My, Oh My, Blueberry Pie!

My sweet wonderful hubby loves pie. It is his favorite dessert. Every time we go to the farmer's market, he heads straight to the pie lady and gazes longingly like a little boy at the toy store. So what's a girl to do? Learn to make pie.

I started with Chocolate Chess. I have the filling down but the crust has eluded me like finding the perfect purse. Impossible, I say, just ask the 10 "perfect" purses hanging out in my closet right now. But then it happened, a little tinkering here, a little tinkering there and HELLO BEAUTIFUL!! The perfect pie crust.

I need to specify... Baking is an exact science. When cooking, not baking, you have a lot of leeway to make it your own. Not so with baking so when I say tinkering, I mean I studied, studied some more and applied the science I learned. Here it is, the almost perfect pie crust:

Before we start- the almost perfect pie crust does not fall into the healthy category. Sorry- I tried, it sucked. Let's just accept that this pie crust will be used on splurge days or days you do not mind running 528 extra miles.

Almost Perfect Pie Crust (because there is always room for improvement)

1 cup all purpose (a-p) flour
1 1/2 cups of *cake flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
8 tbsp cold lard
12 tbsp cold butter (1 1/2 sticks) cut into 1/4 inch pieces
6 to 8 tbsp of iced water

You may be asking why I use two different types of flour. The reason is gluten. Cake flour has less gluten than a-p flour. A-p flour has less than bread flour. Using a higher gluten flour in your pie crust can cause a tougher, chewier crust resulting in a less flaky crust. Think of the "chew" that bread has when you bite into it. This sturdiness/toughness is great for bread but not what we want for our pie crust.  I have used a combination of cake and a-p flour because after trying only cake flour, my crust was a little to soft and did not hold up well to the pie.

I am a food processor pie crust maker. Some will say hand mixing is the way to go and I am perfectly content with that, this is one area that is up to you.

1. Pulse the flours, sugar and salt in the food processor until combined. Add the lard in pieces and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse sand. Add the butter pieces and pulse until the mixture looks like crumbs.

2. Sprinkle 6 tbsp of ice water over the mixture. Pulse, one pulse at a time, until mixture comes together. (It will begin to pull away from the sides of the processor bowl and form a ball.) If it is still crumbly and not coming together, add the remaining water, 1 tbsp at a time, until it does.

3. Divide the dough into two equal pieces, shape like a ball, wrap in saran wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Let the cold dough soften slightly and roll. A friend recommended rolling the crust between two pieces of saran wrap, he is a genius of Albert Einstein proportions. It makes for an easier to handle crust with less mess.

After I roll out the dough, I throw it into the freezer for 5 minutes. This allows the lard and butter time to get cold again. The fat in the crust needs to be as cold as possible when it hits the hot oven. This creates steam in the crust giving us flaky goodness. Now it is ready for the pie dish.

I put my filling together during the 30 chillaxing stage for the crust.

Blueberry filling:

6 c of blueberries
3/4 c of sugar
4 tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp unsalted butter cut into pieces

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. We want the oven HOT when the pie goes in to get the crust where we want it.

1. Put the blueberries in a bowl. Add the sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar and mix. Let stand for 15 minutes.

2. Roll out the 2nd crust to a 12 inch circle to top the pie. Add the berries to an unbaked pie crust bottom and dot the top with butter.

3. Lay the top crust over the blueberries, seal and crimp the edges. Cut four vent holes so the steam can escape.

4. Place the pie on a baking sheet and put in the oven. Lower the oven temperature to 425 degrees. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the top begins to turn golden.

Rotate the baking sheet and, reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees and bake until the juices are bubbling and the top is a deep golden brown, approximately 30-35 minutes.

Cool to room temperature before serving. Okay in the photo below you can tell, waiting it pretty impossible.

Sorry- no fancy plate. I am actually surprised it made it to a plate. :)

I know this sounds like a pain in the tookus especially since you can buy a decent pre-made crust. But trust me, this is so worth effort. Besides, the hard work is burning calories which means you can have more pie!