Lemon-Blueberry Pie

by reenrene

[Tim] From the initial color-glaze of your eyes over this picture, you might think that we baked a beet pie, stained red like a newborn’s umbilical cord. But no, as I said in a comment, we do desserts here at Oven Number 2, and beets… wait, are there beet desserts? I’ve never had one. Holy Pan, there are. Behold, beet pie. Expect it.

[Irene] La, la, la, la, la. Sorry everyone… I haven’t really been present on the blog. Writing is not my forte, and I have been mostly preparing the photos (anddd I was lazy….). Tim has been the one mostly working on the baking; I’ve just been on the sidelines watching and photographing.

[Tim] The reasons for the influx of blueberry blood are two; first, because I had to use frozen grapes because I didn’t have enough fresh ones per the recipe (8 stinking cups of blueberries?!) and they’re hard to dry; second, because I boiled two cups of the shrunken heads and made a blueberry brain mash, a sloppy and sticky revelry to which I added the rest.

[Tim] When you were a kid and found little black and blue berries in the parks and playgrounds, did you ever eat one? Were they poisonous? I never heard of anyone dying from them. They said that you would get diarrhea. Another form of blue gooeyness.

[Tim] I like my pie as I do the shadow of a falcon crest — sweet, red, and soggy as a state-fair goer’s underarm. For crust enthusiasts, you would want to boil down the blueberry juice mix more than I.

[Irene] Reading through Tim’s writing portions, I never know what to write or how to fit in. I guess I just have to create my own mold right?

Good for almost everything pie dough by Dori Greenspan: Click Here

Double-Crusted Blueberry Pie by Dori Greenspan

Ingredients:

  • 2 1/2 pints fresh blueberries
  • 1 cup sugar, or little more, to taste, plus more for dusting
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • Pinch of salt
  • Coarsely grated zest of 1/2 lemon
  • Squirt of fresh lemon juice, or a little more, to taste
  • 1/4 cup dry bread crumbs (you can use packaged unseasoned crumbs)
  • 1 large egg, beaten with 1 teaspoon water, for egg wash
  • Sugar, for dusting

Getting Ready:

  • Butter 9-inch pie plate
  • Work on a well-floured surface (or between wax paper or plastic wrap), roll out one piece of the dough to a thickness of about 1/8 inch.
  • Fit the dough into the buttered pie plate and trim the edges to a 1/2-inchc overhang.
  • Roll the other piece of dough into a 1/8-inch-thick circle and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.
  • Cover both the circle and the pie plate with plastic wrap and refrigerate while you preheat the oven and prepare the filling

Getting Ready to Bake:

  • Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees F
  • Put the berries in a large bowl and gently stir in the sugar, flour, salt, zest and juice
  • Let sit for about 5 minutes
  • Taste the filling and add more sugar and/or lemon juice, if needed
  • Remove the pie shell and top crust from the refrigerator.
  • Sprinkle an even layer of the bread crumbs over the bottom of the shell.
  • Give the filling a last stir and turn it into the crust.
  • Using your fingertips, moisten the rim of the bottom crust with a little cold water. Center the top crust over the filling and gently press the top crust against the bottom.
  • Either fold the overhang from the top crust under the bottom crust and crimp the edges attractively or press the top crust against the bottom crust and trim the overhang from both crusts even with the rim of the pie plate.
  • If you’ve pressed and trimmed the crust, use the tines of a fork to press the two crusts together securely.
  • Using a small sharp knife, cut 4 slits in the top crust and cut a circle out of the center, then lift the plate onto the baking sheet. (If you have time, refrigerate the pie for about 30 minutes. The pie can also be wrapped airtight and frozen for up to 2 months. Glaze and sugar it before you put it in the oven and add at least 15 minutes to the baking time.)
  • Brush the top crust with the egg wash, then sprinkle the curst with a little sugar–just to give it sparkle.
  • Bake the pie for 30 minutes.
  • Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees F, and bake the pie for another 30 minutes or so (total baking time is about 1 hour), or until the crust is a beautiful golden brown and the filling is bubbling up through the slits. If the crust seems to be browning too quickly, make a loose foil tent for the pie.
  • Transfer the pie to a rack and let it cool–and settle–for at least 30 minutes before serving.