Northwest Recipes; Bilberry Charlotte

Bilberry Charlotte

A little while ago I publishes an article about Bilberries, which are in season at the time of writing, here is a traditional recipe for a Bilberry Charlotte, which is basically a Bilberry pie with whipped cream on top.

You can buy Bilberries frozen, fresh online from suppliers or if you are lucky your local greengrocers might have some in, I’ve seen them on sale at Strongs in Lytham in the past, but they will usually get bought up very quick!

Tips for baking with Bilberries

If you are using shop-bought Bilberries bear in mind they won’t taste quite as nice as ones gathered in the wild, adding some grated lemon rind or/and a tiny bit of ground cinnamon should give them more flavour.

As Bilberries vary a lot in size you might need to adjust the quantity of berries respective to the size of your pie dish, however they take a lot of picking, so if you want to be careful with how you use them simply put less in the pie dish, I’m very fond of them, so I normally use my deepest pie dish!

Music and wine

As always I like to pair my recipes with some music and wine recommendations, this is usually whatever we were playing and drinking when we were making this dish, or simply something I think will go well with it, I hope you enjoy these, why not share your suggestions?

For this recipe Awake little queen by Bella Hardy, which is about the Bilberry Bumblebee, is a lovely little folk song which seems appropriate, and because Bilberry picking is best done in the Sunshine here is a track by SFA, which I think acts as a nice pop counterpoise.

Its a bit hard trying to find a perfect wine pairing for this recipe as Bilberries can taste very tart and astringent to some, so I’ve chosen Tokaji dessert wine from Hungary, which is sweet, but not overly so, with a subtle, complex taste more like honey or praline which quite frankly goes with anything!

Ingredients

For the pastry

250g of plain flour

125g of butter, cut into about a dozen lumps

3 tablespoons of caster sugar

3 tablespoons of water

a pinch of salt

For the filling

500g of of fresh or frozen Bilberries

130g of caster sugar

2 tablespoons of cornflour starch

(optional depending on taste;)

a pinch of ground cinnamon

lemon zest

Method

First, carefully mix the pastry in a mixing bowl, making sure not to handle it more than necessary, as overcooked pastry will start to disintegrate, or, if you have a food processor, place the flour, salt, butter and caster sugar in it and turn on for about 15 seconds until the mixture starts to resemble breadcrumbs.

Next, add the water and continue to mix, or process for about 30 seconds, until the pastry clings together, knead this lightly to form a ball, wrap it in clingfilm and place in the fridge to chill for half an hour or so.

After cooling the pastry preheat your oven to 200°C (180°C if fan assisted) and roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to shape your pie casing, making sure it’s a little bit wider than the dish, but not too thin. You can add a sprinkle of water if the pastry begins to break up when rolling, remember to add a sprinkle of flour to your hands and the rolling pin too.

Before you line the pie dish make sure to either butter it very lightly, as the butter may burn if there’s too much, or spray with a baking spray.

Line the dish carefully with the pastry, making sure not to have any holes or cracks in the pastry that will allow the filling to leak through.

A couple of notes on making pies

Thicker pie dishes work better for cooking pastry as they retain heat better, also glass dishes like pyrex will retain so much heat it might shorten the cooking time by a surprisingly large amount, so if using a thick pyrex dish it might be worth turning down the oven temp by about °15 to °20.

If the pastry gets too hot when you are kneading it, it will disintegrate, to avoid this you can cool your hands down under the cold tap, or after lining the dish with the pastry place it in the fridge for 10 seconds or so, this is worth doing anyway as it seems to make pastry a little bit fluffier.

For the filling

Mix the Bilberries, cornstarch and sugar thoroughly in a large bowl, adding any cinnamon or lemon zest if you want, then tip this carefully into the pie dish, make sure the top of the filling is not over 1cm from the lip of the pie dish as it will bubble and expand when cooking.

Bake for 40 to 50 minutes in the oven until the pastry is golden brown, then place somewhere safe to cool down.

Cream topping

For the cream topping you can cheat and use cans of the whipped cream stuff, nothing wrong with that but it can be very sweet and cloying, or you can do it properly and whip some fresh double cream in a bowl with a whisk until it sets, this requires a bit of elbow grease though but is worth it as it tastes so much better, or you can whip some double cream up, squirt in a bit of spray cream, and mix it to sweeten and ‘fluff’ it up a bit, this is a trick barmen have for making the perfect cream floats for Irish coffees.

For a finishing touch why not decorate the cream with a few Bilberries, a fresh sprig of Bilberry with the leaves attached, or even a fresh sprig of heather, a touch of colour, especially green, will make the pie look a lot better and also fool the eye into making it look even tastier than it is, if that’s possible!

Note on how to unstick pastry from pie dishes

If the pastry of the pie sticks to the bottom of the dish, which it often does, a sure way of releasing it is to dip the bottom of the pie dish in a tray of hot water for about 15 seconds, (obviously avoid soaking the pie itself!) this should soften up any butter in the pastry and dish enough for it to come unstuck easily.

I hope you enjoy this recipe and have learnt a few tricks too, please let me know any tips, recommendations or recipes you have, Jo étvágyat! (Bon appetit!)

A B-H