Rustic Blueberry Pie

It is ridiculously simple to throw together a fruit pie. So often I think people are afraid to attempt pie because of the reputation it has for being finicky. If you make up a big batch of pie dough every so often and throw it in your freezer, there is a little bit of labour but it really isn’t all that intense. You can follow this formula I am about to write here and make virtually any fruit pie.

You will need enough frozen fruit to fill a (blank) inch pie crust. In this case I am using blueberries because my Mom is kind enough to let me raid her harvest from her garden every year.

Some sugar from your sugar bowl

A little lemon juice

Some pats of butter, soft or cold it doesn’t matter

About a ¼ cup of flour

Two portions of pie dough from Prize Winning Pie Dough recipe

You start out by rolling out your pie dough. Defrost the dough in the fridge. You want the fat in the dough to stay as cold as possible so you retain the flaky structure.I found it is easiest if I dough this on my biggest cutting board. It make clean up so much easier than scraping pie dough and flour off the counter when I’m done. A tip for you is to never try to clean the board with a dishrag or scrub pad, it will just gunk it up. What you need is a scrub brush, that works beautifully. For the counter, if you get any flour/pie dough on the counter all you have to do is brush off with a paper towel. If you use a wet cloth you will create a sticky gluey mess. Flour your board lightly, put the pie dough down and give a few good smacks so you a have a sort of flat surface on the top to start out with. Dust the top of the pie dough with flour as well as your rolling pin. You want to roll it out so it is maybe 5 millimeters thick. I kind of went over the board. Whoopsie.

After you have rolled out your dough for the bottom layer, slightly lift the edge and slide the pie dish underneath it. The it’s very easy to slip it in place. At this point trim the edges and fill out the spaces where it needs dough with the scraps, pinching into place so no juice can get through to the bottom.

Then Fill the pair halfway with berries, this took about three cups of blueberries. Over the top of the blueberries sprinkle about 2-3 tsps of sugar and about a tablespoon of flour. Sprinkle a little lemon juice on as well. I was silly and had a Meyer lemon in the fridge that would have been perfect for this but I forgot about it until it was too late. For those of you who don’t know a Meyer lemon is a cross between a mandarin orange and a regular lemon. The lemons are not as tart and have a nice orange undertone. They have become fairly popular in the last little while and are becoming more widely available. I discovered them by a happy accident when I thought I picked up a bag of regular lemons. When I cut into it the texture and colour was different so I looked up the brand. I have been going through bags of them like crazy ever since.

After you finish the first layer repeat the layering process once more except for the last layer dot some butter around the top. At this point you can roll out your second portion of pie dough for the top layer.

You have a few options with what to do with the top layer. You can do some research into braiding or pinch and fold techniques in order to seal the crust. I just usually pinch the top and bottom layer together. Sometimes I brush the top with milk and sprinkle with a little more sugar. You could also beat an egg and glaze it with that. After you have finished the top how you like, cut some vents in it with a knife or poke it all over with a fork. It need to bake at 425 for 20 mins and then finish at 350 for 30 to 40 more mins. I unfortunately left min in five minutes too long, but it should look something like the result at the top of the page. If you want a crispier bottom crust, place a metal baking sheet under the pie while you bake it. Do it without the first time to see how it comes out first and if you actually would prefer a crispier crust. If your oven runs how doing this could burn the pie. Here is the before shot, you can see the completed pie in the cover photo.

Just have fun with it and see what different techniques cause what effect. Good luck in your pie baking endeavours. For my next recipe I’m thinking bacon…...bacon and mushroom risotto.