Intro to Cooking: Lemon-Blueberry Pie

By Kari

I’ll let you in on a not-so-small secret: I love pie. Like borderline-unhealthy-obsession-with-pie syndrome. Like if a recipe looks delicious and simple I will think to myself “Hmm, Kari, how can this translate into pie form?” (Which, I should warn you, doesn’t work with everything…like margaritas.)

So, pie obsession in mind, I was strolling the produce section last Sunday and stumbled upon super ripe, super cheap summer blueberries and, well, the rest is history. This recipe is delicious and somewhat nutritious (seriously people, pie is still pie, even if I sub sugar for Truvia), and the best part? Incredibly easy. Some might even say easy…as pie.

You will need:

- 6 cups of fresh (or frozen) blueberries. They’re in season and most likely on sale, so I’d just go with the fresh ones.
- The zest from about half a lemon. (Take a cheese grater to a fresh lemon and shave about half the skin)
- The juice from one lemon
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup white granulated sugar. I subbed for sugar, just because I don’t have any actual sugar in my apartment. If you use a sweetener instead, just make sure to check the package to see if one packet = one Tablespoon of sugar (because it might be a lot sweeter if they’re not equal).
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 Tbsp butter (unsalted), cut into small pieces (Again, I used a butter substitute)
- A frozen 9 “double pie crust, or two 9” crusts.
- 1 egg
- 1 Tablespoon milk

What to do:

- Preheat oven to 425
- Rinse, dry and de-stem fresh blueberries (skip if you bought frozen)
- In a large (really large) bowl, gently mix the blueberries, lemon zest, lemon juice, flour, and cinnamon.

- Pour blueberry mixture into the bottom crust
- Place tiny pieces of butter all over the top of the filling.

- Cover the bottom crust with the top. If you’re using two regular crusts, place the top crust upside down on a sheet of waxpaper for about 5 minutes before trying to detach it from the foil tray. Place top crust over the filling and tuck the edges under the bottom crust, pressing the edges together to make a tight seal. Optional: use a fork around the rim to make a pretty design.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and milk. Use a pastry brush (or your fingers) to coat the crust with the eggwash.

- With a fork, poke 4 holes in the top crust of the pie (so steam can escape).
- Place on the middle rack of your oven, with a  cookie sheet on the lowest rack to catch any blueberry juice that may ooze out of your delicious pie while it’s baking. (Also an option, sticking your head in there to catch it with your mouth, but it might get a bit hot.)

- Bake at 425 for 20 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 and bake for another 30 minutes. Set it on a cooling rack for about 20 minutes (that’s as long as I could wait) until cool.