The trick to making blackberry pie

There are some fruits which, while lovely cooked, are probably at their best fresh: nectarines and peaches, raspberries, mango. But blackberries, as delightful as they are eaten fresh from the bush mid-forage, come alive when cooked. As you heat blackberries, and they break down and give up their juices, begin to smell like violets and wine. They become more complex, perfumed; their sweet-sour flavour is softened into something more elegant, even more irresistible than when fresh.

Normally in a pie, those beautiful juices are a cause for concern. They’re a one-way ticket to a soggy bottom, something we try to avoid with careful blind-baking, or pre-cooking, or layering the base with something like ground almonds to soak up any liquid. Competitors on Bake Off gaze into ovens fearing soggy bottoms, and muttering incantations against such a dismal fate. I have spent more time than I can count making enriched, delicate pastries, carefully lining tins, chilling and trimming edges, worrying about cracks or weaknesses, spills and leaks. No longer. This is a simpler solution: forget the bottom layer of pastry entirely, stop worrying about juices coming out, and embrace them.

A ‘plate pie’ is one made on a pie plate (as opposed to, say, in a tart tin with a removable bottom), and often just has a top layer of pastry, rather than a bottom and a top. It’s not the kind of pie you turn out; it should be served from the tin – I suppose it’s a little like a crumble with a pastry topping. It is made for punchy, bold fruits that will give up lots of juice on cooking. It’s not a fancy pudding, but it is one of the most delicious ways of using up the season’s fruits, and one that makes a feature rather than a fear of those wonderful juices.