Yummy Blackberry Pie Recipe

by Melissa H

One of our favorite things to do in the summer is pick blackberries! In our area in Victoria, BC they grow in abundance! We can walk 5 minutes in any direction and find so many patches. The three boys and I went out one morning for 30 minutes to pick enough blackberries for pie. We came home with more than enough! But then came the hard part, I had to find a recipe. Although I love baking, pie is not one of the things I’m known for.

I found a recipe on Food.com  and did the first step. Mix everything in a bowl. Done. Then, the baby woke up and I got delayed 6 hours. Of course!

See under the recipe for my notes:

{Ingredients}

6 cups blackberries

1 cup sugar

3 TBS cornstarch

1tsp lemon juice

½ tsp lemon zest

2 TBS unsalted butter, diced

1large egg

Preaheat oven to 400 degrees F. Pie will bake for 45mins-60mins

{Make it}

Mix blackberries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and zest in a bowl. Stir until blended, occasionally squishing the berries. Let sit for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. While this is sitting, make your crust.

I found this great pastry recipe at The Prairie Homestead. You can use your favorite pastry recipe, just make sure that there are 2 (one for the top, one for the bottom)

{Pastry Ingredients}

(This will make ONE 9” pie crust – double for the fruit pie, or make twice)

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

¼ tsp sea salt

1/3 cup cold butter or lard or coconut oil

4-6 TBS ice cold water

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour and salt.

Cut in the fat using a pastry blender or two knives. You can use a food processor if you’d like, just be sure not to over-process.

For the dough, best tip ever: Freeze the butter and use a cheese grater to put the butter into the flour/salt mixture! Much easier to mix that way!

The flour/fat mixture should resemble coarse crumbs. Carefully add the water, one tablespoon at a time. You are looking for the dough to stick together and form a rough ball, but you don’t want a sticky mess. You might use your hands to form the ball, but be careful not to overwork the dough.  If the dough isn’t making a nice ball, add more cold water one teaspoon at a time.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface with a rolling pin. Have I mentioned lately that I love my Trudeau rolling pin? Once it is an inch or two larger than your pie plate, gently roll the crust onto the rolling pin to transfer into the pie plate. You may have to cut excess off. Make sure to leave some overhang to account for dough shrinking.

Fill with the blackberry pie filling. You may have some left over depending on how deep your pie plate is. I had about a cup and a half left over.

Dot the top with butter. Then add your topping. You can do lattice, or shapes, or a full top with slits cut in it. It is up to you!

Bake for 45-60 minutes. If you find the top is browning too quickly, cover with foil.

Let the pie cool completely before serving.

{Results}

So, although the blackberry mixture sat in the fridge for 6 hours, it still turned out delicious! I ended up putting a little extra lemon juice, and I forgot to dot the top with butter.  I also put too much of the mixture in and it exploded in my oven! OOPS! Make sure to leave some room at the top for expanding, and put a tray underneath to catch any mess.

I saw one blog that had stars all over the top of their pie, and I wanted to try that, so I cut out hearts instead of doing a lattice top. Next time I’ll do the lattice. I also didn’t brush egg onto the top of the dough because I have an egg allergy and I wanted to be able to eat the pie.

My favourite thing about this recipe is that it cost me ZERO dollars! We had everything we needed at home, and the blackberries were free!! If you bake regularly, you should have everything you need as well.

I will try again next week when we pick more blackberries. I’ll be doing a lattice work top and trying a different crust, just to be fun. Watch for that one!

I’d love to know, have you ever made blackberry pie? Do you have any special tricks and tips to make it taste amazing?