mixed berry pie

On Saturday, I made a mixed berry pie. I usually make fruit into crisps or crumbles, which are amazingly easy to throw together and relatively light and healthy. But I wanted to make something more monumental with the raspberries and blackberries from our garden. We've been picking them for weeks, and mostly just eating them plain.

Mixed Berry Pie

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

for filling:
6 cups mixed blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries
1/4 c. sugar
2 T. cornstarch
dash cinnamon

Mix fruit with sugar, starch, and cinnamon, and let sit while you prepare the crust.

for crust:
1 1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 stick salted butter, cut into small pieces
1 T. sugar
ice water

In food processor, pulse flour, butter, and sugar until the butter is in pieces the size of peas. Add spoonfuls of ice water and pulse until the dough forms big clumps. Remove dough and put onto floured cutting board. Roll dough out with rolling pin, adding extra flour as needed to prevent sticking. Line a pie pan with dough. Mound filling into pie pan. You'll probably have enough dough left for a top crust; I made a lattice. Decoratively crimp the edges. If you want, you can brush the edges of the crust with milk or cream or soymilk, for attractive browning.

Bake pie for about half an hour; crust should be golden brown. Lower heat to 350, and bake 15 more minutes until filling is bubbling.

A few caveats about this pie. Mike and I both loved it, but I would probably make some changes if serving it to guests. The whole wheat crust is not exactly light as a feather -- it's a bit dense and substantial. I don't mind this. It reminds me of Little House on the Prairie. The kids and Pa carried pies in their lunch pails, so they couldn't have been too delicate and airy or they would have been smashed to crumbs. I have a strange fascination with the foods in Little House on the Prairie.

Caveat #2 is that the pie could be a lot sweeter. A similar recipe on the Martha Stewart Living website uses a cup of sugar, and that wouldn't be inappropriate. We liked it really well with less sugar, though.

Caveat #3: The pie was runny. Next time I will add more cornstarch.

We ate it with homemade frozen yogurt, which was just whole milk yogurt mixed with honey and vanilla, frozen in the ice cream maker. This also wasn't very sweet. In fact, the entire dessert was so unsugary that we deemed it appropriate to eat for breakfast.