Mary Blenk’s Maine Wild Blueberry Pie
This award-winning wild blueberry pie recipe is juicy, not runny, the berries sweet (yet just a bit tart), the crust flaky and light: everything a blueberry pie should be.
Mary Blenk’s Maine Wild Blueberry Pie
Photo Credit : Stacey CrampThis award-winning wild blueberry pie recipe is juicy, not runny, the berries sweet (yet just a bit tart), the crust flaky and light: everything a blueberry pie should be.
Yield:
1 double-crust pieIngredients
dough for a 9-inch, 2-crust pie:
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for work surface and crust bottom
1/4 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup butter-flavored vegetable shortening
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon regular(unflavored) vegetable shortening
5-7 tablespoons ice water, divided
Granulated sugar (for crust bottom)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400°. In a large mixing bowl, whisk flours with salt and baking powder. Add butter-flavored shortening; use a pastry blender to work it in until the mixture has the consistency of fine meal. Add regular shortening, and blend until mixture looks like wet sand with pea-sized bits of shortening (Mary says this will make the crust flakier).
Add ice water 1 tablespoon at a time. Toss with a fork until dough starts to form a ball. Turn dough onto floured counter, and knead three times, until smooth. Divide dough into two balls, one slightly larger than the other.
On a floured surface, roll out larger ball to a 13-inch circle and transfer into a 9-inch glass pie plate. Dust bottom of crust with a bit of sugar and flour. Trim any excess dough that is draping over the edges of the pie plate, and set aside.
Filling:
Ingredients
1/2-1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon light-brown sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon Minute Tapioca mix
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 cups Maine wild blueberries (preferably frozen)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon salted butter
Instructions
In a separate mixing bowl, prepare the filling. Whisk together sugars, flour, tapioca, and spices. Toss berries in dry mixture. Pour berries gradually into crust, holding back flour mixture with a big spoon. When the coated berries fill the bottom, pour the rest of the dry mixture on top of berries. Drizzle lemon juice over berries; dot with butter.
Roll out top crust to a 10-inch circle and set atop pie. Fold bottom crust up over top crust; crimp to seal. Cut slits in the top. Use leftover dough to make berries and leaves to decorate the top. Bake 40-45 minutes for fresh berries, 5-10 minutes longer if you’re using frozen, until juices bubble up out of the vents.
