Fresh Berry Pie

It was Eric's mother's birthday a couple weeks ago and the family requested that we bring the dessert. Oh boy!! I was so excited. I started looking in all my new baking cookbooks for some recipes and decorating ideas. I wanted to bake her the most beautiful and delicious birthday cake. I wanted to experiment with fondant for the first time. I wanted to try all these tips I've been reading about regarding moist layers and crumb coating. I couldn't wait for this exciting project. Then I got an update that she wanted something with berries, not a cake, maybe a pie or a cobbler. Oh well, guess I was going to have to put the cake recipes and the decorating ambitions aside.

I was now challenged with the task of how to make a berry pie fun and unique. How could I make my pie stand out from just any old pie one could purchase from Safeway? I finally came up with a plan to bake a double crust pie with a crumb topping, and buy all the berries at the local Danville Farmer's Market.

I decided on a combination of raspberries and blackberries, but when I was shopping at the market, I came across a whole new berry I'd never heard of before. The Olallieberry! They look like blackberries but their flavor is on the tart side. What a great addition to my pie that was already full of super-sweet raspberries and blackberries. Here are some tips for baking with fresh berries from the Farmer's Market:

• Ask the salesperson when the berries were picked. You want yours picked either that morning or the day prior.
• As soon as you can, remove berries from their containers, they don't want to be stacked on top of each other, getting all smushed.
• Rinse berries with cold water. Be gentle, they are very fragile.
• Stand berries, with the stem crevice down, so they will air dry and water doesn't get locked into that hole. This excess water would totally effect the chemistry of your pie filling, in a bad way. Here's a pic of my little berries drying out, or my "berry army" as I referred to it:

So here's the recipe, mine turned out delicious, yours will too:

Pie Crust

I always use Paula's Perfect Pie Crust. It's very important that all your "wet" ingredients (butter, shortening, and water) are cold. And I highly recommend that you get yourself a pastry blender!

Filling

4-5 cups mixed fresh berries

(I measured mine out in farmer’s market containers – 2 containers of raspberries, 1 blackberries, 1 olallieberries, this came out to just under 5 cups altogether)

1/2 cup white granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 TBS cornstarch

Almond Crumble Topping, from Jill Novatt

(I especially liked this recipe because it allowed me to use cardamom, a spice I love but rarely get to use)

1 cup flour

3/4 cup toasted slivered almonds

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp ground cardamom

4 oz melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place one rolled-out pie crust in at 9-inch pie dish and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. While the crust is cooling, increase oven heat to 400 and prepare the filling.

In a medium sized bowl, mix all dry ingredients together. In a large bowl, mix berries, being very careful not to break them. Gently pour dry ingredients over berries and mix together. Pour filling over cooled pie crust. Roll out remaining pie dough and cut some ventilation holes in the center. Lay crust on top of filling and pinch edges together. Bake for 15 minutes.

While that bakes, prepare the crumble topping. In a medium bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Pour in the melted butter and mix. Pull pie out after 15 minutes and "crumble" the topping over the top crust. Reduce oven temp to 350. Return pie to the oven and bake for 30-40 more minutes, until crust is golden and the filling is bubbling. Remove pie from oven and allow to cool completely before serving. This will probably take about 3 hours.