When I’m not developing recipes for others, writing blogs or cooking for the lovely Mr G, this is wha

Baker & Foodie Content Creator

Hi.

My name is Lee, welcome to my pages. I hope we can have fun together?

When I’m not developing recipes for others, writing guest blogs, writing my own blog, or even trying to learn how to paint, I’m usually spending time with the amazing Mr G (my husband) or with my lovely daughter or my lovely son (very proud mum).

What is this all about? Great question. This site is about real cooking and baking, real recipes and real mistakes.

No filters here, (although i’d love to find a filter that can take ten years worth of laugh lines away. Just me, whats happening, and whatever cameras or phone i have to hand .

There are many things that get under my bonnet and wiggle around, one of those is food waste. If i buy ingredients specifically for a recipe, and i only need a small amount of the ingredients, i want to be able to use the rest up and not have to throw them away. My mum used to say , “Waste not Want not” is that still a saying ?

For me, waste is not just about using up all the ingredients. What about leftover food? If i’m able , i hope to give ideas as to how to use up any leftovers too.

Be Brave

Cooking isn’t hard , neither is baking, its all about being brave and being ok with making mistakes

Deep Dish Blueberry Lattice Pie

Deep Dish Blueberry Lattice Pie

Using frozen fruit as a pie filling may not be the first thing to think about, but honestly, frozen blueberries work perfectly for this deep-dish pie.

 It’s a pie for a family, deep with fruit and soaking with thick sauce, not too sweet, enclosed in a pastry that glistens with sugar.

And of course, there has to be gallons of custard to go with it, and with the depth of the pie, comes tons of blueberries, so don’t be surprised when you read how much fruit is needed.

 I fancied a little bit of pastry lattice for the top, but don’t be shy with the pastry, cover the whole thing if you want to, just add lots more granulated sugar to the top before and after baking.

 Serve this pie hot from the oven, or at room temperature so the flavours are front and centre.

 Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life!

Deep with fruit and golden pastry

 What You Need

 Pastry

  •  375g Plain Flour – Plus extra for dusting

  • 150g Butter – Cold from the fridge and cut into cubes

  • 150g Granulated Sugar

  • 50g Icing Sugar

  • 2 Large Egg Yolks

  • 1 Large Egg - Separated into yolk and egg white.

Divide the pastry in two. 1/3rd and 2/3rds

Filling

  •  1,300g Frozen Blueberries

  • 100g Granulated Sugar – See Tip Box

  • 1 Large Lemon – Juice and zest

  • 6 tbsp Cornflour

 

Cornflour, lemon zest and juice along with sugar added to the frozen blueberries.

 How It’s Done

 Pastry

  •  In a Food Processor - Place the flour and icing sugar into a food processor and whizz it up to mix together. Feed the cubes of butter into the top of the food processor and let it whizz together until it resembles breadcrumbs. Put both of the egg yolks into a small bowl and add 1 tbsp of cold water to the yolks. Use a fork to mix the yolks and water together. With the food processor running, drizzle the egg mixture into the flour and let it run until it comes together into a soft dough. Tip out the dough and bring together into a ball. Don’t over handle the dough – See Tip Box

  • By Hand – Put the flour and icing sugar into large bowl and rub the pieces of butter into the flour mixture using finger tips or a pastry cutter. Drizzle in the egg and water mixture and using a blunt knife (such as a butter knife) mix it all together until it comes together into a ball. Wrap the dough in cling film and let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Test out if the fruit fits into the deep dish before lining the dish with pastry.

 Filling

  •  Place the frozen blueberries int a large bowl and add the cornflour, lemon juice and zest and 100g of granulated sugar.

  • Give it all a really good mix together so that all the blueberries are coated.

Blueberries with a good coating of everything

 Assembly

  • Heat the oven to 200c

  • Place an oven tray in the oven to heat up.

  • Grab a deep dish – See Tip Box

  • Dust a little bit of flour into a clean worksurface.

  • Cut the pastry into two pieces, one two thirds and the remaining piece 1 third – See Picture

  • Use the larger piece and roll it out to fit the bottom of the deep dish, so the pastry goes up the sides and there is a little left over hanging the dish – Roll out the pastry to about the thickness of a £! Coin – See Tip Box

  • Pour in the blueberries and level them as much as possible.

Fill the dish right up to the top.

  • Dust the worksurface with a little more flour and roll out the remaining pastry to about the thickness of a £1 coin.

  • Cut the pastry int strips, and start to lay the pastry on top of the pie filling, in a crisscross pattern, any way you like.

Criss ross the strips in any pattern you like and stick them together with egg white.

  • As a guide - I find it easier to cut out strips of pastry with a pizza cutter, it rolls nice and smoothly through the pastry and leave clean lines along the edges.

  • When laying one piece of pastry over or under another, use a little egg white to stick the joins together.

  • Once you’ve finished with the pastry strips and the pattern is how you like it, it’s time to brush all the pastry top with an egg yolk wash to do this, place the last egg yolk into a small bowl with a teaspoon of water and use a fork to beat it together lightly.

  • Use a brush to brush the egg mixture liberally, over the top of the pastry lattice.

  • Sprinkle 100g of granulated sugar over the top of the lattice top.

Brush the pastry with egg wash and sprinkle lots and lots of sugar on top.

  • Put the pie into the hot oven, sitting it on top of the hot oven tray.

  • Let the pie cook for 10 minutes and after ten minutes, turn the oven down to 170c and bake until the pastry top is a light golden colour and the filling is bubbling, 60-70 minutes – See Tip Box

  • Before serving, let the pie sit out of the oven for 10 minutes just to let the filling cool a little.

  • Serve it hot or at room temperature with lots of custard or ice cream.

 Tip Box

  • Granulated Sugar – You may need a lot more granulated sugar for the top pf the pie, it really depends how sweet you’d like the top to be and whether or not you decide to cover the entire top pf the pie with pastry.

  • Handling the Dough – Don’t knead the dough or over handle it. Too much handling and the pastry will be tough to eat not the lovely short pastry that’s it’s supposed to be.

  • Deep Dish – The shape of the dish is up to you, but make sure it’s really dish so all the fruit fits in. When I’m making a pie with this much fruit, I always test the dish out first to make sure it all fits in. I pour all the fruit into the dish before laying in the pastry, just to test it. You can see that’s what I did when you look at the picture of the pastry being out on the bottom of the pie dish.

  • Pastry Thickness – Don’t be too precious about the thickness of the pastry, the £1 coin thickness is just an estimate.

  • Baking – 1) The time the pie takes to bake depends on the size of the dish and the oven, so adjust the cooking time accordingly.

    2) If the edges of the pie starts to get too dark before the pie is finished cooking, wrap the edges in foil to complete the baking.

Don’t let the edges of the pie get too dark before the pie has finished baking.

Ultimate Fish Pie with Cheese & Parsley Mash

Ultimate Fish Pie with Cheese & Parsley Mash

Pea & Courgette Soup

Pea & Courgette Soup

0