Procrastination 2: Blueberry Pie

Summer this year has put a crimp in my baking.  No cookies, no brownies, no yummy muffins, and all because the act of heating up the oven is also the act of heating up the entire household, including my studio next to the kitchen.  Usually, I bake even more in the summer than ever because of all the insanely wonderful, bakeable fruit, but last summer there was not enough fruit, and this summer, though it is cool and rainy as I write this, most days I have found the indoor heat after baking, shoot, after cooking dinner to be sickeningly oppressive. The heating continues long after the oven/stove has been turned off.

Still, some things are worth it.  Blueberry pie for example.

The organic blueberries at Hutchins Farm this year are exceptional.  Big, firm, sweet and acid in just the right amounts, a pleasure to plate preciously --

-- or gobble by the fistful.

I have not usually bothered with the plate thing.   I have usually started eating out of my tote bag before I've even paid for the berries.  I have been walking around with a blue mouth -- purple tongue and violet-specked teeth.

The thing is, as good as it feels to gobble them raw, they are also absolutely perfect baking blueberries. 

I have made two pies in the last week, the latest on Sunday.  This is how much was left of that pie on Tuesday, when I first planned to write this post:

Pathetic.

Perhaps you think the most pathetic part of this is that I didn't even make my own pie crust (which you can tell by the foil pan), although I did slice, lattice, and sugar the top.  Look, we each have our skills.  Pie crust is not among mine.  I have made Shuna's crust, and it was better, but oy, so much work (possibly because I have no Kitchen Aid mixer nor any space for such a thing on my counter), and look, a 9" pie with even a store-bought crust barely lasts two days in this environment.

I'm not even sure we chew when we eat it.

I do not like to waste time or effort.  Making pie crust by hand is not actually fun for me, nor am I skilled in the handling of it, nor are my results, even with an excellent basic recipe, significantly tastier than a decent store bought one.  So that's it; no more handmade pie crust from me, at least not until I have a kitchen and pocketbook big enough to operate every appliance that would make it not be such a production.

I'd rather spend my time concocting fillings.

The following is my version of yet another recipe inherited from my mom, which she called "Yankee Blueberry Pie."  I call it perfect -- especially after tweaking, of course!

Perfect Blueberry Pie

1 double 9" pie crust, your own or your favorite frozen one
¾ C evaporated cane juice
½ t cognac (okay if it slops over generously while you're measuring it, but don't go over 1 t)
4 heaping C raw, farm-fresh blueberries
¼ t cinnamon
1-2 T starch of some sort (e.g., tapioca or cornstarch, probably optional)
1-2 T butter, melted
turbinado sugar for sprinkling on top

1.  Preheat oven to 450°F.

2.  Line 9" pie plate with half your crust.

3.  Mix together other ingredients and fill crust.

4.  Top with other half of crust and sprinkle generously with turbinado -OR- cut other half of crust into strips; sprinkle/lightly press turbinado sugar generously over/into one side of each strip; lay strips across top of pie in lattice formation.

5.  Bake at 450°F for 10 minutes; then at 350°F for another 30 minutes.

6.  Eat when thoroughly cooled.

A note about starch:

I use tapioca in fruit pies because I simply love tapioca.  However, if you use tapioca in this pie, especially with a lattice crust, you may not get enough hot juice to cook it during the baking time.  Big, fat, farm-fresh blueberries do not turn to mush just because you heat them up, and pie with little rocks in it is a disappointment.

You can skip the starch altogether.  No matter what starch you use, this pie will have absolutely no structural integrity when even the slightest bit warm, not even at room temperature.  (Good luck getting it out of the pan in even little wedges.)  So unless you really like the taste or texture of a particular starch, I say don't bother.

"This pie is wonderful," said my true love between soup spoonsful, "but there is just one thing I don't understand."

"What's that?"

"It has no structural integrity."

"Yes.  That's because I just made it and it hasn't had time to sit in the fridge and congeal."

"So how come the berries do?"

"I don't understand the question."

"You know, in all the other blueberry pies I've eaten, the berries are just kind of purple soupy goo.  In this one, each individual berry is still clearly a blueberry and still kind of bursts when you pop it in your mouth."

"Ah, yes.  That is the miracle of using fresh fruit, fruit that was picked this morning.  I have not made this for you before, because I have never had access to quite so many raw, fresh, organic blueberries.  Now you know what I was holding out for."

"It's very, very yummy."

"Oh, yes.  It's a whole other thing."

Comments

[Michelle]

Oh how I love blueberries, and oh how I miss them. I have no idea why they don't grow them here, but I've never seen them--sometimes they show up in packaged yogurt, but we know that's not the same.

Man could I go for a blueberry pie right now. No, I don't mean a slice of blueberry pie, either--I think I could eat the whole damn thing.

*sigh*

I'm so glad you're procrastinating!

[Sara]

I'm so glad you enjoyed my procrastination. And look; it worked! I actually did manage to crank out my MassHealth post in chunks between other things, and now that I'm awake, it seems like it's even almost coherent.

I think this is sort of like what happened to me during NaBloPoMo. In order to write, you have to write; you know what I mean. Just write anything, even something stupid; just churn stuff out. So now I think when I get stuck writing something that's very hard for me to write, not necessarily because it's hard to put into words but maybe just because it pains or paralyzes me to think about, that this might be a technique I'll try again. It's like I have to trick my mind back into outflow mode, and sneak the scary things in between the balloons and cotton candy.

As for the blueberry mystery...

Blueberries like cold winters, I think, Sognatrice. I don't remember having fresh ones in Southern California when I was growing up, either, not unless they came from far away (in which case they were not really fresh, just raw). I can't remember if they grew in the mountains down there, up at the high elevations where we would go for fresh cherries in June and apples in the fall, but if they were going to grow anywhere that far south, that's what I would expect.

I know there are blueberries in Europe somewhere. I always see Hero brand blueberry jam made with fruit shipped to North America from Switzerland at the grocery store. And Goldfish dreamed we were making blueberry jam tarts together the other night -- as I was baking the second pie, in fact! -- and she's English, so maybe blueberries grow in England. I can't remember ever eating fresh blueberries in France, but that doesn't mean they weren't there; I was just more focused on the wine and cheese.

I also know Europe has something called bilberries, which are very very much like blueberries only smaller and far more nutritious. Do you have those in Calabria or do they need cold weather, too?

It sounds like you may need to take a trip northward and upward to get your blueberry on, but I think it must be possible. And now is the season, right now!

I think you should look into this. :)

[Laurie]

We just moved to Panama City, FL
kind of out in the country from Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Major culture shock for all of us. Anyhow, we bought a new house and had to clear the rest of our yard since we are in the woods. After starting to clear, we came across a real blueberry bush! We researched on the web and sure enough...it is the real thing! I have been picking and picking and made a cobbler yesterday. Today, I am making a yummy blueberry pie!
I am so excited to have this tree in our very own yard!

Laurie :)

[Sara]

Yum! I'm so happy for you!

I also had no idea blueberries were native anywhere that far south, or at that low an elevation. Fascinating. My friend A in Southern California has been able to grow cultivated blueberries -- a rarity there -- but it has been quite a feat of horticulture. Worth it, though. Totally worth it. :)

Enjoy, and thanks for telling me about it. :)

[Nega Lica]

I just made this tonight and it was delicious! Thanks for this recipe. You can't beat how easy it is, plus it tastes great.
Thanks again!