Take advantage of a free hour and bake up a delicious blueberry pie. It’s surprisingly easy and amazingly tasty to bake one from scratch.
If you’ve got a hankering for pie, then it’s time to get baking. Seriously, unless you have an exquisite (and possibly expensive) bakery or pastry shop in your neighborhood, you can bake a better pie.
There’s just something tantalizing about the aroma of freshly baked pastry and jammy fruit drifting throughout your home. You can’t buy that, people.
Not only that, but home baked pies are generally cheaper, healthier, and better-tasting than the ones you can buy. You get to control the ingredients. You get to make the filling sweeter or tarter, depending on your preferences. You get to save some money.
All in making your own.
If you’re going to eat sweets, make junk food yourself. Not that pie is junk food, mind you, but it’s not typically health food, either. When something’s on the edge of treats and decadence, make it yourself. The extra work that it requires will limit how often you do it — and you’ll enjoy it more!
Today I’m sharing my recipe for Blueberry Pie you make from scratch. When I talk scratch, I do not mean a frozen pie dough and canned filling. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, especially if that’s how your Gramma Bee made it and it’s your favorite in the whole wide world.
But, I’m saying that you can make your own with real blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, and a homemade pie crust.
Now, before you go freaking out about doing all those things for the first time and being all nervelated and such, let me put out the disclaimer that if you want to try homemade filling or homemade pie crust your first time out, that is totally fine.
Sometimes we learn better doing one new thing at a time. So, you do you, baby, just try.
That said, making homemade pie crust is not too tricky. It doesn’t have to look picture perfect. See? Mine even has a wrinkle. Just go with it.
How do you make a blueberry pie?
Making a blueberry pie requires just a few basic ingredients: a double batch of pie dough, blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and butter.
Line the pie plate with one batch of dough.
In a mixing bowl, combine the blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice. Fill the unbaked pie shell with the berry mixture. Dot the mixture with small cubes of butter.
Fit the top crust over the berries and brush it lightly with a beaten egg. Bake until the crust is golden and the filling is thick and bubbly.
Can I use frozen blueberries in a pie?
Yes! You can use fresh or frozen blueberries in your pie. If you’re using frozen berries, just don’t thaw them before baking the pie. It will get soggy from too much juice.
Can I freeze blueberry pie?
I love to freeze pies unbaked. That way I can experience the delicious aromas later without doing any of the work!
Once you’ve assembled your pie, wrap it gently but securely with heavy duty aluminum foil and store it in the freezer.
How do you bake a frozen pie?
Bake frozen pies from frozen. Don’t thaw them. Heat the oven to 425 degrees and then bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375 and continue baking until the crust is golden and the filling is hot and bubbling.
If the top crust browns before the filling is ready, cover it with a sheet of aluminum foil to protect the top from getting overly brown.
How I make this good and cheap:
Here are some of the strategies I use to make this recipe more economical:
- Buy in bulk. I regularly buy baking ingredients in bulk from Costco or via mail order. I store in the freezer what I won’t use soon; in this way, I can extend its shelf-life.
- Shop the sales. Whenever I see a great sale, I stock up and freeze berries to take advantage of the good pricing. Then I can make pie whenever I want.
Tools I use to make this recipe easy:
Having the right kitchen tools can really make your time in the kitchen more enjoyable. Over time, I’ve honed my collection so that they are perfect for my needs. Here are the tools that I like to use in this recipe.
- plastic cutting boards – I like using a large cutting board as a work surface for my pastry.
- Ergo Chef chef’s knife – I’ve had my set for several years and they work well.
- stainless steel mixing bowl – I’m not sure you have too many of these.
- dual-sided silicone spatula/spoon – This is great for the cooking process as well as scraping every last bit out of the bowl.
- 2 rounds pie dough
- 4 cups blueberries
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon butter cut into small cubes
- 1 egg beaten
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a pie plate with one pastry crust. Place the pie plate on a rimmed baking sheet to catch any drips.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice. Stir gently to combine. Spoon this mixture into the prepared pie plate.
- Dot the surface of the berry mixture with the butter cubes.
- Fit the top crust. If desired, cut shapes out of the crust and layer those across the surface of the berries.
- Brush the crust with the beaten egg.
- Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the crust is golden and the filling is thick and bubbly. Cover with aluminum foil if the crust browns too quickly.
Cool the pie completely, on a rack, before serving.
Note: The pie can be frozen prior to baking. Once it is assembled, wrap it gently but firmly with heavy duty aluminum foil and store in the freezer. To bake, place the pie on a rimmed baking sheet to catch the drips. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes before reducing the heat to 375 and continuing baking until done.
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