Apple and strawberry pie ~ recipe

We've been waiting until the English strawberries were in to share this customer recipe for a strawberry and apple pie.

Ingredients:

Pack of ready made shortcrust pastry

7 dessert apples (we suggest Royal Gala but our customer uses whatever she happens to have in her fruit bowl)

500 grams strawberries, washed, plugged & halved

2 tablespoons sugar + additional sugar for sprinkling on the pastry crust

Beaten egg for glazing

Method:

Peel, core & quarter the apples.

Put the apples in a saucepan with the sugar and 2 tablespoons of water, par cook until water is absorbed, watch carefully so the apples don't burn. Remove from heat and add the strawberries, leave to cool while you prepare the pie crusts.

Roll out the pastry and line your greased pie dish with half the pastry reserving the other half for the pie lid.

Spoon the cooled fruit mixture into the pie, top with pastry, seal edges, make a hole in the centre for steam to come out.

Glaze with beaten egg, sprinkle with sugar and cook in a pre-heated oven for 35-40 minutes Gas Mark 4, 180c, 350f until the pastry is golden brown.

Remove from the oven, serve warm or cold. Very nice with ice cream.  



.

Georgian Apple and Rose Petal Pie ~ Recipe

Apple pie is a great favourite served with custard or cream but have you ever heard of apple and rose petal pie? No, neither had we until a customer kindly shared this recipe with us:

Ingredients:

225 grams (8ozs)  puff pasty 

675 grams (1 1/2lbs)  Bramley apples

125 grams (4ozs) granulated sugar + additional sugar for sprinkling on crust

Grated rind of 1/2 lemon

A handful of rose petals (scented), washed with the base pinched out.

3 cloves 

A blade of mace 

Beaten egg to glaze

Method:

Peel, core & slice the apples into thick slices.

Place the apple peel, cores, cloves and mace in a saucepan with enough water to cover them.

Bring to the boil and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Remove peelings, cloves and mace before dissolving 125grams of sugar in the syrup, leave to cool.

Put the apple slices in a pie dish, sprinkle the grated lemon rind on top then add the cooled syrup.

Next scatter the rose petals on top.

Roll a pastry lid and cover the pie, leaving a hole to allow steam out.

Brush with the beaten egg and sprinkle lightly with sugar.

Put the pie dish on a baking tray and cook in a preheated over for 10 minutes on Gas Mark 8, 230c, 450f, followed by a further 30 minutes at Gas Mark 5, 190c, 375f.

Remove from oven and serve with clotted cream. 

Bee Body Part a video for World Bee Day

It's World Bee Day so we thought we'd share this fun video about the structure and function of a bee's body parts.

Interesting use of a toilet brush!

Watch it, it's educational and great fun especially for children :

Bee Bodies: Structure and (Fun)ction from Bug Chicks on Vimeo.

Queen Anne's Lace

It's everywhere at this time of year, in the hedgerows, at the roadside, in the orchard, Queen Anne's Lace :

Queen Anne, Queen Anne, has washed her lace
(She chose a summer day)
And hung it in a grassy place
To whiten, if it may.

Queen Anne, Queen Anne, has left it there,
And slept the dewy night,
Then waked to find the sunshine fair,
And all the meadows white.

Queen Anne, Queen Anne, is dead and gone
(She died a summer's day)
But left her lace to whiten on
Each weed entangled way. 

                                                                                                         Mary Leslie Newton