Blueberry pie

Blueberry pie should only be attempted in spring and early summer when blueberries are at their peak.  Blueberries have a very delicate flavor and are easily overpowered by too much sugar or lemon.  

Blueberry pies need to cool for a long time, preferably overnight.  Don’t put this in the oven an hour before dinner and expect to have it for dessert.

A major problem for blueberry pie is excess moisture.  Blueberry pies are notoriously runny.  Most recipes call for corn starch, tapioca, or both.  I have seen one recipe use fruit pectin in the form of a grated apple, but I have not had luck with that.

Piecrust can be the hardest to deal with, if you are not used to it.  If you only make a few pies per year, I recommend using store bought pie crust, which comes rolled up in a box of 2.  Then, you don’t have to be an expert.  The above pie used store bought crust.

Ingredients

3 pints of blueberries, picked over 

One package of store bought pie crust, the rolled up kind.  Don’t use the kind pre cast into a disposable pie plate, as they don’t hold much filling and are tough to handle besides.  Blueberries can get quite liquidy in the oven and nobody likes molten blueberry splashed all over them.  Ask anyone.  

3/4 cup (up to 1 & 1/2 cups) of white sugar.  Unless your berries are quite tart, stay below 1 cup.

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

1/2 tsp lemon zest (note it is best to zest first, then juice the lemon)

1 Tablespoon of lemon juice 

4 Tablespoons of corn starch (the UK calls it cornflour)

1 Tablespoon of butter, cut into 10-20 small pieces.  These will be placed on top of the pie before baking.

1/8 teaspoon salt

Instructions

  1. Take the piecrusts out of the refrigerator and allow them to reach room temperature as stated in the package instructions.  It’s important to do this because if you unroll them when cold, they will crack and your pie will be harder to make nice.
  2. Preheat the oven to 425F.  An oven rack should be placed in the middle position.
  3. Prepare a cookie sheet by lining it with one piece of aluminum foil.  This will be placed under the pie to catch any liquid that boils over.  If you use one piece of foil, you won’t have to clean the cookie sheet afterwards, just throw away the foil.
  4. Clean the berries and then taste them.  If they are tart, or very tart, add more sugar as stated above.
  5. In a large bowl, add the berries and all the remaining ingredients.  Stir gently to combine using a rubber spatula.  There is no need to create a uniform mixture, only stir a few times to combine the ingredients.
  6. Line your 9 inch glass pie dish with one of the pie crusts.  Pour the berry mixture inside and use a spatula to scrape the bowl.  Don’t worry if the pie filling does not look uniform.  In the oven, this will form hot blueberry soup and everything will even out.
  7. Dot the top of the filling with the butter, cut into small pieces.
  8. Add the top crust.  In the picture above, I cut the top crust into strips and wove them into a lattice: over under, over, under.  But if you use a one piece top crust, make sure to cut four large ventilation slits for steam to come out.  Nobody likes explosive decompression in a pie.  I used a fork to press the edges together and make a nice pattern.
  9. Place the pie plate on your foil lined cookie sheet and put it in the oven.  Close the door and immediately reduce the heat to 350F.  The high initial temperature is meant to set the bottom crust and keep it from getting soggy.  Bake for 55-65 minutes.  How can you tell if the cooking is done?  The blueberries will have released their liquid and the pie will be bubbling gently around the edges.  If you don’t see this at 55 minutes, keep going until you do, or until 65 minutes pass.
  10. If the top of the pie starts to look too browned, you can cover it with a layer of brown paper from a cut up brown paper bag.  I was worried about this at first, but apparently paper has to get much hotter than 350F, before it combusts.  It will act as an insulator and protect the crust from further direct heat.
  11. Take the pie out of the oven and allow it to cool.  This is best done overnight.  Don’t try to hurry things along by putting the pie in the freezer or cutting the pie too early.  The corn starch will form a gel with the blueberry liquid as it cools, and this process shouldn’t be rushed.  If it fails, your pie will be very runny.  When cooled properly, unless you have used a lot of sugar, you should only get a little juice leaking out.
  12. Enjoy!