Blueberry Pie (with lattice top)

Summer is berry season!  Berries always go on sale but you do have to keep an watchful eye on the fluctuating prices.  This week for example:
Food Basics: $5/3 : strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries (although they aren’t always in stock )
Price Chopper: $1 per box: blackberries and blueberries

These are the cheapest ones in the town this week (Well haven’t check for No Frills & Valu-Mart… but they’re too far away from me)

My aunt and my cousins came for a short visit on Sunday.  Since I had so much berries on hand, I decided to make a blueberry pie.

Ingredients:

White sugar…………..3/4 cup
Cornstarch……………5 tablespoons
Salt………………..1/4 teaspoon
Ground cinnamon…………….1/2 teaspoon
Fresh blueberries…………….3 pints (6 cups) [original recipe used 2 pints, the pie didn’t look full so I added more)
Pastry for a double crust pie…………1 recipe
Egg…………….1

The Process:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt, and cinnamon, and sprinkle over blueberries. Bring mixture to a slight boil (just use common sense here).
3. Line pie dish with one pie crust. Pour berry mixture into the crust, and dot with butter (I have omitted butter). Cut remaining pastry into 1/2 – 3/4 inch wide strips, and make lattice top. Crimp and flute edges.
4. Bake pie on lower shelf of oven for about 50 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.
[I have used an eggwash and brushed the top and bottom of the pie.  Top was for the golden appearance of the pie, and bottom was so that the pie would not be soggy]

And don’t forget to cover up the pie edge with aluminum foil until 15 minutes before the pie is done.

Yes this is a lazy lattice top I didn’t bother to weave it.

The pie ~


The lattice top didn’t come out as nice as the shop-sold fruit pies.  I probably added too much blueberries, which also brought to another problem — I was worried if the pie would be too tart since I added the extra pint of blueberries at the last minute before baking.  It wasn’t a pretty pie, but it sure tasted fine

The blueberry filling also thickened up very well (remember to let it cool for at least 1 hour so the corn starch can do its work), and I didn’t have a runny pie.  The eggwash trick also worked well, no soggy pie crust .