Blackberry & Apple Pie

 Haven't done a cake post for a while. Today I made a Blackberry and Apple Pie, Gluten Free and Organic, which I realise isn't a cake, but close enough! It started yesterday where I went full Hunter/Gatherer and picked meself some Blackberries🏹! To be honest it was more the Gathering side of things,😏 although I did have to fight off a host of wasps and other fearsome insects, I managed to avoid being stung or bitten! I left plenty for the insects, not least because there were a fair few overripe berries, considering it's not even August yet, they do seem to be appearing earlier each year!! Certainly a good year for em though, there were loads of red uns so probably be out again next week after some more!!

Part of the haul

Pastry is my cooking Nemesis😱, even before going Gluten Free it was a nightmare, since, it's worse.😰😱 The problem isn't so much the making of the pastry which is pretty simple, it's more the rolling out and the transferring it to where you want it! I have discovered the trick of rolling it out between two sheets of clingfilm, which has reduced the swearing significantly😲 but there was still a lot of patching required today😲!! The recipe is a pretty basic one with a couple of egg yolks, butter, the plain flour swapped out for my Gluten Free mix.  I make this with Cassava Flour 50%, Buckwheat Flour 30%,Tiger Nut Flour20%, a couple of spoonful's of Tapioca Starch and a teaspoon of Xanthium Gum. I use this mix for pretty much everything it works well, the Cassava/Buckwheat Ratio is not that critical but the rest seems to be essential!! It's also good with Victoria Sponges !

Ready for the fridge

Rolled Out

The fruit mix, according to the recipe I had glanced at suggested 2 cooking apples and 4 eating apples, with the Blackberries. Unfortunately due to someone, who will remain nameless, forgetting to put any on the shop, I only had  3 Pink Lady apples to play with😰😱!! Ok it was me that forgot the Apples 😏😢😂

Pink Lady Apples seen here Post-Coring but Pre-Peeling

Post Peeling and Chopping

The fruit mix more Blackberries were added later with a bit of sugar!

Shiny new Pie Dish, brought for me at Christmas by my Daughter and shamefully not used until now!!

Managed to wrestle the pastry, into the shiny new Pie Dish

Fruit added!

Application of the lid, didn't go as planned with a dramatic collapse halfway to the waiting pie😢

Some repair work attempted but still looking rustic!

Application of egg white glaze and granulated sugar, along with some artistic camera angles and it's looking much better😁!! 

At this point the instructions were "prick with a fork" I felt Margie's comment " we've got one of them, what's he gonna do with the fork" was pretty harsh😲!!! Anyway, cooked at 200°C (Fan) for 10 minutes then 160°C( Fan) for 35 minutes and we have a Pie!!! Whoop!

Looks pretty good!

Bit of crackage and a slight leak but looks and smells tasty!

With the left over Blackberries and Pastry I made a Pasty, which was looking magnificent until I moved it onto the baking tray! Then disaster struck! I put it in the oven any way!! See result below!!

Looks an abomination!! Tasted blooming nice though warm with a dollop of Ice Cream!

The main event looked a lot better!

Pastry came out quite well, nice bright colour and very good flavour!

Nice with Ice Cream!!

Very Tasty!!!!!!