Birthday Pie

Tuesday was my birthday, so what did I do to prepare. Well I baked a pie, of course! I actually made this same pie for an Easter party on Saturday and made both crusts then and I did slight variations on the recipe for the filling and topping. The pie I made was a mixed berry crumb pie. For both, I started with a recipe for blueberry pie, and used a mix of berries instead. For one I used the exact recipe for the crumb topping and for one, I experimented a little. I loved the changes I made, but if you have time to make two pies, you can decide for yourself. Here is the recipe for the crust. Here is the original pie recipe. And here is my recipe.



Mixed Berry Pie:
1 Pie crust - Pre-dried out and browned slightly (see the original recipe for more details)
3/4 cup + 5 Tbsp flour
1 cup dark brown sugar, divided
1/3 cup + 1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tsp of cinnamon
1 stick of very cold butter, cut into pieces
3 cups of blueberries
1 cup of raspberries
1 cup of blackberries

Place the oven rack in the lower third of the oven and pre-heat oven to 375. Then, wash the berries and put them in a large bowl, then add 4 Tbsp of flour and 1/3 cup of brown sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon. Toss to combine and coat berries. Take pie crust and sprinkle 1 tbsp of flour and 1 tbsp of sugar over the bottom. Pour berry mixture into the pie tin. For the topping you have a few options: food processor, blender, or hand. I tried the hand and blender methods, and both worked great. If using the hand method, combine ingredients in the bowl you used for the fruit, otherwise load into the blender or processor. Combine 3/4 cup of flour, 2/3 cup of brown sugar, salt, and 2 tsp of cinnamon, mix together. Add cold butter and toss so the butter is coated. Then blend (process) together in pulses until it is in delicious clumps. If using the hand method rub flour mixture and butter in your fingers until it is in the same style clumps (this obviously takes longer than the other ways, but less clean up). Spread the topping over the berry mixture. Bake for about an hour, until topping is just bubbling threw in spots and top is lovely and browned. Let cool. Serve and enjoy!

Happy Eating