Tag: mulberry pie

Foraging for mulberries

Today, when we went back to our car after a few hours spent at the beach, we saw three young girls rushing away from a front yard with something that appeared to be very precious in the hands.  They were mulberries. The careful attitude had a lot to do with avoiding having blackened hands and squashing the fruits! This did it for us, it was time to go and check our neighbourhood trees and go foraging for mulberries!

Mulberry Trees

Mulberry trees are not an Australian native tree species and because of that, many councils have simply cut the mulberry trees over the last five to ten years.  In our area, this has not yet been the case.  The tree we went to is quite large, the season is just starting.  The fruits this year do not appear to be very big but there are plenty.

mulberry tree

 

A child’s adventure

This foraging expedition is best shared with children.  The children love it!  They get really excited, so I got them to gather our “kit” and we were ready.  We took boxes and a stool and off we went.

The first berries are easy to get to…

Then, a bit more strategy and skills are required…

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The other solution? Shake gently one branch and gather the fallen fruits, it is quite effective.

Now, our rule is to gather just what we need and no more.   It is a lot of fun and a great adventure!

After that, when we got home, we washed the fruits and removed the stalk. As a result, we did end up with fingers very purple, most of it has not washed off.

Mulberry Pie

The end purpose of collecting mulberries was to make a mulberry pie.  It is after dinner now and the left over of our pie is standing on the dinning table not far from me, I can smell its distinctive fruit and buttery aroma!

The full recipe can be found on its page HERE.

mulberry pie

mulberry pie

mulberry pie

 

 

Classic Mulberry Pie

If you have some mulberry trees in your neighbourhood, you could try to collect some of the fruits and bake this classic mulberry pie.

You will need about 2 L of mulberries.  Your fingers will get quite coloured by the juice, it takes a few washes to wash off, otherwise use thin nitrile or latex gloves.

mulberry pie

Ingredients:
For the short crust pastry.

The quantity below can be a bit tight (you have just enough), so feel free to increase it by half to give you some space to move, that new quantity is noted into bracket.

  • 100 g of butter softened (or 150 g)
  • 200 g of plain flour (or 300 g)
  • some cold water, about 1/2 glass (about 3/4 of a glass)
For the filling:
  • around 2 L of fresh mulberries
  • 4 tablespoons of flour
  • 4 tablespoons of white sugar
  • Whipped cream – for serving
Method:

1. Prepare the shortcrust pastry

Place softened butter cut in cubes and flour together in a bowl.  Rub the soft butter and the flour together until all of the butter sticks to the flour. Add water little at the time to obtain an homogenized ball.  If you have put too much water, add 1 teaspoon of flour at the time.  Wrap in cling-wrap and rest for at least half an hour at room temperature before using.

If you want to see pictures and tips, consult my page dedicated to shortcrust pastry.

2. Clean the mulberries gently and drain. Remove all the stokes.

3. Mix to the mulberries, the flour and sugar.

4. Divide the dough in 2 pieces, one slightly larger than the other. This will be the bottom part.  Roll the dough (you will know when to stop, the dough should not be forced, it will spread under the push of the roller to its final size).  Place the dough over the tart tin.  If you have only little extra, do not remove it, if you have plenty extra, cut the pastry 2- 3 cm away from the edge.

5. Place the fruit mix in the pastry. Level.

mulberry pie

  1. Fold back the edges. You could very well choose not to place a lid and eave it as such, it would be beautiful.  I like this as a pie.  Roll the second part of short crust pastry. Using the point of a knife, cut a disk of diameter slightly smaller than the diameter of your pie.  Using a kitchen brush (use your fingers if you do not have any), brush the top of the lower pastry with milk and then place the disk over the top of the pie.  You can decorate with lines or other patterns traced with your pointy knife as wished, ensure you do not cut through.  Brush the top of the pie with milk or with eggwash (a beaten egg with drop of water).

mulberrie pie

  1. Bake in preheated oven at 170 °C until golden.  Allow to cool partly before serving.  Serve with whipped cream.

 

mulberry pie

 

mulberry pie