Pietopia Entry: My Favorite Blackberry Pie

I entered and did not place in a contest called Pietopia.  Some of you have asked to see the entry, so here it is. It was supposed to be very, very short, but the contest guidelines were unclear as to whether the word limit included the recipe.

I played it safe and kept the whole thing under 300 words, which made it very, very streamlined.

It is my favorite pie recipe which I share with you in this posting. Enjoy!

Claire Germain Nail

Gypsy Blackberry Pie  

Himalayan Blackberries are a nuisance in Oregon. Some summers I feel like that oft-maligned vine: a gypsy imported from a hotter, wealthier land. Yet, I’ve sent down my roots for good. Come rain or shine!

Times have been tough here for me and countless others. The nearby Blockbuster store is gone, but the berry vines behind it prevail.  Damn the economy, the cloudy gloom! I thrive on pie, replete with luscious blackberries: free for the picking, notwithstanding vicious scratches and purpled fingers! Blackberries are tough; so are Oregonians. So am I.

Simple blackberry pie, ingredients available cheaply: tart it up or down, like your little black dress. Necessary tapioca thickener disappears into the berries. Add lemon. If you’re too rich and too thin, use butter instead of oil.  The sweat-earned luxury of wild blackberries: money won’t buy gems more wickedly dark and glistening.   

Gypsy Berry Filling

9 inch pie 

Preheat oven 425 degrees

Mix:

8 -10 cups juicy blackberries

1/2 cup sugar (or more if you prefer a sweet pie)

1/4 cup instant tapioca 

Ginger to taste

2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup lemon juice and peel*

Let sit in warm place and make crust.

Easy Crust

2 cups flour

1/2 mild-flavored oil

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

up to 1/2 cup milk (water if you are really up against it)

1. Measure flour into bowl, stir in salt.
2. Stir in oil with fork, forming pea-size clumps.
3. Stir in liquid slowly, till dough forms ball (less liquid on wet days).
4. Divide into two balls.
5. Roll out crust to about 1/4 inch, between wax paper. Flip dough over into pan and peel off paper. Arrange crust and trim overhanging edges.
6. Add berries, 6 flecks of butter, cover with top crust, and crimp edges. Slit top crust.
7. Bake 45-60 minutes, till golden and bubbly.  Cool before eating.

Berry Pie: The Zen Way

Preheat Oven to 400 degrees.

(Yes, this is my antique, 1970's Magic Chef Electric Range.)

BLACKBERRY FILLING

Mix and let stand while you make crust:

About 6 cups fresh wild blackberries

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup Minute Tapioca

(make sure you have 1 tablespoon butter to add to berries before top crust)

CLAIRE'S CRUST (EASY)

1. Measure two cups unbleached flour, exactly as possible. "Cut" off excess flour at top with table knife.
   
2. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon sea salt.
   
3. As you pour in 1/2 cup canola or other suitable oil (mild flavored), mix with fork.
   
4. Add approximately 1/2 cup milk (this is the Zen part) according to atmospheric conditions the dough will come together with more or less milk. As dough begins to stick together stop pouring milk.  Sometimes I have used as little as 1/4 cup milk. 
   
5. Knead the dough slightly and form soft ball.  Divide dough into two equal balls.
   
6. Flatten 1 ball onto wax paper and cover with another sheet of wax paper.  
   
7. Roll with rolling pin from center outward until dough is about 1/4 inch thick, roundish and larger than your pie pan.  
   
8. Lift top sheet of wax paper and place over 8 1/2 inch pie plate, wax paper side up. 
   
9. Peel off wax paper.
   
10. Add berries + 1 tablespoon butter, broken into little dots that you scatter on top of fruit.
11. Repeat the roll and lift, laying top crust over berries and butter.
12. Crimp together top and bottom crust.
13. Cut out vent. I always put a heart: for Heart Space, for love, for the courageous heart it takes to brave those thorns and pick the wild blackberries.
14. Place pie pan on cookie sheet and bake for one hour at 400 degrees. (Middle oven rack)
15. Cool for at least 1 1/2 hours for best results. 
    

See photos of steps in posting above.