Classic Chocolate Chilli...
2019-10-31
Spicing things up this summer, with a delightful match made in heaven. A low car...
Blueberry Apple Pie
Prep 30 mins
Cooking 35 - 40 mins
Serves 8 - 10
When it comes to developing recipes our focus is always on maximum nutrition – on lots of good-for-you stuff and little if any bad-for-you things. But everyone deserves a sweet spoil occasionally, like this pie.
The inspiration for it was a traditional English apple pie, but of course done the Natural way. So we added blueberries because they’re a super food and such a good marriage with apples. We used brown sugar instead of refined white sugar and less than normal to really allow the natural sweetness of the fruit to shine. And instead of the traditional short-crust pastry made with all white flour, we introduced fibre to our pastry by adding whole wheat flour and old-fashioned rolled oats.
What you will need
- FOR THE PASTRY
- ¾ cup cake flour
- ½ cup whole wheat flour
- FOR THE FRUIT FILLING
- ½ cup rolled oats
- 6 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, quartered and cut into slices
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar
- 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- Small pinch of salt
- 1 cup blueberries (frozen will do if you can’t find fresh)
- ¼ tsp Natural Herbs and Spices Ground Cinnamon
- 1 tsp Natural Herbs and Spices Ground Cinnamon
- 150g cold butter, cut into small blocks
- 8 Tbsp brown sugar
- 3 Tbsp ice cold water
- 3 Tbsp cornflour
- ½ Tbsp castor sugar
Method
Preheat the oven to 200ºC.
To make the pastry, add all the ingredients except the water and castor sugar to a food processor. Pulse until the butter is broken up and the mixture looks like large crumbs. Next add the water and pulse a few times. Turn the dough out onto wax paper and use your hands to press it together to form a ball. Dust a rolling pin with flour and roll the dough out to a thickness of about 5mm. Place an ovenproof pie dish upside down on the dough and score a circle 1cm wider than the pie dish. (NB: the quantities in this recipe are sufficient for a pie dish measuring 25cm wide x 5cm deep.)
Keep any excess dough you cut off to make decorations for your pie. Place the dough circle, still on the wax paper, in your fridge while you make the fruit filling.
To prepare the fruit, pour the lemon juice over the apples and toss to coat. Add the rest of the fruit filling ingredients and toss to ensure it’s thoroughly mixed. Spoon the fruit mix into your pie dish. Cover the fruit with the dough circle – don’t try to lift it, it’s quite fragile and likely to tear. Rather simply turn it upside down onto the fruit filling and then peel off the wax paper.
Use your fingers to crimp the edges of the pie. Score a cross through the centre of the dough to allow steam from baking to escape. Roll out any leftover dough and cut leaf-shaped decorations to decorate the pie. Dust the pie with the castor sugar and bake for 35-40 minutes until the pastry is golden.
Serve this blueberry and apple pie slightly warm. Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream on the side is the way to go if you feel indulgent. We went the healthier route and served ours with double cream yoghurt sweetened with just a teeny drizzle of honey.
Recipe concept & photography by Lizet Hartley.
Lizet Hartley is a freelance stills and reel food stylist, food photographer and recipe developer. In her spare time she – rather predictably – cooks. Get more of her recipes on her blog at http://www.melkkos-merlot.co.za
