Free-form blackberry and apple pie recipe

The taste of blackberry and apple pie is the essence of autumn. Free-form blackberry and apple pie has the pastry simply folded over to make a sweet and rustic pudding. Although making pastry in a food processor is quicker than you think, if you're really short of time use ready-rolled sweet shortcrust pastry instead.

Serves 6

Takes 1 hour to make, plus chilling for 30 minutes

Ingredients

200g plain flour, plus extra to dust
125g chilled unsalted butter, cubed
1 medium egg, beaten
100g golden caster sugar
3 eating apples, such as Braeburn
300g blackberries
1 lemon, finely grated zest, plus 1 tbsp lemon juice
25g fresh breadcrumbs

METHOD

How to make blackberry and apple pie

1. Put the flour and butter into a food processor and whizz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and 2 tablespoons of the sugar, then whizz again until the mixture just forms a ball. Turn out, wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.

2. Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan180°C/gas 6. Quarter, core and cut the apples into chunky wedges and mix in a bowl with all but 1 teaspoon of the remaining sugar, the blackberries, lemon zest and juice.

3. Using a floured rolling pin, roll out the pastry on a large sheet of floured baking paper to a circle about 30cm across. Upturn the pastry and paper onto a baking tray. Peel off the paper.

4. Sprinkle the centre of the pastry with breadcrumbs. Pile the prepared fruit into the centre of the pastry leaving a wide border and fold the pastry edges up and over the fruit. Sprinkle the pastry with the reserved sugar. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the pastry is golden and the fruit tender.