Red, White and Purple: Pure Blueberry


I've been wanting comfort, and Blueberry strikes me as that plus patriotic, so I'd already decided on it for the Fourth when my friend Glenn requested it, too. It fits him: blueberry is a stand-up citizen, tasty, not pretentious, but juicy under the surface. It's sour enough to be interesting and full of antioxidants you need though you're not sure why. This pie made its debut at a Fourth of July party where we celebrated the USA with beer and exploding watermelons. Despite the fact that Glenn's not quite an American citizen. No big deal. Blueberry pie might be patriotic, but it doesn't have to be all-American. It could be, say, all-Canadian.

Blueberry scared me, though. Northwesterners are more into the hardy blackberry, and I'm thrown off by the super juiciness of the unadulterated blueberry (read: soupy when sliced). You can dose it with starch, only to get gelatinous mush. I hate sticky, syrupy deli pie! Hence this blog: never again a bad candied-up pie.

So I compromised. This pie is half plump fresh berry, half frozen wild berry. The result was a tart-sweet filling that held up beautifully under the knife and made everybody go happily silent while they took the first bites. Firecrackers boomed outside and we ate pie: I gotta say, I felt sentimental, and I'm not one for the patriotic. Feliz Cuatro de Julio, as we say in Tejas.
Fresh/Frozen Blueberry Pie

Prepare 1 double pie crust (see: Fearless Pie Crust)

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees

Filling
3 cups fresh blueberries
3 cups frozen wild blueberries (these are small and intensely flavored)
4 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon fresh-squeezed lemon juice
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons diced butter (sprinkle over fruit before baking)

Gently toss berries with starch, sugar, and lemon. Mix the fresh berries first. Take the frozen berries out of the freezer at the last possible second, toss quickly with the fresh, and pour into crust. It's important they don't thaw or it'll get mushy, the kiss of pie death. Top with a full crust or lattice; I opted for lattice because the berries are such a gorgeous color.

Bake for 40 minutes at 400 degrees, then another 20-30 at 350, until it's bubbling and the crust lightly browned. Put a cookie sheet on the rack below to catch excess juice!

Comments

DCP said…
Awww, thanks for the kind words. If you ever need taste-testers, you know where to find me.

PS - The blueberry was great.
July 6, 2008 at 9:00 AM
noodle777 said…
hi Irene! Wheres the pie? they look yummy Joni and noodle. got any bone pie love nood
July 20, 2008 at 11:16 AM
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