A berry, berry, berry good pie

Pie: A baked crust filled with a sweet or savory filling usually topped with a pastry crust. A pie is essentially a giant pocket of flaky dough that can be filled with anything your heart desires. How can one resist?

My tastebuds have been longing for berries lately and my baking skills could use a little practice. Now, I’ve mentioned on numerous occasions that I’m not a baker. It’s a good thing baking is not my profession, or I might have been fired presenting a pie that looks like this to a hierarchy of pastry chefs. While my pie might not look flawless, all that matters is that it tastes delicious. And it does!

Along with pie comes a little patience. I don’t mean being patient while trying to perfect the placement of your crust. I mean the patience you have to learn to avoid eating it before it’s ready. Baking can take up to an hour and the pie must cool for at least two hours to get the proper set.

I’ll be honest, I don’t have the patience to wait that long. The smell of fresh baked pie has me fluttering around the kitchen. Never leave a fresh baked pie unattended, especially on the windowsill. Everyone loves pie including neighbors, animals and even insects. You’ve spent all afternoon preparing yourself for that first bite of pie, the last thing you want is to find your cat or your neighbor digging in.

So if you’re like me and can’t stand the wait, I say jump right in. Pie in a bowl is just as good as pie on a plate. There are no right or wrong ways to devour your fresh-out-of-the-oven homemade pie.

The putting together and the baking of the pie can actually be fun and is pretty simple. It has been about a year since we last talked pie, for a refresher on the perfect pie dough check out last year’s blog about baking the perfect pie crust.

For this pie, I went with berries. I am a huge fan, so I’m lucky they actually made it into the pie shell and didn’t get pre-consumed by you-know-who.

If you’re looking for the perfect set for your pie filling, it’s probably best to wait until the next day to cut in, but if you’re at home alone, then there’s really no need to wait. I’d say a scoop of ice-cream nestled in the warm filling of a freshly baked pie, creating a sauce of its own, couldn’t be a better way to end a long day.

Triple Berry Pie

Yields one 10-inch pie

For the crust:

1 ½ cups all purpose flour
8 T unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
4 T ice water, kept cold
1 t cinnamon
1 t ground nutmeg
1 t sugar
the zest of 1 lemon

• In a large bowl or food processor combine the flour, sugar, nutmeg, lemon zest and cinnamon. Add the butter and pulse until pea sized pieces form or if by hand cut the butter with your fingers. When cutting the butter in by hand be sure to rotate through the butter allowing the flour to coat each piece. Do not allow the mixture to become a mass.
• Add in the 4 tablespoons of ice water and mix just until the dough starts to come together. Do not over mix or the dough will become tough. If the dough is too dry add more ice water, a tablespoon at a time.
• Shape the dough into a flat disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before using.
• After the dough has been refrigerated, remove from the plastic wrap and cut in half. form into a circular shape.
• on a lightly floured surface roll each piece of dough into at least a 12 inch circle about 1/4 to and 1/8 of an inch thick. Line a 10 inch pie dish with one of the rolled out pieces of dough. Do not remove the excess dough that hangs over the pie dish, you will need this to seal the edges when placing the top crust on.

For the filling:

16 oz Blueberries, rinsed & drained
6 oz raspberries, rinsed & drained
16 oz Strawberries, rinsed, drained & cut into quarters
1 cup sugar, plus some for sprinkling
1/4 cup cornstarch
the juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 egg, beaten
pinch of salt

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees with the oven rack in the middle of the oven.
• In a large bowl combine the berries, sugar, cornstarch and the lemon juice. Toss to combine.
• Place the mixture into a 10 inch uncooked pie crust. Top with top crust being sure to pinch the top and bottom crust tightly together to create a seal before removing the excess dough. Cut out 4 teardrop holes on top. Brush the top with the beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar.
• Bake for 50-60 minutes until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbly. (place foil tent over pie if top crust begins to get too dark)
• Remove from oven and allow to cool for at least two hours. Serve with your favorite ice-cream or whipped cream.

Kayleigh Van Vliet Baig was born and raised in Riverhead, where she lives with her husband Tahir.

Kayleigh has been in the culinary industry for the last 12 years, working in kitchens on the East End. She also is a personal chef.

Look for In the Kitchen with Kayleigh every Saturday on RiverheadLOCAL.com.

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