Blueberry Pie

The Secret Life of Pie

After multiple requests from one of Emmit's favorites, Tom Forde,I baked blueberry pie for this Saturday at Emmit's.  As always I woke up early to bake a delicious fresh pie.

Blueberry pie is a double crusted pie (there's pie crust on top of the pie) and baking can be difficult.  However I've developed a few tricks that make the crust come out better.  Because I make everything from hand, I don't use a food processor to prepare the pie dough which is generally standard.  As I've written before, using cold ingredients is really important for the pie dough.  Pie dough requires a lot of butter and cold butter can be difficult to work with.  I've found that using a cheese grater and grating the butter gets a perfect consistency and texture for the pie crust (so that's my little secret I'll share with all of you whom I've inspired to start baking pie!). So I just grate the butter into the flour and sugar mixture and then work the dough with my hands.

I also cover my pie with aluminum foil while baking it.  This prevents the edges of the pie crust from burning.  The aluminum foil will bake the crust but not allow it to brown so for the last few minutes of baking the pie I put it in the broiler and it browns the pie crust.  Just a little note about ovens: gas ovens and a lot better for baking than electric ovens so next time you buy an oven, I'd recommend gas. 

When it comes to the filling, fruit pies are really easy to make. Pick a fruit and add sugar and that's basically all you need.  (Of course I chose to add some lemon juice to my pie).

Living Up To T. Forde

Tom Forde, a friend of Emmit's owner Ron, is quite the difficult customer- he's very hard to please and is generally critical of any baked good I give him.  So Tom told me blueberry pie was his favorite and I thought I'd take on the challenge.

Drumroll please...

So what did Tom Forde think of my blueberry pie?


T. Forde's response was as classic as blueberry pie.  He mumbled a few words but I'm pretty sure he enjoyed it.  I'll admit that as weary as I am about fruit pies, I am proud of my blueberry pie creation.