Blueberry Pie

I made two back-to-back pies- one with a lattice crust and one with these cutesie little stars cut out of the pastry. I think I preferred the lattice crust. This recipe is a marriage of Julia Child's Nectarine and Blueberry Pie recipe with Fine Cooking's Classic Blueberry Pie. I borrowed Julia's technique of cooking half the blueberries on the stove top and then adding the remaining fresh in order to reduce the baking time from 1 hr. 30 minutes to 50 minutes. Also, there was much less filling overflowing with Julia's method. It seems that I am missing the crucial lattice making gene- I am incapable of doing it right no matter how detailed the instructions. Here are some instructions for making a lattice pie crust-- maybe you'll have better luck!

The pie is delicious served with Sweet Corn Ice Cream

Double Pie Crust Recipe from Smitten Kitchen

For the Filling:
6 cups blueberries (30 oz.)
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
zest of one lemon plus 1 T juice
pinch of salt

Put 3 cups of blueberries and the remaining ingredients in a sauce pan. Put it on medium-low heat and using a potato masher, smush the blueberries into the dry ingredients. Cook stirring until thickened and translucent (approximately 6 or 7 minutes). Add the remaining blueberries and stir. Allow this to completely cool (and I mean completely).

Meanwhile, roll out one disc of pie dough and fit into a 9" pie plate, preferable metal. Add the completely (and I mean completely!) cooled pie filling and using your best geometric and spacial skills, put the lattice crust on top (or you can do the cutesie cutouts). Refrigerate the assembled pie for 1 hour to relax the gluten. During the chilling time, preheat your oven to 425º with a pizza stone on the lowest rack. You want to do that for the full hour in order to get the stone nice and hot so that the bottom crust will bake up crispy. If you don't have a stone, you don't have to preheat for this long- just bake the pie closest to the heating element on the lowest rack.

Brush the pie with a egg wash (1 egg yolk and 1 T water); you can sprinkle the top with coarse sugar if you like that (I don't). Bake for 50 minutes, covering the edges after about 30 minutes (this is easiest with a pie shield of some sort- trust me this is a good investment because trying to use the home made foil shield will only result in tears and tantrums). Let this sit for 3 hours before serving.