It's week three of our blogger bake off! Sharing a tantalising trio of pies, Catherine joins us with her recipes... read more
It’s week four of the #GBBO! Did you tune in last week? We were simply blown away by Paul’s tiger bread. How’s that for a show-stopper? We knew Ian was something special, and as predicted, he was crowned star baker for the second week running. Who’s your favourite so far? On to our very own Laura Ashley blogger bake off, we’re stepping away from cake this week and we’re back with pies! Catherine of Borrowed Light is spoiling us with this trio; it’s like her own technical, signature bake and show-stopper! Read on to find out how to make your own, and don’t forget you can vote for Catherine to win the bake off in two weeks time…
Something I usually make each summer is lots of fruit pies, but somehow this year I just haven’t got round to it, I keep walking past my favourite fruit and veg stall eyeing up the abundance of beautiful fruit and not stopping because it’s all been a bit too busy. Plus, I broke my favourite pie dish sometime ago!
So when Laura Ashley challenged me to a Bake Off style contest with some pretty pie dishes, a rolling pin and measuring cups from their Parma Violets Collection to inspire me – all I could think about was baking pies.
Michael and I are notoriously bad at making decisions, I wanted to finally be able to justify buying a crate of cherries, he wanted pears and we both wanted to try out some incredible looking rose pies we’d seen on Pinterest.
So being us and this being ‘Bake Off’, we did all three!
CHERRY PIE
Serves: 6 Prep Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 30 – 40 minutes Chill Time: 30 mins Total Time: 1 hour 30
Pie dish used: 21cm
INGREDIENTS
For the pastry
– 250g Plain Flour (extra for dusting)
– 175g cold unsalted butter, cubed (a little extra to grease the dish)
– 1 tbsp caster sugar
– 1 large egg, beaten
– 2-3 tbsp cold water
For the pie filling
– 500g cherries, stoned
– 1 tbsp cornflour
– ½ tsp ground cinnamon
– 25g golden caster sugar
– 2 tbsp water
INSTRUCTIONS
– Put the flour, butter and sugar in a food processor and pulse til you have a breadcrumb mixture.
-Add the egg (reserve a little to brush the pie top with) and 2-3 tbsp of water and continue to pulse until the dough forms into a ball. Wrap in cling film and chill for 30 mins.
– Mix together the cornflour, cinnamon and sugar. Spoon over your cherries, mix until they are fully covered.
– Place a baking sheet in the oven and preheat the oven to 200C/Fan180C
– Liberally grease your pie dish with butter
– On a lightly floured surface, roll out half the pastry, line your dish and trim the edges. Add the cherry mix into the centre and pour over the 2 tbsp water.
– Roll out the other half of your pastry and using a ruler, cut strips for your lattice top. The amount you need will depend on how thick you cut your strips. Create your lattice top and trim and pinch the edges.
– Brush the pie with egg and bake in the oven for 30-40 mins, if the top starts to brown too quickly cover with foil.
– Remove, allow to cool before serving warm
PEAR, BLACKBERRY & BLUEBERRY PIE
Serves: 8-10 Prep Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 40 minutes Chill Time: 30 mins Total Time: 1 hour 40
INGREDIENTS
For the pastry
– 400g Plain Flour, plus extra for dusting
– 250g cold unsalted butter, cubed (a little extra to grease the dish)
– 2 tbsp caster sugar
– 1 large egg, beaten, plus 1 egg beaten to glaze
– 2-3 tbsp cold water
For the Filling
– 4 Pears, peeled, cored and sliced
– 100g Blackberries
– 100g Blueberries
– 30g golden caster sugar
– ½ tsp of vanilla essence
INSTRUCTIONS
– Put the flour, butter and sugar in a food processor and pulse til you have a breadcrumb mixture.
– Add the egg and 2-3 tbsp of water and continue to pulse until the dough forms into a ball. Wrap in cling film and chill for 30 mins.
– Sprinkle the sugar and vanilla essence over the fruit and stir to coat thoroughly.
– Place a baking sheet in the oven and preheat the oven to 200C/Fan180C
– Liberally grease your pie dish with butter
– On a lightly floured surface, roll out 2/3rds of the pastry, line your dish and trim the edges. Add the fruit mix into the centre.
– Roll out the remainder of your dough and cover the top of your pie. Trim and pinch the edges.
– With the trimmings you can roll those out and cut letters adding them to your pie top. If you do, just egg wash the base of the letter to stick it to the pastry.
– Glaze your pie with the beaten egg and place in the oven for 40 mins.
– Remove, allow to cool before serving warm
MINI APPLE ROSE PIES
I confess, that the idea for this recipe and the wonderful instructions on how to create them, are via ‘From My Impossibly Tiny Kitchen’ We have adapted it a little but for visual references on making the apples do visit FMITK
Serves: 6 Prep Time: 30-60 mins Cook Time: 25-30 minutes Chill Time: 30 mins Total Time: 1 hour 25 – 2 hours
INGREDIENTS
For the pastry
– 125g Plain Flour
– Pinch of salt
– 55g butter (a little extra to grease the muffin tray)
– 1 tbsp sugar
– 2-3 tsp water
For the Apples
– 2-4 Pink Lady Apples (you may need 1-2 for practise)
– 100g golden caster sugar
– 100g butter
– 4 tbsp lemon juice
– Strawberry Jam to brush the tops after baking
You need a 6 hole muffin tray, a mandolin or a slicing attachment on a food processor
INSTRUCTIONS
– Put the flour, butter, salt and sugar in a food processor and pulse until you have a breadcrumb mixture.
– Add the 2-3 tbsp of water and continue to pulse until the dough forms into a ball. Wrap in cling film and chill for 30 mins.
– Roll out and cut circles (we used a tea cup as a circle template) big enough for your tray. Grease the muffin holes with butter and then press your pastry into each hole.
– Pre-heat the oven to 200c/180c Fan
– With the apple upright, cut straight down to the side of the core, and do the same to the other side. – – Using a mandolin or slicing attachment on a food processor, thinly slice the apples into half moons. – Cover with lemon juice to stop them browning.
– Melt the butter and the sugar in a saucepan and pour HALF over the apples and mix thoroughly.
– Microwave the apples for about a minute until soft.
– With the remaining melted butter & sugar mix, brush the inside of each pastry cup.
– To form the roses, we placed 4 large pieces of apple directly into each pastry cup, creating an outer layer.
– Next, lay out 10 slices, skin facing you, with each slice overlapping the previous slice. Carefully but tightly roll the apples from one end to the other. You should have a pretty rose apple result. Place that into the pastry cup and repeat til all 6 are done.
– Bake for 25 minutes, check the top of the apples don’t start to burn, cover with foil if they do and bake until the pastry is golden brown.
– Remove from the oven and allow to cool before removing from the tray to wire rack.
– Heat a little jam in a saucepan until bubbling and brush the tops of your apples.
– Serve warm
We are quite simply blow away by Catherine’s tantalising trio! Fancy having a go yourselves? Don’t forget to tag your bake with #LAGBBO. You can grab everything you need for your very own bake off right here. We’ll be back next week with our final instalment with the brilliant Me and Orla. Until then!