Foraged Fruit Parcels

by Chalet Naturalys

40273

Intro: Foraged Fruit Parcels

I don't know about you, but any type of berry fruit is REALLY expensive here in France, which is why I learnt to forage. On a walk out with my girls one weekend we stumbled across a lovely line of hedges filled with beautifully sweet blackberries (of course we had to taste them first). Luckily I had a bag with me and some empty Tupperware boxes and we got stuck into filling them up. Whilst picking we saw a gorgeous grasshopper just minding it's own business, so of course we had to include it in this instructable.

Oh and whilst we were coming up with ways to bake with the blackberries we saw the rhubarb in our garden was looking like it needed picking too, so we figured we might as well make it a double baking session.

Now normally I would make a simple pie, but with my daughters going back to school I thought something a bit more "snack-size" would work brilliantly and maybe last a little longer...or not!

STEP 1: Stewing the Rhubarb

Nothing fancy here, wash the stalks, chop them up and stew them with a little bit of sugar. Add more sugar to your liking, once the rhubarb is soft.

I leave the lid of the saucepan off as I want the water to evaporate. If the stewed rhubarb is too watery it will make the pastry soggy.

Set aside to cool.

STEP 2: Make the Pastry

  1. Mix your flour and butter together either using a food processor, a fork or by hand. It needs to resemble fine breadcrumbs.
  2. Add the sugar and mix.
  3. Make a well in the flour mix and add one egg. Normally there is enough liquid in the egg to bind the pastry, if it isn't add 1 teaspoon of COLD water to bring the dough together. You do not want your dough to be sticky.
  4. Roll into a ball, cover and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
  5. Roll out the pastry, making sure to flour the surface and rolling pin. I don't like my pastry too thick, so it was only about 2-3 mm in thickness.
  6. Cut out circles using a cookie cutter or if you don't have a cookie cutter, use a knife to cut out squares.

STEP 3: Let's Get Filling

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 180°C.
  2. To the washed blackberries I added half a teaspoon of allspice. This is of course completely optional.
  3. Place 1/2 tbsp of the berries into the middle of the pastry circle, keeping a large border all around.
  4. Wet the edges with a little water, this will help to seal them.
  5. Fold over the pastry and press the edges together using a fork.
  6. Cut a slit into the pastry with a knife, this will allow air to leave the parcel.

STEP 4: Now Onto the Rhubarb

Follow steps 1-5 above, this time using rhubarb as the filling.

I decided to add 1/2 tsp of ginger to the rhubarb.

Pop the parcels onto a tray lined with greaseproof paper.

Lightly beat a whole egg and brush the tops of the parcels. This will make a nice golden glaze. I also like to sprinkle granulated sugar on top, for an extra crispy taste. You could add cinnamon or vanilla to the sugar for an extra kick if you wished.

Bake in the oven at 180°C for 25-30 mins until they are golden brown.

STEP 5: Time to Enjoy

I estimated I spent €3-4 to make 18 fruit parcels. The biggest expense would have been the fruit, but because that was free, all of the other ingredients were inexpensive. Of course this will vary depending on where you buy your ingredients and whether you buy organic or not. Either way it is still a cheap and very tasty way to make some snacks.

So get foraging people and see what you can find growing in the wild.

2 Comments

MikB 1 year ago

I've been doing this with the semi-wild blackberries in the garden (which went really mad this year, too many to just freeze them). After the first 2kg of them was turned to jam, the next lot turned into closed-top pies (in tinfoil dishes), and then "fruit pockets" like these on a tray.

In my version, I add a little Almond Essence into the pastry mix (also works well with Apple pies/tarts), and use Cinnamon as the spice with the blackberries. Next time, I'll give the "All Spice" a go.

Chalet Naturalys 1 year ago

I love the idea of using almond essence in the pastry. It seems to be one of those flavours you either love or hate, luckily we are lovers of almond in our house. I'll definitely give that a go the next time I make pastry.

The best year of blackberries we managed to pick around 50kg, about 3 years ago. They were wild ones that people just didn't seemed bothered about foraging. Everywhere you looked there were blackberries, absolute madness. This year we seemed to have just an early quick crop and then the rest all shriveled up.