Blueberry Pie Jars

Happy Pi Day, readers!

I’m sure you’ll see an abundance of great looking pies on the web today, and even though I am officially on vacation, I wanted to make sure you had one from me, too.

I LOVE making pies in jars. Let me tell you why:

Number 1 – I suck at crust. I always end up having to piece them together, tearing, repairing, and swearing. With the jar method, you just stuff the crust in and go with it.

Number 2 – They are perfect for portion control. That is, no one has to slice you anything, you get a whole jar to yourself. It’s not a diet sized portion, either.

Number 3 – Once you break into it and get a little bit gone, it’s the ideal vessel for adding a scoop of ice cream. What could be better than that?

Only one thing, I tell you…THIS face:

As I mentioned, I am on vacation in Florida this week. I can hardly believe it’s half over! I took this picture on Monday as we watched the dolphin show at Seaworld. Seven was so enamored of the dolphins…and the birds, the “bad guys”, the people. He sat in awe for the entire show. It was nearly priceless (though themeparks make sure every experience is far from “priceless.”)

Worth every penny though.

Now…Pie. In jars. Enjoy them!!

Double Crusted Blueberry Pie Jars

From: Baking: From My Home To Yours, written by Dorie Greenspan (slightly adapted)

Ingredients:

Good for Almost Everything Pie Dough for Double Crust , chilled (below)

• 2 ½ pints fresh blueberries
• 1 cup of sugar, or a little more, to taste, plus more for dusting
• ½ cup all purpose flour
• Pinch of salt
• Coarsely grated zest of 1 lemon
• Juice from one lemon
• ¼ cup dry bread crumbs (you can use packaged unseasoned crumbs)
• 1 large egg, beaten with 1 tsp of water, for egg wash
• Sugar, for dusting

Spray each jar with non-stick spray or carefully butter each being sure to cover the inside well. Working on a well-floured surface (or between wax paper or plastic wrap), roll out one piece of the dough to a thickness of about 1/8 – inch. Cut into 4 pieces, one for each jar. Fit the dough into the jars, and press onto the bottom and somewhat up the sides of each jar. Roll the other piece of dough into a 1/8 inch thick circle and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat. Cover both the circle and the pie plate with plastic wrap and refrigerate while you pre-heat the oven and prepare the filling.
Getting Ready to Bake: Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Put the berries in a large bowl and gently stir in the sugar, flour, salt, zest and juice; let sit for about 5 minutes. Taste the filling and add more sugar and/or lemon juice, if needed.
Remove the jars and top crust from the refrigerator. Sprinkle an even layer of the breadcrumbs over the bottom of the prepared jars. Give the filling a last stir and turn it into the crusts.
Using your fingertips, moisten the rim of the jar top with a little cold water. Cut the crust into 4 even pieces, and top each jar. You can opt to do a decorative top, such as lattice if you prefer, or, use a cookie cutter as I did for more decoration.(If you have time, refrigerate the pie for about 30 minutes. The pie can also be wrapped airtight and frozen for up to 2 months. Glaze and sugar it before you put it in the over and add at least 15 minutes to the baking time).
Brush the top crust with the egg wash, then sprinkle the crust with a little sugar, just to give it sparkle.
Bake the pies for 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees F, and bake for another 20-25 minutes or so (keep an eye on them, they can cook a little faster depending on your oven) or until the crust is a beautiful golden brown and the filling is bubbling up through the slits. If the crust seems to be browning too quickly, make a loose foil tent for the pie.
Transfer the pie to a rack and let it cool and settle for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Good for Almost Everything Pie Dough, Slightly Adapted by Doughmesstic

For a 9 inch Double Crust or 4 Pie Jars

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• pinch cardamom
• pinch ginger
• zest of 1/2 orange
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 2 ½ sticks very cold unsalted butter, cut into tbsp size pieces
• 1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces
  About ½ cup ice water

Put the flour, sugar, cardamom, ginger, orange zest, and salt in a food processor fitted with a metal blade, pulse just to combine the ingredients. Drop in the butter and shortening and pulse only until the butter and shortening are cut into the flour. Don’t overdo the mixing- what you’re aiming for is to have some pieces the size of fat green peas and others the size of barley. Pulsing the machine on and off, gradually add about 6 tbsps of the water- add a little water and pulse once, add some more water, pulse again and keep going that way. Then use a few long pulses to get the water into the flour. If, after a dozen or so pulses, the dough doesn’t look evenly moistened or form soft curds, pulse in as much of the remaining water as necessary, or even a few drops more, to get a dough that will stick together when pinched. Big pieces of butter are fine. Scrape the dough out of the bowl and onto a work surface.

Divide the dough in half. Gather each half into a ball, flatten each ball into a disk and wrap each half in plastic. Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour before rolling (if your ingredients were very cold and you worked quickly, though, you might be able to roll the dough immediately: the dough should be as cold as if it had just come out of the fridge).

To Roll Out the Dough: Have a buttered 9 inch pie plate at hand, or 4 small jars.

You can roll the dough out onto a floured surface or between sheets of wax paper or plastic wrap or in a rolling slipcover. If you’re working on a counter, turn the dough over frequently and keep the counter floured. If you are rolling between paper, plastic or in a slipcover, make sure to turn the dough over often and to life the paper, plastic, or cover frequently so that it doesn’t roll into the dough and form creases.

If you’ve got time, slide the rolled out dough into the fridge for about 20 minutes to rest and firm up.

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I hope you all have a Happy Pi Day!! Be sure to sample as many varieties as possible…or at least, that’s what I intend to do!