Blueberry Pie

I can't believe in these three-and-a-half years of pie making that I have not yet tried a straight blueberry pie. Well, for a quick dinner with close friends, my daughter (and the friend's daughter) did my first attempt.

This time of the winter always seems to call for frozen berry pies. Sick of apple and not wanting heavy pies, they seem to fit the bill.

Anyhow we used frozen Wyman wild blueberrys and followed a recipe (adapted) from the trusty Farm Journal pie book.

• Double crust pie
• 3 c frozen blueberries (one pack of Wymans)
• blueberry juice
• water to make 1/2 c combined with juice
  
• 3/4 c sugar
• 2 T tapioca
• 1 1/2 T cornstarch
• 1 T lemon juice

The recipe says to thaw berries and drain off the juice. There wasn't any, so I boiled some water in the kettle and poured 1/2 cup through the berries to make it juicy. Stir 'juice' into sugar, tapioca and cornstarch into saucepan. Cook until it is thickened. Add berried and juice to liquid and put in pie shell. Cover with second piece and cut steam vents. Bake at 425 for 30 mins or until nicely browned.


The adults LOVED the pie. The kids didn't really, even my daughter. She said it was too blueberry? I think it is well worth a repeat. It is not too sweet. I served it with whipped cream.

Sour Cherry Apple Pie

We had a quick dinner party with friends and I had about a pint of pitted sour cherries in the fridge from the summer. That with some apples - sounded like a good pie.

I created my own recipe:

• 2 crust pie
• 1 pint sour cherrys (pitted)
  
• 3 apples cubed (mix of regular apples)
• 1 c sugar
• 2 T flour
• 1 t almond extract
• 2 t lemon
• 2 T butter
  

Cube & peel the apples. Sprinkle lemon juice over the apples. Add sour cherrys then flour, sugar, flour, extract. Mix. Pour into shell; dot with butter (I always forget to do this). Cover with second crust (I did a lattice) Cook at 400 for 40 mins or until thoroughly cooked.

This combo was magical before. This time, it was good - only one slice was left. However, it needed more sugar - maybe a cup. Luckily I served it with sweetened whipped cream. I have been trying to cut back on sugar as the Farm Journal recipes are just too sweet for me. But this one was too tart - maybe too much lemon too. And maybe super fresh cherries and apples too would improve the combo.

Plum Variations

My daughter always says she loves plum pies; we have only made them once - last summer. I guess they made a good impression.

As I haven't had time to go to the market lately, I had asked my husband to keep a look out for Italian Plums. So last weekend he came in with a whole bag full - 4 pints!

My daughter and I set to plum pie making. I decided I would do one big one for a party we were having, and four little ones mixed with other fruits.

I did enough crusts for two pies. And for the plum pie, I followed the recipe from the trust Farm Journal's Complete Pie Cookbook - you can read it in a previous post (scroll down for Plum Spice Pie)

Then I made four little pies. As I have written in the past, I like doing these mini pies because I feel more flexibility to experiment.

The large plum pie was a huge hit. The whole thing was eaten at the party. We served the four little ones for a smaller dinner the second night. The variations included:

Red & Purple Plum with Ginger Lime - I added about 1/2 t of ginger a t of lime plus sugar to a mix of purple and red plums.

Cherry Plum - I added a distribution of about 1/4 cherries to plums with organic sugar and nutmeg with the spicy crust.

Plum Apple - I added about a half an apple to the plums and cinnamon and added the spicy crust.

Cherry Apple - I added the other half of the apple to about 1/4 c. of cherries with a 1/4 t of Almond extract and a squirt of lemon.

After we tried all of them, the lime plum was the only failure. The Cherry Apple and Plum Apple were diving though and definitely worth a future big pie.

I used that souther lily white flour because that is all I had. I kind of didn't want to because I think it is over processed. But, truth be told it made a better crust. I was able to mix it without getting tough and it took the water really well.