July 8, 2008

Tuesdays With Dorie…Double Crusted Blueberry Pie

What an awesome TWD week…with the Fourth having so many cookouts and get-togethers, this was the perfect choice! luckily, I was able to pick my own berries for this pie earlier in the week, so to me, that makes it even better!

Dorie’s pie crust comes together so easily…I will use it over and over! (and I am not even a pie person!) Because I can’t sem to leave well enough alone, I did throw in a couple of extra touches to the crust…a pinch of cardamom, a little grated lemon peel, a splash of vanilla, and I used my vanilla sugar as well. The additions really flavored this crust up! I was very pleased, to say the least. I intend to make a separate post on Vanilla Sugar and Homemade Vanilla Extract some day, as once you try it, you’ll have an awfully hard time going back to the store bought variety.

For the blueberry filling, I think I followed Dorie’s recipe word for word. I probably added more lemon than she would have, but I love the zing it gives the berries. I did also add some orange zest, but only because I had it at the ready.

Back to the crust. I made the 9 inch pie and also an itty bitty guy that fit into the cutest little mason jar EVER. I bought those jars to put homemade babyfood in (which I only did ONCE, and now Seven eats real food most of the time, so it’s a good thing I have found an alternate use for these!) Because I was taking the big pie to a Fourth of July party at my parents, I wanted to make it look a little bit festive. I am a tad bit torn on whether the attmept looked cute or if it looked stupid…it’s such a fine line. But what I did was roll out the top crust and use my flower cookie cutter to just pierce the dough – going all the way through but not lifting out the center. I thought the flower somewhat resembled fireworks – that’s why I chose it.

To take it a step farther, I used my food coloring pens and hand colored a few of the cut outs in red and blue before baking.

Then I sprinkled some demarara sugar on top for a little added sparkle.

Results?? Well, the jar pie was excellent – I couldn’t help but eat the whole thing by myself minutes after it came out of the oven.

Thank goodness I had the restraint to photograph it before inhaling it. The big pie? Well, it was great, too, but I prefer it warm. The consensus of the party-goers was an overwhelming thumbs up – one uncle even said “I drank it, because it was too good to eat.”