When the winter fades, and Spring is ahead, we start thinking of all the fruit we can look forward to. Our youngest son has always enjoyed fruit pies. When I ask him if he would like pie, and what flavor, he tends to pick cherry, or blackberry or blueberry. When we were first married, I always made pie crust from scratch, as my mom always made it this way. As the children were born, and we didn’t have as much time, we purchased pre made refrigerated crusts. Believe me, the refrigerated pie dough helped us around the holidays, & is still a great short cut when you are pressed for time. If, however, you have some additional time on the weekend, and want to make pie dough, it is super simple. We can’t wait for the whole house to smell like freshly baked berry pie, so let’s get started!!
The weekend is always in site. Who doesn’t want a sweet ending to the weekend? Take a couple of hours to make the dessert that will make everyone happy. Making the pie crust from scratch may seem daunting, but we promise you, it is not. Our youngest college son makes this crust.
Y’all will hopefully find that the making of the crust is a relaxing thing, that will remind you of mom’s baking! It sure brought back memories for me! I used to pick cherries, apples and peaches with my sisters and my mom every summer. We couldn’t wait till she turned them into a pie. We would line up to see who got the first buttery, crispy piece. She never wasted a scrap of the crust. We know you will enjoy this pie as much as we did making it for y’all! Enjoy! ~The Perks.
If you love blueberries, go check out my mom’s blueberry crumb kuchen!
Ingredients
Pie crust recipe
- 2/3 cup + 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 5-6 Tablespoons of ice cold water
Filling for Pie
- 4 cups fresh blueberries
- 1 cup of sugar
- Zest of 1 lemon
- Juice of one lemon
- A pinch of kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon dried nutmeg or a few grates of fresh nutmeg (preferred)
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons butter cut into tiny cubes
- 2 tablespoons of decorating sugar regular sugar will do
Instructions
Instructions for pie crust
- Cut butter into thick slices and put in a glass bowl
- Measure in flour and salt
- Using a pastry cutter, cut butter into flour, forming pea size pieces of butter
- Sprinkle half the cold water over the flour mixture and start to mix with hands
- Add balance of water, looking for dough to come together, but it will still be dry
- If you have a marble counter, you can use counter to complete the dough on the cool surface
- Divide the dough and squeeze it into 2 balls, with the warmth of your hands, but do not knead the dough, as you want the butter to remain as pockets to form the delicate crust when you bake it
- Form 2 thick discs, and place them each in plastic wrap and put into refrigerator
- Allow them to rest in refrigerator for 30 minutes, up to overnight
Instructions for blueberry pie
- Add blueberries to bowl
- Zest lemon over the blueberries
- Add 3/4 of the sugar
- Add cinnamon and nutmeg
- Sprinkle the cornstarch over
- Gently toss with a wooden spoon or hands to mix dry ingredients
- Pour the juice of one lemon over top
- Mix in and set fruit aside
- Roll out one disc of pie dough, keeping the dough between 2 sheets of plastic
- Place dough into 9 inch pie pan
- Add in the blueberry mixture, scraping bowl for all the sugar and juices
- Sprinkle top with 1/4 sugar, and dot with pea size pieces of the butter
- Roll out next disc of pie dough and cut into strips
- Form a pattern over the fruit by alternating a basket design over the pie by going over and under with strips
- Re roll scraps as needed and make more strips to complete
- Trim any over hang of the strips
- Crimp the outside edge of the dough to form slight s shapes, by using your pinching fingers
- Brush the top with some cream, or milk, and sprinkle with course sugar
- Use a long piece of foil, doubled over to go around the outside of the pie pan to shield the edges
- Bake in 400 degree oven, for 60 minutes, turning every 15
- When you see the filling bubble, that is the time to remove the foil ring
- Give the pie another 2-4 minutes in oven to ensure the outside ring is browned evenly
- Pie may drip, so be sure to have a piece of foil on second shelf
- When pie is golden brown, remove from oven and allow to cool
