Homemade Banana Walnut Apple Pie

My husband and I are big fans of apple pie .. there is an X factor which we can never understand that makes us hooked to it... perhaps it's the aroma of the cinnamon or just the apples itself. What do you think?

Yesterday, again my husband requested for apple pie and this time I have some idea to modify a little from the traditional recipe.. Here comes Banana Walnut Apple Pie - Chunky Homemade style.

Ingredients

For the Pastry we need:

2.5 cups all purpose  / plain flour

220 grams frozen butter

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

8 tbsp cold water
Some icing sugar for dusting
For the Filling we need:
8 small Granny Smith green apples or 8 if you have the larger ones - cored, skinned and thinly sliced
2 riped bananas - Sliced thinlyHandful of Pecans or Walnuts - coarsely chopped (optional)
1/4 cup brown sugar (Add more sugar : up to 1 cup if you like it sweeter - I like mine just with a little hint of sweetness!)
2 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp flour

Method :
Pastry
Mix the flour, sugar and salt well then grate the frozen butter into the flour mixture with a grater (hand grater / box grater /  potato grater). Toss lightly with your fingers until they are all thoroughly combined.

Sprinkle the cold water to the crumbly mixture until you can form a nice dough ball. Divide the dough into 2 parts - one slightly larger then the other. Larger part will be the base of the pie and the smaller part will be used to top the pie.

Wrap them in a plastic wrap; flatten and leave it for min 30 minutes or overnight in the refrigerator. Resting will tenderize the pastry and make it easier to roll.

Remove pastry from the refrigerator and let it to warm slightly. Flour the surface of the worktop, rolling pin, your hand  and the pastry. Roll out the larger pastry in to a disc that is a little larger then the 8-inch pie dish so that it over laps the edges. Place pastry onto the bottom of the dish by folding the pastry in to quarter and  unfolding it into the dish.

Poke lot's of breathing holes on the bottom of the pastry with a fork.

Filling
Preheat the oven 375 degree Fahrenheit or Gas 6

Mix well all the filling ingredients then place them into the baking dish with pastry lining. Roll out the rest of the pastry and cut then into 1-inch wide stripes then place them diagonally with 1-inch gap. Repeat the same horizontally to create a criss-cross basket top as pictured.

Place on the dish onto the bottom rack of the oven and bake for 1 hour until the crust is golden.

Rest for 10 minutes. Dust with icing sugar before serving. 

>> Tips to note : 
1) Make sure butter is frozen when grating or else you will be ended up with a pile of buttery mess!
2) Poke some breathing holes on the bottom of the pastry with a fork to let the air out when baking. This is to prevent bubbling of the pastry in the oven.
3) Add more sugar (up to 1 cup instead of 1/4 cup) if you have a sweet tooth as I tend to like my pie less sweet.