Recipe by Pia Rowe.
Words by Karen Swan
Sometimes, all the balls you’re juggling just drop, don’t they? June and July, for varying reasons, always suck a little for me and inevitably, I get a case of the mental wobbles.
We’ve all been there, right? You soldier on as best you can for the children, then, as soon as they are asleep, you collapse into bed with little to no energy left for, well, anything. Life gets broken into getting through one minute at a time. It becomes an exercise of living firmly in the present and trying to calm your erratic, ‘monkey mind’.
What falters then, in times like these, is my ability or enthusiasm to cook anything more than some plain pasta for my son, leaving my husband to sort himself out as I climb into bed the minute he arrives home from work.
What never fails to amaze me is when my Mama-Sister, Pia, stands quietly beside me, offering support should I want to talk, or braving one of the coldest and wettest weeks in history to drop off some food ‘on her way’ to work (which isn’t at all on her way – my home is a good 30 minute detour from her work!). I nearly sobbed with gratification for the chicken stew, home made gluten free bread rolls and this, incredible gluten free blueberry pie. Never under estimate the good a plate of something sweet with a good cup of tea can do for someone. If anything, it requires you to sit and be still.
If you’ve ever doubted the MamaBake philosophy as something that’s just ‘nice in theory’, let me tell you that in action it is as nourishing to the soul as it is to our bodies. If someone you know is a little ‘off’, don’t wait to be asked for help. Just do it. I promise she’ll be thankful. A daily text to check in or a food drop off can make an incredible difference to someone’s day.
Sometimes a blueberry pie, baked with love by a friend, can mean the world.
Ingredients:
Crust:
200g butter (I use salted butter, if using non-salted, I’d probably add a pinch of salt)
120g sugar
1 egg
2 cups GF self-raising flour
Filling:
x1 200ml tub sour cream or creme fraiche
200g frozen blueberries, thawed
1 egg
50g sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200 C. Line a 24cm springform cake tin with greaseproof paper.
Beat soft butter and sugar together until pale and creamy.
Add egg and beat in well.
Stir in the flour.
Press crust into bottom and sides of cake tin.
Bake in oven for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, whisk together sour cream, egg, vanilla essence and sugar. Stir through blueberries.
Lower oven temp to 180C then pour berry mixture on top of the crust and bake for another 25-30 minutes.
*Substitute any fruit for the blueberries with delicious results.
Best served in the company of a good friend and endless cups of tea.
