Blueberry Pie

 May 2025

Recipe from The Perfect Pie, Americas's Test Kitchen, 2019, page 30; also available online

This pie was inspired by a bad blueberry pie that I purchased at Whole Foods. Since it is blueberry season I thought some store-bought pie would be good but I was wrong. The crust was unremarkable and the pie lacked any real blueberry flavor. The filling was dominated by the flavor of nutmeg rather than blueberries. I'm glad I only bought half a pie.

For our homemade blueberry pie the crust was made using the all-butter crust recipe (page 320 of The Perfect Pie) which I have written about before. It took 45 minutes to prepare the crust which was divided into two halves each of which was  chilled in the refrigerator for two hours. After warming for about 10 minutes, the first portion of dough was rolled out,  fitted into a 9" pie plate, and refrigerated. The second portion was rolled into a 12" circle, 1¼" circles were cut from it (to allow steam to escape), and also refrigerated. 

Half of the blueberries, 3 cups, were mashed in a saucepan and cooked over medium heat until the mixture was reduced to about 1½ cups. It was then set aside to cool. A peeled Granny Smith apple was grated and a towel used to squeeze out most of the water. The dry grated apple was placed in a large bowl and mixed with sugar, ground instant tapioca (ground using a mortar and pestle), lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, the cooked blueberries, and the remaining 3 cups of whole berries. The berry mixture was poured into the prepared pie plate and chunks of butter were scattered over the surface. The top crust was added in the usual way and brushed with an egg wash. The pie was baked in a pre-heated 400° oven for 25 minutes then another 55 minutes at 375°. Total time was 45 minutes for the dough plus 2 hours chilling and 70 minutes to prepare the filling. Total time from start to taking the pie out of the oven was about 5½ hours, much of it hands off, and not counting the subsequent cooling time.

We enjoyed this pie. It had a great blueberry flavor and the crust was light and buttery. Making this pie was a project, though. It took most of a day to make, created a lot of dirty dishes, and the berries, in particular, were not cheap to buy. It would be worth making again but it's not a dessert to make on a regular basis, but perhaps just when blueberries are in season.