Almost Homemade Blueberry Pie
III’s favorite dessert is blueberry pie. He said recently a sign of getting older is starting to like more fruity desserts…peach cobbler, strawberry shortcake, and of course blueberry pie. His mom makes the best. I have to agree. III’s parents live on a decent amount of land and have around 25-30 blueberry bushes that have stood the test of time. III tells me stories about when he was little and how he used to pick hours picking them and then take them to sell at a local farmer’s market. He’d make $7.00 for hours of work, but it’d be all his and he was so proud. I had never had blueberry pie until I traveled to LA (lower Alabama), but I glad to say that I can now add it to one of my favorite desserts list as well. And to make things even better, it’s pretty simple to make too!
Now, I suppose if you were up for the challenge you could make the pie crust from scratch. I’d give you bonus points and be super proud of you. I didn’t. But if I did I would probably try our this recipe from the Pioneer Woman, basically because I love almost any thing I make using one of her recipes. Plus, she says it’s perfect. Maybe once I get settled in with my three littles three and under I will give it a go. For now, I picked up two pie shells from Publix and made sure I told them thank you for saving me some time on the way out! So, here is the run down.
- 3-4 cups of fresh blueberries (or frozen completely thawed)
- 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup of cornstarch OR 1/2 cup of flour
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp milk
- 2 frozen pie crusts (or homemade if you have time!)
- 1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- 2. Set out the pie crust to thaw/reach room temperature (it won't take long)
- 3. In a large bowl mix all of the blueberries in the sugar, cornstarch, & cinnamon. If you don't have any cornstarch you can use flour (you'll just need a little more than the amount of cornstarch).
- 4. Once the pie crust has thawed pour your blueberry mixture into one of the pie crusts.
- 5. Dot the top with small pieces of unsalted butter.
- 6. For the lattice, take the other crust out of the pan and lay flat. Use a pizza or pie cutter to slice into strips (about 1/2 inch wide). Carefully thread the trips over and under creating a weave and pinch the ends of each strip to the edge of the bottom pie crust to seal.
- 7. In a small bowl mix together the egg and milk. Brush the top and edges of your pie. Then sprinkle the top with a little extra sugar!
- 8. Cook the pie at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Then turn down to 350 and allow the pie to continue cooking for another 25 minutes.
- 9. Allow the pie to cool for at least 3 hours. This allows the filling time to thicken up to perfection!
- III prefers his extra cool, so he likes it to spend some time in the refrigerator too.
I’ve made this pie twice in the past few weeks and it hit the tastebuds right each time! For the 4th of July I added stars to the top instead of the lattice. Turned out pretty cute and festive if I do say so myself.
