Baking

Mixed Berry Pie

Mixed berry Pie. Make this easy to make, delicious mixed berry pie that can be made with either fresh or frozen berries. Customize the pie by swapping blackberries for some of the strawberries/blueberries or make this mixed berry pie with whatever berries you have on hand.

I love pies. I don’t make or eat them as often as I would like to, but I do love them. I love their buttery crust and fruit rich filling. I feel they are a great way to put to use fresh fruit of the season. Berries and stone fruits in summer, pumpkin and apples during fall. A slice of pie and some whipped cream/ice cream on the side. Perfection!

In my city, its not easy finding fresh berries, although strawberries is one thing that have become fairly easy to find. These days strawberries are bountiful so I decided to make a fresh strawberry pie. I had been eyeing this recipe on allrecipes.com and thought I had enough strawberries for the pie, but turned out I didn’t. So instead of shoving the plans, I decided to make a mixed berry pie, inspired from this recipe.

The good thing about making pies is that most recipes dont ask for you to cook the filling. Its just mixing sugar and spices with fruit and dumping in a pre made crust. Making the pie crust dough is the most tricky part- for me atleast. Knead more than required, you get a tough crust. Not enough water, your crust becomes too crumbly to handle. More water than required, you have a super sticky dough. Too hot in your kitchen, then kiss that super fancy intricate design all butter top crust goodbye. Or play safe and use a half shortening, half butter dough recipe instead. I always use an all butter crust, and since the weather was favorable the day I made this pie, I managed to get some pretty designs off my crust. The designs are inspired by the wonderful pie works of Judy Kim and The Kitchen Mccabe

Thanks to a craftsy class I took on pies, I have found that the perfect ratio for flaky perfect crusts isis 3:2:1 – 3 parts flour, 2 parts fat and 1 part liquid. Also, handle your pie dough as little as possible when making the dough. A rest for one hour in the refrigerator is a must to

I ended up using frozen berries for the raspberries and blueberries. If using frozen berries, make sure you thaw them in a colander before mixing the berries with the sugar and corn starch, so that the excess water does not make your pie filling too runny.

Mixed Berry Pie

Serves: 1 9 inch pie

Ingredients

For the pie dough:
340 grams all purpose flour
1 tbsp sugar
225 gms unsalted butter, cut into cubes (you could also use part butter, part shortening during summer months)
pinch salt
100 ml ice cold water, plus 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar (might need an extra tbsp of water)
1 tsp vanilla
For the filling
2 cups strawberries, halved (if bigger sized then quartered)
1 1/2 cups blueberries
1 cup raspberries
1/4 cup corn starch
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar (can add 2/3 cup sugar if you like a more sweet pie- for me 1/2 cup gives a nice tart pie which when served with lightly sweetened whipped cream balances the tart flavors - 1/2 cup sugar might be too tart for some)
1 egg white (optional)
3-4 cups freshly whipped cream, to serve (optional but recommended)

Instructions

For the pie dough:

Dice or grate the butter and return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the flour mixture.
In the bowl of a food processor, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt together.
Add the butter. Pulse 8 to 12 times, until the butter is the size of peas. You can also use a pastry cutter, if you do not have a food processor.
With the machine running, pour the ice water, vinegar and vanilla and pulse the machine until the dough begins to form a ball. Dump out onto a clean surface. Using the heel of your hand smear the mixture away from you one-third at a time. Add more water, a tbsp at a time if the mixture is still crumbly. Gather dough together, cut dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for an hour. You can let it rest in the refrigerator for 3 days, any longer freeze for upto 3 months.

Filling:

If using frozen berries let them thaw for 30-45 minutes at room temperature. Drain out excess water.
In a large mixing bowl, stir together the sugar and cornstarch. Add the strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries, vanilla and lemon juice; gently toss until berries are coated. Allow fruit mixture to stand for about 15 minutes.

Assembly:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Roll each piece of the pie dough on a well-floured board or between two parchment papers into a circle. Fold the dough in half, place in a pie pan, and unfold to fit the pan.
Repeat with the top crust. I made decorations for the top layer with leaf and flower cutters. If you want to make a lattice you could do it in advance and keep it in the fridge too. Keep rolled out dough in the refrigerator.
You can brush the bottom layer of pie crust with egg white. This prevents the crust from becoming soggy. In case of an egg free version, skip this.
Stir the berry mix and add to the pastry lined pan. Cover with a lattice work crust or cut outs. You can brush the top with an egg wash, if you want. Put your pie dish on a tray, so that it can catch any drippings that happen.
Bake 30-45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the crust is golden and filling is bubbling. Let cool completely on wire rack. An overnight rest in the refrigerator helps in thickening the filling.

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