Apple, blueberry and salted caramel ‘jar’ pies with hazelnut pastry
MAKES 6
6 crisp apples, such as Granny Smith
6tbsp salted butter caramel 500g blueberries
1tsp vanilla essence
1 egg, beaten
For the hazelnut pastry
150g plain flour
50g toasted hazelnuts, ground 100g chilled unsalted butter, diced, plus extra for greasing 50g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
To serve
vanilla ice cream
6 x 300ml-capacity jam jars or ramekins
Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/ Gas 5 and lightly butter the jam jars or ramekins.
To make the pastry, sift the flour and a pinch of salt into a bowl and stir in the hazelnuts. Work in the butter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in the sugar. Work in the egg yolk and 1tbsp water to form a soft dough. Shape into a disc, wrap in cling film and chill the dough for 20 minutes.
To make the filling, peel and core the apples and cut into 1cm pieces. Place in a saucepan with the salted butter caramel and 2tbsp water and heat gently until the caramel melts. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, stir in the blueberries and the vanilla essence and cook for a further 5-6 minutes until the blueberries start to soften. Remove from the heat.
Divide the filling among the jars and place on a baking tray.
Divide the pastry into 6 equal pieces and roll each one out on a lightly floured surface a little larger the jars. Brush the rims of the jars with a little beaten egg. Top with a round of pastry and, using a small sharp knife, trim off and reserve the excess. Repeat to make 6 pies.
Re-roll the pastry trimmings, and, using cutters, stamp out leaves and apple shapes.
Brush the surface with beaten egg and top with the trimmings to make a pattern on each one. Brush the tops with more egg and bake for 25-30 minutes until the pastry is golden and the blueberry filling bubbling.
Cool for 5 minutes and serve topped with vanilla ice cream.