prepared pie crust to line the bottom of a nine inch pie dish
(ready made or make your own)
1/2 cup of caster sugar
2 1/2 TBS of cornflour
pinch of salt
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
the juice of 1 lemon
1 pound of fresh blackberries
For the streusal Topping:
3/4 cup of brown sugar
3/4 cup of flour
1 TBS water
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup of butter softened
Preheat the oven to 205*C/425*F.
Make the streusal topping by mixing all the ingredients together in a bowl until crumbly. Set aside.
Roll out the pastry to about 1/8 inch thick and about 12 inches in diameter. Carefully transfer it to your pie tin. Trim the edges to about a 1/2 inch over hang. Fold this under until even with the rim of the pie dish all around and then flute the edge decoratively.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, cornflour, salt, lemon juice and lemon zest. (I only use un-waxed lemons. Who wants to eat wax. If you don’t have un-waxed lemons wash them really well in soapy water to remove the wax coating. I have a micro plane that I used for zesting. It does a lovely job!) Put the blackberries in a bowl and pour this mixture over them, tossing them gently to coat. Try not to crush the berries too much. Let them sit for about fifteen minutes and then, giving them a final gentle toss, pour the whole mixture into the prepared and waiting crust. Sprinkle the top evenly with the streusal mixture. You will most likely have too much, but that’s ok. Just freeze what you don’t use in a zip lock bag to bring out and use another time. It goes great on muffins, coffee cakes and other things.
Place on a cookie sheet that you have lined with aluminum foil and bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 45 minutes until the filling is all bubbly and the streusal all crunchy and golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack before serving. We like to have it warm with big scoops of cold vanilla ice cream.