I was hoping I would be able to do a post today about how to make a great pie crust. But alas, my last two attempts were too chewy and not flaky enough. If you have a good pie crust recipe, send it my way. Otherwise, you can go with a frozen crust. The refrigerated kind isn’t that good.

Unlike my crust efforts, this pie is very good and apparently pretty fool-proof. I didn’t have quite enough fresh blackberries, so I added about a cup and a half of frozen (most I froze myself, some from a bag). It still wasn’t quite enough berries, but it worked.

In case you’re wondering why I didn’t buy enough berries to start with: I was planning to use a different recipe, but belatedly realized that one required letting the berries sit in sugar for 8 hours. This one only requires about 20 minutes (although I let it sit for an hour since some of the berries were frozen).

Obviously fresh berries are ideal. But a mix of fresh and frozen is still pretty fantastic.

I reduced some of the ingredients a tad since I didn’t have 6 full cups of blackberries. But I will list the full recipe for you.

You don’t need to cut little hearts out of the extra pie dough and place them happily around the side. But it certainly doesn’t hurt.

Try to resist the urge to cut into the pie when it is still hot. We obviously didn’t, and this happened:
We couldn’t really help it, though. It was pretty late, but my husband informed me of a part of the Constitution I was unfamiliar with. Apparently if there is a freshly baked pie, you are required by law to have a piece. Who am I to question the founding fathers?

Mmmm.

Fresh blackberry pie (from Gourmet magazine, July 2000)
6 cups blackberries (1 3/4 lb)
1 to 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice*
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon quick-cooking tapioca
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon coarse (or regular granulated) sugar

Put a baking sheet in lower third of oven (to catch any overflow juices) and preheat to 400.

Gently stir together berries, sugar (1 or 1 1/4 cups depending on how sweet you want it to be), cornstarch, butter, lemon juice, water and tapioca. Let stand for about 20 minutes, tossing occasionally.

***Roll out 1 piece of dough into a 14-inch round and arrange in a 9-inch pie plate (4-cup capacity). Trim edge, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang. Roll out remaining piece of dough into a rectangle. Cut into strips with a fluted pastry wheel or a knife.

Stir berry mixture, then spoon evenly into shell. Arrange strips in a lattice pattern on top of filling and trim strips close to edge of pan. Roll up and crimp edge. Brush top and edge with egg white and sprinkle all over with sugar.

Bake pie on the hot baking sheet 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes, until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbling. (Check pie after 45 minutes: If edge of crust is browning too quickly, cover edge with foil or a pie crust shield and continue baking.) Cool completely on a rack before serving.

*I used bottled, but fresh is always better (if available)

**Tapioca comes in a box. It can be hard to find at the store, but often is near other baking items.

***Obviously you won’t need to do this if you have a frozen crust. If you don’t want to try to make the extra frozen crust into strips, you can cut some hearts or holes in it to vent and stick it on top.