THE GENESIS OF THIS PIE lay in my reluctance to buy retail by way of an unintentional misreading of the directions in Betty Crocker’s Orange Tome. (I left out the flour and cinnamon, thinking the blueberries would make their own sauce like cranberries do. They didn’t, and while the results are rather a bit more runny than expected still it’s not too bad — worth a blog post, at least.
Fig. 1
I used:
– Two 12 oz. bags frozen blueberries from the whole-lifestyle store[1]
– Two 9-inch frozen organic pie shells from same (they come two to a package, complete with tin)
– 1 cup sugar
– 1 cup water
0. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
1. Put the blueberries in a big pot with water and sugar. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to a fast simmer.
2. When you realize they’re not exactly cooking like cranberries (about 10 minutes), be grateful that they’re at least nicely defrosted and ladle with a slotted spoon into one of the pie shells. (Reserve liquid for making deLICious blueberry sodas — just add seltzer!)
3. Invert the other pie shell atop the fragrant steaming blue mass; crimp edges and deflate, then poke a few holes in the top to vent. Wrap edge with a 2-3″ strip of cooking foil so it doesn’t brown horribly.
4. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil strip and bake another 15 minutes.
5. Set for an hour, preferably on a window sill to tempt passing scamps and hobos. Slice and serve with ice-cold, unskimmed milk. (Live a little. You’re worth it.)
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[1] That’s how it seems when I shop there. I feel simultaneously out of place and catered to in my 48-year-old-punk duds.
Fresh blubes have been cheap here. $1.50 for a pint the last two weeks at Publix.
I’m making blueberry pancakes again tomorrow morning. Wish I had your leftover blueberry juice to use for syrup, although I never thought about blueberry soda. That would go good with chocolate ice cream. Having said that, anything goes good with chocolate ice cream.
Especially more chocolate ice cream. I never thought I’d live to see the day when blueberries would be so plentiful and cheap … I can almost afford to get sick of them. (But I’m not, heh heh heh.)
Remember the blueberry bushes behind the house in Matawan? They had big seeds in them, however.
To this day, I compare every blueberry I eat to the difference between those blueberries and the ones from the grocer’s. Trying to figure out that out was some of my first experience with science.