Blackberry apple pie

<p>Blackberry and apple is the great British hedgerow pairing, and this pie is what I make in the last warm weeks of summer when the brambles at the end of the lane are heavy and staining my fingers purple. Tart cooking apples give the filling backbone and structure; the blackberries bring dark, winey juice and colour. The twist here is in the pastry: rather than a plain shortcrust, this is a rich, biscuity dough enriched with egg and a little sugar, so it bakes to something closer to a sweet, sturdy sable that holds a generous lattice without going soggy underneath the fruit.</p> <div class="recipe-card" id="recipe"> <div class="recipe-card-head"><p class="recipe-card-title">Blackberry apple pie</p> <div class="recipe-card-actions"><a class="recipe-pin" href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?description%3dBlackberry%2bapple%2bpie%26media%3dhttps%253A%252F%252Fmedia.vo.rs%252Fblackberry-pie.jpg%26url%3dhttps%253A%252F%252Fvo.rs%252Fstory%252Fblackberry-apple-pie%252F" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" aria-label="Save to Pinterest"><i class="fab fa-pinterest-p fa-fw"></i>&nbsp;Save</a><button type="button" class="recipe-print" onclick="window.print()" aria-label="Print recipe"><i class="fas fa-print fa-fw"></i>&nbsp;Print</button> </div> </div> <div class="recipe-meta"><span class="recipe-meta-item"><span class="recipe-meta-label">Serves</span>8 servings</span><span class="recipe-meta-item"><span class="recipe-meta-label">Prep</span>90 min</span><span class="recipe-meta-item"><span class="recipe-meta-label">Cook</span>60 min</span><span class="recipe-meta-item"><span class="recipe-meta-label">Cuisine</span>British</span><span class="recipe-meta-item"><span class="recipe-meta-label">Course</span>Dessert</span></div> <div class="recipe-cols"> <div class="recipe-ingredients"> <h3>Ingredients</h3> <ul><li>225 g softened butter</li><li>50 g sugar</li><li>2 eggs</li><li>350 g wheat flour</li><li>2 tablespoons lemon juice</li><li>600 g cooking apples</li><li>125 g blackberries</li><li>25 g sugar</li><li>1 tablespoon potato starch</li><li>1 egg, for brushing</li></ul> </div> <div class="recipe-method"> <h3>Method</h3> <ol><li>Mix the butter and sugar, then whisk in the eggs thoroughly.</li><li>Gradually add the flour while whisking, then shape the dough into a ball, wrap in wax paper and chill for at least 1 hour.</li><li>Peel and dice the apples, rinse the blackberries, and mix the 25 g sugar with the potato starch.</li><li>Roll out three-quarters of the dough and line the base and sides of a pie dish.</li><li>Fill with apples and blackberries, then sprinkle over the sugar and starch mixture.</li><li>Roll out the reserved dough, cut into strips and lattice over the top, then brush with egg.</li><li>Bake at 180C in the centre of the oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour, covering loosely with tinfoil once golden.</li><li>Let the pie cool for at least 3 hours before serving.</li></ol> </div> </div> </div><h2 id="a-hedgerow-tradition">A hedgerow tradition</h2><div class="ad-unit ad-in-article" aria-label="Advertisement"> <span class="ad-label">Advertisement</span> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block;text-align:center" data-ad-client="ca-pub-3726833845844946" data-ad-slot="3291553914" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins> <script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});</script> </div> <p>Picking blackberries in late summer is one of the few genuinely wild foods most people in Britain still gather for themselves, and the fruit has been baked with apples here for a very long time, for the simple reason that the two ripen together and balance each other perfectly. British folklore has long held that you should pick your blackberries before Michaelmas, the 29th of September; after that date, the saying goes, the Devil spits (or worse) on them and they are no longer fit to eat. There is a grain of sense in the superstition, because by early autumn the wetter weather encourages a mould that does spoil late fruit, so the old warning is really a piece of seasonal food safety dressed up as a story.</p> <p>Cooking apples and dessert apples are not interchangeable here, and it matters. A true cooking apple such as a Bramley is sharp and low in sugar, and its flesh collapses to a fluffy purée when heated, which is exactly what you want breaking down around the whole blackberries. A sweet eating apple stays firm and can leave the filling bland and watery, so reach for Bramleys if you can, and lean on the sugar to balance their sharpness. If you can only find eating apples, cut back the added sugar a little and expect a filling that holds its shape more.</p> <h2 id="the-pastry-and-why-it-behaves-as-it-does">The pastry and why it behaves as it does</h2> <p>This dough is closer to a sweet, enriched pastry than a classic flaky shortcrust. Creaming softened butter with sugar and beating in eggs before working in the flour gives you a rich, tender, biscuity crust with a snap to it, more like a thick shortbread than a laminated pie crust. It is forgiving to roll and handle, and it holds a lattice beautifully, but it does need proper chilling. The hour in the fridge is not optional: it firms the butter so the dough rolls cleanly and, more importantly, it relaxes the gluten so the pastry does not shrink back and toughen in the heat of the oven.</p> <p>Keep everything cool as you work. If the dough turns greasy or sticky while you roll it, it has warmed too much; slide it back into the fridge for ten minutes rather than fighting it with more flour, which only makes the crust dry and tough.</p> <p>There is one more thing worth understanding about this style of dough. Because it is enriched with egg and creamed rather than rubbed, it is less flaky and more short and biscuity than a traditional pie crust, and it browns readily thanks to the sugar and egg. That richness is a strength for a fruit pie, because a sturdier base stands up to the wet filling far better than a delicate flaky pastry, which can go soft and grey underneath. The trade-off is that it can dry out if overbaked, which is exactly why the foil goes on once the top has coloured: you are protecting the crust from further browning while the fruit finishes cooking through underneath.</p> <h2 id="why-potato-starch-and-the-trouble-with-watery-pies">Why potato starch, and the trouble with watery pies</h2><div class="ad-unit ad-in-article" aria-label="Advertisement"> <span class="ad-label">Advertisement</span> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block;text-align:center" data-ad-client="ca-pub-3726833845844946" data-ad-slot="3291553914" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins> <script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});</script> </div> <p>The single most common complaint about any fruit pie is a soggy, flooded base, and it comes down to the sheer volume of juice that apples and especially blackberries release once they heat up. Something has to thicken that liquid or it simply runs everywhere. This recipe uses potato starch, which is a cleaner, more neutral thickener than plain flour and sets the juices to a glossy, translucent gel rather than a cloudy paste. Cornflour does much the same job if that is what you have, in the same quantity. The important thing is that the starch is mixed with the sugar first and scattered evenly, so it disperses through the filling and thickens the juice as it bubbles rather than sitting in a claggy lump.</p> <p>If your blackberries are particularly ripe and juicy, or you are using frozen fruit, do not be afraid to add an extra teaspoon of starch. It is far easier to firm up a filling than to rescue a flooded one, and a slightly firmer set slices more cleanly anyway. Draining the rinsed blackberries thoroughly before they go in, rather than tipping them in still dripping, is another small habit that pays off.</p> <h2 id="method">Method</h2> <p>Cream the softened butter and 50g sugar together until smooth, then beat in the two eggs thoroughly; an electric hand mixer makes light work of it. Add the 350g flour a little at a time, mixing only until it comes together into a soft dough. Gather it into a ball, wrap it in greaseproof paper and chill for at least an hour.</p> <p>While it chills, prepare the filling. Peel, core and dice the 600g of cooking apples fairly small, so they cook through evenly, and toss them with the 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to stop them browning and to sharpen the flavour. Rinse the 125g blackberries and drain them well. In a small bowl, stir the 25g sugar together with the tablespoon of potato starch; this is what will thicken the copious juices as the pie bakes.</p> <p>Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan). Roll out three-quarters of the chilled dough on a lightly floured surface to about 3 to 5mm thick and use it to line the base and sides of your pie dish, pressing it gently into the corners. Tip in the diced apple and blackberries, distributing them evenly, then scatter the sugar and starch mixture over the top so it can work through the juices. Roll out the reserved quarter of dough, cut it into strips about 1 to 2cm wide and lay them over the filling in a lattice, pressing the ends onto the rim to seal. Brush the pastry all over with the beaten egg for a glossy, deep-golden finish.</p> <p>Bake in the centre of the oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour. Once the top is a good golden colour, usually after about 30 minutes, lay a sheet of foil loosely over it to stop the pastry darkening further while the filling finishes cooking. When it is done the juices should be bubbling thickly through the lattice.</p> <h2 id="why-you-must-let-it-cool">Why you must let it cool</h2> <p>This is the step people skip and then regret. A hot pie is a molten pie: the potato starch has thickened the juices, but that gel only sets firmly as it cools. Cut into it straight from the oven and the filling floods out and the base slumps. Give it a full three hours, or even until barely warm, and the filling sets to a sliceable, jammy suspension of soft apple and whole berries. It is worth the wait, and the pie is arguably better at room temperature the next day.</p> <p>Stand the dish on a baking sheet as it bakes, too. Fruit pies almost always weep a little sugary juice, and catching it on a tray saves you scrubbing a scorched oven floor while promoting even browning underneath.</p> <p>A word on the lattice, which is more than decoration. Those open gaps are steam vents: they let the copious moisture the fruit throws off escape as the pie bakes, rather than trapping it under a solid lid where it would keep the filling watery and steam the underside of the top crust soft. A fully sealed double-crust pie needs slits cut into it for exactly the same reason, but the lattice does the job while looking the part. Weave the strips loosely with reasonable gaps between them rather than crowding them tightly, and press the ends firmly onto the buttered rim so they anchor and do not shrink back into the filling as the pastry sets.</p> <h2 id="fresh-frozen-and-make-ahead">Fresh, frozen, and make-ahead</h2> <p>Fresh blackberries have the brightest flavour and firmest texture, but frozen berries work well out of season and are often cheaper; add them straight from frozen and stir in an extra teaspoon of potato starch, as they shed more liquid as they thaw. The unbaked pie can be assembled and kept in the fridge for a few hours before baking, or the lined dish and lattice strips prepared separately and chilled. Baked, it keeps for three days somewhere cool, loosely covered, and a slice warms through nicely in a low oven.</p> <p>Serve it warm with cold pouring cream, a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a jug of proper custard. If you like this style of autumn-fruit pudding, the same blackberries turn up in a softer, custardy <a href="/story/blackberry-and-brown-butter-clafoutis/">blackberry and brown butter clafoutis</a>, while the apples find their richest expression in a caramelised <a href="/story/apple-and-calvados-tarte-tatin/">apple and Calvados tarte Tatin</a>. For a weeknight version with none of the pastry effort, a <a href="/story/salted-caramel-apple-crumble/">salted caramel apple crumble</a> gives you the same warm, spiced fruit under a crisp topping in a fraction of the time.</p>