By Sam Sifton
- Total Time
- 2 hours, 30 minutes
- Rating
- 4(1,076)
- Notes
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Perfection is a fool’s mission when it comes to blueberry pie. Sometimes the filling is a little runny. Other times, slightly thick, depending on the blueberries themselves. But this recipe helps even the odds, with the use of arrowroot starch in place of the more typical flour or cornstarch, and an awesome pre-thickening technique picked up from the pastry chef Kierin Baldwin. You could use a different pie crust, but I like the all-butter version below, at least with a pre-baked bottom and an artfully cut top that allows steam to escape.
Featured in: The Perfect Imperfections of Blueberry Pie
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Ingredients
Yield:8 servings
- 2½cups or 300 grams all-purpose flour
- ½teaspoon or 3 grams kosher salt
- 1¼cups or 285 grams unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
- 8 to 10tablespoons or 120 to 150 grams of ice water
- 1egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon or 15 grams of water
- 8cups or 1.2 kilograms blueberries, picked over and washed
- ½cup or 140 grams raw sugar
- 2tablespoons or 30 grams lemon juice
- 2 to 3tablespoons or 16 to 24 grams arrowroot flour or cornstarch
- ¼teaspoon or 1.5 grams kosher salt
For the Crust
For the Filling
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
1
To make the crust, combine the flour and salt in a large bowl or food processor. Add the butter, and either use your fingers to rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal or pulse the processor a few times to achieve a similar result. Gradually and lightly mix in ice water, a few tablespoons at a time, until the dough just comes together.
Step
2
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and gather into a ball. Divide the ball into two equal portions, and flatten each into a disk with the heel of your hand. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.
Step
3
Prebake the pie shell. Heat oven to 375. Roll out one of the disks of dough on a lightly floured surface, and fit into a 9-inch pie plate. Trim the dough so that there is a slight overhang at the top of the pie plate, then place the shell in the freezer for 20 minutes or so to chill. Remove the pie shell from the freezer, cover the dough with parchment paper and fill the shell with pie weights or dried beans. Place the shell into the oven, and bake until the bottom has just started to brown, approximately 20 to 25 minutes. Take the pie shell out of the oven, remove the parchment and pie weights and allow to cool.
Step
4
Make the filling. Separate 1 cup or 150 grams of the blueberries, and combine them in the bowl of a food processor or blender with the sugar, lemon juice, 2 tablespoons or 16 grams of the arrowroot flour or cornstarch and the salt, then pulse to purée. Put the blueberry mixture into a small pot set over medium-high heat, and cook, whisking constantly, until the liquid has just thickened, approximately 1 minute. Pour the thickened mixture over the remaining blueberries, and stir to combine.
Step
5
Bake the pie. Heat oven to 400. Mound the filling high in the center of the cooled pie shell, and apply the egg wash to the top edge of the cooked bottom crust. Roll out the second disk of dough, and place it over the top, gently crimping it onto the egg-washed edge of the bottom crust. Place the pie into the freezer to set, approximately 20 minutes, then cut vents into the top with a sharp knife, place the pie on a baking sheet and set it into the oven to bake for approximately 30 minutes. Then turn the pie, reduce heat to 350 and bake until the pie is golden and the filling has begun to bubble up through the vents, another 25 to 45 minutes. Allow pie to cool to room temperature before you cut into it.
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1,076
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Cooking Notes
Gailyn
I use the "pre-thickening" approach, but use a trick I learned from America's Test Kitchen: use ground up tapioca (I put it in the coffee grinder I dedicate to spices etc.), not cornstarch or flour. No little globs, just thickened berry filling. I do this with most fruit pies.
m
"8 cups or 1.2 kilograms blueberries, picked over and washed"
Add "and well-dried"
Julius Huckabee
I second that! Why would anyone actually complain about both measures and grams being provided? It's not elitism, it's practicality and generally better for baking. It's also a big help for those of us (also Americans) who happen to live abroad. The packs of e.g. butter are usually marked in 50-gram sections and not tablespoons - which can also differ from country to country. Sam makes our lives much easier when he does the conversion for us in advance.
Live and let live.
Brian Stein
I discovered years ago that orange juice rather than lemon elevates the pie to a new level. In fact o.j. in an apple pie is a supernal addition.
Me
Thank you for the measurements in grams, Sam. It's the way to go.
Thomas Sherman
A fabulous recipe that worked wonderfully. I made the pie exactly as described – I even used a high fat European butter for the crust - and my German and Australian dinner party guests were treated to a classic American pie. Delicious. The use of arrowroot flour as a thickener is a revelation; I used three tablespoons, and it worked perfectly. This was the first time I have pre-baked a bottom pie crust with a top crust yet to come … and it worked. Highly recommended.
PB
Was curious about the butter crust and all the extra steps here, but OMG, so much work! Ok, it wasn't runny but depending on the berries, is that really a problem? So I'm switching back to just tossing berries with the usual ingredients and the reliable vodka crust recipe NYT has published (I like coconut shortening) that comes out flakey without endless back and forth into the freezer and prebaking and back to the freezer etc etc. I mean summer is passing us by!
S. Parker
Agree, amount of arrowroot for this amount of fruit is just wrong. Wanting to avoid a runny result myself, looked up ratios on King Arthur - ended up using 3/4 cup (!) of tapioca starch (what I happened to have on hand). http://www.kingarthurflour.com/guides/pie-baking/pie-thickener.html Can't believe ratio for arrowroot would be much different. I used this recipe's technique, but with the higher amount of thickener. Results were good. Juicy, but not runny. So glad I read reviews 1st.
Cate
Made a blueberry pie on the 4th of July. The filling recipe I made up was same as this recipe except no salt and slightly more sugar. Cooked 1 cup of the blueberries with the sugar and 3 Tablespoons of cornstarch to pre-thicken. Result was a runny pie.
I'm convinced 3 Tablespoons of cornstarch to 8 cups of blueberries is not the correct ratio.
Sam Sifton
Hi, Bonnie. I'm sorry you ended up with a runny pie. It happens with blueberries sometimes -- as I wrote in the story, in fact! So much can lead to that outcome: the blueberries themselves; not cooking the thickening enough before mixing it with the raw berries; cutting into the pie too soon after baking; the list goes on. I bet that was good-tasting soup, though. And I do hope you'll make it again, perhaps next time with a little more arrowroot!
Eric Rodgers
Another worthy deviation is balsamic vinegar, as Southern Living suggests in a June 2014 recipe. It really makes the blueberries sing.
Cate
A standard pie crust is 3:2:1, which I use all the time.
Flour 100%
Fat 66%
Water 33%
If using 300g flour to start it would be:
300g flour
198g butter
99g ice water
3g salt
I dissolve the salt in the water, then put it in the freezer for a few minutes.
I work the butter into the flour using a rolling pin. Then cutting the salt water in with a bench scraper.
Bonnie
I like to use Chambord and lemon juice in my pie. It really enhances the favor of the blueberries.
DavidS
Pyrex will easily go from cold to hot without cracking: it's what it's designed to do. I have been setting pie crust in the freezer for years without mishap. The one thing that will break Pyrex is putting it under a broiler.
colleen
This renders the best filling ever—nice and firm, flavorful and not too sweet. I too used tapioca, a perfect substitute for corn starch. Ive made hundreds of fruit pies but never precooked part of the filling—what a difference! I used an organic pre-made crust (don’t judge me), which worked beautifully.
Eleazar Gallegos
I baked this blueberry pie and it was delicious! However, I am planning to make the follow changes next time to make it even better.1) Use 3 cups of flour instead of 2.5 to make the crust a little thicker, with the 2/12 cups it was just too thin.2) Add 1/2 cup of sugar to the dough. The crust was delicious but it missed the sweet.3) Use a 1 full cup of sugar to make the filling. The flavor was very good but I kept wanting it to just a bit more sweet. Hope this helps.
Susan
Given the level of complexity and fussiness in this recipe (and the big mess it made in my kitchen), I expected an excellent blueberry pie. Excellent it was not. The result was a fine pie, but not nearly good enough for me to stray again from the classic recipe in "How to Make a Pie" by Cook's Illustrated.
Jim
When does the beaten egg get added?
jo
6-7 tablespoons water
Anne
Please help me out here. For the pie crust, I measured 2 1/2 C of flour using the dip/knife edge scrape method. This weighed 394g. I removed 1/2 C, and got 304g, close enough to the 300g of flour that the recipe calls for. I'm thinking a 1/2 C difference is a lot when making pie crust! Am I using the wrong method of measuring flour? Should I always weigh because using measuring cups is so variable? Thank you--
Louise
Followed recipe exactly as noted except for substituting fresh grated ginger for candied, and ground dried cardamom seeds for “green”. It came out beautifully - everything held together well and the subtle lemon, ginger and cardamom flavors are sublime!
Maddie
I would add some more lemon juice or some lemon zest if you want the lemon to show up more in the taste. Otherwise, a super solid recipe!
Giggly
Wow Sam, that was a labor of love - so many steps. I rechecked the flour and butter measurements, the pastry was so buttery it was almost impossible to handle. No sugar in the crust? I patchworked the bottom as it wouldn't hold together. Forewarned I rolled the top out on baking paper and flipped it on the filled pie. I reduced to about 6.5 cups of berries and used the full 3 tbsps of arrowroot. Baked and cooled, the pastry is crumbly, pieces hold together and the filling is juicy and jammy.
K. Stevens
Grandma always added about a hapf teaspoon each of nutmeg and cinnamon and dot the filling with salted butter before covering over. Mmmm
Mira
We made Melisa Clark’s pie crust the day before, so we didn’t have to make the pie crust in this recipe. Also we went blueberry picking the day before, it was so fun!
Sue
I've been baking pies for 40 years, and although this pie is tasty, it's not tastier than pie made in a more straightforward fashion. Really, this was a ridiculous amount of work.
Elle
Sorry, but America’s Test Kitchen’s Best Blueberry Pie is as it claims. Thickener is tapioca ground in a coffee grinder (dedicated to non-coffee items) and a grated Granny Smith apple. Lemon zest and lemon juice go in thr mix. Half of berries are cooked and lightly mashed. The combination is bright and delicious, and the pie texture is perfect and sets up.
Two sheds - airplane builder...
I have never tried this recipe but will do so real soon.Using cold water reduces the development of gluten to make the crust less brick-like. Maybe use something like the mildest of brandies or an even-less-flavorful alcohol.I've used tapioca flour in fruit pies but arrowroot is new to me, so, I will face the unknown.I don't know why but to me the balsamic vinegar is a revelation and seems so natural a compliment (complement?) to the berries.Oh my!I am going to make this tomorrow.
Molly Flower Eppig
Baking a fruit pie for 75 minutes, when the pie crust is pre-baked, sounds like a recipe for an overly-crisp crust -- not to say burned. OK, I know you put it in the freezer first [not sure why], but I would watch it like a hawk after 45 mins, to make sure it doesn't burn.Keep the good recipes coming.
Richard
Why be so critical of a recipe you haven't tried?
Gary
To keep it thick but not too thick ... use America's Test Kitchen trick: Shave one apple, skin and all, on largest holes of grinder. Squeeze out all the juice. Add to blueberries. The pectin will be your thickener and, trust me, no one will know you added apple. NO ONE! It just kind of bakes into the pie. I swear by this wonderful technique.
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