Donna Hay's Blueberry Pie

Having friends over was the perfect excuse to make a delicious pie! This recipe for blueberry pie is taken from Donna Hay's Seasons cookbook (Donna Hay 2009). It was originally for 6 small pies but I decided to just make a nice big one and serve it with some cream and ice cream. This pie has a beautiful almond meal and sugar bottom layer that gives the pie a nice flavour and crunch. 

Ingredients:

 2x 200g sheets store-bought shortcrust pastry, thawed
 375g blueberries
 2 tbs caster (superfine) sugar
 1 tsp lemon juice
 1/2 cup (60g) almond meal
 2 tbs plain (all-purpose) flour
 1/4 cup (55g) caster (superfine) sugar, extra
 40g butter, melted
 1 tsp vanilla extract
 1 tsp finely grated lemon rind
 1 egg lightly beaten
 granulated sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 180'C (355'F).

Combine blueberries, sugar and lemon juice in a bowl. Set aside. Combine almond meal, flour, extra sugar, butter, vanilla and lemon rind in a bowl. Set aside. Line a lightly greased pie dish with one sheet of shortcrust pastry and cut to fit. With the other sheet of pastry, cut it into strips and set aside. 

Place the almond meal and sugar mixture in the pie dish and spread evenly. Pour blueberry mix on top and place strips on top in a lattice shape. Brush the pie with the egg and sprinkle with granulated sugar. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the top is golden. 

Donna Hay (2009). Donna Hay Seasons: the best of donna hay magazine. Sydney, Australia: HarperCollinsPublishers.

Mini Apple Crumbles

I used a Dutch apple pie recipe from Food.com (Food.com 2002) to make these mini apple crumbles for my boyfriend's work. They were a hit! Crunchy on the outside and juicy inside, everyone said they loved them. The recipe made about 2 dozen, but we kept 1 dozen for ourselves...You know, to make sure they tasted good.

Filling

2x 200g sheets store-bought shortcrust pastry, thawed
5 1/2 cups peeled, cored and sliced into small pieces, cooking apples (I used Granny Smith for their delicious sourness) 
1 tbs lemon juice
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
3 tbs flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Topping

3/4 cup plain (multipurpose) flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup butter, room temperature

Preheat oven to 185'C (375'F).

Fill a one dozen mini cupcake tray with patty pans. Cut circles out of shortcrust pastry to fit inside patty pans. Combine apples, lemon juice, both sugars, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. Evenly separate mixture into patty pans

In another bowl, mix flour, both sugars and butter with fork until resembles breadcrumbs. Sprinkle evenly onto the pattypans.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden. 

Food.com (2002). Dutch Apple Pie. Retrieved from http://www.food.com/recipe/dutch-apple-pie-43990