Sunday, April 28, 2013

Blue Razzleberry Pie for National Blueberry Pie Day

Blue Razzleberry Pie 4-27-13

Today is National Blueberry Pie Day!  The wonderful folks at Driscoll's recently sent me $15 worth of coupons for their delicious berries to celebrate the day.  Thanks, Driscoll’s!

A couple issues came up.  I couldn’t find Driscoll’s blueberries around here.  I tried a few places.  I was really bummed.  But I do have blueberries from last year in my freezer so I used those and in honor of Driscoll’s berries, I did (much more easily) find their raspberries and blackberries at my local grocery store.  SO, I decided to make a mostly blueberry pie and threw in some raspberries and blackberries.  Thus the reason I’m calling my pie a Blue Razzleberry Pie.  Clever, I know.  I can’t help it. ;)

Berries!

Look at all the berry-goodness!  I set out to find just the pie recipe I wanted to make and settled on this one I found at Bon Appetit Magazine website.  I wanted to have a streusel topped pie and this fit the bill.  But friends, can I just tell you how frustrating it is when I make a pie crust and follow directions exactly and STILL have crust that shrinks while it’s baking.  Sigh.  I’m going to figure this out.  Maybe it’s a Utah/higher altitude issue.   Irks me to no end though when I prebake a crust and it’s shrinks.  I think I’m going to not prebake a crust and see if it helps.  I know, some think I’ll then have a soggy crust, but I’ve never had that happen.  If you see all that juice in the bowl of macerating berries, I didn’t put it all in the pie.  I knew since the blueberries had been frozen that it was too much. 

Shrunken pie crust

Isn’t that purty?  Not.

But I carried on and put the berries in the pie and the streusel on top and baked it.  The Bon Appetit recipe said to bake it for one hour and 15 minutes, checking it after 30 minutes to see if the crust is getting too brown and if so to cover it with foil.  I thought the crust looked just right, so I did cover it loosely with foil.  Set the timer for another 30 minutes.  I peeked in on it after about 15 and it looked great.  By the time the second 30 minutes were up, the entire bottom of the crust was swimming in a blue-purple blueberry goo.  SIGH!  I can’t tell you how upset that makes me. 

Blue Razzleberry Pie 3

I found solace in knowing that the pie would still taste great.  It just wasn’t going to win any pie contests for beauty.  ;)  I knew to be careful with how much I filled the crust since it shrunk in a few places in the prebake.  Didn’t help.  What really tanned my hide is that it still had 15 more minutes bake time according to the recipe.  I took it out at one hour and didn’t let it bubble away all over for another fifteen.

I was right.  The pie is very good.  Love the extra hit of raspberry and blackberry, but it’s definitely a blueberry pie.  Thanks again for the berries, Driscoll's (Facebook page).  Check it out and like them on Facebook and find the link to their website above.  They have lots of great recipes posted.  Should have looked there first, duh! Since I wanted a streusel topped pie, I just Googled it and got Bon Appetit.  Sometimes, my brain is not firing on all cylinders.  In my own defense, I did follow the Bon Appetit recipe directions exactly and still had a shrunken prebaked crust.

Blue Razzleberry Pie 4

Bake on!

9 comments:

Leslie said...

Fruit pies are my FAVE!!!!!!

Kristin @ Dizzy Busy and Hungry! said...

Looks wonderful regardless! I am so in the mood for blueberry pie now. Great idea to use the different berries, I am going to have to try that!

Cindy said...

Sorry about the shrunken shell--it's the Utah altitude. At least I blame all my failures on the altitude! But the pie looks yummy. And it tasted great so it's a win in my book.

Elizabeth -SugarHero! said...

Sounds delicious! Fruit pies are a beast to make--I'm convinced that all the gorgeous ones you see in magazines are a trick of food styling and are actually inedible. :) Juicy innards are a sign of deliciousness!

Lisa said...

You really know how to celebrate food days right.

vanillasugarblog said...

I eat 2 cups of blueberries 5 days a week.
There is hardly any left over for pie, sadly.

Nancy @ gottagetbaked said...

I'd have no problem eating this entire pie, Katrina, with giant scoops of vanilla ice cream. Don't let the frustrating shrinking crust get you down. This is my experience with pie crust, each and every time! That's why I call pie my baking arch nemesis. I haven't gotten it right yet but I know that we both will if we keep practicing. At least we'll have the pleasure of eating our attempts :)

Nutmeg Nanny said...

Yummy :) this pie looks delectable! I love it

Chaya said...

All those delicious berries.....yum. The pie looks fine and does not look like it was drown in blueberry juice. Anyway, blueberry juice is delicious.