Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property OMAPI_Elementor_Widget::$base is deprecated in /home2/foodsoci/public_html/wp-content/plugins/optinmonster/OMAPI/Elementor/Widget.php on line 41
Simple and sweet. Berry pies are quintessentially American and delicious every time. Here’s a straight-forward recipe for my favorite one.
“If I were to design a coat of arms for our country, a pie would be the main symbol. It would appear with a background of wild berry bushes, —and orchards. For pie is part of our history and tradition. By right of inheritance, adoption, and improvement, pies have become distinctively American. Every American home has its favorite pie.” — Betty Crocker
While not created by us per se, Americans have certainly laid our claim to dessert pies. According to the American Pie Council – and I cannot imagine a more noble organization – the idea of pie has been with us since 2000 B.C., where Ancient Egyptians developed the idea. This was introduced to the Ancient Greeks who introduced it to the Ancient Romans, who would cook fillings in reeds for the sole purpose of eating the filling. The first published recipe for pie is from the Romans, for a rye-crusted goat cheese honey pie – which I would certainly try, if offered a slice.
In Pie: A Global History, Janet Clarkson offers that The English Oxford Dictionary places the first English language usage of the word pie in a business expense log in Yorkshire in 1303. This usage may have been relating the contents of pie to a “magpie,” noting that pies are made from a “miscellaneous nature” the way that birds collect random items for their nests. These early pies were meat pies; as covered in my pastry crust post, the crust was referred to as “coffins,” and meant to be thrown away. It wasn’t until the 1500’s that glorious fat gets added to dough to make pastry, and we start eating it with fruit. English tradition associates the first cherry pie with Queen Elizabeth I.
The English brought the notion of pies to the Americas, where they still functioned as coffins – disposable dough to protect the more valuable filling. It wasn’t until the American Revolution that the word “crust” replaced the word “coffin.”
Today we may think that what constitutes a pie is obvious, but it may actually be up to culturally specific perceptions. To return to Pie: A Global History, the English define pie as any pastry that tops a filling, whereas Americans believe the bottom crust is more necessary than the top. (Their belief that anything that tops a filling is a pie is at least the beginning of an explanation to the curious decision in naming “Shepard’s Pie!”) Clarkson also shares that in the 1920’s The New York Times entertained weeks of angry letters to the editor about a core moral conundrum: is a tart a pie?
Your take on that matter may have to do with your own experiences – the country you’re from, or even the region of a country, what your grandmother used to make, or what you used to get at the local diner in college. As Daniela Galarza, writing for Eater, astutely says, “Pie is personal.” Some things about pie are universal. As she notes, the perfect pie requires two things: 1) a flaky golden crust; and 2) a “fresh, well-set, flavorful filling.” Beyond that, our own tastes and our own histories direct us.
Yet, there are statistics on our favorites. By far, apple ranks at the top of the list of American’s favorite pie. The Betty Crocker quote at the start of this post was taken from Rebecca Claire Bunschoten’s thesis, “As American as Apple Pie: The History of American Apple Pie and Its Development into a National Symbol.” In it she details how a kind of dessert pie became so associated with our national identity – but that exact history is a story for another time … a time when I share my favorite apple pie recipe with you. For now, I’ll leave you with a simple recipe for my favorite pie: tart and sweet, understated but somehow luxurious, summer in a bite: Blackberry Pie.
Summertime Blackberry Pie
Course: DessertDifficulty: Medium8
servings30
minutes45
minutesIngredients
4 pints (or ~5 cups) blackberries
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup "minute" tapioca (or cornstarch - see note)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 TBSP lemon zest
1 TBSP lemon juice
2 tsp milk (for brushing top crust before baking)
turbinado sugar (for dusting top crust before baking)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 425F degrees.
- Place a sheet of parchment (or wax) paper on your counter and flour it well. Using a well floured rolling pin, roll out 1 disk of dough to be ~1 inch wider than the pie dish you'll be using. Place the pie dish on top of the dough disk and use the sheet of parchment paper to flip it into your tin. (You could also roll it onto your rolling pin to transfer it, but this takes a little more practice!) Gently help the dough settle into the pie tin.
- Gently toss blackberries, sugar, instant tapioca, cinnamon, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Place mixture in the bottom pie shell.
- Using the same method as Step 2, roll out your second disc of dough to about the same size. Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into 1 inch strips. Don't worry about the strips being perfect - they look more rustic if they're all a bit different.
- Don't be intimidated by the lattice method! Beginning in the middle with the longest strip then moving outward with smaller strips, gently lay the strips on top of your pie, 1/2 inch apart, until you have about 6 strips across. Next, starting again in the middle, you'll start braiding the strips.
- Fold over the edge of the dough, making sure the top and the bottom join. Flute the edges by pinching together around the rim.
- Brush the top of your pie with milk; sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
- Bake for 15 minutes at 425F degree.
- Turn down your oven to 375F degrees and bake for 30 minutes. The pie crust should be browned and fruit should be bubbly when it's ready to be removed from the oven.
- Allow pie to cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing. Serve with vanilla bean ice cream.
Notes
- Some people suggest refrigerating pie dough for 1-2 hours before use. Since I use shortening as the fat, I always proceed immediately.
- You can use frozen berries; do not defrost before preparation.
- Instant tapioca is a fabulous trick for all fruit pies. You can use the same amount of cornstarch in its place. It's mostly the same result but the tapioca provides a smoother, richer texture.
