Frangipane Fruit Pie

Never have I been this prepared. I may explode by mid-December, but you will at least have good food and lot's of virtual hugs and maybe even nab yourself one of my 'favourite things' in my giveaways this Christmas.I was going to save this recipe until Mid-December, but since I have literally eaten it for dinner and again for breakfast, I can attest to it's deliciousness times-three and things like this should not really be hung onto for anything. I would recommend trying with some warm homemade custard, or if you're eating this fresh out of the oven, some organic vanilla ice-cream or thick cream.I have sliced it up cold and given to my babes to take with them for their morning tea today, so while it is very Christmas'y, this pie is an all-rounder.I have used organic dried fruit because there are no sulphates added to organic fruit with the sole purpose of preserving the colour and making it 'pretty'. You can find dried diced fruit in all health-food stores and yes in the supermarket too. Add apricots, dried figs or cranberries to your pie 'mince'. This one here has some diced dried apricot and cranberries.The crust is made of almond meal and there is almond meal in the frangipane, which is traditional for frangipane. Although there seems like a lot of nuts in the recipe, you end up with a small handful in your slice of pie. Plus babes, real food!We would love it if you would share this recipe about this Christmas, it's a wonderfully healthy and easy to make alternative to some of the store-bought pies we have seen.Enjoy and have a very merry lead up to the Holiday period of the year where we all go a bit bat-shit crazy!!!

Frangipane Fruit Pie

This amount of ingredients should make you at least three 8cm pies or one whole 20cm pie (plus more remaining I believe). A single 8cm pie would easily feed two adults, even without cream or custard as they are naturally sweet and filling. Pre-heat oven to 160c (320F)You will need some baking paper and dried rice, beans or pastry weights to blind-bake (par-bake) the pie case before the filling goes in.IngredientsPastry

• 2 cups of almond meal
• 2 eggs (we use large sized eggs for this)
• Olive oil, a small amount

Filling

• 1 1/2 cups of dried diced fruit (sultanas, cherries, raisons, currents or a mix of any you love)
• Juice of one orange
• Rind of half and orange with white pith removed (the white underside of the orange peel) and chopped or sliced into small pieces
• 1 cup almond meal
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup light flavoured olive oil
• 2 tbs rice malt syrup or honey
• 1/4 tsp sea salt

MethodSoak your fruit in the orange juice for at least 15 minutes to an hour before beginning. For the pastry, mix your eggs and almond meal together. It should form a ball and you don't want it wet although it may still be a bit sticky. This will depend on the size eggs you use, if it feels too sloppy with two eggs, please add a little further almond meal. If it is too dry, add a small drizzle of olive oil.Grease your pie tins. Put some olive oil on your fingertips to stop the pastry from sticking to them, get the almond 'pastry' and press it into your pie tins. You will have an urge to make it thick, but trust me, this pastry sets firm, so make it as thin as you can without going through to the pie tin. Use use fingers to gently press the almond pastry around the whole tin and even out the edges.Keep a small amount of pastry if you can to make stars for the top of the pies.TIP: Scrunch your baking paper into a ball to remove the hard edges and soften it and then lay it inside your pie tin on top the pastry and lay dried rice, beans or baking weights into the center of the baking paper and to the edges of the pie tin. Place in the oven for 10 minutes and remove the baking paper with weights in it. Your pastry should be half-baked with a relatively flat bottom.Lightly beat your eggs and add olive oil and rice malt syrup. Add your fruit and almond meal and mix together.Spoon into your half-baked pies and smooth tops over. Use some left over pastry (you can make some extra by mixing almond meal with olive oil if you need to), dust your bench with almond meal and roll out pastry, then cut a star out and lay over the top of your pie.Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until pastry and top is browned.Remove from oven and turn out of pie tin after resting for 20-30 minutes.I have found this pie tastes better the longer it sits, so is wonderful to make two days out from an event, lunch or dinner. The fruit becomes more stable, the flavours of the orange peel and juice intensify and it is rich and moist, while holding together really well.