Famous Berry Pie
READ THIS FIRST: This is my famous berry pie recipe, which is actually my mother's famous berry pie recipe, which is actually my Aunt Anne's blueberry pie recipe. I've made this multiple times, and I think the true secret is a berry blend. I get the tri-berry blend from Costco because they're available year-round, and provide a delicious mix of blueberry, strawberry and blackberry. I find frozen berries to be more reliable, as fresh out-of-season berries (berries are in season in the summer) just don't have great flavor-and they're wildly expensive. It's VERY IMPORTANT to give yourself enough time to properly chill everything, and be sure your pie is cooked BEFORE any meal you plan to serve it with-the pie will need time to sit and cool down or it'll be a sloppy (but delicious) mess.
Ingredients
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- pie dough x2
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- 7 cups berry blend (frozen or fresh), divided
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- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
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- 1/4 cup cornstarch
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- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
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- 2 pinches salt
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- 1 tsp lemon zest
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- 2 tbsp instant tapioca
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- 1 egg
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- 1 tbsp water
Directions
- If using frozen berries, bring 2 cups to room temperature (via microwave-usually 45 seconds will do it).
- In a small bowl, rub lemon zest into the sugar using your fingers.
- NO HEAT In a medium saucepan, add the 2 cups of room temperature berries to cornstarch and mix thoroughly-your berries CANNOT be hot or the cornstarch will lump up. Using a potato masher or large spoon, smash your berries to release as much juice as possible, mixing thoroughly into a milky slurry.
- NO HEAT Add lemon sugar, salt and cinnamon to slurry, mixing thoroughly.
- WITH HEAT Simmer mixture over medium heat until glossy & clear, about 10 minutes. Be sure to constantly stir, as this burns very easily.
- Remove from heat and add remaining berries and tapioca, mix thoroughly.
- Refrigerate until fully chilled, about 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F, placing rack on bottom of the oven.
- Roll out your pie dough, lining your pie dish with dough-do NOT trim excess dough until you add the filling.
- Add chilled berry filling to pie dish. Roll out remaining pie dough for pie top, and place on top of pie dish.
- Trim pie dough around dish, leaving a little bit of margin for the dough to contract during baking. For easy decoration and creating a seal, a fork or spoon depressed along the edge works really well. Place in refrigerator on baking sheet.
- Prepare eggwash by whisking egg and water together.
- DO THIS QUICKLY Remove pie from refrigerator, cut in steam vents (critically important as the top will blow off if you don’t do this). Steam vents should include a small circle in center of pie (with a knife inserted halfway through and twirled) and 4 to 8 evenly distributed slashes of 2 1/2 to 3 inches in length.
- DO THIS QUICKLY Brush center of pie with eggwash-do NOT brush the edges as they will burn. Place in oven immediately-your pie should be as cold as possible when you place in the oven.
- Place pie on baking sheet in the oven (to catch berry droppings). Bake 25 min.
- Rotate pie 180 degrees, reduce oven heat to 375 degrees F.
- Continue to rotate pie every 20 minutes until done, you’re looking for your pie crust to be a rich golden brown, with the dough you see through the glass of your pie dish to be a goden brown as well (though not as deep). NOTE: If your pie edges begin to burn, place aluminum foil over them to protect them from the heat, this typically happens after the first 20 min rotation.
- Remove from oven and place on wire cooling rack to cool for at least 3 hours before serving.