Tasty Tuesday: Black and Blue Pie

The berry situation around here is kind of getting out of hand.  We’ve been collecting blackberries like it’s our job, since the wild bushes are found along the perimeter of our lawn.

To Chris’ credit, he has picked the bulk of the berries and he has the scratches to prove it.  Frankie has also been helping.  In his normal fashion, he covets anything that we happen to be eating.  So when he noticed us eating berries he decided he should have some.  Now he follows along and pulls any low-hanging berries off the bushes!

With so many berries on hand, Chris requested a pie and I happily obliged.  Because we can both be overwhelmed by all the blackberry seeds, we decided to add in some blueberries.  Thus, our black and blue pie!

This pie started as all my pies do with the standard flaky butter crust.  We prepped the berries (probably 8-10 cups) with 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup cornstarch, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1 TBS lemon juice, and 1 cup sugar.  I completely made up the mixture, going heavy on the flour and cornstarch to try to thicken the juice that was surely to come from baking all those berries.

I poured the prepped berries into the prepared crust, topped it, and baked the pie at 350 for about 1.25 hours.

Knowing how juicy the pie would be, we let it cool nearly completely hoping that the juice would thicken.

Finally we gave it a try and, despite a lot of juice, the pieces came out with firm berries and a still-flaky bottom crust!

I’m not sure the juice can be totally avoided.  As you can see in our half-empty pie plate, there is a ton of juice even with all of those berries staying intact in the pie!

Have you been making any desserts or recipes with your locally-picked produce?  Do share!