Summer Pies from the Garden

Foraging for fruit, eating as you go: it’s a privilege of late summer. Divert some of your harvest into an easy pie and you’ll share this uncomplicated moment of picking and eating.

The best part about food editor Allan Jenkins‘ cooking, when he is living the outdoors life in Denmark, is that recipes are very loose and so are measurements. You can’t really go wrong.

(N.B.: For a tour of Jenkins’ summerhouse, see “A Danish Summerhouse Garden.”)

Photograph by Allan Jenkins, editor of Observer Food Monthly in London.

Above: Free food in late summer and early autumn. Wild apples and blackberries are collected from the nearby beach.

Apple and Blackberry Pie

The pastry varies; sometimes it is store-bought butter puff pastry but for this recipe use a classic pate (sweet short crust):,

For the pastry:

• 200 g plain flour
• 100 g cold unsalted butter
• 75 g sugar (we use organic cane)
• 3 egg yolks plus 1 egg white
• pinch of salt

For the filling:

• 6-8 apples
• water
• big bowl of blackberries
• sugar to taste
• cinnamon or vanilla (depending on preference that day)

Instructions:

Peel and core the apples and cut into chunks, place in a saucepan with enough water to stop the apples sticking to the bottom. Add a stick of cinnamon or vanilla pod. Bring to a gentle simmer and leave until the apples start breaking down. Add the blackberries and simmer for a further few minutes. Add sugar to taste.

We tend to double the amount of pastry for this pie in order to either cover the pie completely with a top layer or make a pretty woven top. Brush the top with egg yolk or cream and bake for 30-45 minutes until the pastry is nice and brown.