TWD 3!

Amy over at South in Your Mouth (how great is that blog title, btw?) picked this weeks TWD Recipe: Double-Crusted Blueberry Pie, and I cannot stress how happy I am she did.  You see, a few weeks back, I volunteered to make pie for the Fourth of July Get-together.  So when I saw the recipe, I knew it was serendipitous.  Then, as I was talking to the co-hostess the day before the get-together, she mentioned in passing that her mother, the other co-hostess, had hinted hopefully towards blueberry pie.  So, extra-kismet.

So Friday morning I dragged my carcass out of bed and headed over to my mom's.  While I remembered to bring my blueberries (though I had to pick up more along the way) I did not remember to bring the cookbook with me.  Given the price of gas, and the 40 minute drive one way?  Thank god for Google Books (about which I don't feel the least bit guilty because, com on, I own the book.)  Nor did I remember to return her pastry cutter to her.  The one and only thing I have in my kitchen that she does not is a food processor (though I do believe mine may be too small to handle the recipe.) 

So, I had to do the pie crust by hand, since my brain refuses to process the two knives method.  So my hands are that much stronger today than they were before.  All in all I didn't do too badly, I think.  The crust was a bit streaky, and a tad ornery to   handle, but once it chilled it was pretty amenable to handling.  Especially since I used wax paper to roll it out.  I've decided I really like this method, as it effectively eliminates the mess.

As you can probably see , if you look at the picture close enough, the crust did require some patching once I got it into the plate.  I am totally okay with this, since Alton Brown once told me that patching is totally normal.  If AB has to patch his own dough on television, who am I to complain about it?  Just be sure that the thickness is relatively uniform -- press the patch into the dough and even it all out.

Sone how in all the 47 pictures I took, I did not take an in process picture of the berries.  Which I'm not terribly sorry about, since it basically looked exactly like what it was: a great big bowl of blueberries with sugar.  I did use lemon zest and juice this time, since I love the flavor of blueberries and lemon together -- my friend?  Makes this Jam?  Yeah...  It's not peach-ginger jam, but it almost as good.  Almost.

Anyway, tossed the blueberries into the crust.  Probably should have tried to even out the excess sugar, but I was running a bit behind at this point.  I then slid on the top crust, and edged it.  Looking at the picture now, I guess the edge was a little sloppy, but there was a couple places where I patched the edge to get it a uniform thickness, so look at the lovely colored sugar!  Mom had seen it a few weeks back while she was at Gordon Food Service, and couldn't resist buying it to make sugar cookies.  Which she was making in the dining room while I was making pie.  Poor planning, you say?  Meh, I blame it all on the power outage.

Anyway, I got it all into the oven.  When I turned down the heat halfway through, as instructed, I noticed the edges were a tad browner than I would like.  I was going to tent the whole thing, but mom dug out a pie-crust protector ring she had picked up somewhere, and had never used.  Apparently?  It works, because it turned out beautifully.  The crust was perfectly done, and settled nicely over the filling.  I really like the way the sugar turned out, as well.  The crust tasted incredible, too.  Dorie isn't kidding when she calls it the "Good for Almost Anything Pie-Crust."  Must make quiche with this sometime soon.

The pie itself was excellent.  This is the kind of pie that I could eat a piece of every day.  The next time I make it, I'll probably cut back a tad on the sugar -- there were places where it was still a little crystallized at the bottom, but it wasn't noticeable if you weren't inspecting the pie like I was.  The filling was nicely oozy*, still slightly warm, and the berries had just enough texture.   As I said, Excellent.

* I like my pie filling slightly oozy, and I'm not a stickler about the pie holding together perfectly once it's been cut.  I'm not a huge fan of pie with jellified insides, so this was exactly perfect.

Comments

[Jules]

Love the colored sprinkles! I have a pie edge protector. I use it every time. Love it!

[Caitlin]

Love the sprinkles, and the pie looks delicious. Great job!

[Rebecca]

This crust looks amazing! Good to know those crust protectors work. I just bought one.

[Amy]

Your pie looks great with the sprinkles! Glad you enjoyed it!

[Christine]

Love the sprinkles on your beautiful pie!

[Erin]

I love the layout of side to side picutes. It's a great way to use a lot of pictures. The sprinkles look darling on your pie.

[LyB]

Your pie looks so festive and delicious! I'd have liked my pie to be a bit "oozy" like yours. :)

[Steph]

I always overexamine my stuff too. Sometimes it seems like I'm the only one to pick up on my little 'glitches'

Haha.. I love google books.. it can be so helpful!

Your pie is great with the oozing of blueberries!

[allison]

Google books was a wonderful invention!
Your pie looks great.

[Danielle]

yum! look at those pockets of butter! Nice job.

[Ulrike]

Your pie looks great! My second try turned out much better, I cooled the dough over night!

[Mari]

I'm sure your friends were happy that you were the designated pie lady, your pie looks great!

[Mari]

Welcome aboard, btw...this is my first time stopping by.

[Barbara]

Congratulations on a lovely and tasty pie!

I've been baking pies for at least 25 years and I still have to patch the crust from time to time, and I almost always have to patch the edges. It all works out in the end.