Mixed Berry Plaited Pie

I will start today’s post with a confession. I am a hoarder. I find it difficult to throw things away. In the process of moving I have had to address this (well I like to think I have addressed it!) Whilst packing I have had to sort through many food magazines. At various points over the last few years I have had subscriptions to Delicious, Good Food and Olive and had kept them all. My husband was not going to let me pack up and move boxes of magazines but I didn’t want to throw them away. The solution to my reluctance to throw these away – to rip out all the recipes I liked the look of or thought I might like to make one day in the future. I now have a lever arch folder fit to burst with recipes. It was when I was ripping and filing that I spotted this recipe. I am a bit obsessed with blackberry recipes at the moment and this not only contained blackberries but also looked pretty impressive.

This is an Olive recipe that you can find on the BBC Good Food website here. It is a cross between a pie (it has a pastry base and pastry twists on top) and a cake. It is very easy to prepare as you make both the base and filling in a food processor (I didn’t even bother washing it out!)

Ingredients:

100g butter (softened)
2 tablespoons golden caster sugar (plus extra for dusting)
200g plain flour
1 egg (beaten)
1 x 375g pack ready-rolled shortcrust pastry
plain flour (for dusting)

Filling:
150g butter (softened)
150g golden caster sugar
50g ground almonds
3 eggs
150g self-raising flour
250g mixed berries (I used raspberries, blueberries and blackberries)

Method:
1) Heat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4 and line the base of a brownie tin approximately 20cm x 30cm (I used a roasting tin slightly larger than this and it was fine). In a food processor whizz together the butter, sugar and flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Add the egg and whizz until it looks like coarse breadcrumbs.

Tip into the tin and press firmly to make an even layer (I struggled at this point – so much so my husband said I would never survive on the Great British Bake Off! It was difficult to press the pastry so I had to take the paper out of the tin and roll the pastry using a rolling pin to roughly the right size before putting the paper back in the tin.)

Chill the pastry base while you make the filling.
2) Whizz the butter and sugar in a food processor until combined.

Add the ground almonds, eggs and flour until smooth. Pour over the base and spread with the back of a spoon.
3) Scatter over the mixed berries to cover the top.

4) On a lightly dusted surface unroll the pastry and cut into 18 lengths (short strips rather than long).

Arrange half, spaced out on top of the fruit, twisting each strand on the diagonal. Then repeat with the remaining lengths but in the opposite direction. Trim the overhanging pastry. Sprinkle with extra sugar, about 2 tablespoons.