July 2019 | The Honest Spoon

It’s summertime in the Pacific Northwest!! Do you know what that means? BERRY PICKING!!! It also means Friday afternoon wine tasting, hikes at the coast, hikes in the forest, biking,  outdoor seating at the cafes, and fabulous farmers markets. But, if you’re me, it really does mean berry picking. I drag my boys (pre-teen and boy-man ages) and while they may do it to humor me- they quickly get into the peace, calm, and quiet that is berry picking. Every year we maintain the goal of one bucket of blueberries per person. The irony here is that I am not a lover of blueberries on their own. Any other berry? STRONG YES! Blueberries? Not so much. But bake them in this pie, blueberry jam, blueberry muffins, pancakes and everything in between-YES PLEASE AND THANK YOU!

For this pie I did not make a homemade pie crust. Seriously, sometimes a girl just can’t make everything from scratch. I will say that Trader Joe’s has a great pie crust in the freezer section. I always have a couple boxes on hand and I have no shame in my game when I use it. It’s good, so why not? If you don't want to roll out a pie crust and shape the edges, a premade frozen pie crust in a tin is also OK. In this recipe you will par-bake the crust. This is an important step! Blueberries release a lot of juice while baking and if you don't par-bake your crust you’ll end up with a soggy crust- no Bueno.

While your oven is preheating and your crust is baking, you can quickly and easily pull together the blueberry filling and topping. This recipe calls for fresh blueberries. Fresh blueberries really will give you the best results. However, if you are a little short on fresh berries, you can fill in with some frozen. In fact, when I made this pie I was about a cup short and I filled in with frozen blueberries, no problem!

This recipe is from a William-Sonoma baking book that I have had for years. I LOVE this book!! the recipes are great and I reference back to it often. In fact, my pizza dough recipe is from the same book!

TIP: If you are looking for a gluten free option, Trader Joes has a gluten free pie crust in the freezer section. For the topping and pie, you can substitute regular flour with a gluten free baking flour (like Bobs Red Mill - my favorite).

Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do!! Happy summer!

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BLUEBERRY CRUMBLE PIE

| makes one pie |

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 9” Pie Crust

• Topping:

  • 3/4 Cups Flour

  • 1/3 Cup Brown Sugar

  • 1/3 Cup Granulated Sugar

  • 1/2 Cup Cold Salted Butter

  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• Pie:

  • 4 Cups fresh blueberries

  • 1/3 Cups brown sugar

  • 4 tablespoons flour

  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

  • +1 tablespoon flour

  • + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

METHOD:

Pie Crust:

1. Preheat your oven to 400  degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Line your pie crust with foil and add pie weights (if you don’t have pie weights, dried beans work too). Bake for 15 minutes.

3. Remove pie crust from oven. Gently remove foil and weights, reduce oven temp tp 350 degrees, and return crust to oven. Bake 5 minutes more  until just lightly golden brown. Set aside.

Topping:

1. Place flour, sugar, and butter in a food process. Process for 30 seconds or until you have course crumbs. Set aside.

Pie:

1. Increase  oven temp to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Stir together the 1 tablespoon flour and 1 tablespoon sugar and gently spoon over bottom of pie crust.

2. In a large bowl place blueberries, flour, sugar,  cinnamon and stir gently to evenly coat berries. Gently add blueberry mixture to pie crust.

3. Add topping over the blueberries covering them completely. Place pie on large cookie sheet and transfer to oven.

4. Bake, uncovered, for 60 minutes, until crust is golden brown. TIP":  Check at 45 minutes- if the crust is getting too brown, cover pie in aluminum foil.

5.  Let cool completely. Serve with Whipped Cream, Vanilla Ice Cream or both!