It is a perfectly normal reflex.  When baking a homemade apple pie, you reach for cinnamon.  No?  I think it is safe to say that cinnamon is intrinsically connected with the humble apple pie.  So it was a hard decision to temporarily disregard this natural food pairing for my final item during savoury sweets month.

The nutty, spicy and rather citrusy flavour of ground coriander was my spice of choice instead when putting together these modest little pies.

Apple holds up very well to the addition of flavours, and I must (surprisingly!) admit it took to this little substitution with much enthusiasm.  The end result was a lovely combination of tart apple, a punch of spice with subtle citrus overtones to round out the flavour.

It would be hard for me to walk by cinnamon once more in any future apple pie efforts, but I enjoyed the experiment.

{ Coriander spiced apple pies } Original recipe by Julia @ Mélanger

If you do not overwork the pastry, you will be rewarded with a perfect flaky, buttery pastry that melts in your mouth.

* Ingredients *
Dough
2 cups all purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
250g / 2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into small cubes and frozen
1/3 cup iced water
Filling
800g / 28oz canned baking apple
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground coriander
Finish
Milk, to brush pastry
Sugar, to sprinkle on pastry

* Directions *
For the dough, mix the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor to combine.  Add the butter and pulse gently to roughly incorporate into the flour mixture.  Do not over mix – it is fine to have some butter chunks showing.  Again pulsing the processor, slowly add in the iced water until the dough starts to come together.  Once again, do not over mix.  Tip the dough out onto a floured board and gently knead for a few seconds to bring together.  Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.  In the meantime, prepare the apple mixture.  Combine the canned apple, flour and spice in a bowl.  Set aside.  To prepare the pastry, remove from the refrigerator and cut into eight even pieces.  Roll out each piece larger than your individual pastry cases.  Line the base of each pastry case with the prepared dough so there is a little overhang.  Top each with one quarter of the prepared mixture.  Brush around the edges of the pastry with milk.  Then layer the pies with a final circle of pastry.  Crimp the edges of each pastry layer together.  Chill the prepared pies for 30 minutes.  Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.  Place pies on baking tray and brush with more milk and sprinkled sugar.  Cut vents in the centre of the pies and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes 4 individual pies