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Thursday, November 27, 2014

Blueberry crumb pie

My aunt has hosted Thanksgiving every year for as long as I can remember.  Since I bake as often as I can, I offered to bake pies or any other dessert that she wanted.  Her requests were simple enough: blueberry crumb pie and apple pie.  I decided to spice up the apple pie a little bit this year (check back soon for that post), but decided that blueberry crumb pie didn't really need any tweaking.  So I went in search of a good blueberry crumb pie.


The winning recipe, from what I found, was one from Bon Appetit (which happens to be one of my favorite magazines.....ever!).  I only made one major change from the original recipe -- I used some frozen blueberries and some fresh blueberries.

Oh, and the most amazing part of this pie?  There is literally almost as much crumb topping as there are blueberries filling the pie!!  And everyone knows that the best part of any crumb pie is the crumb topping!

It even looks good BEFORE it was baked!!

So if you are in the need of a good blueberry crumb pie, run to the store now and buy the ingredients for this pie!!

From Bon Appetit, who calls it a Crumble -- not Crumb -- Pie

Ingredients:

For the Crust:

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into half inch cubes
1/2 tsp kosher salt
Ice water

For the Filling and Crumb Topping:

2/3 cup PLUS 3 Tbsp sugar
2 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch (I used 3 Tbsp, since I felt that the frozen blueberries were a bit more watery and I wanted a little extra thickening agent)
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
5 cups (1 pound 10 oz) fresh blueberries (I used 3 cups frozen and 2 cups fresh)
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
5 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted, and cooled slightly

Directions:

Pulse 1 1/4 cups flour, the butter, and 1/2 tsp salt in a food processor until it resembles coarse meal with some pea sized pieces remaining.
Drizzle 3 Tbsp ice water over mixture.
Pulse until moist clumps form.
Add more water by teaspoonfuls if mixture is dry.
Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface.
Divide into 4 equal pieces.

Working with 1 pieces at a time, use the heel of your hand to smear each piece of dough twice, in a forward motion, to distribute butter.
Gather all 4 dough pieces into a ball.
Flatten into a disk.
Wrap the disk in plastic wrap.
Chill dough until firm, at least 1 hour.
*dough can be made up to 2 days ahead.  If doing so, be sure to keep dough chilled.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to a 13" round.
Transfer to the pie dish.
Gently press dough onto the bottom and up the sides of the dish.
Fold overhand under and crimp edges decoratively.
Pierce the bottom of the crust in several places with a fork.
Chill until firm, about 30 minutes. 

Line a large baking sheet with foil and place it on the middle rack in the oven (don't skip this part....I missed the part about lining the pan with foil and my blueberry filling bubbled over and all over my pan).
Preheat the oven to 375F.
Line crust with parchment paper or foil and fill with pie weights (or dried beans).
Bake until the crust is set, about 20 minutes.
Carefully remove parchment paper and pie weights.
Bake until crust is pale golden, about 12 minutes longer.
Transfer crust to a wire rack.
Let cool.

Make the filling.
Whisk together 2/3 cups sugar, cornstarch, and lemon zest in a large bowl.
Add blueberries and lemon juice.
Toss gently to coat and evenly distribute.
Let filling stand, tossing occasionally, until berries release their juices, 20-30 minutes.

Make the crumb topping.
Whisk flour, remaining 3 Tbsp sugar, light brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl.
Add melted butter.
Mix topping with fingertips to blend.

Assemble the pie.
Preheat the oven to 375F.
Spoon blueberry filling into the crust.
Sprinkle the topping over the blueberry filling.
Bake pie until filling is bubbling and the topping is golden, about 1 hour and 15 minutes (Mine took just over an hour).
Cover with foil after 30 minutes if browning too fast.

Let pie cool on a wire rack.

*You can make this pie up to 8 hours ahead (I made mine closer to 20 hours ahead).  Let stand at room temperature.

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