Feel Good Bumble Berry Pie

When the world gives you that sinking feeling in your stomach and you feel everything looks bleak or bland, bake a pie. Seriously, who doesn't smile at the sight and smell of a freshly baked pie?

I had my first taste of Bumble Berry pie during our family vacation in Maine. The combination of fresh berries and flaky pie crust won us over and we instantly fell in love with it. Aside from the lure of the berries, the most important part was the reminder of what a great time we had during our vacation. The reminder of summer and good times, priceless!


Making berry pie is not as complicated as it seems, that is if you know the ingredients you are working with well enough. The trick to making a good berry pie is one's ability to ensure the juices of the pie is well within control. If you have any experience baking with fruit, then you will know the headache and heartache involved when the juices released by the baked fruit threatened to overflow from the pastry casing and ruined the entire pastry. Adding to much starch into the filling will result in a gluey pie filling while not adding enough......a flood of berry juices will ooze out and drown that poor pie.

Striking a balance to reach the nirvana state of the pie filling can be complicated. However, if you have done enough research on fruit pie recipes, you have probably get enough tips and tricks to achieve the fruit pie perfection that we novice bakers are striving so hard to achieve. Please share your experience here with me and I promise I will spread the word of your expertise.

What is your feel good food that you will make to brighten everyone's day?

Feel Good Bumble Berry Pie
(Makes one 10-inch double crust pie)

Ingredients


For the pie crust
2 2/3 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 cup shortening
7-8 Tbsp cold water

For the filling
5 cups or 40oz of mixed berries, fresh or frozen (strawberries, raspberry, blueberries, blackberries)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs
Zest of 1/2 lemon (optional)
2 Tbsp of milk, for glazing

Directions

Step 1: Make the pie crust. Combine salt and flour in a large bowl. Cut in the shortening with a pastry cutter till it resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

Step 2: Once the desired consistency is achieved, add in the cold water. Start by adding 7 tablespoons of cold water.

Step 3: Mix the flour well. Add another tablespoon of water if it feels dry. Gather all the dough together and form it into a ball.

Step 4: Divide the dough into two disks. Wrap with plastic and let rest in the refrigerator for 30mins.

Step 5: Once dough is well rested, begin with one disk of dough to form bottom pie crust. Preheat the oven to 425F.

Step 6: In between two sheets of wax paper, roll dough out to about 12-inch in diameter.

Step 7: Peel wax paper gently away from dough. Fit dough into pie plate to fit snugly by gently pressing dough into pie plate. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs onto pie crust.

Step 8: In a large bowl, combine berries, flour, sugar, salt and lemon zest. Mix well to combine.

Step 9: Place berries, flour and sugar mix onto pie crust.

Step 10: Roll out the other disk of pie dough into a 12-inch diameter. Cover pie. Trim the sides, leaving a 1-inch overhang. Tug the pie dough underneath the bottom pie crust. Seal by applying slight pressure or crimp with the back of a fork.

Step 11: Place rack on the lower third rack. Bake pie at 425F for 30 mins. Reduce heat to 375F and continued to bake for an additional 30 mins.

Step 12: Remove pie from the oven. Let cool to room temperature before refrigerate.

Step 13: Serve pie with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.