Never Fail Fresh Berry Pie

Summer is all about the fresh berries and one of my favorite memories as a kid was eating fresh berry pie that my mom just made. My family had a cabin on a lake where a channel had been dug out with a small island in the middle. We discovered that wild blue berries were growing on this island. With five quart ice cream buckets in tow, we started picking wild blue berries.

Wild blue berries are much smaller then the farm grown variety so after about 2 hours of picking, we had about an inch of wild blue berries in each bucket. We combined our wild blue berries hoping there would be enough for mom to make fresh berry pie. You better wipe your chin right now because you're drooling!

I've included two berry pie filling recipes. My favorite is the first one which is pictured here. Mom prefers the second one but I'll let you be the judge. These are old recipes; however there is still plenty of room for your own interpretation. If you have a few tricks for berry pie filling, be my guest. That's the fascinating part of cooking - it keeps changing.

I also included my tart/pie crust recipe. It makes one crust so just double the ingredients and then cut the dough in half if you need two crusts.

So let's get started.....

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Never Fail Fresh Berry Pie

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Pie Crust

*****Ingredients*****

1-1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter cut into small pieces
6 tablespoons ice water

*****Preparation*****

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cup and level with knife. Combine flour and salt in mixer for 30 seconds. Add butter, mix flour, salt and butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. With mixer on, add ice water one tablespoon at a time. Press crust mixture into a 4 inch circle on plastic wrap, cover and place in freezer for 15 minutes along with a clean cookie so that it can cool down.

**Here is my technique for rolling out a pie crust**

Slightly overlap 2 lengths of plastic wrap so that you can roll out dough to form a 14 inch wide circle on a damp surface. Unwrap chilled crust, and place on overlapped plastic wrap. Cover with 2 additional lengths of overlapping plastic wrap. Roll the dough out into a 14 inch circle.

Place the rolled crust with plastic wrap on the chilled cookie sheet and return to freezer for 5 minutes until plastic wrap can be removed easily. Remove from freezer and take only the top plastic wrap sheets off and press into a pie pan. Remove second layer of plastic wrap then fold up excess crust to form a fluted edge.

Place in oven for 10 to 15 minutes; if crust forms a bubble prick with a fork to deflate.

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Berry Pie Filling for One Crust Pie

**Ingredients**

4 cups fresh berries
1 cup sugar or less
1/2 cup Black Berry Liqueur
3 tablespoons corn starch
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoons lemon juice

**Hint: be sure to cook the berry mixture long enough to ensure that it has thickened properly.

**Preparation**

Wash berries thoroughly and allow them to dry. Divide berries in half. Place one half of the berries in a cooked pie crust evenly distributed. Place the other half in a 3-quart sauce pan over low heat and add remaining ingredients stirring constantly. The berries will eventually break down and release all of their moisture making a sauce. Continue stirring until the sauce has thickened. Pour the thickened sauce over the fresh berries in the pie crust and allow to completely cool. Serve with a generous portion of freshly whipped cream.

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Berry Filling for Two Crust Pie

**Ingredients**

4 cups fresh berries
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup Black Berry Liqueur
1 teaspoon lemon juice
4 tablespoons flour
Pinch of salt

**Preparation**

Combine all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Place first pie crust in pie pan and pour in the berry filling mixture. Place second pie crust on top of berry filling, fold and flute the two crusts so that they form a tight seal around the edge of the pie pan. Be sure to poke several holes or cut several slits in the top pie crust to release air during baking. Bake at 425 degrees for first 15 minutes, and then turn down oven to 350 and bake for another 30 to 40 minutes. Allow the pie to completely cool before serving and top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

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