Tag Archives: summer pies

Wild Blueberry and Peach Pie

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I have a complicated relationship with pie. It’s not a category of baking I feel especially passionate about. Cookies and buttercream are more my love language. But my husband is a pie person. His mom used to bake him peach pies every summer. The last summer she was alive, she was quite ill, but lovingly baked him several pies, which he tucked away in the freezer, The following spring she died. We still had one peach pie left in the freezer. My husband could not bring himself to eat it. He got comfort from seeing that last peach pie, every time he opened the freezer door. I understood completely.

And then, the unthinkable happened. I accidentally left the freezer door ajar when we went away for a long weekend. We came home to puddles on the floor and a totally defrosted and smelly freezer. I felt terrible. He said all the right things, “It’s ok, it was just an accident, don’t worry about it….” but I felt terrible.

I now make him pies twice a year. An apple crumble pie in the fall for his birthday and a peach or peach and blueberry pie every summer. After 34 years, my pie making skills have improved. He greatly appreciates when I bake pie for him.

Here is how this summer’s version came together. Peaches and blueberries are a beautiful flavour combination. I love to use the tiny wild blueberries for this pie. It will still be perfectly delicious with regular cultivated blueberries if you can’t get wild ones. This year I did not even bother to peel the peaches. Turns out that the skins completely break down when baking, so no need to peel them.

I got extra fancy and made a lattice top and braided crust. You could, of course, omit the lattice and just do a plain lid. It will still be delicious. If you decide you want the braided edge, you’ll need to make an extra 1/2 recipe of pie dough.

My thickener of choice is Minute tapioca (also called instant tapioca). I find that cornstarch or flour make a cloudy filling. Tapioca makes for a thick and glossy filling that slices beautifully.

Please be patient and wait at least 4 hours for the pie to set and cool before slicing. You will be rewarded with picture perfect slices. A scoop of vanilla ice cream would not be overkill.

Click here to print recipe for Wild Blueberry and Peach Pie.

Canada Day Strawberry Slab Pie

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I am filled with gratitude that I was born in Canada. While I love to travel, I feel blessed to call Canada home. July 1 is Canada day. We’ll be 152 years old on Monday. Our family’s Canada Day celebration is low-key, without a lot of hoopla, much like Canada herself. But I can’t let the day go unmarked without baking something to celebrate. Plus, it gave me a perfect excuse to use my new Maple Leaf cookie cutter, that I found at Kitchenalia.

For those not familiar with the term, “slab pie” (my husband puzzled over the name), it is essentially a pie baked in a sheet pan. A quarter sheetpan, measuring 9×13 inches will feed at least 12 people, very generously.

As usual, it took me more than one attempt to get this slab pie perfect. While the first pie was still delicious, it just wasn’t camera ready. No one here complained too much about having to eat a second pie.

I srtarted with my favourite browned butter pie crust. In my first attempt, I rolled out the top crust and cut maple leaves out it. It was very pretty and clearly identifiable as a Canadian Maple leaf before it went into the oven.

However, during the baking process, the pastry puffed up, the strawberry juices bubbled over and the finished pie was not as I had envisioned. I quickly realized why we see so many unbaked pies on Instagram. The heat of the oven makes many of those intricate pretty details are a little less defined.

For round two, I decided to use the reverse process. Instead of rolling out a top crust, I just topped the berries with the cut outs.

Much better! While the maple leaves still got a bit distorted, you could certainly tell what they were.

While I’m not a frequent pie baker, I did learn a few tips from this baking venture, which I’m happy to share with you.

  1. Strawberries need a bit of acid to make them really shine. A bit of lemon zest and juice help wake up the flavours. If you’re using local berries, you won’t need very much sugar. For 3 pounds of berries I only added 3 Tablespoons of brown sugar.
  2. To thicken the juices, I prefer to use Tapioca Starch (aka tapioca flour) rather than flour or cornstarch, which can make the juices a bit cloudy. Mix the berries with the tapioca flour, sugar and lemon zest and juice and let sit for at least 45 minutes.
  3. Place an empty baking sheet in the oven while it is preheating. When you put your slab pie on the preheated baking sheet, it gives the pie an extra blast of heat and you won’t suffer from a soggy bottom.

Whether your family eats the pie right out of the baking sheet like some people I know, or you get all fancy and serve it on a plate with a scoop of vanilla ice ceream, this Strawberry Slab pie is sure to be a hit at your Canada Day celebration.

Click here to print recipe for Canada Day Strawberry Slab Pie

Blueberry Ginger Lime Mini Pies

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I have waxed poetic about my love of wild blueberries before on this blog. (See here, here and here). Sweeter, smaller and less acidic than their big sister, the cultivated blueberry, they are, without question, my favourite summer fruit. Mostly I just enjoy them raw, in cereal or with yogurt and granola, but I also love to bake with them.

My daughter is pushing me to try flavour combinations I have never considered before. Blueberry and ginger?  According to Bon Appetit  it’s a dynamite combo. The ginger adds a subtle bit of heat in the back of your throat that is totally unexpected but very delicious. Tart lime adds the perfect hit of acid.

I decided to make mini pies, because I was dying to use my new tartlet pans from Nom Living in London. Their ceramics are beautifully hand crafted and just a joy to look at. I had some fun covering the pies with little flower cut outs.
Plain or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, these mini blueberry ginger pies are just adorable. But, full disclosure here, I found the crust to filling ratio was wrong. Way too much crust in these mini pies. A fruit pie needs to be singing with fruit and these tiny pies were just humming.

A 9 inch glass pie plate is the perfect vehicle to cram in all this blueberry happiness.

Click here to print recipe for Blueberry Ginger Lime Pie.