Danielle

It feels like just yesterday I was rolling out dough on my grandma’s sea-foam green counter tops. Laughing and making an absolute mess of her kitchen. It’s funny how food and cooking is so tied to memories and emotions. I’ll never forget her passing on all her best tips to me during our many baking sessions.

My grandma was famous for her baking, but nothing was quite as good as her pies. I first started making pies with her when I was six, and now I’ve become the head pie maker in our family.  It seemed only fitting that the first recipe I shared on this blog was the first recipe I ever made.

I of course have tweaked grandmas recipe slightly over the years to make it my own, but I still follow grandma’s methods. My grandma’s recipe was based on the Crisco’s classic pie dough, it’s the same recipe her mother used. Personally I prefer to use half butter half shortening to give the dough more flavour. I also add a bit of sugar to my dough to sweeten the crust slightly (per my husbands request). After much trial and error this has become my favourite pie dough. I make my dough using an old-fashioned pastry cutter. You can of course use a food processor instead, but be careful not to over work the dough.

This pie is so delicious I could eat the whole thing myself… I wish I was kidding.

My favourite way to eat this pie is cold straight out of the fridge, but my family likes it served warm with vanilla ice cream. Whats your favourite way to enjoy a slice of pie?

Serves: 8

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 2 2/3 cups All Purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/2 cup Vegetable Shortening, cold
• 1/2 cup Unsalted Butter, cold
• 8 to 12 tablespoons ice water
• Egg
• 2 tablespoons water
• Sugar for dusting

Filling:

• 6 cups fresh or frozen blackberries (if using frozen completely defrost and drain excess juices, do not rinse)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup Corn Starch
• Juice of half a lemon

Directions:

In a large bowl mix the flour, salt and sugar together. Add the cold butter and shortening. Cut the butter and shortening into the flour mixture using a pastry cutter or two forks until the chunks of butter and shortening are the size of small peas.

Drizzle in the ice water and stir the mixture to bring the dough together. Continue to add water until the dough starts to clump and form a ball. Form the dough into a ball. Cut dough in half and form each half into discs. Wrap each disc tightly in plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C).

Mix together berries, lemon juice, corn starch and sugar. Set aside.

Roll out one of the discs to fit your pie tin. Gently place the dough into the pie tin. Pour the berry mixture into the tin. Discard any extra juice from the filling (it will make the pie watery). Roll out the second disc. Gently place the top crust onto the pie.

Gently fold over and seal the edges of the pie to form a crust. Mix together egg and water. Use a pastry brush to cover the pie in egg wash. Sprinkle sugar over the pie. Using a sharp knife cut vent holes into the crust.

Bake the pie for 45 – 60 minutes until golden brown. Cover the pie with foil partway through cooking if the pie browns too quickly.

Cool for at least 20 minutes before serving.

Adapted from Crisco.