Fruit Pie

I absolutely love fruit pies, they remind me of my mother who would make traditional desserts usually on Sundays with our roast dinner, bread pudding, treacle pudding, spotted dick, crumble or PIE. Pie or crumble were my favourite and were usually served with custard, although I was never over keen on custard and preferred vanilla ice cream or cream. My cooking is really coming along now and in my mind this recipe is proof of that, I have always struggled with pastry so too able to recognise my issues with it and make the proper steps in which to correct what was going wrong is a big achievement. Now all I have to do is work out my other issues.

Fruit Pie

300g/12oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting

½ tsp salt

150g/5oz lard or vegetable fat, plus extra for greasing (trex)

2tbsp caster sugar,  plus extra for sprinkling

1tbsp milk for glazing

For the filling

500g/1lb Tart apples

Juice of one lemon

500g/1lb blackberries

½ tsp ground cinnamon or to your taste

¼ tsp nutmeg or to your taste

100g/3 ½ oz Caster sugar

1. First sift the flour and salt into a large bowl, and add the fat, using two knives cut in the fat, then using your fingertips ONLY, making sure your hands are cold, rub in the fat into the flour, making crumbs, lifting the mixture as you go to aerate it.
2. Add the sugar and sprinkle with 6-7 tbsp of cold water, mix it with a fork, pressing the crumbs into a ball, wrap and chill for 30 minutes in the fridge. In the meantime grease your pie dish, flour your work surface. Roll out about 2/3 of the dough into a round about 5cm/2” larger than the pie dish, then using a rolling pin to help, drape the pastry over the pie dish, gently pushing it into the edges and chill for 15 minutes.
3. Peel and core your apples, and cut them into slices place them in a bowl, cover them with the lemon juice and toss to coat, the lemon with help them keep their colour and stop them from browning. Sprinkle them with cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar, set them to one side. Wash your blackberries and pat them dry and set to one side. Once the pastry has finished chilling, place the blackberries in the bottom of the pie dish and then add the apple mounding slightly in the middle.
   
4. Brush the edge of the pastry with water and roll out the remaining pastry dough, wrap it around the rolling pin and drape it over the top of the filling, crimp the edges of the pastry using a knife or a crimper if you have one. Cut an X in the middle and fold the bits open, to leave a vent.
5. Brush with milk and sprinkle with sugar, if you like you can use the trimmings to decorate the top of the pie. Return the pie to the fridge for 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 220˚C/425˚F and bake for 10-15 minutes, keeping an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t burn (unlike mine in the picture) then turn down the heat to 180˚C/350˚F and bake for another 30-35 minutes.
6. Insert a skewer into the steam vent and check for doneness, the apples should be tender. Serve warm with cream, ice cream or custard.