirring until the nuts look glossy and caramelised. Spread them on the sheet to cool, then roughly chop.
6. Assemble the pies. Divide the cooled custard between the pastry shells. Spoon the apples over it, mounding them slightly in the centre, and scatter over the chopped candied walnuts.
7. Make the meringue. Heat the oven to 325°F. In a clean, grease-free bowl, whip the egg whites and cream of tartar to soft peaks. Add the sugar gradually, about 1 tablespoon at a time, beating on high until the meringue is stiff and glossy. Beat in the vanilla and dissolved coffee just until combined; the meringue should be a light tan colour.
8. Pipe and bake. Transfer the meringue to the piping bag. Pipe parallel lines over each pie, about ½ inch apart, then pipe across them to form a lattice; add a border if you like. Bake for 12–15 minutes, until set and lightly golden on the peaks.
9. Leave the pies to cool for 10 minutes before carefully lifting them from the tart pans.

Baker’s tips

The source’s little trick is to let the sharp apples stay sharp, keep the fruit in pieces rather than cooking it to mush, and use the coffee only to tint the meringue so the lattice reads as pastry from across the tent.