The paternal side of my husband's family has deep roots in the deep south. Papa Coco grew up in New Iberia, birthplace of the famous Tabasco sauce, and I credit the Coco clan for my love of spicy fare. My relationship with Cajun cuisine has been a sizzling one. I've eaten my way across the New Orleans area a number of times, keeping syncopated step with Dixieland music and jazz while cavorting with po boy sandwiches, dirty rice and gobs of gumbo all doused with that ubiquitous Tabasco. It's a good thing I don't live in the Big Easy for I would surely be as big as a bayou.
The pièce de résistance of Louisiana fare, however, is the dessert. Beignets with chicory café au lait and pralines are the perfect chasers after a spicy meal. I'm not a Starbucks fan, but if Cafe du Monde ever become a franchise chain, I would probably be the first to buy in! With coffee and caramel pecans as my inspiration, I present to you Louisiana Mudslide Pie. It's a frozen ice cream pie, an ideal counterpoint to the peppery fire of a Cajun dinner and the sultry southern summer heat.
Pecans are incorporated into the pie crust and can also be used as a garnish. A premium coffee flavored ice cream is a requirement, and if you can find it studded with chocolate pieces, that's all the better. Purchase a good quality caramel sauce as well as a thick hot fudge sauce. I've included my recipe for fudge sauce which is easy to prepare and can be stored for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator. This is the sauce I used in my Love Potion pie, and I'm not so humble to say, this sauce is swoon-worthy!
Bon appétit!
Crust:
1 1/2 cups chocolate graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup pecans, finely ground in a coffee mill
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup butter, melted
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a medium bowl, mix all crust ingredients together and press evenly into a 9 1/2-inch pie pan. Bake for 8 minutes. Cool.
Filling:
2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons caramel sauce
2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons hot fudge sauce (you can use bottled, but recipe is below)
1/2 gallon coffee ice cream, softened
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans for garnish (optional)
Spoon 1/3 cup of caramel topping and into cooled pie crust and freeze for about 15 minutes. Remove from freezer and spread half of ice cream over the caramel sauce. Spread another 1/3 cup of caramel sauce and 2/3 cup of hot fudge sauce over the ice cream. Sprinkle with 1/4 cups chocolate chips and then spread remaining ice cream into the pie pan. Spread remaining 2 tablespoons each of the caramel and hot fudge sauce over top of pie. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips and sprinkle with pecans if desired.
Freeze at least 4 hours before serving.
Fudge Sauce:
1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Heat the milk, chocolate chips and sugar to boiling over medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Reserve 1 cup of sauce for the pie and store the remaining sauce in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for another use.
The mercury has been creeping toward 90 degrees in my neck of the woods. Most of us seasoned Montanans embrace the heat while it lasts because we know winter lurks around the corner, waiting to seize us in its frigid grasp. Others, like my husband, wither and wane in hot weather. With no air conditioning, the last thing I want to inflict upon my Nordic snowman is a hot oven cranking out the heat in an already stuffy house.
An ice cream pie is the perfect dessert to prepare and serve during these hot summer months. I chose a banana split pie with its traditional crowd pleasing flavor combination of chocolate, strawberries and pineapple. Thankfully I had a graham cracker pie shell stored in the freezer and didn't have to bake one up from scratch. A store-bought crust will do, too.
This pie can be made days ahead of time and stored in the freezer. The layered ingredients showcase beautifully once the pie is sliced. Have fun experimenting with various ice cream flavors. Neopolitan ice cream would be especially appropriate with its built in flavor trio of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla.
Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
6 tablespoons butter, melted
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a medium bowl, mix all crust ingredients together and press evenly into a 9 1/2-inch pie pan. Bake for 8 minutes. Cool and refrigerate until ready to use.
Filling:
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
Caramel sauce (store bought)
Hot fudge sauce (store bought)
1/2 gallon ice cream (I used a premium vanilla)
2 large ripe bananas
2 cups of strawberries
8 ounce can crushed pineapple, well drained
1/2 cup coarsely chopped nuts (I used pecans and peanuts)
Maraschino cherries for garnish
Using a chilled medium-size bowl and chilled beaters, beat the cream with an electric mixer until it holds soft peaks. Add the powdered sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Refrigerate.
Without measuring, pour enough butterscotch sauce into the chilled pie shell to cover generously. I used nearly half of a 17 ounce jar. Place the pie in the freezer for 10 minutes. Take the ice cream out of the freezer to soften a bit. Slice bananas and strawberries into 1/4" slices.
Mound half of the ice cream in the pie shell on top of the sauce. Press into crust lightly and then spread sliced strawberries, bananas and crushed pineapple evenly over ice cream layer. Spread fudge sauce over the fruit and mound remaining ice cream over the chocolate sauce. Spread whipped cream over pie and sprinkle with nuts. Freeze for an hour before serving. Garnish with maraschino cherries and serve with additional caramel and chocolate sauce if desired.
It's August in Northwest Montana and we Montanans are basking in the few glorious weeks of our alpine summer. Big Mountain has shed the last remnants of its heavy winter coat and is now blanketed in dainty wildflowers and beargrass. The sun, long hidden under its gray shroud, casts its brilliant countenance to the delight of sun-starved beings below. Out of the monochrome of winter, color bursts forth in a frenzy. Yellows and pinks and lush greens dot the landscape, and to those who choose to trek to higher elevations, a purple treat awaits.
Huckleberries!
Huckleberries thrive in the northwestern mountain regions of the United States. The purplish berry is smaller than a blueberry and has a distinctive piquant flavor. They grow in brambly patches on rugged mountainsides and are rather labor intensive to harvest. Huckleberries are not produced commercially and bears love to eat them which makes them worth their weight in gold.
Whitefish, Montana, my home for the past 17 years, hosts an annual huckleberry festival each August. Huckleberry Days is a celebration of our native purple fruit which draws berry-loving folks far and wide. The three day event features arts, crafts and a bake-off contest of which yours truly won top honors for a huckleberry cake entry. Although I did not enter a huckleberry recipe this year, my pie blog will most definitely feature a huckleberry pie. My dear friend Teresa gifted me with the first fruits of her huckleberry picking foray; her hours of picking yielded three cups of the purple preciousness.
I've chosen an all butter crust to pair with the filling. The recipe is amazingly easy and quick, a welcome change to the tedium of harvesting the berries. If you have access to huckleberries or know of a friend who will share their stash, you indeed are blessed. For those of you not so fortunate, you can order frozen huckleberries online at www.nwwildfoods.com. If you are craving a huckleberry pie NOW and do not want to hassle with baking one, visit www.thehuckleberrypatch.com to order a made from scratch pie. It will cost you a pretty penny, actually 4,895 pretty pennies. But trust me, a taste of fresh huckleberry pie is worth every penny you plunk down.
If patience is one of your virtues and you can endure one of my shameless plugs for the charming town I call home, I recommend saving your pretty pennies for a trip to beautiful Whitefish, Montana next August where you can hike our gorgeous trails in search of the coveted huckleberry!
Crust:
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 cup cold water
Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add the butter, tossing it with the flour. With electric mixer on low speed, blend butter into the flour until you have what looks like coarse, damp meal. Turning the mixer on and off, add half of the water. Mix briefly on low speed. Add the remaining water, mixing slowly until the dough starts to form large clumps. Do not overmix.
Test the dough by squeezing some of it between your fingers. Add water, a teaspoon at a time, if the dough seems dry and not packable. Using your hands, pack the dough into 2 balls. Make one ball slightly larger than the other; this will become your bottom crust. Knead each ball once or twice, then flatten into 3/4-inch thick disks and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for at least an hour before rolling.
On a sheet of lightly floured waxed paper, roll the larger portion of dough into a 12-inch circle with a floured rolling pin. Invert over a 9-inch pie pan, center, and peel off paper. Tuck the pastry into the pan, and let the overhang drape over the edge. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Filling:
3 cups frozen huckleberries, partially thawed
3 1/2 tablespoons quick cooking tapioca
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into 1/4" cubes
Mix first three filling ingredients together and let stand 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
On a separate sheet of floured waxed paper, roll the other half of the pastry into a 10-inch circle. Remove pie shell from refrigerator and pour filling ingredients into shell. Dot filling with butter cubes. Lightly moisten the rim of the pie shell. Invert the top pastry over the filling, center, and peel off paper. Press the top and bottom pastries together along the dampened edge and flute into a decorative edge if desired. Pierce top crust with fork prongs or a knife to allow steam to escape while baking.
Place the pie on the center oven rack and bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake 45 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Place foil or pie crust guard on crust edge if overbrowning occurs. Remove pie from oven and cool pie on a wire rack. Serve slightly warm with vanilla ice cream or freshly whipped cream, if desired.
When I think of peaches, I think of Georgia. All it takes is one bite of a juicy peach and I've got Georgia on my mind.
I lived in the peach state for about a year. In that short time, I was blessed with all things southern...gracious hospitality, sweet tea, Vidalia onions, fresh roasted peanuts, and of course, luscious peaches. A fragrant magnolia tree graced my front yard. I would sometimes sip mint juleps under it while listening to the cicadas sing. My perfectly coiffed southern belle neighbors addressed me as "Miss Linda". I could almost envision them in hoop skirts a la Scarlett O'Hara, sashaying about while syrupy southern witticisms dripped off their tongues.
If only peach season were as long as a southerner lingers on a vowel. Much like cherry season, peach season is short, so I must seize the opportunity to feature the official fruit of Georgia. However, I'm beginning to wonder if I should stay away from pies made with stone fruit. Last week's cherry pie turned out to be the pits and this week's peach pie was hardly peachy keen. My disastrous pie result made an unwelcome and abrupt entrance into my sweet Georgia reverie. Apparently, I don't know nuthin' 'bout bakin' no peach pies.
Despite my peach pie demise, I will post the recipe. It's one of Ken Haedrich's and I know that a pie master like Mr. Ken creates recipes that results in masterpiece pies. A mere pie novice like me, however, can hardly hope to consistently produce showpiece pies. This recipe is not difficult. Just make sure to avoid doing what I did. Use ripe peaches, make sure to peel all the fuzzy skin off those ripe peaches, do not over bake the pie which will curdle the cream, and make sure to chill the pie thoroughly before serving.
Two botched pies in a row is not enough to deter me. As Scarlett O'Hara once said, "After all. Tomorrow is another day."
Crust:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1/4 cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into pieces
1/4 cup cold water
Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Toss well by hand to mix. Scatter the butter over the dry ingredients and toss to mix. Using a pastry blender or your fingertips, cut or rub the butter into the flour until it is broken into pieces the size of small peas. Add the shortening and continue to cut until all of the fat is cut into small pieces. Sprinkle half of the water over the mixture. Toss well with a fork to dampen the mixture. Add the remaining water, 1 1/2-2 tablespoons at a time, and continue to toss and mix, pulling the mixture up from the bottom of the bowl on the upstroke and gently pressing down on the downstroke. Dough made my hand often needs a bit more water. If necessary, add water 1-2 tablespoons at a time until the pastry can be packed.
Using your hands, pack the pastry into a ball as you would pack a snowball. Knead the ball once or twice, then flatten the ball into a 3/4-inch-thick disk on a floured work surface. Wrap the disk in plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight before rolling.
On a sheet of lightly floured waxed paper, roll the pastry into a 13-inch circle with a floured rolling pin. Invert the pastry over a 9 1/2-inch deep-dish pie pan, center, and peel off the paper. Tuck the pastry into the pan, without stretching it, and sculpt the edge so it is flush with the top of the pan. Place in the freezer for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Filling:
2 1/2 to 3 cups peeled, pitted, and sliced ripe peaches (you can substitute a 1 pound bag of frozen sliced peaches, thawed)
1 cup heavy or whipping cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar
Big pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
Distribute the peach slices evenly in the chilled shell. Combine the cream, confectioner's sugar, salt, and vanilla in a medium-size bowl and whisk to blend. Slowly pour the cream over the peaches. Use a fork, if necessary, to rearrange the peach slices evenly in the shell.
Place the pie on the center oven rack and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and reduce the temperature to 350 degrees. Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the pie, then return it to the oven, placing it so that the part that faced the back of the oven now faces forward. Bake until the filling is bubbly and the top is caramel-colored, 15-20 minutes. The filling will still be liquidy.
Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool thoroughly. Cover with loosely tented aluminum foil and then refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight before serving.
I cannot tell a lie. I do not like cherry pie. I would be remiss, however, if I didn't include a cherry pie in my blog. It's practically as American as apple pie. It's a shame, actually, that I don't like cherries because Flathead cherry orchards thrive here in Northwestern Montana. Because the cherry season is short, I am seizing the opportunity to feature this pie and to appease my cherry-loving friends.
My attempt at making cherry pie was the pits. Literally. Because I don't own a cherry pitter and certainly don't plan to invest in one considering my lack of enthusiasm for cherries, I experimented pitting the fruit using a wine bottle and a chopstick. I read about this in Cooks Illustrated magazine and thought I'd give it a try:
Remove the stem from a cherry and place right side up on the rim of an empty wine bottle. Impale center of cherry with the pointy end of a chopstick, then take the blunt end of the chopstick and ram it through the cherry. The pit will fall into the bottle leaving the now pitless cherry perched atop.
I spent thirty minutes stabbing and jabbing, samurai chef style. Afterwards, my kitchen looked like a grisly murder scene. Mutilated cherry carcasses lay in a heap on my counter. Errant cherry juice was splattered on my walls and all over the front of my apron. My fingers were stained blood red. Yes, truly the pits.
The thought of having to whip up a pastry crust with a fancy lattice top was just too overwhelming after my "pit-iful" experience. Having heard how convenient those frozen pie shells and refrigerated pie crusts were, I decided to give them a try. It felt almost sacrilegious to succumb to store-bought pastry. I envisioned Miss Miranda shaking her head, wagging her finger, and saying "tsk, tsk".
I experimented with another shortcut by using a lattice roller given to me by a friend. By simply rolling the wheel across pie dough, a lattice design forms once the crust is positioned. Easier said than done although with a great deal of concentration and maneuvering, the lattice top looked pretty enough. And truth be known, store bought crusts aren't bad at all. But even a pie novice like me can tell you, homemade tastes much better!
So I present to you my cheater cherry pie: pre-made crust, shortcut lattice, and canned cherries (my pitted ones started turning brown!). It's definitely not my most successful pie and it's certainly not my favorite, but it can be thrown together in a pinch and eaten warm from the oven.
Crust:
Frozen deep dish pie shell (thawed)
1 refrigerated pie crust
Filling:
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 cans (16 ounces each) pitted red tart cherries, drained
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
2 tablespoons butter
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Mix sugar and flour. Stir in cherries and almond extract. Turn into pie shell. Dot with butter. Unroll refrigerated crust. If desired, cut into 8 1 1/4-inch strips and place in lattice formation on top of cherry filling. Or simply place crust atop filling and cut slits into the crust using a small knife. Seal and flute. Cover edge with 2-3 inch strip of aluminum foil to prevent overbrowning. Remove foil during last 15 minutes of baking.
Bake until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust, 35-45 minutes.
A word of caution to those who attempt to make a blackberry pie. Do not wear white when doing so. Those who know me well know that my wardrobe consists of black with an occasional splash of a color accessory to break up the monochome. I do not know what possessed me to don a new pair of white capris on the day I baked a gooey, juicy blackberry pie. Suffice it to say, my capris now sport their own splashes of color.
Now that my wardrobe warning has been issued, let me proceed with the botanical details of my favorite berry. The blackberry is a fruit produced by any of several species in the Rubus genus of the Rosaceae family. The fruit is not a true berry; botanically it is considered an aggregate fruit, composed of small drupelets. Blackberries are perennials and are primarily cultivated in Oregon. If you are lucky enough to live where blackberries flourish, you are truly blessed. Supermarket blackberries are expensive and highly perishable. Frozen blackberries will suffice, but a pie baked with fresh berries is unbeatable.
I paired an all-butter crust with this pie since I love the not only the full flavor but the ease of rolling out a butter crust. There aren't many ingredients in the filling recipe but make sure to use the tapioca, albeit one tablespoon. Without it, the pie might devolve into a soupy slurry and make slicing a neat wedge a bit of a challenge.
I hesitantly attempted a lattice top crust. I knew that if I failed, I had a plastic lattice cutter that my friend found at a yard sale and passed on to me. I'm happy to say that my lattice crust turned out rather well!
The pie takes a good hour to bake, but the lovely berry aroma that will waft through your house will make the time invested in preparing it so worth it. I kept walking through kitchen to admire my pie as it cooled. I felt like an all American Hannah Homemaker with a pretty lattice pie perched on my countertop.
You can serve the pie while still warm with a scoop of rich vanilla ice cream and a big napkin to catch any errant blackberries that might lurch off the fork and onto your lap. For extra protective measure, I suggest you wear black!
Crust:
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 cup cold water
Filling:
6 cups fresh blackberries (if using frozen, thaw berries and drain)
1 to 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon quick-cooking tapioca
Heavy cream to brush top crust
Granulated sugar to sprinkle on top crust
Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add the butter, tossing it with the flour. With electric mixer on low speed, blend butter into the flour until you have what looks like coarse, damp meal. Turning the mixer on and off, add half of the water. Mix briefly on low speed. Add the remaining water, mixing slowly until the dough starts to form large clumps. Do not overmix.
Test the dough by squeezing some of it between your fingers. Add water, a teaspoon at a time, if the dough seems dry and not packable. Using your hands, divide the dough in half, one half slightly larger than the other. Shape the larger half into a disk and the other half into a square, both about 3/4-inch thick. Wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate for at least an hour before rolling.
While dough is chilling, toss together berries, sugar, cornstarch, butter, lemon juice, water and tapioca. Let stand, tossing occasionally, 20 minutes.
Place a baking sheet covered in foil in lower third of oven. This will catch any juices that might spill over from the pie pan. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
On a sheet of lightly floured waxed paper, roll the chilled disk of pastry into a 13-inch circle with a floured rolling pin. Invert the pastry over a 9-inch pie pan, center, and peel off the paper. Gently tuck the pastry into the pan leaving a 1/2-inch overhang. Chill shell while preparing the lattice crust.
On another sheet of lightly floured waxed paper, roll the remaining pastry into a 12 x 10 rectangle. With a pastry wheel or pizza cutter, but the pastry into 8 lengthwise strips measuring 12 inches long and 1 1/4 inches wide. Set aside.
Stir berry mixture, then spoon evenly into pie shell. Moisten the rim of the shell slightly. Lay 5 pastry strips vertically across the pie, evenly spaced. Fold back strips 2 and 4 halfway and lay another strip directly across the center of the pie. Unfold the folded strips, then fold back strips 1,3, and 5. Lay another perpendicular strip across the pie. Unfold the folded strips, then fold up strips 1, 3, and 5 on the other side of the pie. Place another perpendicualr strip across the pie, then unfold strips 1,3, and 5. Trim the strips, then pinch the ends of the strips into the edge of the pastry. Lightly brush the pastry strips with cream and sprinkle the top of the pie with sugar.
Place the pie on the center oven rack and bake for 30 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees and rotate the pie 180 degrees so that it evenly browns. Continue to bake until the top is golden brown and any visible juices bubble thickly, 35-40 minutes. If the edge begins to brown too quickly, over edge with foil or a pie crust shield. Remove from oven and cool. Can stay a day or two at room temperature but refrigerate thereafter if there is any left!
It's going to be a berry good month. Spring ushered in the ubiquitous strawberry and now that summer is in full swing, more varieties of berries are parading into farmers' markets, roadside stands, and grocery store produce departments. Juicy, healthful and bursting with flavor, berries are showcased in juices, jams, pancakes, smoothies, sauces, cobblers, cakes, and...drumroll please...PIES!
Ever since I launched this blog, I've been anticipating the challenge of mastering berry pies. What I've heard from seasoned pie bakers, berry pies usually require a double crust to prevent the filling from erupting over the pie pan rim. The top crust must have steam vents and oftentimes is woven into a lattice design. I have barely mastered a mere single crust let alone a double crust. The thought of attempting a lattice crust makes me want to cop out and head to the supermarket for a frozen ready-made pie. Miss Miranda, my home economics teacher extraordinaire, would furrow her dark eyebrows in disapproval, I know.
So, inspired by Miss M's baking prowess and embracing the berry bounty of the season, I present Red, White, and Blueberry Pie in honor of Independence Day. I took some creative license to one of Ken Haedrich's berry pie recipes. I used blueberries, red raspberries, and if you can find them, white raspberries. White raspberries, sometimes called golden raspberries, are milder and sweeter than their red siblings. They typically are a late summer offering, so if you can't locate them in your area, substitute red raspberries.
Just so you know, I wimped out with attempting a lattice crust. I'll gather my courage for the next pie...
Crust:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into pieces
1/2 cup cold water
Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Toss well by hand to mix. Scatter the butter over the dry ingredients and toss to mix. Using a pastry blender or your fingertips, cut or rub the butter into the flour until it is broken into pieces the size of small peas. Add the shortening and continue to cut until all of the fat is cut into small pieces. Sprinkle half of the water over the mixture. Toss well with a fork to dampen the mixture. Add the remaining water, 1 1/2-2 tablespoons at a time, and continue to toss and mix, pulling the mixture up from the bottom of the bowl on the upstroke and gently pressing down on the downstroke. Dough made my hand often needs a bit more water. If necessary, add water 1-2 tablespoons at a time until the pastry can be packed.
Using your hands, pack the pastry into 2 balls as you would pack a snowball. Make one ball slightly larger than the other; this will be your bottom crust. Knead the balls once or twice, then flatten the balls into a 3/4-inch-thick disk on a floured work surface. Wrap the disks in plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight before rolling.
On a sheet of lightly floured waxed paper, roll the larger portion of the pastry into a 12-inch circle with a floured rolling pin. Invert the pastry over a 9-inch pie pan, center, and peel off the paper. Tuck the pastry into the pan, without stretching it, and let the overhang drape over the edge. Place in refrigerator for 15 minutes.
Filling:
3 cups fresh blueberries
2 cups red raspberries
1 cup white (also called golden) raspberries
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
Heavy cream for glazing
Sugar to sprinkle on glaze
Combine the berries in a large bowl. Mix the sugar and cornstarch together in a small bowl, then stir the mixture into the fruit. Stir in the salt, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Set aside for 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Roll the other half of the pastry into a 10-inch circle on a sheet of lightly floured waxed paper. Using small star shaped cookie cutters, cut out a design on the crust. I cut out one larger star in the center of the crust and several mini stars around the center star. Turn the filling into the chilled pie shell, smoothing the fruit with a spoon. Moisten the outer edge of the pie shell with a pastry brush. Invert the top pastry over the filling, center, and peel off the paper. Press the top and bottom pastries together along the dampened edge. Trim the edge to an even 1/2 inch all around, then sculpt the overhang into an upstanding ridge. Brush the top of the pie generously with heavy cream and sprinkle with sugar.
Place the pie on the center oven rack and bake for 30 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees and rotate the pie 180 degrees so that the part that faced the back of the oven now faces forward. Just in case, slide a large aluminum foil-lined baking sheet onto the rack below to catch any spills. Continue to bake until the juices, most likely visible at the cut out portions of the top crust, bubble thickly, 25-30 minutes. If the top pastry starts to get too brown, cover with loosely tented aluminum foil during the last 10 minutes.
Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool for at least 1 hour before serving. Delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!
