Blackberry and Apple Galette and Cake

Managed a lovely walk not to far from home on Saturday, just round the corner in fact. I busied myself picking blackberries. Growing up I was regularly press-ganged into service,  gathering blackberries, fungi , mussels , bricks from skips and I expect a level of foraging focus, with no thought for personal safety this is perhaps why my lower legs are now covered in bites and nettle stings. Is it wrong I am starting to get a slight buzz from the nettle tingle.  LBF has a more relaxed (less obsessive) approach proferring just a few handfuls of berries and  observing the native wildlife.

I was so busy giving my foraging work ethics lecture that it was up to LBF to spot a  fruit laden apple tree on the way home and filled the rest of my bag with apples, avoiding the wasps eating the rotten apples

Perhaps it was the excitement of some fresh ingredients but I woke up very early on Sunday morning before dawn in fact , but after sunrise I sat on the patio peeling apples, drinking tea and catching up on the Archers. By the time LBF surfaced at 11.30am I was a picture of domesticity and had decided to make a couple of cakes, one to take down to the folks next weekend and one for us should I need a sugar hit in the week.

Apple and Blackberry Galette

Galette is a pie for those that cannot make pies all it requires it the ability to gently gather together pastry and pinch, the result is attrative money bag shaped pie this works for soft fruits like nectarines , peaches and plums too.

Pastry
200g of plain flour
100g of butter
40ml of cold water

1 egg yolk to glaze

1. Rub the butter into the flour to form breadcrumbs
2. Add the water slowly to form a dough
3. Place in the refridgerator for at least 20 minutes

Apple and Blackberry Filling

200g of apples
200g of blackberries washed
2 tbsp of demara sugar
1 tbsp of cinamon

Peel the apples , core and finely slice
Mix with the cinmon and sugar and leave for 20 minutes

To form the galette

1. Roll out the pastry in a disk shape til 5mm thick, lay onto a flat baking sheet onto a sheet of baking paper
2. Place the apples into the centre of the disk and pile high with the blackberries
3. Gather the pastry up around the apples a pinch at the top forming an open sack
4. Brush the pastry with the egg yolk
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 180degc for 40 minutes

Blackberry and Apple Cake

Blackberry and Apple Cake , I used this recipe from BBC Good Food , but I trippled the amount of apple, though I thought this might make it too moist it worked fine. I love these kind of cakes , thick slices with cups of tea.