Bramble Pie Recipe

OK, so this post has absolutely nothing to do with sewing but I just had to share it with you! When I was younger, and at the end of every August, my Grandma would take me, my sisters and my cousins down the Ten Foot at the back of her house to go ‘brambling’. My family live in Yorkshire, so I believe that this is a term either A) dialectal to Yorkshire or B) coined by my Grandma. I’m inclined to think that the latter is most likely as I’ve never heard anyone else use it! In fact, my other half laughs just at the thought that I even call them ‘brambles’ in the first place (‘they’re blackberries, right?’)

Alas, I no longer visit my Grandma every August, and so this year I had to make do and find a new source of fruity goodness. Cue my work car-park. OK, so it’s not the most glamorous of foraging locations but it’s alongside a river, there are nettles a-plenty and boy are there are a lot of brambles! So one lunchtime this week I dragged my delightful work colleague out of the office and went brambling for the first time in years. We didn’t look particularly cool but I don’t care: there’s a bramble pie at stake here.

The bramble pie recipe that I used to convert these juicy berries into a delicious dessert is as follows. I’d love to see your own results!

Filling
400g hand-picked brambles
100g brown sugar

Shortcrust Pastry
175g plain flour
15g icing sugar
75g cold butter
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon cold water

Method
To make the shortcrust pastry: measure the flour and icing sugar into a bowl and rub in the butter with your fingers until it looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the egg yolk and water until the dough comes together. Wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.

To make the pie base: roll out 3/4 of the pastry and use to line a 23cm loose bottom flan tin – let the pastry drape over the edges and then roll over the tin with a rolling pin to cut off the excess. Line the base with baking paper, add baking beans and blind bake at 200c for 15 mins.

To make the filling: mix together the brambles and brown sugar and then spoon it into the pre-cooked pastry case.

To make the pie top: roll out the remaining 1/4 of pastry and cut into a circle. Lay this over the bramble-filled case and pinch around the edges to seal. Make a hole in the centre for hot air to escape and lightly brush with milk.

Cooking: cook the pie in a 180c oven for 25 minutes until golden. Cool slightly, cut and serve! It goes well with vanilla ice cream if you want that little bit extra, too.