Tutti-Frutti Flapover Pie

Sam refers to this as a "Tutti-Frutti Flapover Pie", I think this is a cute name! So I'm gonna keep it.

His pie is filled with nectarines, blueberries, blackberries, banana and apple. Mine had apples and blackberries - take away from this that any old fruit/ combination there of will do!

I make my pastry with wholemeal flour and brown sugar, both of which contribute to a more nutty tasting, brown effect. The brown sugar helps to counter the slightly drying effect of the bran in the flour.

I chuck a little ground almonds in through my fruit, partially because I like the taste, but mostly to soak up any extraneous fruit juices!

This is a deceptively simple, but impressive dessert - I encourage you to give it a go!

Olive Parcels

 I think the original recipe for these, such as it is, came from and Allyson Gofton cookbook... But I am not certain!

Parmesan, pastry and olive these little parcels come together in moments! My Mummy used to make them to take as nibbles (Ladies, a Plate! NZ Style) to Adult Dinners - and I used to try to scoff as many as I could before she noticed... It was a good deal. I usually got in trouble, but it was worth it!

Now that I'm an adult (kinda-sorta) I can make them as and when I please/ have leftover pastry... The olives might make them a little less popular that my other leftover Pastry Snacks - but that just means more for meee!!!

"Leftover pastry" is possibly a slight misnomer here - because the easiest way to make these is to use pre-rolled puff or savoury short crust pastry cut into squares... But you can use any puff or savoury short crust, really - the pre-rolled stuff just saves you time!

Aside from "pitted" the olives can be any of your choice! Kalamata is my favourite - but stuffed, green olives are fun too...

Apple Pie

First, a word of warning: Don't expect your boyfriend who believes that "fruit has no place in dessert" to eat this. He won't. And then you will be cross. And then he will wonder why you are cross because you know he doesn't like fruit based pudding... and then you'll get crosser-er. Which is silly. Just serve this to your appreciative, fruit eating flat mates who will tell you wonderful things about life, the universe and your pie and then you will feel that all is right with the world. The end.

Now, on to the pie in question...

I made this because we had, all of a sudden apples coming out of our ears at our flat! It's a sort of amalgamation of two recipes, both from student cookbooks - so, I guess if you have a glut of apples - this counts as a "student" recipe...? Yay me!

I made the pastry from scratch - because I find pastry making an easy, and soothing thing to do. But if pastry making is not your thing - buy some sweet, short crust pasrty (although flaky puff would be good too!) from the supermarket, I won't judge! Promise. :)

Here it is, in all its glory!

A close up of my heart shaped steam holes... I was really proud
of these... I cut them out before putting the lid on the pie, but
wonder if, in future it'd be easier to cut the holes out after the lid
is on the pie...? Any thoughts?

The pastry recipe (and inspiration to make apple pie in the first place) comes from Sam but the filling I took from the Edmonds Food for Flatters cookbook... just because I wanted a slightly thicker filling than Sam offered.

The pie (with the exception of the Boyfriend) was a success! And I'll totally make it again when the need to cook some apples arises again...

Leftover Pastry Snacks

Sooo... I was just flacking through my favourite blogs and feeling sad that none of them have updated in a while when I realised - neither have I! So here goes...

Cute, aren't they? And what's more, they're affordable and easy to make! Using leftovers...

Just little pastry squares - they make good snacks!

Here's how: