Fruit Pie

This apple and blackberry fruit pie makes for the ultimate warming comfort dessert, it’s fantastic with custard or a drop of double cream.

Ingredients

For the filling:
700g cooking apples (4)
juice of ½ lemon
¼ teaspoon of cinnamon
20g sugar
300g blackberries
For the pastry:
360g plain flour
180g unsalted butter
100g sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons of water

Preparation Time: 45 minutes + 30 minutes chilling
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 10

Method

Peel the apple, remove the core and chop it into roughly 2cm pieces.
Put the apple into a large pan over a medium heat with the lemon juice, the cinamon and the sugar for the filling.
Stir them all together and cook them for 10 minutes or until the apple has begun to break down and turn mushy.
Take the apple mixture off the heat, gently stir in the blackberries and leave it to cool while you make the pastry.
Weigh out the butter and flour into a large mixing bowl.
Using your finger tips, rub the butter and flour together until they are all incorporated and have a texture resembling breadcrumbs. Then add the sugar.
Mix in the sugar and salt and then, using a butter knife, stir in the egg yolks and the water until they have become fully incorporated and the mixture begins to come together.
Using your hand, squeeze the pastry dough together to form a solid ball, then press it down on the work top to form a disk shape. Wrap this in cling-film/plastic-wrap and put it into the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180°c.
Take the pastry out of the fridge, cut off about a thrid for the pie lid and set this to one side. Roll out the remaining pastry to a thickness of about ½cm.
Lay the rolled out pastry into your pie dish and press it into the corners of the dish. Then trim off the excess pastry hanging over the edge of the pie dish.
Tip the apple and blackberry filling into the pastry lined pie dish.
Roll out the pastry reserved for the pie lid to a thickness of about ½cm and lay this over the top of the pie. Press it down and trim off any excess pastry hanging over the edge of the pie dish. Crimp around the edge of the pie to seal the lid to the rest of the pie and, if you feel so inclined, decorate the top of the pie using the excess trimmings of pastry.
Put the pie into the oven and cook it for 30 minutes.
Remove the pie from the oven, cut out slices and serve, either hot or warm.