Pieday Friday – A collection of fruit pie recipes

There’s no better pud than a pie, I reckon. A generous slice of hot fruit pie served with slowly melting vanilla ice-cream is a dream come true. Or on chillier days, a steaming stream of custard poured on top of the crisp pastry is just what the doctor ordered. And when you’ve finished your pudding, you know that leftover slice is going to taste amazing cold out of the fridge the next day. Fancy baking a fruit pie? I do!In fact, I did make a fruit pie for Sunday lunch last week. These photos are the result of a few minutes of pastry-making and about as much time cutting out the letters with my new cookie cutters! So after enjoying a tasty sliver of my deep-filled fruit pie, I decided that I couldn’t keep it to myself and conjured up a way of sharing it with you via this ‘collection’ of fruit pie recipes. Read on to get some filling inspiration and tips on getting the crispiest pastry.Filling 1 – Apple and mixed summer fruits. This is the filling I used in my pie last week. We simply peeled and sliced the apples and popped them straight into the pie case – no pre-cooking needed here. We then threw in as much frozen mixed berries as possible and covered with the pastry lid.

Filling 2 – Blueberries and ginger. I found this recipe (and many other fruit pie fillings) on BonAppetit.com. This one calls for 2lbs of blueberries, 1 and a quarter cups of sugar, a quarter of a cup of cornstarch to thicken, a tablespoon of grated ginger and lime zest, a quarter of a cup of lime juice. Mix together and pour into the pie crust uncooked.

Filling 3 – Peach and cherry. Honestly this recipe could be easier because I’m relying on tinned fruit for this one! Simply drain a tin of peach slices and toss into a tin of cherry pie filling. This already has a thick fruity sauce in the tin, so simply cover with a pastry lid and pop it in the oven.

Filling 4 – Classic apple pie. Peel and slice fresh apples and toss in caster sugar to coat. You’ll need more sugar if you’re using cooking apples and les sugar if you’ve using a sweeter eating apple. Fill the pastry case with a ‘heap’ of apples as these will soften and settle down during cooking, then cover with the pie crust. If you like cinnamon, add some to the sugar as you’re tossing the apples to make this classic fruit pie even more tasty!My own pastry tips –

1) Keep your hands really cold when rubbing in the butter. If you’ve got warm hands, cool them under cold running water.

2) Chill the pastry for a couple of minutes in the fridge but don’t leave it for too long as this will make it difficult to roll out.

3) Flour your surface for rolling but don’t add too much flour as this can chance the consistency of the pastry.

4) Roll out the pastry really thinly for a crisp result.5) To get a crisp base (these tend to get soggy with a fruity filling) blind bake the base before adding the fruit. Cover the pastry base with a disc of baking parchment and weigh it down with the cheapest pasta shapes from the supermarket (the 25p kind). Once the pastry has blind baked for about 10 minutes take away the parchment and pasta, and save the pasta in a jar for the next time you want to blind bake pastry.I hope you have a go at making your own fruit pie this weekend and please do let me know how you get on by tweeting me @Cassiefairy. And please let me know your favourite fruit pie fillings in the comments section below – I’d love to try out a new recipe soon!