Long time lurker, first time poster.. Hello!

[HeroMaggie]

Hello Everyone and Happy Hump Day

I have been reading this forum for years and always held back being involved. I've finally decided there is no time like the present and am jumping in.

I have my own little yard with my partner, 5 horses and 2 dogs. We have been here about 9 months! Its flew by and I love it.. Looking forward to our first Christmas here. Our driveway is full of blackberries and damsons so I've been making a variety of flavoured alcohol for Christmas presents (and ..ahem.. personal consumption...) and we've made an apple pie from our very own apple tree.

There is nothing like having your horses at home and being able to go down for night checks and a cuddle in your PJ's. Its been my dream for as long as I can remember. Its far from perfect but its suits us for the time being.

So hello to you all.. Hope to get to know you all a bit better now I am an official HHO Forum member

HM x

 

[OrangeAndLemon]

hello and its nice to hear from you.
Have you tried apple & blackberry pie yet? (if you can spare them from your drinks production line )

 

[Sugar_and_Spice]

Hello. I was a lurker for ages too before I joined.

 

[HeroMaggie]

Oh not yet zzClaire.. but I like your thinking! Do you have a fool proof recipe for me? I'm not much of a baker! Blackberry whiskey on the other hand..

 

[HeroMaggie]

Hello. I was a lurker for ages too before I joined.

Glad its not just me.. I come on religiously every day to see what's occurring and thought its about time I started contributing

 

[OrangeAndLemon]

Oh not yet zzClaire.. but I like your thinking! Do you have a fool proof recipe for me? I'm not much of a baker! Blackberry whiskey on the other hand..

I'm afraid I'm a bit of an experimental cook so I buy the ready rolled pastry, put it in the tin, soften some chopped apple in a saucepan with some brown sugar then throw the blackberrys in towards the end, stir them through then chuck it all in the pastry, put some pastry on top, with a little hole in the top, and cook as the instructions on the pastry wrapper. Googling a recipe might be a safer idea

When I was a kid we had rhubarb growing in the garden and a baking apple tree, and there were plenty of blackberry bushes on the walk down to the fields so blackberry & apple pie, rhubarb & apple pie were autumn favourites.

 

[HeroMaggie]

I'm afraid I'm a bit of an experimental cook so I buy the ready rolled pastry, put it in the tin, soften some chopped apple in a saucepan with some brown sugar then throw the blackberrys in towards the end, stir them through then chuck it all in the pastry, put some pastry on top, with a little hole in the top, and cook as the instructions on the pastry wrapper. Googling a recipe might be a safer idea

When I was a kid we had rhubarb growing in the garden and a baking apple tree, and there were plenty of blackberry bushes on the walk down to the fields so blackberry & apple pie, rhubarb & apple pie were autumn favourites.

Sounds pretty fool proof to me.. Might try it for my Mum visiting this weekend. She's always impressed that I can now cook more than a boiled egg so a home baked pie with ingredients from our garden will blow her mind!

 

[shirl62]

You could do apple & blackberry crumble....a lot easier

Shirl

 

[OrangeAndLemon]

In fear of having guiding you into a pie which might scare mum...you're cooking the apples just to make them soft and easy to eat, remove skin & core first, no need to turn them into a pulp, if you can retain some shape it would be nice. This is why you put the blackberries in later, they don't need any softening. Don't forget you can taste this mixture as you cook it and add more or less sugar to suit, lemon juice can be added too if you have any. This next bit is how I ended up being an experimental cook; why not root around your cupboards, do you have any cinnamon hiding in there, if you do, chuck a bit in.

If you're using a proper pie tin, don't forget to grease it. Alternatively, you can buy those foil trays from the supermarket and don't have to worry about getting the pie out (I use a ceramic pie dish so can leave it in to serve) but the risk then is that mum thought you bought the pie ready made! When trying to get the pasty to go right into the corners of the tin/dish, use a little blob of leftover pastry rather than fingers, to stop it tearing.

The best part about having this stuff in your garden is that if it goes wrong, chuck it out, pick more fruit and start again.

 

[HeroMaggie]

Haha love how you've came back in fear of it all going wrong!

Think I'll give it a go! Thanks for the extra pointers, really helpful