After our fun day picking juicy blueberries at Wilmot Blueberry Farm, all I could think about was coming home and baking a delicious dessert. This recipe really makes the farm fresh blueberries shine. I added a touch of lime zest, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg which really added to the bright and summery taste. The pie is lightly sweetened but you could also add more (or less) sugar depending on the sweetness of the berries. I decided to make the pie crust from scratch and despite being super worried it was going to be a disaster, it turned out a lot better than I expected! Perhaps you are intimidated by making a pie from scratch and trust me, so was I. But this recipe is very easy to follow and the outcome is very rewarding.
Ingredients For 9in Pie Dough:
2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup very cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
8 tablespoons ice cold water
Instructions:
Add 1 1/2 cups flour and salt to a food processor and pulse 2 times to combine.
Place cold butter cubes over the flour and process until mixture looks crumbly. Add remaining flour and pulse approximately 5 times to mix evenly.
Transfer flour mixture to a bowl and sprinkle 8 tablespoons of water over it. Using your hands, press the dough together to form large clusters. A great way to know if your dough is ready is by pinching it together. If it holds together when pinched, its ready! If it falls apart or crumbles when pinched, add another table spoon of water and press until it comes together.
Place dough mixture onto a clean surface. Gently kneed it until it forms a ball. Cut the ball in half and form each half into a disc. Wrap them with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
After the hour has passed, remove one dough disk from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for 5 minutes.
Flour work surface and lightly flour the top of the dough. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough into a 12 inch circle and about 1/8 thick. To prevent the dough from sticking to your work surface, roll from the centre of the dough and keep lifting it up and turning it as you roll.
To transfer the dough to pie dish, gently roll dough starting from one end around the rolling pin then unroll it over the dish. Press dough into the dish being sure to not pull or stretch it. If the dough is too large and hanging off the pie dish, use a knife and trim the edges.
Ingredients for Pie Filling:
6 cups fresh blueberries
3/4 cup granulated sugar (or more, depending on the sweetness of your blueberries)
1/4 cup corn starch
1 teaspoon freshly grated lime zest
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon vanilla bean powder
1/8 teaspoon ground all spice
Dash of nutmeg
1/8 salt
1 tablespoon cold butter, cut into tiny squares
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1 egg yolk
Instructions:
Mix sugar, corn starch, lime zest, cinnamon, vanilla powder, all spice, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl. Add the blueberries and gently mix until the blueberries are coated in mixture.
Transfer the blueberry mixture into the prepared pie crust and place in the refrigerator while you work on the lattice crust topping.
Remove second dough disc from the refrigerator and let it sit for 5 minutes.
Roll out dough similar to the previous one. Insuring its a 12 inch circle and approximately 1/8 of an inch thick.
Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife cut dough into 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch strips (depends on how thick you want your lattice strips to be) and lay half the strips horizontally over the pie. Use the longer strips in the middle of the pie and the shorter ones towards the edges.
The best way to understand how to lattice a pie is watching a video. This is the video I watched that made it so easy for me to understand the concept. http://www.canadianliving.com/section/video/1011754835001
Be sure to trim the dough strips around the edge of the dish. You can crimp the edges of the pie or leave it as is.
Use the tiny cold butter squares, dot them into the open areas of the lattice. Make an egg wash with the egg yolk and cream and brush it over entire pie dough. After the egg wash, refrigerate the pie for 20 mixtures before baking.
After the 20 minutes have passed, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place pie on a baking sheet (it will catch any drips from the pie) and position it onto the third rack of the oven. Bake for 20 minutes.
Once the 20 minutes have elapsed, lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F and continue to bake pie for 55 - 70 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling.
Be sure to cool the pie completely before cutting.