Sunday's apple, cinnamon and berry pie ... with 'proper grown up' custard.....

Ohhh I am full. Right now I am Sizzler full.

Not 'The Cheesecake Factory Full' like when we were in Hawaii and I ate my body weight in mash potato and literally had to leave my love of shopping and go back to the hotel room for a lie down, but full enough to know better.

Today in Australia is Mothers Day, and as my family were gathering at Auntie's house, I thought I would attempt my first ever apple, cinnamon and berry pie completely made from scratch.

There was a few different recipes I was looking through and everyone was giving me their own advice too, I got to the point where I just took a bit from everyone and combined it all together.

90yr old Auntie Dawn who is a friend of our family, she gave me some perla advice. Even to the point on how to cut a cake in half with piece of cotton. So here I have spent money over the years on buying sharp knifes and special cake slicers ... and I could have just a piece of cotton and it all does the same trick.

Have a look at the pics and see what you think - personally I wasn't happy with the pastry as I had a bit of a 'My Kitchen Rule's moment as I didn't make enough pastry to actually cover the apple and berry pie. Thank Christ there are no cameras in my kitchen as there were a few choice words that came out of my mouth ... I took a moment thought ... then made some more ... crisis averted.

 Thickly chopped up 3 x granny smith apples added water and cinnamon.

Added the yummy berries

The pastry begins ... again my little hint of everyone is ALWAYS MAKE DOUBLE!!! 

Just like rolling fondant out for my cakes. Please ignore my jewellery imprints, didn't have enough time to take all my goodies off.

The realisation that I didn't have enough pastry. Bugger.

About a half hour later, we are there!!! Do you like the added touch of the stars? Bit of a Fiona special touch.

And straight out of the oven ...

Time to make 'proper custard'.

6 x egg yolks. Again, dont worry about buy expensive kitchen tools to split the egg yolk v egg white. Just ask your auntie who does it for free !!!

New concept for me. Actually whisking the custard by hand and not by the electric whizzer

Me getting a hand by Auntie when we had to combine the above and milk/cream concoction together.

Again ... mixing more in at just the right temperature so it doesn't curdle.

Cousin Kylie's job was sorting out the vanilla pod and getting all the seeds out for flavour.

Finally the pie makes it to the table ....

And not much left over at the end ....

And sometimes, we all need a bit of caramel slice ...

In Sydney the weather has turned. I suppose that's OK considering we are in May but I am one of those Sydney siders that will wear my flip flops right till the end. Must admit though that the tracky daks and uggs boots (knee high ones thank you) are on as soon a I get home ...

Anyway, when the weather turns a bit cold, I like to get in the kitchen and cook. So continuing on with my besottedness (yes this is a word in the Fiona dictionary of life) of caramel, yesterday afternoon I made a cracker caramel slice.

Just like my measurements when making a beloved vodka, lime and soda when there's a little bit of this, alot of that etc ... when making my version of caramel slice I like to do a great chunk of this, little spoonful of that and alot more of everything else. Generally this theory works!!!!

Will keep my recipe in my pink book of joy for a bit longer, just incase I enter it into the Royal Easter Show next year .. mind you am sure the hyphen hyphen judges will pick something wrong about it ... maybe cause it just tastes like PURE GOODNESS (if I can say so myself).

 Go Bertie my Kitchenaid ... never lets me down!!! Mixing the base up.

This is when you are supposed to start being precise but by this point I just want to get it all together.

Yummy!!! You ca'nt go past the smell of melting butter and golden syrup. Always reminds me of being in my Grandmothers kitchen when I was little.

Ahhh the condensed milk ...always a winner in taste, smell and touch ....

Literally have to stir for 7.5 mins (whoops, that's one of my little hints)

Just take a moment again with this chocolate. This is the pure GOLD of chocolate. The one that I can't ever pronounce but its spelt like coverture ....Another little hint is my mixture of chocolate flavours

Layer 1 - biscuit base

Layer 2 - yummy caramel

 And the pouring commences ...

Just had to add another one for effect ....

No words need to be said for this one ...

And the final result ... this was for work today ... end of the day ... only crumbs left over. Result.