Two Frugal Chicks

We visited Bar Harbor Maine last October and my sister and I had the most amazingly delicious blueberry pie I’ve ever had. I loved it so much I came back to ask the owner at Cottage Street Bakery how they achieved such an amazing crust. He gave me a few tips and I have to say mine is close to as good as theirs. If only I could get my hands on real Maine blueberries. They are smaller and more tart than our large berries of the NW.

Pie Crust
3 C pastry flour (If you don’t have pastry flour you can substitute 1 C all purpose flour and 1 C cake flour)
1/2 C Crisco
1/2 C butter
1 egg beaten
1/2 tsp salt
4 T ice water
1 T vinegar

Put bowl and pastry cutter in freezer while assembling your ingredients. Measure out the flour and cut in the Crisco and butter. Put the flour/crisco/butter mixture in the freezer.  In a small mixing bowl, beat the butter, beaten egg, salt, vinegar and water. Mix flour/crisco/butter mix with the wet ingredients until a dough forms. Don’t overwork the dough or it will be tough. Just work it enough to get it to turn out on to a lightly floured board or countertop and pat out two discs of dough. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and put in freezer for a few minutes to chill. The warmth of your hands and the kitchen will warm up the butter and you want it to be ice cold. Take out and place dough disc between two large pieces of plastic wrap and roll out. Peel off wrap and assemble your pie. Put the whole pie back into the freezer while you preheat the oven. Take pie out and bake.

Why I like this crust – the butter and crisco blend keep it flaky and buttery. Chilling every step of the way keeps the butter/crisco cold. When the cold butter/crisco hits the heat of the oven it releases steam and keeps the crust flaky and tender.

For my blueberry pie filling, I mixed 2 C frozen blueberries with a jar of blackberry jam. So I guess it was really a berry pie but the pronounced flavor was blueberry.

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