Homemade Blueberry Plum Pie

The berries and stone fruits of summer are absolutely luscious when baked up as dessert—crisps, cobblers, rustic galettes, we're talking about you. But we'll always have a special spot for all-American pie. When the NEW Deep Pie Dish with Lid arrived from made in the USA Anchor Hocking, we knew our friend Kaela Porter from Local Kitchen Blog could put it to good use. Her passion for turning locally grown ingredients into delicious, stunning dishes (including pie) is a sight to see!

The NEW Bake 'n' Take

After lovingly making a pie, you gotta share it with friends. When we saw Anchor Hocking's new creation (a pie plate with its own cover!) we knew it was just the solution for all those times when we're taking pie to go. The reusable cover makes wrestling with one-time use plastic wrap or foil history. Plus the cover expands to allow for pies of varying height! The Deep Dish pie plate is even freezer-safe.

Giveaway

For a chance to win everything you need for pie-baking season, enter the Giveaway below! The lucky winner will get $100 of pie-related goodies including the Deep Pie Dish with expandable cover, a set of dessert plates, organic cotton dish towels from Oh Little Rabbit, a rolling pin, and more! Giveaway ends August 21, 2015. View Official Rules.

Recipe

Blueberry and Golden Plum Pie

Serves 8

Ingredients

Pastry Dough

• 6 oz (1 ⅓ cups) whole wheat pastry flour (or substitute all purpose flour)
• 4 ½ oz (1 ⅓ cups) rye flour
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 8 oz cold unsalted butter, cut into ½’’ pieces
• ½ – ⅔ cup ice water
• 1 ½ tsp cider vinegar
• 1 egg, separated, for wash

Filling

• 1 ¼ lb wild blueberries (I used frozen)
• ¾ lb small golden plums, halved, pitted, and sliced into 8 pieces each
• Juice and zest of 1 small lemon
• 1 cup sugar (organic evaporated cane juice), plus extra for sprinkling
• Large pinch flaky sea salt
• ¾ tsp red chile flakes
• ¼ cup cornstarch

Directions

1. Make pastry dough. In a large bowl, mix the flours, salt and sugar together. Add butter and rub it into the flour with your hands until the butter is in small pieces ranging from the size of peas to lima beans.

2. Combine the water and apple cider vinegar in a measuring cup. Make a well in the flour/butter mixture and slowly stream ½ cup of ice-cold water into the dough while mixing gently with a wooden spatula or your hand. Mix until the water is evenly distributed and the dough holds together when you squeeze it. It may look dry; that’s fine as long as it holds together when you squeeze it. If it is too dry, add more water, one tablespoon at a time. Dump the dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap, gather the wrap tightly around the dough and refrigerate for at least an hour, or overnight.

3. After dough has chilled, unwrap and place onto a lightly floured board. Pat the dough into a rough square, then roll it into an 8” x 11” rectangle. The dough will be a bit rough and crumbly. Fold the dough rectangle into thirds, like a business letter. Then turn the dough so the seam is at the top; roll again to an 8” x 11” rectangle. Repeat this process 2 more times then divide the dough in half, double-wrap each piece in plastic, and chill for at least 2 hours, ideally overnight.

4. Make filling. In a large bowl, combine blueberries, plums, lemon zest & juice, sugar and salt. Toss well to coat fruit in sugar and macerate for up to 1 hour. If using frozen fruit, you can thaw while macerating. Drain syrup into a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat: allow to boil, swirling gently, until liquid is reduced by at least half and becomes thick and syrupy. Sprinkle drained fruit with cornstarch: toss until cornstarch disappears. Pour syrup over fruit and mix well.

5. Assemble pie. Remove one half of pie dough from fridge to warm. When you can press on the disc of dough without the edges cracking, it is warm enough to roll. Roll into a roughly 12-inch circle, about ⅛-inch thick. Layer into a 9-inch pie pan. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate while you roll out the top crust.

6. Remove second half of pie dough from fridge and allow to warm. Roll into a roughly 12-inch circle, ⅛-inch thick. To make a lattice top, transfer dough to a small cookie sheet and use a long, sharp knife or pizza roller to cut strips of dough, about 2 inches wide. Refrigerate strips for 10 minutes or so, as firm strips are easier to weave.

7. Remove bottom pie crust layer from the fridge. Brush bottom lightly with beaten egg white. This helps to prevent a soggy bottom crust. Scrape filling into shell, tapping to spread evenly. Drape half of your lattice strips evenly over the filling, then fold every other strip back about halfway. Lay on the first perpendicular strip, replace the folded back strips, then fold back the other parallel strips, lay another perpendicular strip, etc., until all strips are placed and woven together. Trim the edges of the top and bottom crusts to about ½-inch wider than the pie pan, then crimp together, decoratively if you wish. Refrigerate, lightly covered, for 1 hour to chill and relax dough (or freeze for 30 minutes).

8. Bake. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (400 degrees F convection). Place a rimmed cookie sheet on the lowest oven rack to preheat. Lightly brush top crust with beaten egg, then sprinkle generously with sugar. Place on preheated cookie sheet: bake at 425 degrees F until filling is thickly bubbling and crust is a deep golden brown, about 45 – 60 minutes. Cover rim of crust, and/or reduce oven temp to 375 degrees F, if it starts to over-brown. Cool to room temperature, at least 4 hours, before serving.

Options

1. The ¾ tsp red chile flakes made for a nicely spicy filling; not overwhelming, but definitely there. Adjust amount to your liking.

2. For a very wet pie like blueberry, it’s best to bake directly on top of a preheated baking stone, if you have one, using a piece of tinfoil or a thin cookie sheet to catch any drips. Preheat for at least an hour. The nice thing about a glass pie pan is that you can check the progress of the bottom crust while baking – if the bottom crust still looks wet when the top is nicely browned, cover the entire top of the pie loosely with tinfoil and continue baking directly on the baking stone, or at least the very bottom rack of the oven.

3. If you do get a new wooden rolling pin, wash it well, then give it a good coating of olive or walnut oil before the first use. The new wood wants to suck up moisture, and as such will make rolling pastry dough frustrating unless you give it a little oil bath first.

Store

At room temperature, lightly covered, for up to 3 days.