Mulberry Pie

This rustic mulberry pie was (mostly) made by Mia, aged 4 (and three quarters – don’t dare miss the three quarters).

There are layers and layers of story in it, and I don’t know which way to go.

• Childhood memories of sitting up in the mulberry tree, stripped down to knickers (so we didn’t get into trouble for staining our clothes), hands stained purple for days.
• Why it is such a good thing, teaching kids to cook from scratch.
• The point of grandmas and the joys and benefits to be had from multi-generational families (whether biological or chosen).
• Variety, seasonality, and making the most of prolific, short season foods without getting sick of them.
• Foraging in urban environments and how many unharvested mulberry trees there are.

But you all no doubt have those stories, so I’ll wait to hear yours and stick with the recipe.

Mia’s Mulberry Pie

Pastry in a food processor is so easy, but we still did a bit of rubbing the butter into the flour, just like my grandmother did, so Mia gets it that you are not restricted by the availability of kitchen appliances. The object of the exercise is to have tiny flecks of un-melted butter mixed through the flour till it looks like breadcrumbs. To do it this way, you mix the flour and sugar, then rub the butter in with your fingertips, then add the egg yolk last.

It’s easy with a little practice, but much faster and easier in a food processor, especially when your hands are four-year-old size. Just pulse together:

• 1 1/2 cups of plain flour (wholemeal or unbleached)
• 125 grams of cold butter, chopped into little cubes
• good spoonful of sugar (brown or white)
• 1 egg yolk (save the white for glazing)

Then add cold water, slowly, till the dough comes together. Knead it very briefly, then roll out on a floured benchtop and line a greased 25cm pie dish.

(You should have enough pastry left over to roll out again and cut into strips to make the lattice for the top.)

Prick the bottom of the pastry all over, and blind bake. Blind baking just means covering your pastry with greaseproof paper and filling with uncooked beans, or rice, or chickpeas or something similar, and cooking for 10 minutes or so before filling.  The beans are dry already so it doesn’t hurt them. It stops the pastry going soggy if you have a filling without oil or cheese in it.

Meanwhile, make the filling.

Cut the stalks off the mulberries. This is easiest with scissors, and great scissor skills for four-year-olds. Then put them in a pot with:

• grated rind of half a lemon
• good spoonful of sugar

Simmer until the juice is reduced a little and starting to get sticky on a spoon. Take it off the heat, tip a little of the juice into a cup, let it cool, then mix in a scant dessertspoon full of cornflour, then return it to the mulberry pot and stir through.

Fill the blind baked pie crust with the mulberry mix. Make the lattice for the top by laying strips across the pie, then folding every second one back to lay a cross strip, and repeat. Pinch the edges to make the lattice stick, then glaze by brushing with the egg white, beaten with a little milk.

Bake until nicely golden. Celebrate with the four year old how much more sophisticated her pie looks compared to the one she made last year as a three year old.