I don't know about you, but I always seem to miss Pi Day (03/14!). In the almost three years since I started this blog, I have never remembered to make a pie for the big day! Maybe it's because I'm no good at math? That's one theory. I had no real trouble until seventh grade, when geometry reared its ugly head. It was just too abstract for my liking, I guess, and things went down hill from there.


No wonder I took cover in books (pun intended) and eventually became an English major, who worked--predictably--in a college bookstore. Then I dabbled as a high school English teacher until I realized that wasn't where my heart lay, and then spent almost twenty years working in editorial departments for a publishing company. So, no math for me. Well, at least not the real scary kind.


This year, though, I felt I should give Pi Day its due with a nice--what else!--pie, and it just so happened that I was already planning to make a bumbleberry pie when the special occasion conveniently rolled around. Thus we have today's treat--a bubbly, juicy, gorgeously fruit-packed dessert for all of you math lovers (and math haters) out there!


About this recipe . . . 

The crust recipe--a really good one and very reliable--came from Ken Haedrich's massive chunk of a book (over 600 pages), which is aptly titled Pie: 300 Tried-and-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie. I have no doubt this volume is getting a heavy workout today in kitchens across the country.


The filling was pretty basic, so didn't require a formal recipe. I just cobbled it together based on my own past experience: thawed frozen Montmorency (sour) cherries (from northern Michigan, of course!), fresh blueberries, a few fresh blackberries, and one small, sweet, peeled Honeycrisp apple, chopped into small pieces. All of  it mixed with sugar, cornstarch, a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg, and a splash of lemon juice. That's it! Too easy.


So what's a bumbleberry anyway, speaking of abstraction? There's no such thing! It just refers to a fruit-filling involving any assortment of berries, as well as apple and/or rhubarb.  What a great name for a pie! Bumble bees come from north and south to hover around these pies, as you can see (that little design I put on the top is supposed to be a bee . . . can you tell?).


Bumbleberry Pie
(For a printable version of this recipe, click here!)

For the crust: 

3 cups of all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 and 1/4 tsp.  salt (I used coarse kosher.)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold, cut into small chunks
1/2 cup vegetable shortening, cold, cut into small chunks
4 oz. very cold water

In the large bowl of a food processor, dump the flour, sugar, and salt. Pulse it a few times to mix it up. (You could certainly also make this dough by hand, using a pastry blender.)

Add in all of the butter pieces and pulse several times. Open the lid and use a fork to unclump the contents. Add in all the shortening and pulse several times. Open the lid again and unclump/fluff the contents with your fork. Now, drizzle 4 Tbsp. of the cold water all over the top. Pulse about six times. Drizzle in 4 more Tbsp. of the cold water and pulse again about six times. It should look crumbly, with chunks here and there the size of large peas. Gather a small bit in your fingers and squeeze it together. Does it hold together easily? If so, good. If not, drizzle a tiny bit more water and pulse again. When it's the proper texture (it should be not too sticky--too much water wrecks pie crust--and not too dry), dump it all out into a large bowl. With your hands, gather it all together into a big ball. Cut the ball in half almost evenly (the slightly larger part will be for the bottom crust), and shape each half into a disk about an inch high. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and chill it for at least an hour, preferably longer (up to about 24 hours max) and, if you want to be on the safe side, mark them with the date/time you made them, and note which one is slightly larger (I write "top" and "bottom").

When you're ready to roll out your pie crust, take the disks out of the fridge and let them warm slightly for about twenty minutes or so. Flour your work surface, your rolling pin, and the dough disk you're about to roll out. Very lightly grease your pie plate with vegetable shortening. Roll the dough out so it's a couple of inches larger than the circumference of your pie plate. Transfer the rolled dough to the plate (I find it easiest to roll the crust loosely right onto my rolling pin and then unroll it directly onto the plate, but use whatever method works for you). If you'll be baking within half an hour or so, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. If it'll be more like an hour until you bake, refrigerate the  dough-lined pie plate.

To prepare the filling: 

4 cups frozen sour cherries, thawed and drained (I used Montmorency cherries.)
1 and 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
3/4 cup fresh blackberries
1 sweet apple, peeled and chopped into very small pieces (I used a very firm, medium-size, Honeycrisp.)
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature

In a large bowl, place sour cherries, blueberries, blackberries, and apple pieces. Drizzle with lemon juice and toss gently to combine. In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Scatter this over the fruit and stir gently to distribute it evenly. Set aside for about ten minutes.

When your oven is heated, and your pie is ready to be filled with fruit, pour all of the bumbleberry mixture into the shell. Dot the top with little pieces of unsalted butter. Roll out the top crust and place it over the fruit, sealing the edges firmly as you prefer (with your fingers, with the tines of a fork, etc.). Carefully cut a few steam vents/slits in the top. Brush the top of the crust lightly with milk (don't brush the edges of the pie; they're the first to darken) and sprinkle liberally with sanding sugar. Place the pie in the oven atop a baking sheet, or atop a piece of foil you've sprayed with vegetable spray (so it won't stick to your plate) to catch spills. Bake at 400 for about 25; check the pie and turn it around. If it's browning too fast, cover the top lightly with foil. Continue baking until the pie is golden, at least 15 to 20 more minutes. Lower the temperature to 375 if at any point you're worried about it burning.

Let the pie cool completely (or almost) before slicing.


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I made a cherry pie this weekend, but not just any cherry pie--it was a birthday pie. Charlie, my oldest son, turned seventeen on Saturday, and he's never really been one for cake, so it came as no surprise when he ordered up pie for the occasion. It has, for years, been his favorite dessert.

You know how some kids would rather have a mass-produced chocolate chip cookie than one of their mom's homemade cookies? Well, Charlie is kind of like that when it comes to cherry pie. He loves that bland, bright pink, gelatinous goop that comes in a can with a few token cherries. Of course, you know as well as I do that the canned filling isn't much good, but it is the kid's birthday.

So, rather than sacrifice all of my principles and make him a pie using that stuff, I decided I'd try to make a homemade filling that more or less mimics the canned in color and texture, yet tastes better and contains more fruit. (Oh, and speaking of the fruit, I was only too fortunate last week to get my paws on a few bags of frozen Michigan pie cherries. Michigan is ALL ABOUT cherries, and these were obscenely on sale, thus not to be passed up. I forked over the cash, scurried home under cover of darkness, and tossed those babies into the basement freezer for future reference.)


To recreate the characteristic gooey aspect of canned filling, I used ClearJel instead of cornstarch as a thickener. ClearJel, which is a form of modified corn starch, has advantages in some situations over cornstarch. It doesn't add a cloudy aspect to whatever you mix it into, and if it's used in a pie that's going to be frozen, it retains its stability once the pie is thawed. For a lot of people, it's the thickener of choice for this particular sort of pie.


(In fact, I must mention that it was a friendly fellow baker, Linda Aukerman of Ohio, who encouraged me to give ClearJel a whirl recently; she sent me some in the mail a few weeks ago, and I'm so glad I'll be able to tell her that I finally gave it a go! Linda is quite the home cook and baker, and she was featured in the Penzey's Spice catalog not too long ago. We chat by email now and then. She's just the nicest gal.)


The filling turned out to be pretty darn tasty and just what I was aiming for. Charlie thought it was spectacular, even though it didn't even come from a can, and that was my goal--a happy birthday boy. Mission accomplished!



Michigan Cherry Pie with Lattice Crust

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here!)

Makes one generous, standard size, deep dish pie:

Pastry for one 2-crust pie (My favorite pie crust recipe can be found here, in an earlier post!)

frozen sour cherries, I used all of a 40 oz. bag (or, use at least 6 cups)
granulated sugar, 2 cups
ClearJel (regular, not instant) 1/2 cup
cold water, 2 and 2/3 cups
fresh lemon juice, 2 Tbsp. and 2 tsp.
cinnamon, 1/4 tsp.
almond extract, 1/2 tsp.
red food coloring (optional; you may want to add a tiny bit)

Thaw the frozen cherries completely in a colander or strainer set over a large bowl, and save all of the juice that drains off. (If you don't wait for the cherries to completely thaw and drain, they'll release too much juice while the pie is baking, and the filling will become too runny, so be patient.)


Use all of that juice to replace a portion of the water in the recipe (for eg., if  you get 1/3 cup of juice, use that to replace 1/3 cup of the water).

Combine the sugar, the ClearJel, and the cinnamon in a large saucepan. Add in the water, cherry juice, and almond extract. Stir, over medium-high heat, until hot and bubbly.

 Add in the lemon juice and heat to boiling; let the mixture boil for one minute.


Remove the pan from the heat and pour the mixture over the cherries in a large bowl. Fold together gently, so as to not break the cherries.


Lightly grease a deep dish pie plate with vegetable shortening.
 


Roll out your bottom crust on a lightly floured surface and line the pie plate; take care not to stretch the dough. Fill the pie shell with the warm cherry mixture.


To make a lattice top-crust, roll out your top crust dough, and then cut it into strips of even width, about a half inch wide or so, using a pastry wheel or a sharp knife.



Lay half of the strips across the top of the pie going in one direction. Pull back the alternate strips, as shown below.


Then, one by one, weave in the remaining strips going in the opposite direction; start with the longest strips in the middle of the pie.


Work quickly, so the strips don't get too warm, but also work gently so you don't tear them. Finish off the edges of the pie as you prefer, perhaps using any leftover dough to help make a border. (I made a little impromptu scallop design on the border of this pie with the side-edge of my pastry wheel . . . not too neat and tidy looking but necessity is the mother of invention, is she not?)



Brush cream or milk lightly on the lattice, taking care not to drip milk into the filling. Sprinkle coarse or granulated sugar on top of the milk, also just on the lattice.


Bake the pie in a preheated 400-degree oven for about 35 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. If the crust seems to be browning too quickly, cover it lightly with foil. Let the baked pie cool completely, on a rack, before attempting to cut it. It will take a few hours to cool fully.

 
P.S.  Enjoy munching your Michigan cherry pie . . . and next time you're here for a visit in the middle of the summer, head to cherry country in the northern part of the lower peninsula. They're worth the trip! (Even the folks at National Public Radio love Michigan cherries, as evidenced here!)


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