Blueberry Pie

Blueberry pies are the best type of pies in my opinion. No other fruit pie is comparable to a blueberry pie. A blueberry pie just ticks all the boxes; its perfect balance of sweet & sour, the blueberries become a thick mush of goodness after being baked, and this pie holds its shape and structure well as a slice. As for the pie crust, I have made pies/galettes/tarts using this recipe, and it is seriously fail proof. So if you’re serious about some serious pie, read on!

Recipe

Makes 1 x 9 inch pie

Pie crust recipe here

Pie Filling

• 750g of fresh blueberries (Approx 6 boxes)
• 120g of brown sugar (Alternative: regular white sugar)
• Squeeze of lemon juice (Approx 1 tbsp)
• Dash of Lemon zest from 1 lemon
• 35g of cornstarch

Steps

1. Right before you’re about to bake the pie, you can start to prep on the pie filling and preheat your oven to 180deg.
2. In a bowl, add the corn starch, sugar and lemon juice, lemon zest and mix it into a paste.
3. Add your blueberries into the bowl and mix well such that the blueberries are coated in that corn starch slurry.
4. Generously dust your work station with flour and roll out your bottom crust dough slightly larger than your baking dish. If the dough is too hard, gently pound it with your rolling pin and leave it out at room temperature for a few minutes for the dough to soften up.
5. Gently lift the pie dough and fit it into your baking dish. I prefer to use a glass baking dish, but disposable/metal trays are fine.
6. Stick your baking dish into the fridge while you start work on the top crust, to keep the dough cold.
7. If you want to do a lattice top crust, roll out your dough into a rectangle and cut them into long strips. But it’s a free country and you can do whatever top crust you want! Star shapes, heart shapes, no shape, all’s good. Just ensure that there are holes/slits in the top crust to allow for the steam produced when the pie bakes to escape.
8. Egg wash the crust and sprinkle more brown sugar for extra crunch.
9. Bake the pie for 2 hours at middle rack. Important tip: place an aluminum foil below the baking dish because it is highly likely that the blueberries will bubble and burst out onto the pan or your oven, and you won’t want to clean up that mess.
10. Give the pie some time to rest and chill out after its been baking in the oven for 2 hours. The blueberry filling will solidify when it’s cooling down, after which you will be rewarded with a great thick sturdy slice of blueberry pie.

Final words: because a pie dough contains a lot of butter, it’s gonna melt FAST, especially in a warm climate like Singapore. If your dough is getting too warm and unworkable, just stick the whole thing into the fridge for 10 minutes or until the dough slightly hardens up again.