Easy as pie apple pie:
- Make some shortcrust pastry.
- While it's cooling happily on, slice some apples. Don't make the slices thinner than about 0.5cm, or they'll turn to mush in the oven.
- Butter a pan thoroughly and line with pastry. Using a fork, make some holes in the base.
- Curl off thin slivers of butter from a stick and spread them loosely all over the base.
- Sprinkle a goodly measure of thick, yummy brown sugar over the butter.
- Spread nutmeg and cinnamon generously.
- Now arrange the apple slices in the pan, not too neatly but so that they form a moderately flat surface.
- Repeat the spices, sugar and butter thing backwards - butter closest to the pastry lid.
- Roll out a flat sheet of pastry for the lid - don't worry about what shape it is.
- Lay the lid over the pan, press down around the edges with your fingertips and cut off any untidy edges with a sharp knife.
- Beat an egg, or a mixture of egg and strong tea for extra colour, and brush it liberally over the lid.
- Pierce holes in the lid, either with a fork or a decorative thingammiebob (it's important not to do these last steps backwards, 'cause the egg blocks the holes and you end up with exploding pie syndrome, which is tasty but inelegant).
- Bake in moderate heat for about 30 minutes or until it looks nice. Pie is extremely forgiving that way.
You can repeat the exact same steps with cherries, pears, peaches, rhubarb (well, you need to cook the rhubarb first, and anyway it's gross) etc. I'd use flaked almonds instead of cinammon with pears, though. If you make them small, you can bake 2-3 different pies all at the same time.