How to Make Organic Dutch Blackberry Apple Pie | Pie Recipe

How to make a Dutch Apple Pie? As a Dutchie I thought it would be nice to share this with the world. You should all know how jummie this is. But because it's blackberry season I thought I would make a Dutch apple pie with a twist. I added self picked blackberries on top. I also used flour from a local dutch mill and apples from my neighbors backyard apple tree.

For this recipe you will need the following:

Ingredients:

- 800 grams of blackberries

- 6 big apples

- 150 grams of butter + a little more to grease the pan

- 150 grams of plant based margarine

- 240 grams + 2 to 3 tablespoons of sugar

- 1 sachet (8 grams) of vanille sugar

- 3 eggs

- 1 tablespoon of maizena

- 1 sachet (16 grams) of baking powder

- 480 grams of wheat flour + a little more for rolling out the dough

- pinch of salt

Supplies:

- 28 cm / 11 inch springform

- baking brush

- cooling rack

- mixer with 'normal' and dough mixing hooks

- cooking scale

- rolling pin

- mixing bowl

- knife to cut the apples

- strainer

Now it's time to gather your ingredients. I went and picked my own blackberries. I really like picking my own. If you are really lucky, you have blackberries in your garden. I don't, so I did a 10 minute bike ride (yes, I'm a Dutchie ;) ) to find a lot of bushes with blackberries on the side of the road. In the Netherlands you also have this website: (http://wildplukwijzer.nl) where you can find places to pick wild blackberries and other wild fruits and nuts. You could also check if there is a farm nearby where you can pick your own. Or of course you can go to your local farmers market. If I don't pick them I always make sure to buy organic ones. This way you have less pesticides on them. But the best is of course self picked ones. (and it's the cheapest option ;) )

Put on thick long pants and a t-shirt with long sleeves. Try to wear sturdy clothes. This way there will be less thorns getting stuck in your clothes. Make sure to wear closed shoes and long socks. Because it can be quite bushy around your blackberry bushes. Bring either an empty bottle or (as I did) empty ice-cream boxes. And start picking your blackberries!

The next ingredient to gather is your apples. My neighbors have this very big apple tree in their garden and they were very sweet to let me pick some apples (thank you! :) ). They might not be the prettiest. They might have some bruises but those are easily cut out. And you might even find a little friend. But I think that is the fun of getting organic apples, or even picking your own. Because I knew some of them had some bruises I díd decide to peel them, but if yours don't have bruises you can leave the peel on. Especially if you picked your own, they don't have any pesticides on them which is the benefit of organic apples! (Yay!) I used this handy gadget to pick the apples since they were very high up.

For my flour I went to a local old dutch mill where they still produce flour. The mill is open for visitors. It was really fun to see where the flour I am using comes from and how it's made. They use organic grains and with help of the wind, they make lots of different kinds of flours. I got wheat flour, spelt flour and rye flour, but for this recipe I only used the wheat flour.

For the last ingredients I went to my supermarket close by. I always like to buy organic products, it's nice to know that the impact on the environment isn't as big as when you buy 'normal' products.

It's time to start baking! But first: preheat your oven at 180 degrees Celsius (350 Fahrenheit).

Peel and cut your apples. I used 6 big apples. Depending on the size of your baking tin (I use a 28 cm / 11 inch springform) and your apples it could be more or less. But around 6 should do it. As said before, I got mine from my neighbors backyard, so there were some bruises on them. Just cut those out. I put my little friend in the garden :). After you peeled your apples, take the core out and cut the apple into slices. The apples form my neighbors browned way faster than if you buy apples in the supermarket. But because you don't need to eat them raw that is not a problem at all. They taste just the same.

Even though I picked my own blackberries, so they don't have pesticides on them, I did still wash them. You never know if there are for example any small insects on them.

Put your blackberries in a sieve and let the water do it's job. Use your hands to carefully move your blackberries so the water can reach all spots. Be careful to not mash the berries.

In a mixing bowl measure out the following ingredients:

- 150 grams of butter

- 150 grams of plant based margarine

- pinch of salt

- 1 sachet (8 grams) of vanille sugar

- 240 grams of sugar

Now use your mixer to mix it all together until it's well combined and a little lighter from colour. I used the 'normal' mixing hooks for this.

Once it's all well combined add the two eggs. I used medium sized organic ones. I used to be able to get my eggs from our chickens in our small city backyard but unfortunately the chickens passed away a few years ago. We didn't get any new ones so nowadays I get organic eggs from the supermarket. Not as fun as harvesting your own, but hey, this works too.

Now use the same hooks and mix the eggs in well.

Once the eggs are nicely incorporated it's time to add the dry ingredients. First add 480 grams of flour. I used the wheat flour from the dutch mill. Second add one sachet of baking powder. This is about 16 grams.

At this point I would switch your 'normal' mixing hooks for dough kneading hooks. When you will be starting to form a proper dough, these are a lot easier and nicer to work with. Start mixing the dry ingredients into your wet ingredients until it starts to stick together more and more. It should almost form a ball on it's own.

Now it's time for the taste test. I know you want to taste it ;) It's okay, we all do. As long as you don't eat the whole bowl of dough you will be fine!

The dough is ready, yay! Before we start rolling this out it's very important to grease your baking tin (28 cm / 11 inch). If you skip this step your pie will for sure stick to the pan, and you won't be able to get your pie out in one piece. That would be a shame of all your hard work, wouldn't it be? So grab yourself some butter and grease the pan.

Now again, don't skip this step or your dough will stick to your surface. So grab your flour and sprinkle some on the surface you are going to roll your dough out on.

Get about half of the dough and put it on your surface. Set the rest of the dough aside, you will need this for the top decorations. Get your rolling pin and put some flour on it. This will prevent the dough sticking to it. Now roll the dough into a big circle (at least as wide as your baking tin). As you can see I pressed mine into the dough, this way I know the dough is rolled out enough and it will make the next step easier.

Now the tricky part is to get your dough in your baking tin. You need to cover the bottom and the sides. I have tried many ways, but for me the best way is to cut your big circle in smaller long parts. Then transfer them one by one into the baking tin and cover the bottom first, then the sides. I use my fingers to form the dough to the baking tin and to make sure the strips are connected together again. Make sure there are no holes in your dough. This will only make the apple and blackberry juice leak and make the dough soggy instead of a little crispy.

It's time to start filling your pie! Start by adding your apples.

Now add some sugar to make the filling nice and sweet. I added about two table spoons. However, first try your blackberries and apples. If your blackberries or apples are very sour I would add about one to two more tablespoons of sugar.

Now sprinkle about one tablespoon of maizena on your apples. This will absorb some of the juices of the apples and blackberries. A lot of juices are probably going to come out (of course depending on your apples and blackberries) and you don't want to make the bottom of your pie all soggy.

Now last but not least: add the blackberries to your pie. Spread them all out nicely so they cover all of the apples.

Start again by sprinkling your surface with some flour. Now get the dough you set aside and roll this out. Just another quick tip: if adding some flour to your rolling pin doesn't help with the sticking of the dough, add some flour on top of the dough. This will most certainly help prevent the dough from sticking to your rolling pin.

Now for the top op the pie I decided on a traditional checker pattern. In order to get this start by cutting long strips of about 1,5 cm (about 0,5 inch). You will need one long strip and eight a little shorter ones.

Use the shorter strips to make the checker pattern on top of the blackberries. Place the longer strip around the outside border. This will cover the end bits of the shorter strips and make it look nice and clean. I also added some cute little hearts with the little dough I had still left over. I personally like the homemade look, so it's okay if a strip breaks and you need to fix it. Use your fingers and add the two ends back together and that's it.

Now beat one egg and use a brush to sweep this on the dough. This will make the dough look nicely brown and a little shiny once it comes out of the oven.

Well there you have your pie! It's time to place it in the oven.

Set an alarm for about 45 minutes. After 45 minutes go and check on your pie. If it's very brown already or you think it's browning too fast lower the oven temperature with about 15 degrees celsius (about 60 F). Now set another alarm for 35 minutes. Alway keep a look out at your pie, each and every oven is a little different. These times work for my oven.

Did your alarm go of? Is the pie looking good? Yes? Then it's time to take it out of the oven. Place it on a cooling rack and let it cool down a little.

Once the pie is cooled down a little it's time to transfer it to a cake stand. Start by getting a plastic or wooden knife or thin object and make sure the pie crust is not sticking to the sides of the baking tin. Now get your cake stand and in one quick sweep push the pie of of the bottom of the baking tin, onto the cake stand. All good? Then remove the sides of the baking tin.

You did it! Organic Dutch apple - blackberry pie. Of course now you need to try it. If you decide on making this recipe let me know what you think! I hope you like it as much as I do, and that is a looooot ;).

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