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Rosca de Reyes
Christina Morales, Caroline Lange, La Monarca Bakery
148 ratings with an average rating of 3 out of 5 stars
148
About 2 hours
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In a very large bowl, whisk the granulated sugar, cornstarch, spice and salt. Add the blackberries, apples and lemon juice, and stir until the fruit is evenly coated. Let stand for at least 45 minutes and up to 2 hours for the fruit to get juicy, stirring now and then.
If the dough has been refrigerated for more than an hour, let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes first. On a lightly floured surface, use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll the dough for the bottom (250 grams) into a 13½-inch round. Roll the dough up onto the pin, then unroll it over a deep-dish 9- or 9½-inch pie plate, centering it. Gently tuck and press it into the bottom and sides of the plate without stretching the dough, trimming the edges ¼ inch past the rim. Refrigerate until firm and ready to fill.
On a lightly floured sheet of parchment paper, roll 1 of the disks for the lattice top into a 12-inch round. Cut a 3-inch-wide strip followed by a 1½-inch-wide strip. Repeat for 5 strips total, 3 thick and 2 thin. Slide the dough on the parchment onto a baking sheet and refrigerate. Repeat with the remaining dough disk, cutting in the same way, then chilling.
Set a rack in the lowest position in the oven and heat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a half-sheet pan with parchment paper.
Take the pie plate out of the refrigerator. Stir the apple mixture well and scoop half into the raw bottom dough. Spread in an even layer and pack down as firmly as possible to eliminate gaps between the fruit. Scrape in the rest of the filling and all the juices in the bowl, and scatter the cold butter bits evenly over the fruit. Press down on the fruit, tucking in the butter bits so they’re not sitting on top. The fruit will be taller than the pie plate.
Take the 2 rounds of dough strips out of the refrigerator. Lay the 5 strips of one round on top of the pie so the strips, alternating thick and thin, are touching but not overlapping and completely cover the filling. Lift and fold back the 3 thick strips at the midsection of the pie, and lay a thick strip from the other round down at an angle. Unfold the thick strips over the angled thick strip, then fold back the alternating 2 thin strips and lay another thin strip down at an angle, as close to the parallel thick strip as possible. Repeat to create a tightly woven lattice that completely covers the pie.
Trim the strips so they evenly extend about an inch past the bottom dough. Tuck the strips under the bottom dough so the folded-over dough extends a touch beyond the rim of the pie plate. Crimp the edges of the dough.
Brush the cream all over the top of the dough and sprinkle with the sparkling sugar. Place the pie plate on the prepared sheet pan.
Bake on the lowest oven rack for 20 minutes, then turn the oven temperature down to 350 degrees. Bake until the crust is golden brown and the fruit juices are thick and bubbling out in gaps in the lattice, about 1 hour 15 minutes. If you slide a metal cake tester or toothpick through one of those gaps, you shouldn’t feel much resistance from the fruit. Cool completely and serve.
Apple grower here. I commend Genevieve Ko for suggesting a lesser known variety, Ginger Gold. However it is a late summer apple, and readers will have a very hard time sourcing it for a November pie. I would never suggest baking with Honeycrisp. Too much water in that apple. Folks should look for Northern Spy, Belle de Boskoop, or Calville Blanc d'Hiver at their farmers markets. More mainstream baking varieties like Cortland would also be wonderful. For a supermarket trip: Granny Smith.
In England, where I was raised, blackberries and apples have always been a classic combination, perhaps due to the fact that the wild blackberries were so tart and needed to be mixed with apples. So yes, I've made plenty off blackberry and apple pies. But I would certainly not add any kind of "apple pie spice or your favorite blend of baking spice", that would muddy the deliciousness of the blackberry and apple combination.
Is the bake time 1 hour 15 minutes in total, or 1 hour 15 minutes more after the initial 20 minutes?
I have pounds of frozen blackberries from the summer should they be thawed first?
Instead of letting fruit stand one hour "to get juicy", what I do is add the fruit to the sugar, spices and thickener as I am cutting up the fruit. It gets juicy as I am finishing the apples.
I parbaked the bottom crust with pastry beads for 15 minutes, then poked it with a fork, and baked it for 12 more minutes without the beads. Reducing the liquid is also an excellent idea.
Not a baker but I do love cooking, and I made this pie for thanksgiving this year. The pie was perfectly sweet and tangy, but next time I would slice the apples rather than dice them. I latticed my pie crust on the top and left gaps, but I think the gaps were too wide and dried out some of the apples too much. Otherwise enjoyed baking this!
Arkansas black apples are best i you can find them.
There exist many delicious fruit combination pies, for example apples, raisins and pinapple and peaches and blackberries. Pies answer the question. 'What do you have too much of or available'. My mom used to make tomato custards. She was raised in the South.
I’m 11, this is my first pie, turned out fantastic. Really great recipe.
Given that this pie is part of a Thanksgiving article, and that fresh blackberries aren't in season, can I assume Ms. Ko used frozen berries and the recipe accounts for this?
I found this recipe frustrating. The pie came out only okay, the crust kind of tasteless and a bit tough. There was a lot of juice from the fruit. Where I live, on the west coast, blackberries just collapse when cooked so it would be a waste of time to cut them in half. I am glad it was so successful for some, and I am puzzled at the range of reviews and comments. I learned a lot, primarily to always read the comments section, even before the recipe.
Not a baker but I do love cooking, and I made this pie for thanksgiving this year. The pie was perfectly sweet and tangy, but next time I would slice the apples rather than dice them. I latticed my pie crust on the top and left gaps, but I think the gaps were too wide and dried out some of the apples too much. Otherwise enjoyed baking this!
Blackberries are a nice addition! Did not add all the juice from the fruit, but the pie bubble over onto the pan more than any other pie I have made. All the fruit was cooked. The butter crust was a challenge. Not sure where I went wrong, but for the flavor I am not sure I will make it again.
Had terrible luck with this pie. Followed the recipe exactly, and this is by no means my first apple pie. It looked very pretty out of the oven, but after such a long cook time the apples were complete mush. The linked pie crust recipe was a disaster--I should have stuck with my tried-and-true crust. No one wanted second helpings of the pie, so I scooped out the filling to feed to my kids as apple sauce. So disappointing.
This turned out really well!! I am a bit of a apple pie snob and the combination with blackberries (while you couldn’t exactly pick out the flavor) definitely added something. I used a combo of 2/3 granny smith, 1/3 honeycrisp; i found another simplier apple pie spice recipe that didn’t require grinding my own spices (puh-lease, who has time for that); and i kept to a simple 1:1 lattice. The pie crust recipe linked here is a winner- maybe my new go to!
So disappointed I followed the recipe exactly, looked beautiful when it came out brought to my thanksgiving dinner and the bottom was raw used honey crisp let it sit for two hours before I added to dough and the were hard I even put in oven for extra 30 min to see if they would soften … horrible recipe!
We made this pie yesterday for Thanksgiving. We followed the instructions to the letter and the results were not satisfying at all. We used Honeycrisp apples - exactly the amount required, pushed the fruit down as instructed, everything. After 20 minutes +1 hour and 15 minutes of cooking, when we cut into the pie the apples literally had not cooked. The crust was beautiful and golden but the pie was a complete failure. Really curious as to why this happened.
4.5/5 I just made this, and I've never made a pie before. It was pretty easy -- though I did have to look up how to make a lattice crust Timing went well (but the heat was weird, I ended up keeping it at the bottom rack for 300 degrees for the section portion b/c my crust was burning) Only reason this didn't get a 5/5 is because it was a touch soupy. BUT, so so yummy.
This was one of the best pies I’ve ever made. I didn’t read the recipe thoroughly in advance and only made two dough disks. I ended up re-rolling some dough and cobbling pieces together for the second piece of lattice. Also, someone mentioned that it was soupy, so I added any good shake of corn starch. It turned out perfect. Made my own pie spice with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. So good.
Can I assemble and bake later in day if traveling?
Is there a video that shows how to do the lattice?
I used a combination of Granny Smith, Cortland, and Fuji apples spiced with 2 teaspoons cinnamon and 1 teaspoon nutmeg. I served it hot, topped with homemade lemon custard ice cream. It was pretty good.
I made this with whole wheat flour, which is a bit more difficult to roll but it tasted great. On the query about the cooking time, I did it for 1 hr 15 min after the initial 20. Some of the crust was a bit darkened but I think that was due to the whole wheat flour. Overall it came out well.
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