Plumpton Goes Green Recipe Collection
Blackberry & Apple Pie
This is cookery writer Jane Grigson’s recipe for blackberry and apple pie. She recommends picking some unripe (red) blackberries with the ripe ones, which she says fortifies the flavour.
Use twice the weight of apples to blackberries (ie. 2lb apples to 1lb blackberries). Put half the blackberries into a large pan. Peel, core and slice the apples. Sprinkle with orange or lemon juice to stop them darkening. Put the apple peel and cores into the blackberry pan and cover with water. Cook slowly at first, and then faster as the juices run. Strain to produce about 150ml of liquid. Dissolve 200–250g sugar in the liquid, depending on how sharp the fruit is.
Layer the sliced apples and remaining blackberries in a deep pie dish. Pour the cooled juice over. Cover with shortcrust pastry (leaving a central hole for testing the apples), brush the top with egg white and sprinkle with caster sugar. Cook for 45–60 mins at 200° C (protect the top with butter papers if the pastry is beginning to brown too much). When a knife goes easily through the apples, the pie is ready. Eat with custard or cream – or, best of all, clotted cream.
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