They don't get much fresher than this. On Saturday my kids spent the day over at Joe and Em's new house (nephew and girlfriend - and she is SO much more to us than simply "Joe's girlfriend" but that's the quickest description), and in the back yard they have about 12-16 enormous sprawling blueberry bushes. They've been allowed to just go wild before Joe and Emily bought the place a couple of months ago, so these bushes are more like trees. And best of all, there are a TON of blueberries out there ripening. And - lucky for me - there were plenty of ripe berries for the kids and Emily to pick for this pie. Over the next couple of weeks, there will probably be enough berries in total to supply all the TWD members with enough to make a pie or a crumble each. Really. TONS of them.
So anyway, the kids and Emily picked those berries on Saturday and I made the pie on Sunday. I cut a piece so I could take pictures, and Alex had a piece (half last night, half for breakfast this morning), and later today Bill will bring the rest of the pie over to Joe and Emily. But I am sure there will be more blueberries in production at my house before the branches are bare. Pies, tarts, jams, syrup...and frozen berries to have on hand for some distant "later."
Anyway - yay - I lucked out - fresher than fresh blueberries. I added less than a quarter cup of frozen blueberries, and they really weren't even necessary, but my pie pan is rather deep and I wanted PLENTY.
And speaking of the pie - this week's recipe "Double-Crusted Blueberry Pie" was chosen by Amy of South in Your Mouth, and you can find the recipe on her site or in Dorie Greenspan's book Baking From My Home to Yours on pages 361-363. The recipe for the "Good For Almost Everything Pie Dough" is on pages 442-443.
I absolutely love blueberry pie, so when I saw this selection I was VERY happy. I bought several bags of Wyman's frozen blueberries, but didn't really need them in the end.
I will admit I kind of raced through the recipe and the edges of my crust didn't look as pretty as they could have. But I was trying to get the pie done quickly so I could bring Alex to a birthday party later in the afternoon. We're also in the middle of cleaning and reorganizing the house because we've got a few sets of relatives coming to stay with us beginning later this week and running through the rest of the month.
Anyway, first up, I made the dough for the crust. I didn't use my food processor (it was in the dishwasher), I just used a pastry blender and my hands, and the dough came out fine.
I could have chilled my shortening longer, but it didn't really seem to matter - the dough is lovely - flaky and tender.
I chilled the dough for maybe half an hour while I rinsed off the blueberries and picked off the few bits of stems that remained. Then I combined the blueberries with the rest of the filling ingredients - the flour and sugar and pinch of salt, and the zest and juice of a lemon - only I didn't have a lemon, so I used a small orange, and actually, I really liked the flavor of orange in combination with the blueberries.
There seemed to be a little too much of the mixture of flour and sugar, and even though I combined it all pretty well with the blueberries, there were still some floury areas in the finished pie. They didn't taste off or different, but they didn't look right.
Anyway, as Dorie instructs, I sprinkled a layer of plain bread crumbes on the crust to absorb juices and prevent the bottom crust from getting soggy,
and then I poured in the blueberry mixture.
Then I draped the top crust over the whole thing, "glued" the two crusts together with water, pressed to seal them, and this time around, instead of crimping the edges, I used the tines of the fork to decorate the edges. I cut slits in the top crust, and cut a small hole in the center. Then I put the whole thing in the fridge for half an hour to chill. Right before I put the pie in the oven, I brushed the top with egg wash and sprinkled sparkling sugar over it all. Then the pie went onto a baking sheet and into the middle of my oven.
About an hour later I took the pie out and set it on a rack to cool. It looked and smelled wonderful.
I started wishing we didn't have to share with anyone. (Sorry Joe and Em!)
About half an hour later, I cut one slice of pie, you know, so I could take my pictures. That's the only reason, of course. And I had to eat some, too, again, for my pictures. It was all done in the name of art, and science, and baking and all that.
Overall, this was a yummy pie. And I was very happy to HAVE to make it for TWD this week. It wasn't necessarily any better than any other blueberry pie I've made, and certainly no worse. It was simply a really yummy pie. My only dissatisfaction - and it was pretty minor - was that there seemed to be more of that sugar/flour mixture than the berries required. I should have trusted my own instincts and just not used all of it. But oh well, I'll do that next time. And like I said, the pie tasted just fine.
I'll probably make it again, since there are SO MANY blueberries available to me, and next time, I'll use my own judgement about the flour/sugar addition. I'll keep you posted.
And in the meantime, you might want to go check out what all the other - well over 200 now - members of Tuesdays With Dorie have done with this recipe.
