Blackberry Pie With Geometric Fruit Topping

I love fruits but absolutely hate traditional fruit pies. Fruit always falls out of the crust, it’s too soggy, messy and not particularly attractive. This is my take on the traditional blackberry pie. In this recipe we cook and thicken the fruit before baking it in the oven. You can also strain the filling to remove pits and seeds for a smooth fruit pie.

For an 8 inch pie dish you will need:
Pie crust (store bought or home made)
500g blackberries (other berries or mixed will work too)
100-250g sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
35g cornflour
30g butter

For mirror glaze:
250g berries or 240ml berry juice
2 teaspoons gelatine
½ teaspoon cornflour
2-3 tablespoons sugar

For fruit topping:
Variation of fruits not prone to oxidation. 3-5 different coloured fruits such as: dragon fruit, papaya, mango, kiwi, coconut meat, red dragon fruit, strawberries, melon, pineapple, starfruit.

Making a pie crust from scratch is well worth the trouble, but if you don’t feel like making it yourself, just use a ready-made one. Here’s a recipe for a fool-proof pie crust.

Weigh out all the ingredients and leave them in a fridge for 1-2 hours to cool them as much as possible.

170g flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
120g cubed butter
¼ cup water

Pulse flour, sugar and salt in a food processor (or whisk everything together if making crust by hand). Add cubed butter and pulse a few times, until mixture resembles crumbs (or use pastry cutter https://www.lakeland.co.uk/72399/Stainless-Steel-... ). Add 2-4 tablespoons of cold water to the pastry and pulse a few times until the mixture resembles wet sand. Don’t over-mix it. Tip the mix onto a countertop and quickly combine the crumbs into a ball. Pastry should come together easily. Shape it into a flat disk, cover in cling film and put in the fridge immediately. Leave it to cool for 1-2 hours.

In a large pot, over medium heat, warm 500g blackberries, 100g sugar and ½ cup water until berries are soft and easily bruised. Mash the fruit using a fork or a potato masher. If you want to, you can pass it through a sieve to remove the seeds. I left mine in to have some crunch.

Add lemon juice and taste for sweetness, add more sugar if necessary and continue heating until sugar dissolves. Take it off the heat.

Mix 35g cornflour with a few tablespoons of cold water to create a slurry. Add that to the pot and whisk everything together, return to the stove and cook over medium heat. Whisk continuously to prevent burning. Continue cooking until bubbles form and berry mixture thickens (you can tell it’s thick enough if you run a finger through the back of the spoon and the mixture stays put and isn’t runny). Take it off the heat, stir in butter and mix until dissolved.

Let it cool down, put the pot into a bowl of water to speed the cooling.

Take the pastry out of the fridge and roll it out. Use a sprinkling of flour or roll it between parchment paper to prevent sticking. Line your pie dish, cut off the crust edges or crimp them. Use a tart tin with a removable base if you don’t have a shallow enough pie dish. Put the crust back into the fridge for 20-30min.

Preheat the oven.
Once the filling is cold spoon it into the dish and smooth the top. Bake immediately, we don’t want the butter in the pastry to melt.

Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 15 min
After 15 min reduce the temperature to 180°C (350°F) and bake for 35-45 min.

You can cover the pie with aluminum foil half-way through the bake to prevent from burning.

Leave it to cool completely.

I covered my pie with aluminum foil and once it was out of the oven I made a mistake and snagged the hot and still-not-set filling with the foil. I made a mess and there was no way of fixing it, so I decided to make a glaze to cover it up.

Fruit glaze is easy to make and can be used in cakes, tarts, pies and desserts.

Combine whatever berries you have on hand. I’m using 250g blackcurrants. Stew berries with ½ cup of water until they are soft. Pass everything through a sieve and measure how much liquid you have. You will need about 200-240ml, add water if you are short.

Let the juice cool down. Pour 3 tablespoons of the juice into a small bowl and whisk in ½ teaspoon cornstarch. Pour another 3 tablespoons into a bowl and sprinkle 2 teaspoons of gelatine, leave it to bloom for 5 minutes.

Return the remaining juice into the pan, heat it up and add between 1 and 3 tablespoons of sugar. Pour cornstarch and juice mixture into the pan and whisk, cook for 2 minutes until slightly thickened. Take it off the heat and whisk in gelatine and juice mixture. Whisk well and let it cool to room temperature. You can pass it through a sieve again if you see any lumps.

If you leave it out for too long and the mixture thickens, you can always pop it into a microwave and melt it again.

Pour room temperature glaze on top of the pie and move the pie dish around to distribute it evenly. Pop it into a fridge for 1-2 hours until the glaze is set.

Slice fruit into 2-3mm thickness and cut those into small geometrical pieces. Arrange on top of the pie.