Hello Dear Reader,
This was our dessert from yesterday but I made you wait another day for it. Sorry about the lighting, and yes, the blackberries turn the inside of the pie pink. The filling is simply, three peeled and cubed Bramley apples and a 100g of blackberries from my freezer, sprinkled with three tablespoons of sugar. I placed them in a microwave proof bowl and cooked on full heat for five minutes. Stir well and leave to cool. I don't add much sugar as we like the fruit to be tart.
I made my pastry in the food processor. I just cube butter and pulse in the processor. 500g of GF plain flour, 1/2 teaspoon of Xanthum gum, 250g of cold cubed butter, pinch of salt. Beaten egg and half a mug of water.
The lumps get smaller and smaller until it resembles fine bread crumbs. I then mix a beaten egg with water and drizzle into the rotating processor until the lumps get bigger and bigger. In the end, I turn the large lumps onto a chopping board and kneed together. I then chill the pastry for thirty minutes.
I baked my jam tarts for ten minutes and baked the fruit pie for thirty minutes at 180.
I use the pastry as I would normal pastry but cook it for slightly less time. It is still harder than pastry made with wheat flour, I am going to continue to experiment with levels of Xanthum gum, which does make the pastry softer.
Now, onto another topic. We are meat eater but it's so expensive that I've been hunting down affordable cuts. I'm going to try some alternative bits of the animals!
This might prove to be a memory jogger, make people think again or just turn up their noses. I'll be hunting, shin, neck, tail, bones and cheek. I strongly believe that if we raise an animal to kill it that we should do it justice and eat all of it.
Back tomorrow with the first experiment.
Until then, enjoy the fruity pie.
