Spiced Orange and Medlar Pie
A deliciously spiced, wholemeal pastry filled with the caramel flavour and soft texture of bletted medlars, laced with sweet and bitter orange. This is heavily based on Doves Farm's Medlar Pie recipe - which I love - I've just added a few personalised tweaks. It's perfect as a Winter or Late Autumn treat, I made mine for a foodie gathering with friends.
Ingredients
- 100g wholemeal flour (Doves Farm)
- 100g plain flour (Doves Farm)
- 100g cold butter, diced
- 2 tbsp dark molasses sugar
- 1 tsp all spice
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2 tbsp orange juice
Filling
- 300g medlar puree
- 75g dark molasses sugar
- 1 tsp all spice
- 125ml orange juice
- Zest from 1 orange
- 1 egg, beaten
- A few slithers of orange peel, for decoration
In a large bowl mix together the flours and diced butter. Rub together with your fingertips to make a breadcrumb mixture or use a food processor to get the same effect. Mix in the sugar and spices, followed by the egg and orange juice and combine to make a dough. Put aside for half an hour. Alternatively, wrap or cover and place in the fridge for up to 24 hours and take out half an hour before using. You can also freeze the dough for up to 3 months and defrost before using.
Grease a 20cm/8 inch cake tin and preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/350°F/Gas 4. Roll out the dough to fit your cake tin, including up the sides. I found there is a generous amount of dough for this recipe, so made the sides quite high. Of course they fell inward when baked, but the pie can still work - in case this happens to you!
Next make the filling. Mix together the medlar puree, molasses sugar, spices, orange juice and zest and one beaten egg.
Place a piece of baking paper over the dough and cover with rice or baking beans (I normally use un-popped popping corn). Bake for 10 minutes. before removing the tin from the oven, take out the beans/rice/corn and paper and bake for a further 5 minutes. Take out of the oven, pour in the contents and bake for a further 35 minutes.
Take out of the oven and scatter with the slithers of orange peel. Serve warm or cold. Enjoy!
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Tags: edible fruits, Medlar, Medlars, Mespilus germanica, Open arse, wild fruits
[…] A comforting dessert using wholemeal flour, wild, fermented medlars and a melt in the mouth topping. It was inspired by these wonderful fruits and was based on a Medlar Tart recipe by Doves Farm, which is also the basis for my Spiced Orange and Medlar Pie. […]