Pie-Curious: Weekly Pies: Two Blueberry Pies

Last week, overwhelmed by the amount of blueberry goodness available at my local farmers' market, I made two blueberry pies!

One was meant to be shared with a neighbor (who wound up not being available, so we ate it all ourselves... how sad), and one was to take to work (where it seemed appreciated). Both were among my favorite pies so far, though the second of the two came out much better for a couple reasons.

I used my old-standby crust recipe, from Four and Twenty Blackbirds, for both. But I added much less water than usual, to the extent that it was extremely hard to work, and fell apart into powder. This seemed like it'd be a disaster, but to be honest both crusts came out pretty near to perfect. I'm not sure what lesson to draw here: I'm not sure I'd do it that way again. But maybe I would: for all the disastrousness of the crumbly dough, the result was a very flaky crust held together entirely by butter, without any leathery or glutenous qualities. Dryness isn't a problem, since the fruit filling is quite juicy, and since the buttery quality is plenty of lubricant for the dry edges.

The second of the two pies, I actually filled, topped, then froze overnight, which worked remarkably well. I don't know if other fruits would be so forgiving, but the crust was probably better for the overnight freeze, and the berries themselves were exactly the perfect texture. I also baked that pie longer than normal, until it looked a bit burned. The results, however, were excellent. I suspect I've actually been slightly underbaking most of my pies up til now.

The filling recipe I used here is from my new favorite cookbook, Adrienne Kane's United States of Pie. There it's listed as "Maine Wild Blueberry Pie". But I'm on the wrong side of the country. These were Oregon blueberries. It was great.

For the Blueberry Filling:

5 cups blueberries

3/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Juice of 1 medium lemon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch of kosher salt

Optional:

1 tablespoon heavy cream

1 tablespoon turbinado sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425.

In a medium bowl, combine the blueberries, sugar, flour, cornstarch, lemon juice, vanilla, and salt. Toss well but gently, keeping the berries intact. Set aside.

On a well floured surface, roll out one portion of the dough until it is about 1/8-inch thick and will fit a 9-inch pie plate. Gently pick up the dough, center it over the pie plate, and ease it into the plate. Let the excess dough hang over the rim. Pour in the filling, and spread it out evenly.

Roll out the second portion of dough to the same size. Lay the dough over the filling, and trim the edges of both layers to leave a 1-inch overhang. Pressing the edges together, fold them under, and then decoratively crimp the perimeter. With a sharp knife, cut 5 vents in the top crust.

Bake the pie for 15 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 375 and continue to bake for another 35 to 40 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. Let the pie cool to room temperature before serving.

And now, some photographs. The good ones (like the one at the top of this post) were taken by my talented coworker Chris.

Cut butter, ready for mixing (this is a double recipe for a double crust! Essentially four batches at once):

Using the pastry blender:

After adding a teensy bit of water:

The almost-cohesive-but-not-really dough, in a ball:

After the chilling, the rolling (note the cracks and rough edges):

And the perfectly executed transfer to a pie plate, with no flaws evident:

After some hasty cosmetic work with fingers and thumbs:

Mixing the blueberries with flour et al.:

My top crust was an even bigger disaster: I couldn't even get it out of the fridge in one piece. I wound up adding extra water to it after the fact: I put the broken crumbles into a bowl and splashed cold water over it, then quickly mixed with my hands, then re-refrigerated between rolling. Miraculously, it worked, on both pie tops. Here it is, post-trauma and rolled out:

On top, badly fluted on the edges, and vented:

Baked and looking good:

On the second pie, I did a couple tricks: I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out vents the shape of hearts, then attached them as decorations. (Word to the wise: do this before putting the top crust on, it'll be easier and look better!) Then I followed Adrienne Kane's advice, and brushed heavy cream onto the top of the pie, and generously sprinkled large-crystal sugar on top. (This looked extremely weird while the pie was baking, but the result was a crisp, sweet, top that was really pleasant to bite into.)

The results! (Pie 1)

With homemade whipped cream! (I like to add cinnamon and vanilla and sometimes a dab of honey or maple syrup to the cream as I whip it. An easy way to make any pie more exciting).