Rustic Blueberry Pie

I wasn’t planning on baking a blueberry pie at all, but then the fresh blueberries were on sale at my supermarket and I “accidentally” bought over half a kilo of them. Only when I got home did I wonder what on earth I was going to do with half a kilo of blueberries.

The answer came to me pretty quickly, of course: bake something!

The first thing I came up with was blueberry muffins, but I’ve got three different blueberry muffin recipes up on my blog already (with lemon, lime, and mango) so I figured it was time to try something else. Plus, I just didn’t feel like baking muffins again.

So, what better to bake when you have a truckload of blueberries than a blueberry pie? I’d never baked a blueberry pie before, but it was easy enough. I just used the pastry from my apple pie recipe (which is one of the first recipes I ever posted on this blog) and changed the filling to blueberry instead. I also added some lemon to both the pastry and the filling, and a little bit of ground cinnamon to give the flavour a boost.

And it came out absolutely delicious! This pie is easy to make and tastes so, so good, both when it’s still warm and when it’s cooled down. Yum!

You’ll need…

For the dough

• 300 g plain flour
• 100 g granulated sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 200 g unsalted butter (cold, in cubes)
• 1 egg
• zest of half a lemon

For the filling

• 500 g fresh blueberries
• 75 g granulated sugar
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• zest of half a lemon
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

The rest

• 1 egg (separated – you use the white and yolk for different purposes)
• cling film
• springform tin (22 or 24 cm)
• parchment paper
• grater
• rolling pin (or empty wine bottle – works fine too!)
• and an oven, of course! This pie needs to be baked at 180 °C (don’t forget to preheat your oven!)

So, let’s get baking!

1 Mix flour, sugar and salt Take a large bowl and mix together the flour, the 100 grams of sugar and the pinch of salt using a whisk.

2. Add butter, egg and lemon zest Next up, add the butter, which should be cold and in cubes, as well as the zest of half a lemon and one egg. Now it’s time to knead it together. You can do this using a stand mixer or you can use your hands. I did the latter. Knead until all of the ingredients are mixed together and a ball starts to form.

3. Let pastry rest Knead the pastry into one big ball of dough and wrap it in a piece of cling film. Put this ball into the refrigerator and let it rest and cool there for at least 30 minutes.

4. Prepare filling While the pastry is resting, get out another bowl and add all of the ingredients for the filling to it: the blueberries, sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Mix these together using a spoon or your hands.

5. Prepare tin Take out your springform tin and line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease and flour the sides of the tin.

6. Roll out pastry Once the 30 minutes of cooling are up, take the pastry back out of the fridge and then divide it into two pieces: put one-third of the pastry to the side, and roll out the piece that’s left. Before you roll it out, make sure you’ve properly dusted your countertop with flour, as well as your rolling pin (or wine bottle). This is a relatively wet and flexible pastry so be careful when you’re rolling it out. Once you’ve rolled it out wide and thin enough (wide enough that it can cover the entire tin plus the sides), carefully roll it around the rolling pin and transfer it to your prepared springform tin.

7. Brush bottom with egg white Separate an egg into two different little bowls. Put the egg yolk to the side – you’ll need that in a minute. Take out a brush and then brush the bottom of the pastry with some of the egg white. This will make sure the bottom won’t become soggy.

8. Add filling Now, it’s time to add the filling to the pastry. Scoop all of the blueberry filling into the tin and spread it out carefully. Don’t pour it in, because you don’t want to add any excess moisture.

9. Create lattice and brush with egg yolk Remember that one-third of pastry you put aside earlier? Time to take it back out again and create a lattice to go on top of the pie. I’m not too precise about this: I just use my hands to create long, thin pieces of dough and I drape them over the pie, attaching them on either side. Once you’ve done that, there’s one step left: take out the egg yolk and a brush and brush the lattice with the yolk. This will create a nice, shiny brown crust.

10. Bake! And then it’s time to bake the pie! Put into your preheated oven and bake it for about 45 to 50 minutes. Make sure to check once in a while so the pastry doesn’t end up being too brown. Then, when it’s done, take the pie out of the oven and let it cool on a cooling rack for a bit. Once it’s cooled down enough to touch, have a taste! This pie tastes best when it’s still slightly warm, I think.

And that’s it! You’ve got your own delicious blueberry pie! Enjoy!