Remember those little Hostess fruit pies in your lunch box??  I loved those!  Growing up – I thought cherry pie with canned filling was the most amazing food on the planet!  To this day, my own daughter will choose this kind of cherry pie for her birthday, instead of a cake!!  Well, since then, my palate has certainly changed, and I have made many pies using only fresh ingredients.  I took a baking class at Harper College several years back, and learned to make pie dough, and fresh cherry filling.  It was the best cherry pie I’ve ever had!  The crust is key to a successful pie.  It just takes a little practice, but once mastered, you’ll never use store-bought crust again!

I can’t get fresh cherries this time of year – so I dug up this recipe from my files, for a fresh blueberry pie.  Blueberries are abundant in my grocery store now – shipped in from Calif.  The flavor and texture are amazing, and don’t even get me started on the color of this pie!  It’s purple – my favorite color!  I love that color so much, my husband and I  bought a 1972 Chevelle that’s purple!!

But back to the pie!  I used just a bottom crust, with a delicious crumb topping.  A scoop of vanilla ice cream makes for a perfect dessert combination!

Pie dough recipe:

1/4 c cold butter, cut into small chunks
1/4 c shortening
1 1/4 c flour (plus a little more for dusting)
dash of salt
1/2 c ice water

Combine flour, salt, butter and shortening in a bowl.  Use a pastry cutter, to incorporate the butter into the flour.  Pour the ice water over the mixture, and GENTLY fold with a rubber spatula, to bring it together.  Pour onto a floured surface, and form into a 4-5 inch disc using your hands.  DO NOT OVERWORK THE DOUGH!  You want to be able to see the chunks of butter, but the dough should still hold together.  Use your hands as little as possible – you don’t want to melt the butter.

Roll this out to 1/4″ thickness or so, with a floured rolling pin.  Keep the flour nearby!  Roll the dough around the rolling pin, and place into your pie pan.  It should hang outside of your pan by at least 1 inch.  DON’T cut this off!  You will roll this under, to the edge of your pan.  Then decorate as you wish – using your fingers, or a fork.  Don’t go for “perfect” – afterall – this is a handmade pie!

Fresh Blueberry pie recipe:

4 1/2 c fresh blueberries
1/2 c sugar
1/3 c flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

Combine all ingredients, and pour into pie shell.

Prepare crumb topping:

Mix together 1 c flour, 1/2 c firmly packed light brown sugar, 1/2 c cold, chopped butter.
Combine with a pastry cutter, til coarse crumbs are formed. Pour over the blueberries.

Place pie on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet.  Bake at 425 for 20 min, then lower oven temp to 375, and cover with foil.  Bake for additional 30 min.  Topping and crust should be light golden brown.  Cool before cutting.
Serve with vanilla ice cream!