AceFoodDesk says here’s today’s food and yummy recipes using blueberries to enjoy with Kindness & Love A&M XX

Let’s make a blueberry pie

A seasonal delight

Blueberries are one of the most satisfying of the local fruits. Although sometimes they may be disappointingly tart, sugar will always save the day. This year, the berries have been luscious and sweet with great flavor and just enough tartness to keep them interesting. 

A pie!

After our most recent berrying, we made pancakes again and enjoyed the fruits with a lovely local yoghurt for the past two mornings. But the star of this haul was the blueberry pie we both worked on, and the little tartlets that my granddaughter made with dough scraps and extra berries. 

A few tricks

A fruit pie is sometimes a bit of a challenge. You have to bake the pie long enough for the cornstarch to thoroughly set the filling, and be careful that this long bake doesn’t burn the crust. It is not uncommon to have to crimp some foil around the edges to prevent this from happening. To ensure the pie is not runny, always cook the berries until bubbling nicely, even if it means they are messing up the top. If not, the cornstarch will not set the liquid.

In addition to using other berries, you can use any favorite pie crust here as well. It’s your pie after all.

The hardest part? Waiting for the pie to cool and set before cutting into it.

Two-Crust Blueberry Pie

The crust:

• 3 ½ cups all-purpose unbleached white flour, or whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• ¼ cup non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening, chilled
• 12 tbsp. (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, cubed, chilled
• 2 tbsp. lemon juice
• 2/3 cup ice water

The filling:

• 6 cups fresh blueberries
• ¾ cup sugar
• 5 tbsp. cornstarch
• Zest of one lemon
• 2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• Pinch of salt and cinnamon

First, make the crust so it can chill. For best results, have everything chilled, including the flour.

Place the flour, salt, shortening, and butter in a food processor and pulse until the texture of lumpy wet sand, some pea sized pieces of butter should still be present. Add the lemon juice with a pulse or two, then add half the ice water, making sure to remove any ice cubes before you start adding. Pulse and slowly add a bit more water as needed. You might not need it all. A quick check and the dough will hold together if squeezed. Try not to overwork the dough at any stage to keep it tender and flakey.

Turn out onto a piece of plastic wrap, there will be lots of crumbs, and gently pull up the sides of the wrap against the dough until it roughly forms a mass. Cut in two, shape each into a round disc, wrap, and place both in the refrigerator to chill for a half hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and place a baking sheet on the lower middle rack. You are going to put the pie directly on this and the preheating of the pan will help the bottom to quickly cook and seal to prevent a soggy bottom.

In a large bowl, mix together the berries, sugar, cornstarch, zest, juice, salt, and cinnamon. Mix this together well, then pop in the refrigerator while the dough chills.

When the dough is ready, roll out using your pie plate of choice to measure around so it is big enough to fill the entire tin with some overlap on the top. Fit into the plate, fill with the berry mixture, and roll out the second sheet of dough.

Put the lid on and insert a steam pie bird (I used my mom’s), or just make large slips in the top of the pie. Crimp the edges of the pie together, and brush with an egg wash (an egg yolk thinned with a tsp. of water) or a plant or dairy milk. Sprinkle with coarse sugar if you like.Ready for the oven. Now the waiting begins.

Place on the heated sheet pan and bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375 and continue baking for a total of about an hour. The key thing is to see that the filling is boiling, you need to see those bubbles, and they probably will overflow here and there, another reason for the sheet pan. If the filling doesn’t boil, the cornstarch will not activate and you’ll most likely have a runny pie.

Check after about 40 minutes to see if the edges are browning too quickly. If so, cover them with some foil.

When ready, let the pie set for at least four hours, overnight is better. This is hard, but worth the wait.

Variations:

Crust variations: I’ve made a two-crust pie here, but you could also top with a lattice crust, or a crumble crust. For a crumble, combine a half cup each of flour, oats, brown sugar, and melted butter, and place in clumps on the pie, leaving a few little gaps here and there so you can see if the berries are bubbling.

Other berries: you can use this technique for any berry pie including blackberry (my personal favorite), raspberry, cherry, or strawberry rhubarb. Follow the basic steps, and make sure you cook it until it bubbles nicely.Our method for picking is to fill little pint containers and dump them into a big bucket. That way, we know about how much we had picked, and it’s easier when the kids really small.

High Summer, so lets’ make Blueberry Pie

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