My Vegan Apple and Blackberry Pie is a plant based twist on a classic British pudding. Serve with vegan whipped cream, custard or ice cream for a delicious dessert that everyone will love. Get the recipe below.
I've been foraging since I was a child. I just didn't know that's what it was called. At the end of the summer we'd head out with bags full of Tupperware and we'd collect the blackberries on hedgerows around our town. When out on walks in the nearby wood, dad would happily munch on cobnuts that had fallen to the ground. My fascination with food and how it grows began there.
I've moved away from my home town but one of the first things I did was learn where the "free" food was in my local area. A random fig tree on a suburban street. A small apple tree in the park. And, of course, the hedgerows full of blackberries and other delicious berries.
This pie is made with apples and blackberries, two fruits that regularly grow in the wild here in the UK.
If you want to see all of the recipes I've made from foraged ingredients, check out the foraged recipe archive.
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Ingredients
To make this delicious pie you'll need the following ingredients:
- Apples
- Blackberries
- Ginger
- Cinnamon
- Sugar
- Cornflour
- Shortcrust pastry
- Plant milk
Apples and blackberries complement each other so well and can often be found alongside each other in desserts and other dishes.
In this Apple and Blackberry Pie the apples provide the texture and substance while the blackberries bring a sticky sweetness to the pie. Their juices mix to form a syrupy coating over the tender chunks of apple.
The buttery shortcrust pastry case is the perfect vehicle for the satisfying mix of sweet, sour and sticky filling.
Traditionally shortcrust pastry is made with a mix of lard and butter. Since turning vegan I have had to adapt this slightly. Some vegan shortcrust pastry recipes use olive oil. These work well but I prefer to use plant based substitutes for the traditional ingredients. For the lard I use a vegetable shortening like Trex. For the butter I will use a non-dairy alternative. My go to brand is Flora. By using a mix of shortening and non-dairy butter it keeps the rich buttery flavour but is a little more stable and easy to work with. This recipe calls for 500 g of shortcrust pastry which you can buy in a block from the supermarket.
To find out more about vegan baking, check out my big vegan baking guide.
Step-by-step instructions
Follow these 8 steps to make this vegan apple and blackberry pie:
- Step 1: Roll out ⅔rds of your pastry and line the pie dish.
- Step 2: Mix together the fruit and spices.
- Step 3: Sprinkle the sugar and cornflour over the base of the pie crust.
- Step 4: Tip the fruit into the pie crust.
- Step 5: Roll out the remaining pastry and cut into strips long enough to cover the width of the pie. Lay the strips over the top of the pie in an open lattice pattern.
- Step 6: Brush the pastry with a little plant milk. Bake in the centre of the oven for 45 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden.
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Variations
Giving the visitor ideas on how they can change this recipe to better suit their dinner guests, or their cultural cuisine, is a great way to increase the chances they make the recipe
- Dried fruit - add raisins for an even fruitier filling that also has a little bit of a chewy texture
- More berries - add other seasonal berries like raspberries or cranberries at different times of the year
See this hedgerow crumble for inspiration for other foraged fruits you might want to add to this pie.
Equipment
For this pie you'll need a deep pie dish. One that's roughly x inches wide will be perfect but it's not the end of the world if it's an inch or two different in width.
Serving suggestions
I think that this pie is best served hot with a big dollop of vegan ice cream but regular vegan cream or even vegan custard would work well.
Storage
Once cooked this pie is best eaten within 2 - 3 days and warmed up before serving.
You can, however, freeze it before serving. To freeze, simply fill and top the pie, wrap carefully in clingfilm or in a Ziploc bag and place in the freezer uncooked. You can then cook from frozen or defrost first.
Top Tip
This Vegan Apple and Blackberry Pie is a great example of a dessert recipe you can make in bulk. If you have a particularly large crop of blackberries and apples you can make 3, 4 or more of these pies and freeze them for later! Of course you could also share them with friends and family to fill their freezers too.
FAQ
You can use a wide range of varieties for this pie recipe. Why not consider using: Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, Golden Delicious or Braeburn.
The secret to preventing a soggy bottom isn't blind baking the crust. Instead, add a mix of cornflour and sugar to the base of the pie dish before adding your filling. This will soak up the juices from the fruit as they cook, turning it into a delicious syrup. This keeps the filling moist and helps the pastry to cook. Win-win.
The trick is to drape the pastry over your rolling pin and to carefully lift it over the pie dish. Gently mould the pastry into the dish using the bag of your knuckle or gently with your finger tips. Roll some of the pastry trimmings into a ball and use to gently press around the edges of the pie dish to ensure the pastry is flush against the case all the way around.
The recipe
Vegan Apple and Blackberry Pie
Ingredients
- 500 g vegan shortcrust pastry
- 4 cooking apples
- 200 g blackberries
- 1.5 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 5 tablespoon caster sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornflour
- 2 tablespoon plant milk e.g. soy milk or oat milk
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 5.
- Roll out ⅔ of your pastry until it is large enough to fill a deep pie dish.
- Peel and core the apples and cut into 1.5 inch cubes.
- Place the apple into a large bowl along with the blackberries and spices then mix together.
- Mix the sugar and cornflour and sprinkle over the base of the pie.
- Tip the fruit into the pie dish.
- Roll out the remaining pastry and cut into strips long enough to cover the top of the pie in a lattice pattern.
- Brush with plant milk.
- Bake in the centre of your oven for 45 minutes or until the pastry is crisp and golden.
Notes
Nutrition
More apple based puddings
With apples in such abundance in the UK there are tonnes of ways you can use them in dessert recipes. Here are some of my favourites:
kerrycooks says
What a cute pie! Well done!
Emmyw says
Thanks Kerry!