Blackberry Pie

Blackberry Pie

At my home, we’ve been picking blackberries over the past couple of weeks and hauled in 14kg. I made most of the berries into blackberry jam, which is so easy to do. Place 1kg of blackberries with 500g of jam sugar into a large bottomed pan, simmer on a low heat until the sugar has dissolved, then increase the heat and bring to the boil for 10 minutes. Test the jam by placing a spoonful on a chilled saucer: once it’s cool, push it with your finger. If it wrinkles a little, it’s ready and has reached setting point. Pot it into sterilised jars — et voilà, delicious blackberry jam. It is, of course, delicious on toast and scones, but try it swirled into yoghurt or porridge, or else as a sauce for roast pork.

I used the rest of our pickings to make a delicious pie, a short butter pastry filled with juicy wild blackberries and infused with aromatic cinnamon and citrus lemon zest. Pastry can seem a bit daunting to many but this recipe is very easy to make. It’s a simple method, creaming all the ingredients together with a mixer and chilling in the fridge, so that it’s lovely and crumbly.

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