“It ain’t braggin’ if it’s true!” — Anonymous

This is the best blueberry pie you’ll ever make. Or eat, for that matter! I tried other recipes but was never satisfied with them. Some require that you cook the berries on the stove before assembling the pie. No thanks. They end up mushy, and you have an extra pot to wash, to boot. Others call for flour to be stirred into the berries, but that always ends up leaving visible flour on top of the filling. I find that unappetizing. Still others had decent filling, but not enough of it. So I came up with my own. My trick is to make a slurry of some berries with the other filling ingredients, then mix that with the rest of the berries. They all get nicely coated, the filling is thick enough not to run away after you cut a slice, and the flavor is sublime! And it all happens in just one bowl. Now that there are just the two of us at home, we don’t really need a whole pie. We’d eat it, mind you, but ought not. So I found myself a 7-inch (18 cm) pie plate and made a half-pie. It’s shown here with a scoop of Vanilla Frozen Custard. For a half-pie, you just need one crust. Use a bit more than half of it for the bottom crust and the rest for the top.

If you’d asked me when I was ten years old if I’d ever care enough about blueberry pie to come up with my own recipe, I’d have looked at you like you had two heads. You see, I was ten when The Blueberry Incident occurred. I’m not going to give you the details because I don’t want to ruin your appetite. I can talk about nearly anything without losing mine (I’m weird that way), but most people might find the story details a bit too much. Suffice it to say that before breakfast, I loved blueberries and couldn’t get enough of them. After breakfast, there were no berries left for anyone else, and within twenty minutes I no longer liked them. You can fill in the blanks.

There’s a long tradition in my family of trying to spare the next generation from the food aversions and random phobias of the prior generation. I was a milk-loving teenager before I ever knew that milk made my mom gag, and an adult before I knew of her fear of heights and dentists. I managed to inherit the height thing anyway. I swear it’s genetic; I never told my kids about it until I learned it’d gone down another generation in spite of my best efforts. So I set about hiding the fact that there were a few foods I didn’t care for. After twenty years, this meant eating blueberries — and liking them. Or at least being able to fake it convincingly. The first few times, I was pretty proud of myself. Then it occurred to me that it was no longer difficult. After the fourth or fifth time, I realized I liked blueberries again. After the sixth or seventh, I discovered I love them again! Proof yet again that human tastes are dynamic, and we can nudge them in whatever direction we choose.

Ingredients:

2 Single Pie Crusts

6 cups fresh blueberries, washed & drained well (about 4 dry pints/465 g)

⅔ cup (132 g) sugar

1 tablespoon Instant ClearJel or cornstarch

⅓ cup (40 g) flour

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

milk and sugar for the top

Preparation:

1.) Preheat the oven to 375º F (190º C). Place the bottom crust in the pie plate; flute the edges. Put it in the freezer while you’re preparing the filling. You’d be wiser to use a metal pie plate instead of glass. Even borosilicate plates have been reported to explode when placed in a hot oven directly from the freezer. In a large microwave-safe mixing bowl, mix ½ cup (80 g) of the blueberries with the lemon juice. Microwave on high for 30 seconds, then mash the berries with a fork or the back of a spoon.

2.) Stir in the sugar, flour, and Instant ClearJel (or cornstarch), mixing well.

3.) Add the remaining blueberries, stirring gently to coat.

4.) Prepare the top crust. You can use a pizza cutter to cut it into strips to make a lattice, use a gizmo like the one I used in Homemade Apple Pie, or just cut some vents in the top. When I cut vents, I wait until I’ve put the crust on the pie so I can be sure to place them well.

5.) Pour the blueberry mixture into the frozen bottom crust.

6.) Add the top crust. I used a bowl scraper to lift the strips, then wove them into a lattice. Lay some strips vertically, then fold back every other one. Lay another crosswise, tucked close to the folds. Unfold, then fold back the vertical strips that didn’t get folded the first time. Lay another crosswise, and unfold again. Repeat.

7.) Brush top crust with milk, & sprinkle with sugar. Shield the edges with foil or pie shield.

8.) Bake for 25 minutes. It’s helpful to place a rimmed baking sheet or piece of foil on the rack below the pie, to catch any filling that bubbles over. Remove the crust shield, and bake an additional 25-30 minutes, until the filling is bubbly and the crust is golden. Allow the pie to cool completely before serving.