Apple & Blackberry Messy Pie

I really quite worried that I'm growing up. 

At the weekend I actually got excited about the fruit growing in our garden, how I can feast on blackberries and apples and all the new recipes (and old favourites) that I can make.

It's called a messy pie because I wasn't in the mood to make something that was done so precisely and looked so prim, I wanted something simple, easy and rustic.

Short crust pastry recipe:

6oz plain flour

3oz butter

8 tsp water

Fruit (a reasonable amount)

1 cup of Caster sugar

1 beaten egg

Butter (both melted and solid)

I used my shortcrust pastry recipe, it's the one I always use, the one my mum calls "delicious, it's better than mine!"

Usually I mix it in a bowl with room temp butter rubbed into flour, then add the water slowly, I don't know if that's the normal way or not. 

This time I bunged it all in my blender and mixed it together, adding the water a bit at a time. Then I just rolled it out like this.

Simples.

We have so many blackberries growing at the moment, I didn't even make a dent in these!

Choose whichever fruit you'd like, frozen fruit will work really well too, but I went with the classic blackberry and apple, helpful, seeing as that's what was in the garden.
Peel and chop your fruit, if needed, then pile it high, sprinkling some of the sugar as you go, but not all of it!

Use your bake-o-glide to mold the pastry around the pile, you could be neat and sort of concertina it up, but I was going for rustic.

Once all the pastry is folded around and you've patched up any ugly bits, brush it with the egg to glue it all down, then brush with the melted butter to make it turn nice and golden.

Finally, before you pop it in the oven, sprinkle the rest of your sugar on top and give the tray a couple of bangs on the table so it all sinks down, add a few little lumps of butter on top of the fruit and then put it in the oven at 200 celcius for about 30-40 mins, or until it looks ready and it's oozy and delicious.

We cut it into big ol' hunks, there were four of us and we didn't finish it, but this would easily serve seven!

Serve with lashings of cream, or even better, some delicious vanilla ice cream..