Wildberry Pie

I’ve finally had a weekend free all to myself. Sleep in, shop, and veg out in front of the TV.  So what did I decide to do? Bake. And cook. And Can. The kitchen currently smells like a combination of cucumbers and pickling spice, roast pork, and the remnants of buttery crust and fresh fruit.

I baked this Wildberry Pie on Friday for dessert. We had my in-laws over to grill burgers, and I was (as always) in charge of dessert.

I mention us living on the farmland every now and again. One the fun things about that is you seem to discover a wild surprise when you’re not expecting it. 

Since we bought the house five years ago, we’ve discovered multiple blackberry bushes. We’ve eaten them by the bowlful or I’ve made them into preserves. This year, I decided I wanted to try and expand our berry bushes but re-rooting some of them, and add in a raspberry bush. I wasn’t sure if any of it was going to take, but they’re thriving!

And we wound up with more berries than we could eat quickly. So I decided to save them up for this pie. This pie is juicy, bursting with fruit, and not overly sweet. I added a touch of vanilla bean paste for depth of flavor.

I used the incomparable Alton Brown’s pie crust recipe (found here) but you can just as easy use your own or whatever store bought variety you prefer.

Trust me, this pie will be a hit – it didn’t even survive a second night in our house!

Wildberry Pie 

• Approximately one gallon of fresh ‘wild’ berries. I used a mix of blackberries and raspberries.
•    2 Nine Inch Pie crusts (premade or your recipe of choice) 
• ½ cup of granulated sugar plus one tablespoon
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• One tablespoon Vanilla bean paste (or extract)
• Pinch of salt
• One egg, beaten

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees

2. Prepare your pie crust in a pie tin

3. Rinse the berries and crush them lightly. Add a sprinkle of sugar to help draw the juices out.

4. Let the berries sit for approximately one hour.

5. Drain the juice from the berries. Don’t toss it – it makes a great dessert topping! I boiled mine down to make an ice cream syrup.

6. Toss the berries with  ½ cup of sugar, the salt, vanilla bean paste, lemon juice and cornstarch

7. Place the berry mixture in the pie pan and place the top crust over the berries.

8. Crimp or lattice – it’s your choice! Just make sure to cut holes for steam release

9. Brush the top of the crust with the beaten egg and sprinkle one tablespoon of sugar over the crust

10. Place the pie in the center of the oven (on a cookie sheet, just to protect from bubbling over) and bake for 25 minutes

11. Reduce the heat to 375 and continue to bake for 40 minutes or until the crust is nicely browned and caramelized.