Foraged Food and a Photography Workshop
Mini Apple & Berry Pies
A good friend recently gave me some cooking apples that she foraged in her and a neighbour’s London back yard. I’m certainly not one to turn down free food, especially when it creates the perfect excuse to play in the kitchen. The big decision was whether the dessert would be apple crumble or grain free apple pies. A shame I didn’t have foraged blackberries to add in, too!
I made mini pies because mini food is cute and because perfectly sized portions ensure that I don’t go for seconds when I’m developing recipes. And because grain free pastry is so darned difficult to roll into big pieces without cracking, mini pies do not try my patience so! What better reasons did I need?
Apple crumble was a frequent dessert at Jones family Sunday lunches for many, many years. I have fond memories of offering to help Mum put it together. Her well-worn copy of Delia Smith’s Cookery Course Part 1-3 (first released in 1978) now lives happily on my shelves.
In the Delia recipe, the apples are stewed before the topping is added and I have done that here. I find that as opposed to wheat flour pastry, nut and nut flour pastries – or crumbles – don’t really need much cooking other than to brown. If you don’t cook the apples first you could end up with a burnt top and raw apple underneath.
Mini Apple & Berry Pie
I recently attended a photo workshop with
Tom Arber
as part of a Tots/Foodies 100
Blog Camp
event. After the workshop, I was eager to try out some of the tips I learnt and this photo was the result.
New background
, new light reflector foam board – e.g.
Foamboard A4 x 5mm White (pack of 20)
, new neutral tea towels, and a determination to take my photography to the next level – all part of the new picture! Next on the photography want list is
YongNuo YN-160 LED Video Light for DSLRs and Camcorders
. Tom advised that LED lights like these should help with getting daylight balance into dark photos.
- 150g Ground almonds
- 75g Coconut flour
- 25g Arrowroot
- 1 Tbs Coconut palm sugar
- ½ tsp Baking powder
- ½ tsp Salt
- 115g Chilled butter
- 1 Medium egg, whisked.
- 3 large Bramley apples, peeled, cored and diced (550g of apple)
- Juice of ½ lemon
- ½ tsp Cinnamon
- 1 Tbs Coconut palm sugar (optional, depends how tart the apples are)
- Handful of seasonal berries –blackberries or blueberries are perfect.
- Make the pastry first, since it needs to chill before rolling.
- Sieve the almonds, flour, arrowroot, coconut sugar, baking powder and salt together. Mix well.
- Grate in the chilled butter and use your fingers to crumb the butter with the dry ingredients. As it starts to come together, add the egg and blend thoroughly. Shape the pastry into a large ball, then divide the pastry into two balls, cover in clingfilm and place in the fridge to chill for 1 hour.
- Whilst the pasty is chilling, stew the apples. Place the apple pieces in a saucepan with the lemon juice, cinnamon and sugar. Cook over a medium heat until the apples break down into a soft mush, approximately 10 minutes. Stir in the berries and take off the heat.
- Pre-heat the oven to 175 degrees C / 345 degrees F.
- Grease four ramekins with a smidge of butter, and spoon the apple mixture evenly between them.
- Take the pastry from the fridge and roll out to ~2mm thick. You may need to do this in two batches, as the pastry is fragile. Use a cookie cutter the size of the ramekins (or a spare ramekin itself) to cut out pastry tops and place them on the apple filling. I used two different ramekin sizes and tried serrated as well as smooth edge cutters. Both worked well. Cut out some leaves or other pleasing shapes from the extra pastry and place on top of the pies. Sprinkle with a pinch of sugar and place in the oven to bake for 12 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, allow to cool on a rack for 5-10 minutes and serve with something creamy and tart such as Greek yoghurt or crème fraiche.
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Wonderful photos Ceri, and a fab looking recipe too! Well done x
Thanks so much Vicki. AND I thought you at the workshop as was told by Tom that my camera was just great for what I wanted to use it for – I recall you have the same one 🙂 Happy!! x
You have definitely done a fine job putting into practice Tom’s advice. Your photos are good enough to feature in a cookbook, Ceri. I mentioned you in a post this week (and linked to your homepage): http://lecoindemel.com/spooky-marshmallow-pumpkins-what-not-to-do/ x Mel
Thanks Mel, I hope you have fun taking on his advice too. It was so useful for such a short session. Lovely to see you there. THanks for the mention – its a great post! I love the honesty x