Blueberry & Apple Pie

Hi again!

So, for quite some time, I’ve been thinking about what recipe would be the Chosen One, the first one to share with you.

Please excuse my “cut to the chase” approach – it’s perfectly fine to write a 500 word essay about cooking and baking and recipes etc. But that’s just not my style, so…

Let’s start simple, shall we?

This bluberry and apple pie takes 15 minutes to prepare and assemble, and another 30 in the oven. So, it might just be the easiest thing there is to start small and delicious.

Ingredients:

• 1 puff pastry sheet – preferably not “light” pastry, it’s very crumbly and messy
• 300g blueberries
• 2 big apples – just use your favourite kind. I used cooking apples, but you can also use pink lady, braeburn, or cox apples
• 6 tbsp demerara sugar – 3 for the blueberries + 3 for the apples
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon – 1/2 for the blueberries + 1/2 for the apples
• 75 ml water – 25 for the blueberries, 50 for the apples
• 1/4 tsp mixed spice
• lemon juice
• 1 egg

Method:

• Preheat the oven at 180º C
• Grease and lightly flour your pie dish
• Peel and wash your apples, and cut into small pieces. I’m not very neat with this step, so I won’t tell you a particular way to cut your apples.
• Start with the blueberries; wash them! In a pot, heat up the blueberries, the sugar, the water, the cinnamon, and squeeze some lemon juice in there to balance the flavours.
• Bring to a gentle boil and let simmer for about 4 minutes, or until the blueberries start to bleed – but don’t let them pureé! Set aside.
• Now the apples; basically the same process: heat them in a pot with the sugar, the water, the cinnamon, the mixed spice, and some lemon juice.
• Bring to a boil and let simmer for about 7 minutes. Now with the apples, you have to cook them a bit more than the blueberries, but you don’t want to let them get too soft. Otherwise, they will start to pureé and you’ll have a very soft filling. Unless that’s something you like!
• Mix the blueberries and the apple together in the same pot for 2 minutes – enough to let the apples get pink and absorb some of the blueberry goodness!
• Let the fruit mixture cool while you prepare the pastry.
• On a clean and dry worktop, flour the surface and the rolling pin.
• I personally like to give the store-bought pastry a bit of stretching, because i find it just a bit too thick. Stretch the dough with the rolling pin to your desired thickness. Then take your pastry and put it on the pie dish – don’t forget to press the edges so it doesn’t fall down.
• Pour the fruit filling inside the pastry, spreading evenly in the end.
• I’ll leave it to you the top layer – some people like to do lattice top, some like to cut shapes and put them on top, some don’t put anything at all… However the case, you can use the leftover pastry to do that!
• Poke some holes on the top layer, and then brush it with the beaten egg.
• Put the pie in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until it’s golden on top.
• Let cool for at least an hour before cutting into it and making it disappear!

This was my finished pie:

I hope you like this recipe. Please let me know in the comments if you’ve tried it, what you thought, and maybe even send a picture of your pie!

Happy baking!