Berry Pie with Cream Cheese Pastry

Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 200g plain flour
• 100g butter
• 100g cream cheese
• 1tsp lemon juice
• 100g ricotta cheese, drained well and crumbled
• 250g strawberries, quartered
• 11⁄2 cups mixed frozen berries
• 1⁄4 cup castor sugar
• 2T corn flour
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped
• 1 egg, beaten

Method:

1. For the cream cheese pastry: process flour, a large pinch of salt and butter
2. Until breadcrumbs form. Add cheese
and lemon juice and blend until a dough forms.
3. Chill for 1 hour, roll out thinly and line a tart tin, keeping the scraps to make a lattice.
4. Bake blind and cool. Sprinkle the ricotta on the base.
5. Simmer half the strawberries and half the berries with sugar, corn flour, zest and vanilla until thickened.
6. Stir in remaining berries. Pour into crust and crisscross strips of pastry to form a lattice.
7. Brush with egg, sprinkle with a little sugar and bake at 180 ̊C for 25 minutes or until golden.