Every year around this time we are given a bucketful of home-grown apples from the neighbour of Justin’s parents. Because they’re generally tiny and malformed I’ve usually turned them into apple cheese (no peeling, no coring).
There were about half a dozen biggish ones this year, so I combined them with some of the remaining bramble offerings that I had stored in the freezer and made an apple & blackberry pie. I may have confessed in some previous post that I’m not the greatest pastry maker – but I was going to give it another go!
Apple & blackberry pie
Ingredients
- For the pastry
- 350 g/12oz plain flour
- 80 g/3oz butter or margarine cubed
- pinch of salt
- 4-5 tbs cold water
- For the filling
- 450 g/1lb apples about 4 medium-sized apples
- 225 g/½lb blackberries
- 100 g/3½oz granulated sugar
- For the glaze
- 3 tbs milk
- 25 g/1oz caster sugar
Instructions
- Start by making the pastry. Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl, holding the sieve up as high as possible to give the flour an airing
- Add the cubed butter/margarine to the flour
- Using your fingertips, lightly & gently rub the pieces of fat into the flour, lifting your hands up high as you do this (again, to incorporate as much air as you can) and being as quick as possible
- When the mixture looks uniformly crumbly, start to sprinkle roughly 4 tablespoons of cold water all over
- Use a pastry blender or round-bladed knife to start the mixing
- Carefully add more water as needed, a little at a time, then finally bring the mixture together with your hands to form a smooth ball of dough that will leave the bowl clean (if there are any bits won't adhere to it, you need a spot more water)
- Divide the ball of dough in half and make 2 smaller balls
- Put the balls into a zip-lock bag or wrap in cling film or foil and put them in the fridge for half an hour while you prepare the filling
- At this point, preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas mark 6
- Wash & drain the blackberries and peel & slice the apples into 1cm chunks. Mix them together and set aside until the pastry is ready to come out of the fridge
- Lightly grease a pie/flan dish (I save my butter wrappers for just this job!)
- Take one of the balls of pastry from the fridge and roll it out so that it's about 4cm/2 inches wider than the pie dish
- Carefully lift the rolled out pastry onto the pie dish using your rolling pin. Press the pastry down gently into the pie and up the sides
- Spoon the apples & blackberries onto the pastry and sprinkle the granulated sugar on top
- Take out the other ball of pastry from the fridge and roll it out so that it is large enough to form a lid on the pie
- Using a pastry brush, dampen the edge of the bottom pastry case with water
- Fix the pastry lid into position pressing it very firmly all round
- Trim the edges with a knife
- You can use these trimmings to make shapes to decorate the top of the pie - just affix them with a little brushing of water
- Brush the top of the pie with a little milk then sprinkle on a dusting of caster sugar which will give a crisp surface when the pie is baked
- Make a small hole in the centre of the pie for steam to escape
- Put the pie on to a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes
- Allow to cool a little on a wire rack, slice and serve
- Serve with a little cream, vanilla ice cream or just on its own - although I think it's gorgeous with a dollop of clotted cream!
Tools: 20-22cm pie dish, pastry blender (optional), pastry brush
