My longtime favorite recipe for blueberry pie, fabulous with fresh blueberries that 'pop' in the light sour cream filling and topped with a toasted-almond streusel.
"Yes." That’s the answer, always accompanied by a puckish grin, when some of my favorite men, not a yes-man among them, are asked about their favorite pies. Cream pie? Fruit? With meringue? À la mode? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Left over for breakfast? Yes again, at least when the answer comes from my own father.
Credit thirty years of pie-baking to my Uncle Marv, who beamed and extolled and then insisted on seconds with my first pie, a creditable Thanksgiving apple, when I was just sixteen. With such psychic income, what aspiring cook wouldn’t happily enter the pie business?
In all that time, this blueberry pie ranks high among favorites. It shouts summer, the berries puffed plump in light, sweet cream. It smells delicious and tastes even better.
It will make yes-men (and yes-women) of us all.
If you'd like to try making a homemade pie crust, be sure to check out the photo instructions and tips for How to Make Flaky Tender Pie Crust. Tips for crust makers: for perfect slicing, lightly butter the pie pan before arranging the crust; for easy handling, use equal parts cake and all-purpose flour; for delectable flavor, use half lard, half butter; for tenderness, refrigerate dough for an hour before rolling. Two pints of berries fit perfectly in a standard pie dish. If yours is a deep dish, use three pints. Unsurprisingly, the better the berries, the better the pie. One year, the pie was (slightly) disappointing because the berries had so little flavor. For years, I’ve substituted a Penzey’s spice blend called ‘cake spice’ in recipes calling for cinnamon or nutmeg. Last summer I discovered ‘baking spice’. It turns this pie from superior to sublime.
BLUEBERRY SOUR CREAM PIE RECIPE
Time-to-table: About 3 hours
Serves 10
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CRUST
- 1 unbaked pie crust, homemade or refrigerated (see ALANNA’s TIPS)
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FILLING
- 2 or 3 pints (see TIPS) fresh blueberries (frozen just don’t work)
- 1 egg
- 1 cup (8oz/227g) sour cream (sorry, reduced-fat sour cream just doesn't work as well)
- 3/4 cup (165g) sugar
- 2 tablespoons (16g) flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon (see TIPS)
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/2 teaspoon table salt
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TOPPING
- 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) salted butter
- 4 tablespoons (32g) flour
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons (30g) brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (2oz/56g) toasted sliced almonds
CRUST Roll crust, then transfer to a glass pie dish. Freeze for 10 minutes while oven preheats to 400F. Cover crust with foil, fill with dried beans or pie weights. Bake until sides set, about 12 minutes. Remove foil.
FILLING Pick through and wash berries, drain well in a colander.
Whisk egg in a large bowl. Add remaining filling ingredients and combine well. Stir in berries. Pour into partially baked crust. Bake until filling is just set, about 25 minutes.
TOPPING Melt butter in microwave in a small bowl. Stir in remaining topping ingredients. With fingers, drop in small dollops evenly across partially baked pie. Bake until topping browns slightly, about 12 minutes. Cool to room temperature to serve.
WEIGHT WATCHERS POINTS WW Old Points 9/11, WW PointsPlus 11/13 (and worth it!) WEIGHT WATCHERS TIPS Portion size matters, especially with a rich indulgence like a good piece of pie. Beginning in 2012, I'm changing my standard portion size for pie from 8 slices to 10 slices. Since it will take awhile to make the transition, I've included the nutrition information for 8 slices as well. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. Follow Kitchen Parade on Facebook! More Recipes for Summer Pies & Tarts
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Gorgeous pies--both of them!
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Thank you for taking a moment to write! I read each and every comment, for each and every recipe. If you have a specific question, it's nearly always answered quick-quick. But I also love hearing your reactions, your curiosity, even your concerns! When you've made a recipe, I especially love to know how it turned out, what variations you made, what you'll do differently the next time. ~ Alanna