Willem Claesz Heda, Breakfast Table with Blackberry Pie (1631)
Oil on wood, 54 x 82 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden

As one of the earliest still life painters of the Dutch Golden Age, Willem Claesz Heda is known for his little breakfast scenes called ontbijtjes. Heda’s paintings are dramatically lit with a multitude of reflective trinkets, glasses and bowls. The table, laden with objects, is divided by the white tablecloth with a knife and a key on blue ribbon protruding into the viewer’s space. The objects are tousled, glasses overturned and the pie half eaten, which gives the painting a feeling of action. Heda’s work is similar in composition and colouration to that of his contemporary, Pieter Claesz, another notable Dutch still life painter. Breakfast Table with Blackberry Pie (1631) is closely related to the painting Still Life (Bodegón with pie of fruits and diverse objects) (1634) painted three years later in the collection of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. The Spanish museum applied the term bodegón – a kitchen/pantry scene where the objects are arranged against a dark background. The Spanish bodegón scenes were derived from Dutch Golden Age paintings similar to Breakfast Table with Blackberry Pie.

Plum & Blackberry Streusel Pie

adapted from Gourmet

4 plums
1 cup blackberries
2/3 + 1/2 cup sugar (divided)
3TB tapioca
2 TB cornstarch
1 tsp lemon zest
3/4 tsp salt (divided)
pastry crust
1 cup oats
1/2 cup flour
1 stick butter
vanilla ice cream to serve

Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C. Slice the plums and in a large bowl, toss them with the blackberries,  2/3 cup sugar, tapioca, cornstarch, zest and salt.

In another bowl, stir together the oats, flour, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp salt. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour mixture until it forms small clumps.

Place the pie crust in the pie pan and on a large flat baking tray. Mound the fruit into the shell and cover the filling with the crumbled streusel topping.

Bake the pie for about 1 hour and 15 minutes until the streusel topping is golden brown. Let the pie cool completely, at least 3 to 4 hours in order to set. If sliced too soon after baking the filling will turn to berry soup on the plate. Serve with vanilla ice cream.