Maine Wild Blueberry Pie

Whoa.  Summer is over, I'm back to work, my CAGS class is in full swing, and thus we have a lack of blog posts, along with me sitting in my pajamas by 9:30 on a Friday night.  Cool?  Probably not.  But I am totally exhausted.  Luckily, I am not too tired to talk to you about Maine wild blueberry pie (made with blueberries that are neither from Maine nor wild... they were picked from Odd Pine Farm in Ashburnham, MA!).

Susie had posted this Yankee Magazine recipe on Facebook and said it was the best pie she ever tasted.  We had just gone berry picking that morning and had way too many berries for a normal family to eat.  I was making dinner for Alex's family that night, so I decided to make two pies, one for us and one for them.

The filling itself is super simple: plenty of fresh berries, sweetened with sugar and flavored with a little lemon juice.  I also used their recipe for pie dough, which came out beautifully.  The end result is definitely a beautiful and delicious blueberry pie that just tastes like summer.  Which, on a  slightly chilly September night, sounds pretty darn good.

Recipe:

Maine wild blueberry pie
from Yankee Magazine
yield 8 servings

Ingredients:
for pie crust: 
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for work surface
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
18 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
6 - 8 tablespoons ice water
for filling:
5 cups fresh blueberries
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 - 1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons butter

Instructions:

1) In a medium-size bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt until well combined.  Sprinkle butter over flour mixture, and cut butter into flour.  Stop when the mixture looks like cornmeal, with pea-sized bits of butter remaining.

2) Sprinkle 6 tablespoons ice water on top, and stir with a fork until dough begins to come together.  If needed, add more ice water a tablespoon at a time.

3) Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead three times, or just enough to make a cohesive dough.  Do not over mix.  Gather into a ball, then divide into 2 pieces, one slightly larger than the other.  Press each piece into a disk and wrap in plastic.  Refrigerate 30 minutes.

4) Wash berries, remove stems, and gently stir with flour and sugar.  Sprinkle with lemon juice to taste.  Set aside.

5) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Unwrap the larger disk of pastry dough and place in the center of a sheet of parchment paper.  Cover with a second piece of parchment.  Roll out, working from center, to a circle.  Peel off top piece of parchment and transfer dough to a 9-inch deep dish pie plate, peeled side down.  Peel off remaining parchment and press crust into plate, draping any excess over the sides.

6) Unwrap smaller dough disk and place in the center of a large sheet of parchment paper.  Cover with a second piece of parchment.  Roll out, working from center, to an 11-inch circle.  Set aside.

7) Pour berries into bottom crust.  Distribute dots of butter over berries.  Peel one sheet of parchment off top.  Transfer top crust, peeled side down, to pie; then peel off remaining parchment.

8) Using a sharp knife, make 3 slashes in crust to let steam escape.  Fold bottom crust up over top crust and crimp to seal.  Brush with egg wash, then bake until crust is golden brown and juices are bubbling, 40 -50 minutes.