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!

We picked wild blackberries and rhubarb from our garden, I didn't weigh them but I'd say there was about 3 kg in total.

I made 18 fruit parcels in total and still had plenty of fruit left over. You could either make more pastry or freeze the fruit for another time.

For the pastry:

• 250 g all purpose flour
• 125 g salted butter, cold and cut into cubes
• 50 g sugar
• 2 eggs
• Water

Utensils:

• Food processor for the pastry or by hand
• Bowls
• Baking trays
• Greaseproof paper
• Rolling pin
• Fork
• Knife
• Saucepan
• Pastry brush
• Large cookie cutter for circles or cut into squares

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.