Blueberry Pie made with wild Ontario blueberries is a special summer treat.
Wild blueberries are in season from mid July to early August. Blueberries are fertilized by black flies. I knew that there had to be a silver lining to black flies. They are my bane and the bites bring out the biggest lumps that last for a week or two. However, all is forgiven with my first bowl of fresh blueberries and milk.
I have picked wild blueberries most of my life, but this year on my trip to visit my brother in Sudbury, we ran out of time. Fortunately, there are blueberry stands on the way out of town and I was able to purchase some of the “blue gold”.
“Blue Gold” picked in the Sudbury region of Northern Ontario
Blueberries are wonderful fresh and can be frozen without sugar in containers to be used in the winter. A fresh cheesecake can be topped with frozen blueberries (see my blueberry Cheesecake recipe), glazed and it will taste as if they had just been picked.
Blueberry Pie
Print recipe| Serves | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 5 Cups wild blueberries (may substitute with farmed blueberries)
- 2/3 cups white sugar
- 1/3 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 Tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 Tsp grated lemon rind
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 4 Tbsp whipping cream
- 1 Crisco pastry recipe
Directions
| Make the Crisco pastry recipe ( or your favourite pastry recipe) for a 9 inch pie plate | |
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Mix together the flour, sugar, lemon rind and cinnamon. Gently mix with the blueberries. Fill the bottom of the pie crust with the berry mixture. Dot with the butter and distribute the whipping cream evenly over the berries.  | |
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Add the top crust, flute the edges, moisten the top with a mixture of cream and water and sprinkle on a teaspoon of sugar. Vent the top of the pie with slashes and/or the letter "B" for blueberry.  | |
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Bake at 400 deg F for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees and continue to bake for 50 - 60 minutes or until the filling starts to bubble through the top and the crust becomes golden.  | |
| Serve warm plain or with ice cream. | |
Crisco Pastry
| Serves | enough for a double-crust pie |
Ingredients
- 2 Cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 Tsp salt
- 1 cup Crisco shortening
- 4 Tbsp water
Directions
| Measure the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add the shortening and cut it in using a pastry cutter or two knive cutting together until the flour/shortening mixture resembles pea sized pieces | |
| Mix in the water and stir with a fork, just until all the ingredients are clinging together. Do not over mix or the pastry will be tough. | |
| Flour the top of your counter and around the sides of your rolling pin. Draw together about 1/2 of the pastry mixture and liberally sprinkle with flour. Pat into a circle about an inch thick and then roll it out to about 1/4 of an inch thick. | |
| At this stage, you can either cut the dough into circles to fit into tart tins or use this half of the recipe to fill the bottom of a 8 - 10 inch pie plate. If you are making tarts, you can probably re-roll the scraps one or two more times and then the remaining pastry will be too tough to work with. Repeat with the second half of the pastry. | |
| Pastry needs to be baked at a high temperature (400 deg F) for at least 10 minutes for pies that are then reduced to about 350 deg F until the filling is cooked or for tarts you may continue to cook at 400 deg F for about another 5 minutes to cook the centre and finish the cooking of the pastry. | |