Mixed Berry Pie

Buttery, flaky, sweet; you’ll want seconds of this Mixed Berry Pie! That homemade all-butter pie crust, packed to the brim with lemon-spike berries and topped with turbinado sugar. You’ll out-do the local bakery! The secret? Simple, fresh ingredients and my tried-and-true flakey pie crust paired with pro-tips.

When you start to see some semblance of warm weather on the horizon, it’s time to whip out and and all fruits you can find at the grocery stores and make something really special. I found shelves of berries in abundance! Yes, I could just sit there and eat them all to myself, but the craving for a freshly baked pie won the tug-of-war.

I think all fruit pies that are truly great have the same thing in common: fresh fruits. Yes, you can pre-cook these berries down a bit, but I wanted them to bake fresh in all their glory. Tossed with a bit of sugar, and plenty of lemon, this pie is SO ridiculously bright in flavor and color.

Ingredients

• Flour – All-purpose works best. I definitely wouldn’t use self-rising flour! Bread flour is a bit high in protein for pie crust, but will turn out alright if that’s all you have.
• Salt – Add as much or little as you like. Make sure you don’t leave it out, though! Just a little salt brings out the buttery flavor in the crust. No salt = bland pie crust.
• Sugar – I like most of the sweetness to come from the filling, so there’s just a bit of sugar in the crust. You can add a bit more if you’d like.
• Butter – I prefer to use unsalted to have full control over the sodium in the recipe. If you use salted, adjust the salt called for.
• Water – Ice cold! I keep ice cubes in the water when I’m making pie crust to make sure it’s as cold as possible.
• Berries – Use any mixture of berries you like. I had strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries.
• Cornstarch – I like cornstarch way better than flour for thickening pie filling. The granules are way smaller resulting in no graininess, and the thickening power is twice as powerful so you can use less.
• Lemon – Both lemon juice and zest. Lemon really brings out the bright, fresh flavor of berries!

How to make mixed berry pie

Pie Crust

1. Cut the butter: Add the flour, salt, and sugar to your food processor. Pulse a few times to blend everything together. Add the butter and continue to pulse until the cubes turn into pea-sized pieces. Drizzle 6 tbsp of water over the flour and butter mixture in the food processor. Pulse until chunky, coarse, and crumbly.
2. Form & set: Turn the mixture out onto a clean surface. Continue to add water, 1-2 tbsp at a time, until the dough comes together. Split the dough in half and form into 2 disks, wrap them well with plastic wrap, and transfer to the fridge for 2 hours.
3. Roll out: Unwrap one of the disks (leaving the other one in the fridge), and place it on a lightly floured surface. Roll it out, carefully, keeping the circular shape, until it’s about 1/8″ thick. Place it over a 9″ pie dish and trim the edges with a sharp knife.

If you use store-bought pie crust, you can skip the above steps and ingredients.

Berry Filling

1. Toss mixture: Preheat the oven to 400F. Toss the berries with the sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice. and lemon zest. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pie crust. Dot the top of the berries with the small pieces of butter.
2. Top the pie: Unwrap and roll out the other disk of pie crust. You can place it directly over top of the berries, or try a design like the lattice style in the photos. Optional: Brush the top of the pie crust with egg wash and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
3. Bake: for 40-50 minutes, or until the pie crust is golden brown. Let the pie cool fully to room temperature, then transfer to the fridge for at least 2 hours. Ideally overnight. Slice and serve.

How to weave a lattice-style pie crust

1. Roll the pie dough on a floured surface to about 1/8″ in thickness. The diameter should be slightly larger than the pie plate. Use a sharp knife or a pizza cutter to slice strips from the dough. I sliced mine just under 1″/2 cm, but yours can be any thinness or thickness you’d like.
2. Grab strands of pie dough, matching the lengths of dough with the length needed for the pie plate, and place over the top of the pie, with as much or little space as you want.
3. Still matching strands of dough to the pie plate, start to weave the lattice. Weave by folding back every other strand already on the pie, and placing a new strand down at a 90-degree angle. Bring the folded strands back down over the new strand. Fold back every other strand that hadn’t been folded back before, and place a new strand. Repeat until the top of the pie is covered.
4. Trim any excess dough from the edges and pinch the strands into the edge of the crust. You can leave them like that, or pinch everything together to create your desired design on the crust.

FAQ

Tips for making a perfect mixed berry pie

• Pop the cubed butter for the pie crust into the freezer for 5-10 minutes before starting.
• Good, flaky pie crust is born from pockets of butter melting as the pie bakes. Don’t over-blend the flour and butter! You still want to see pea-sized pieces of butter.
• I like to use ice water to make pie crust. Yes, literally a glass of water with ice in it. If the butter softens up, you’ll lose those flakey pockets. Keep everything as cold as possible.
• Don’t over-work the dough with your hands. Hands = warm. Warm = butter melt. Butter melt = no no.
• Worried about the pie crust getting soggy? Brush the inside with some lightly whisked egg white before adding the berry filling.
• Let that pie rest! Give it a night in the fridge to soak all those juicy berries back up.

How to store leftover pie

Make sure the pie is fully cooled to room temperature before storing. I like to keep my pie in its pie plate so that the slices have extra support to keep their form. Cover the pie with plastic wrap or bees wrap and store at room temperature for 2 days, or 4-5 days in the fridge.

You can store your mixed berry pie in the freezer, if needed. Transfer it to an airtight container or wrap well with plastic wrap and foil. It will last 6-8 months. Let it thaw uncovered at room temperature. Keep in mind that berries will soften even more after being frozen and thawed, so the slices may lose a bit of their form.

Is that sweet tooth hankering? These recipes will help:

• Mini Mixed Berry Cheesecake Pies
• Pear Galette
• Grasshopper Pie
• Apple Hand Pies
• Pineapple Upside Down Cake

[ss_social_follow]