Monday, January 17, 2011

Blackberry Pie...from scratch!

Here is how it works:
You take a little more than a quart (5-6 cups) of frozen, handpicked blackberries from the freezer in the morning, putting them in a large bowl. When I run out of the blackberries I will use the 3-berry bags from Costco.
When they are mostly thawed add about a cup of sugar (I use evaporated cane juice crystals.), 3 tablespoons of flour (I use whole wheat pastry flour.), 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 tablespoon of lemon or orange zest (I used orange zest today.), and 1 apple (I used a Pink Lady.), peeled and cut in small chunks.
Mix all together, and then let it sit for several hours so the berries can absorb all the other ingredients. Sift and measure 2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour with 1/2 teaspoon of salt,
and cut in 2/3 cup of cold butter.
I have a 'pastry cutter' shown in the picture below for this part of the process.
Add 5-7 tablespoons of cold milk, depending on the humidity of your kitchen.
I live in a dry climate and in a home with wood heat,
so I used a little more than 7 tablespoons today.

Stir with a fork until you can form a ball of the dough,
and then roll it out on a pastry canvas like my Auntie Lela gave me back in the 1970's.

Place the first rolled out crust portion in the bottom of a pie pan. I use a 10" glass pie dish.
Pour the filling in and dot with two tablespoons of butter on top in various places.
Roll out top crust, place it on top, pinch the edges all around, cut a design on top for steam venting purposes, sprinkle about a teaspoon of sugar on top, and bake at 400 for 50 minutes.


Wait at least an hour before cutting into it.
However, it SHOULD be eaten warm.
An hour and a half is the maximum time for waiting, and you'll need to top it off with some really high quality ice cream (Bryers)...because you will have a high quality pie.
I took it out to 'The Ranch' where 'the kids' are building their house.
Lovella made coffee from Costa Rica to accompany it.
It doesn't get much better than this for a blustery day in winter that needs some spicing up!
Yum, yum, yum!




4 comments:

nazia said...

great to see this information about the blackberry i really like it and i hope that everyone will like tis information
thanks to share about
Blackberry

Stacie, A Firefighter's Wife said...

Yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!! I never thought of adding apple to it. I love "designing" my crust now. It is fun to make it look pretty.

Margo and I are trying to come up with a Walla Walla date. Call me!

Cheesemakin' Mamma said...

Yum!!!

mag brewer said...

WOW...I want some. I think I do have some frozen blackberries in the freezer. The pie crust is a bit intimidating but I am sure that Jeanette(my Malaysian exchange student) will love making it together. Today we might try Rice Krispie treats with M&Ms. She isn't into sweet things but we don't seem to have a problem with that. I had hoped to make some at Christmas time but never got into the baking mood.
Thanks for the idea.