Fresh Apple and Blackberry Pie

I love this time of year as there is so much fresh (free) fruit out there. Down my road there is a bunch of blackberry bushes on public space which I have been picking from since I was little. Fresh free fruit is so much nicer than shop bought ones (which are usually £2 for 150g in tescos). The great thing about Norfolk is that there is a lot of country side road which are packed with blackberry bushes ripe with fruit in August. The photo shows just some from down my road.
 

                                            

As well as free fruit from around the neighbourhood my boyfriend has an allotment where he has some apple trees, I would highly recommend an allotment if you love fresh fruit and veg as it's just fantastic. Well I would say that as he does all the work growing the food, but then again he does enjoy my baking so works out well. So along side free blackberries I had free freshly picked apples. 

                                           

Got the recipe from http://goodfood.uktv.co.uk/recipe/blackberry-and-apple-pie/ as wanted a pie with a pastry base and this was the best looking one I could find. Cooking the fruit and was nice and easy but make sure that you drain the fruit so that you don't get a soggy bottom. The pastry was a little trickier. 

This pastry was soft and felt like it could crumble easily but rolling it out on a reusable grease proof mat (silicon mat works just as well) to transfer the pastry to the tin was a brilliant idea. Would highly recommend getting one of these as been great for me (got my reusable grease proof from pound land) as it means no extra flour of oil to stop it sticking to the surface. Have to say this was a good recipe although I think I had a soggy bottom so might of been better to have a pie without a base but in the end it tasted good and no complaints.

                                             

Keep loving food

Karen