Blue Ribbon Blueberry Pie & a Pie Bird

Cooling on the rack!

I've had a bee in my bonnet since last September, when I entered a pie contest and didn't win anything!  Some of you may remember that post And the Biggest Looser Is.  Then, my sweet friend Susan at From Beyond My Kitchen Window told me about a recipe she found in Yankee Magazine, and she gave me the magazine with the recipe!

Thus my quest for the perfect pies began. So, about a month ago I made this wild Maine blueberry pie for the first time - when I tell you it's "lick your plate amazing" I'm telling you the truth! I served it to my Maine friends and all they could say was "ohhhhh" &"ahhhhh" & "mmmmm" ~ that's a Five Star review if you ask me!!!

Then for Valentine's Day, my wonderful husband gave me a pie cookbook, How to Build a Better Pie and I'm looking forward to making a few pies from that book! Wait until you see what I've got planned next!

In the mean time, I hope you enjoy this pie from Yankee Magazine! The recipe is from Mary Blenk. Mary didn't win her first contest either, but she kept trying. She's 56 years old now, with 92 ribbons and many trophies to show for her culinary efforts. I'd call her an expert!  I'm serving Mary's pie for dessert tonight! It's cooling on the rack right now!

Ready for the oven!

Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Start to Finish Time: 1.25 hours

Yield: 1 double-crust pie

• dough for a 9-inch, 2-crust pie: 
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for work surface and crust bottom 
• 1/4 cup cake flour 
• 1 teaspoon table salt 
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder 
• 1/3 cup butter-flavored vegetable shortening 
• 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon regular(unflavored) vegetable shortening 
• 5-7 tablespoons ice water, divided 
• Granulated sugar (for crust bottom) 

Preheat oven to 400°. In a large mixing bowl, whisk flours with salt and baking powder. Add butter-flavored shortening; use a pastry blender to work it in until the mixture has the consistency of fine meal. Add regular shortening, and blend until mixture looks like wet sand with pea-sized bits of shortening (Mary says this will make the crust flakier).

Add ice water 1 tablespoon at a time. Toss with a fork until dough starts to form a ball. Turn dough onto floured counter, and knead three times, until smooth. Divide dough into two balls, one slightly larger than the other.

On a floured surface, roll out larger ball to a 13-inch circle and transfer into a 9-inch glass pie plate. Dust bottom of crust with a bit of sugar and flour. Trim any excess dough that is draping over the edges of the pie plate, and set aside.

Filling:

• 1/2-1 cup granulated sugar 
• 1 tablespoon light-brown sugar 
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour 
• 1 tablespoon Minute Tapioca mix 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg 
• 4 cups Maine wild blueberries (preferably frozen) 
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice 
• 1 tablespoon salted butter 

In a separate mixing bowl, prepare the filling. Whisk together sugars, flour, tapioca, and spices. Toss berries in dry mixture. Pour berries gradually into crust, holding back flour mixture with a big spoon. When the coated berries fill the bottom, pour the rest of the dry mixture on top of berries. Drizzle lemon juice over berries; dot with butter.

Roll out top crust to a 10-inch circle and set atop pie. Fold bottom crust up over top crust; crimp to seal. Cut slits in the top. Use leftover dough to make berries and leaves to decorate the top. Bake 40-45 minutes for fresh berries, 5-10 minutes longer if you're using frozen, until juices bubble up out of the vents.

Now, if you're short on time and can't or don't want to make the crust - don't!  Just buy refrigerated pie crust and skip down to the "Filling" instructions to make your delicious pie!

Pie Birds
Pie birds were used to prevent pie filling from boiling up and leaking through the crust by allowing steam to escape from inside the pie. I've read they originated in Europe, and I've also read that they were invented by the Shakers.  Whoever invented them, all I can say is "they work."