Jack Skellington & "Thing" Blackberry Pies
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 30 minutes plus chilling time
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Makes 12 pies
- Butter to grease muffin tray
- 4 sheets shortcrust pastry, thawed in the fridge
- 1.5 cups blackberries and blueberries (frozen)
- 1/2 cup caster or superfine sugar
- 2 tablespoons cornflour/fine cornstarch
- Vanilla extract
- Egg yolk mied with 1 tablespoon milk for egg wash
Step 1 - Grease a 12 hole cupcake tray. Take two sheets of the pastry out of the fridge and cut out large discs that will fill the cavities and go all the way up the sides. Place on the cavities, they may still be quite firm but allow to warm up to room temperature for about 5 minutes and become more pliable. Then gently push them into the holes to make a base.
Step 2 - Mix the berries, sugar, cornflour and vanilla together in a bowl. Spoon into the pie cavities and place the pies in the fridge until needed. Take out a round cutter that fits the top of the pie and one more sheet from the fridge (it's easiest to work with shortcrust when it has just come out of the fridge or it can get too soft and sloppy) and cut out circles for the Jack Skellington faces. I used an apple corer to cut out the eyes and a paring knife to cut out the smile. You may want to cut the smile out more than I did. Then I cut out fingers or hands. I did a variety of them and I liked the ones where the fingers were very slender and creepy.
Step 3 - Affix them to the top of the pies. Brush with the egg yolk and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Step 4 - Preheat oven to 210C/420F. Bake the pies for 20 minutes or until golden.