Blueberry and Blackberry Pie

So I've been baking a lot recently due to my lack of work (but I have a job now - yay!). Despite the abundance of time that has been bestowed upon me, I have not put it to good use. I was supposed to write, read books, update this blog - but I've really just been a bed bum, eating, and watching a lot of movies.

I went out of my way and spent quite a fortune (by my standards) to get fresh black and blueberries for this recipe. I overestimated the amount I would have needed, and ended up with many berries leftover, which I used for the next subsequent recipes.

I had been eyeing this delicious pie from Crepes of Wrath for a good few weeks before deciding that I should get my act together and bake something impressive. She is my bake-inspiration and a true goddess in cooking/baking (funny and witty too!).

(picture credit: Shanta Arul!)

Despite seemingly daunting, this recipe was really simple to make. I faced zero difficulty and followed it step by step, yielding beautiful results. It was not too sweet and the pastry was deliciously crusty.

Only advice I have to give is to be patient! Wait for the pie to chill before refrigerating it or serving it.  I was too impatient (rushing it for a friend) and sliced into it when it was fresh out of the oven. The result was a lot of seeping purple onto my kitchen counter - which still did not affect the texture and crustiness of the crust!

Recipe below (taken from Crepes of Wrath - Link here)

Blueberry & Blackberry Pie

"Author: Sydney

Prep time:  3 hours

Cook time:  1 hour

Total time:  4 hours

Serves: 8-10

Ingredients

For the Crust:

·      3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

·      3 tablespoons granulated sugar

·      ½ teaspoon kosher salt

·      1⅓ cup unsalted butter, COLD (NOT room temperature), cut into pieces

·      ⅔ cup ice water, plus more as needed

·      3 teaspoons distilled white vinegar or vodka

·      1 egg + 1 teaspoon water, beaten

·      sanding or raw sugar, for decoration (optional)

For the Filling:

·      2 cups blackberries

·      2 cups blueberries

·      1 cup granulated sugar

·      1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

·      juice of ½ a lemon

·      zest of ½ a lemon

·      2 tablespoons cornstarch (or flour, if you have no cornstarch)

Instructions

For the Pie Dough:

1. Whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add in the chopped pieces of cold butter (cold is essential for a flaky pie crust). Blend together with your hands (or, alternatively, a food processor) until you have coarse crumbs (it doesn’t have to be perfect). You can use a pastry cutter, too, if you like.
2. Place the dough back into the fridge for 15 minutes or so, so it stays cold. I don't always do this if I'm short on time, but if you can spare the minutes, it helps the dough a lot. Mix together the water and vinegar or vodka in a small bowl. When ready, slowly drizzle it over the dough, a tablespoon or so at a time, gently stirring the mixture with a fork or pulsing with your processor, until fully incorporated and the dough forms into a nice ball. You may not need all of the water. It might seem a bit too wet at this point, but it will dry up while it sits in the fridge.
3. Form the dough gently into 2 loose balls, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for a minimum of 3 hours or as long as overnight (obviously, overnight is best - I sometimes let this dough sit for 36 hours). Be sure to let your dough sit out at room temperature for 10 minutes or so before you start to roll it out.

For the Pie:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Combine the blackberries, blueberries, sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice, lemon zest and cornstarch in a medium bowl, tossing to evenly disperse all of the ingredients. Let the fruit sit at room temperature while you roll out your pie crust.
2. When you're ready, flour your work surface and roll out one ball of dough so that it's big enough to hang over the edges of your pie dish. To easily move the dough, fold it over on itself (see the photo above), then lift it into the dish and unfold. Trim the excess dough around the edges (and save to make cookies!), then crimp around the edge of your dish. Spoon your filling into the pie crust, then roll out the second ball of dough and place it on top, trimming the edges and crimping to stick to the bottom crust.
3. Beat together an egg and a teaspoon of water, then brush the top of the crust with the mixture. Sprinkle generously with sanding or raw sugar, if you like. You can also cut out a decoration on top of the crust - I made a few circle cuts with the back of a metal frosting tip, but feel free to do whatever you like, or even use pie dough scraps to make a design and put those on top of crust, securing in place with some egg wash.
4. Place your pie in the oven at 400 degrees F, then when it's in there, reduce the temperature to 375 degrees F. Bake for 45-60 minutes (depending on how hot your oven gets), keeping an eye on it in the last 10-15 minutes. If the crust starts to brown too much, create a foil cover for the pie or a foil ring around the pie dish to protect it from burning. Bake until the filling is bubbly and the crust is firm and golden brown. "