Cakes & Bakes: 7 best fruit pie recipes

There isn’t a much better way to round off an autumn or winter evening meal than a warming, filling, fruit pie. We love a slice with an afternoon coffee too.

Here are 7 of our favourite fruit pie recipes – they always go down a treat served with a dollop of cream, ice cream or custard.

Plum pie

I first made this pie prior to having a garden with a plum tree that produces abundantly. This recipe will therefore be revisited each year in September and October when our fruit is ripe and ready to be picked.

Vegan lemon meringue pie

This is a lovely pie… you’ll enjoy it whether you’re a vegan or not! The ‘meringue’ is made using aquafaba, the water left over after cooking chickpeas or other white beans. You whip it up and, as if by magic, you’ve got something that looks just like whisked egg whites.

Blueberry pie

I love blueberries! I buy them frozen in bags and pop them into porridge, smoothies, my home-made yoghurt… and pies. Blueberries are considered by some to be a super-food, they contain all manner of vitamins and other health-boosting chemical compounds.

Rhubarb & berry shortcake pie

This recipe is like a cross between a pie, a crumble and a biscuit. It’s lovely straight out of the oven with a dollop of clotted cream. It’s just as good cold and is very good as a picnic or al fresco dessert; it wraps up easily and travels well.

Cherry pie

This sweet yet tart fruit pie is encased in a delicious almond pastry – the two flavour compliment each other well.

Apple & blackberry pie

As well as a plum tree, we have a number of apple trees. There are lots of blackberry bushes growing wild in the area near where we live. Apples and blackberries ripen at the same time time of year; and the two flavours are a match made in heaven. So this is a two birds, one stone kind of pie!

Luxury mince pies

Last, but not least, is something for Christmas; mince pies. I must confess, I like mince pies so much that I don’t just eat them in December. I make mincemeat that keeps in (unopened, sterilised) jars for years. A batch of these little tasty morsels can be rustled up in a flash… any time of year!

Do you have any favourite fruit pie recipes that you enjoy cooking or eating?

Cakes & Bakes: Toffee apple tarte tatin

Did you watch Bake Off this week? It was pastry week and the ‘signature bake’ was to create a savoury tarte tatin. So I used that as a bit of inspiration and decided to make a toffee apple tarte tatin. Here’s how it ‘panned’ out…

I’ve been spending the past few weeks making use of all the ripening fruit from our garden; plums, damsons and now apples. We don’t know the type of apple this is – we think it’s an ‘eater’ rather than a ‘cooker’, although it’s a bit on the tart side.

I was going to make a ‘plain’ apple tarte tatin, but I fancied a bit of extra bit of caramelisation. Sweet, gooey, sticky and chewy.

As a tarte tatin is an ‘upside-down’ cake, you want to lay the fruit on the base of the pan in an attractive pattern.

I could have done with making a little bit more pastry. I felt like I was stretching it across the top to thinly. But hey, it’s a rustic tart, a couple of cracks didn’t detract from the splendid taste and flavour.

Slice & serve with thick cream or vanilla ice cream. We’ve really been enjoying all our recent autumnal desserts; warming, hearty, filling and delicious; what will next week bring?

Click here to save the recipe to Pinterest!

Toffee apple tart tatin

2019-10-16 17:35:44

Serves 4

Cook Time

30 min

Cook Time

30 min

For the pastry

110g/4oz plain flour
50g/2oz butter, cubed (room temperature)
pinch of salt

For the toffee

25g butter
25g Demerara sugar
1tbsp golden syrup
½tsp ground cinnamon
2 large or 3 medium apples, cored, peeled and sliced into segments

Add ingredients to shopping list

If you don’t have Buy Me a Pie! app installed you’ll see the list with ingredients right after downloading it

Instructions

Pre-heat your oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas mark 4

For the pastry

Sift the flour and salt together into a medium-sized mixing bowl
Using your fingertips, lightly and gently rub the cubes of butter into the flour. When the mixture looks uniformly crumbly, sprinkle a tablespoon of cold water evenly over the top
Using a round-bladed knife, repeatedly cut through the mixture, which will begin to form larger lumps. Bring the mixture together with your hands to form a smooth ball of dough.
Cool the ball of pastry, in a ziplock bag, in the fridge for half an hour

For the toffee

In a heavy-bottomed, cast iron skillet pan, melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally
Sprinkle in the cinnamon and stir to combine
Arrange the apple segments into an attractive pattern on top of the toffee mixture in the skillet pan

To bring together

Roll out the pastry into a 1cm thick round, with a slightly larger diameter than your skillet
Cover the apples with the pastry, gently pressing it down and tucking it down the sides
Cook for 30-40 minutes or until the pastry begins to brown
Cool for a couple of minutes and loosen the edges with a sharp knife if necessary
Flip over, apple-side-up, on to a serving plate

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Home-made damson cheese

After making use of some of the plum crop in our garden, I needed to find something to make with the damsons.

We inherited two mature damson trees – both about 20 foot tall. This autumn, they’ve both been laden with fruit, some we gave away, some we couldn’t reach to harvest. We kept about 5 kilos of fruit for ourselves.

I found lots of recipes for jam and jelly – however, it was a Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall recipe for damson cheese that I fancied trying. There are only 2 ingredients; damsons and sugar – and you don’t need to undertake the time-consuming task of de-stoning the fruit either.

The damson cheese mixture sat bubbling away on top of the simmering hob of our new Esse for a couple of hours until it resembled a thick chocolate sauce. All it needed was the occasional stir to make sure it didn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. I could get on with other little jobs while it did its thing.

Like jam and jelly, damson cheese keeps for months once wrapped and refrigerated. Have it as a component on your cheeseboard – it’s lovely with a ripe brie. It’s also a great accompaniment to hot & cold meats.

Click here to repin the recipe to Pinterest

Home-made damson cheese

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall

Print recipe Pin recipe

Course Condiment

Cuisine British

Ingredients

5 kg damsons washed
2 kg granulated sugar approx.

Instructions

Put the damsons in a large preserving pan, add a couple of tablespoons of water and bring slowly to a simmer, stirring as the fruit begins to release its juices. Leave to simmer until completely soft
Tip the contents of the pan into a sieve and rub it through to remove the stones and skin, leaving you with a smooth damson purée
Measure the purée by volume. For every 500ml, add 350g sugar
Combine in a large, heavy-based pan bringing it to a simmer over a low heat. Stir to dissolve the sugar, then cook gently, stirring regularly so it doesn't catch, until reduced to a thick purée. It's ready when you drag the spoon across the bottom of the pan and the base stays clearly visible for a second or two. This can take up to an hour of gentle, popping simmering and stirring
Pour the 'cheese' into very lightly-oiled, shallow containers and leave to cool and set

It will keep almost indefinitely in the fridge. Serve in slices with bread and cheese

Keyword baked cheesecake, damsons, fruit

Cakes & Bakes: Spiced plum crumble

Our garden has an abundance of fruit at the moment; especially apples, damsons and plums. The plums are beginning to go over and rot on the tree, but that’s OK – butterflies, wasps and other insects have been feasting.

Every time I walk past the tree, on my way to the compost heap or washing line, I grab a couple of the low-hanging fruits. A quick snack on the move! Yesterday, I took a colander out into the garden and picked as many of the just-ripe plums as I could reach. I had in mind to make a spiced plum crumble.

The fruit was given just a hint of flavour with some mixed spice. You could try, instead, a smidgen of cinnamon, clove or ground ginger, or leave the spice out entirely – whatever is your taste preference.

I like a chunky crumble topping that doesn’t go all wet & claggy from the fruit syrup. Simply squeeze handfuls of the mixture in the palm of your hand and gently prise them apart until you get the size of morsel you prefer. Adding oats and hazelnuts to the flour/butter mix helps create the crunchiness and gives a nutty taste. Chopped almonds, Brazil nuts or pecans will work equally well.

It’s such a hearty, comforting, autumnal dessert; served piping hot with a pouring of creamy custard or dollop of cool, thick cream… mmmmmmm!

Save my spiced plum recipe to Pinterest to try later!

Spiced plum crumble

Print recipe Pin recipe

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Ingredients

For the plums

1 kg/2.2lbs plums; washed halved & de-stoned
100 g/3½oz Demerara sugar
½ tsp mixed spice

For the crumble topping

125 g/4½oz plain flour
125 g/4½oz rolled oats
50 g/1¾oz hazelnuts; roasted & roughly chopped
50 g/1¾oz Demerara sugar
pinch of salt
100 g/3½oz cold butter cubed

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas mark 6

For the plums

Put the plums, sugar and mixed spice into a saucepan over a low heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. This should take no more than 10 minutes
Spoon the mixture into a large, oven-proof casserole dish. Set aside while you make the crumble mixture

For the crumble topping

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, oats, hazelnuts, sugar and salt
Rub in the cold butter until the mixture is lumpy
Turn out the mixture on to the spiced plums and spread evenly over the top. It's not important to cover the entire surface
Bake for 45 minutes to an hour - until the topping begins to turn a golden brown colour

Serve with thick pouring cream or hot custard

Keyword crumble, fruit crumble, plums