Old Fashioned Blueberry-Maple Pie by Clifford A. Wright

PIE-A-DAY #44

This recipe comes to us from award-winning cook book author, food writer, and friend of Good Food, Clifford A. Wright. Find out what else Clifford is up to and where else you can find him at his website.

Having lived in New England for 14 years I naturally gravitate to the classic pies and prepared dishes of this land of maple syrup, blueberries, soft-shell clams, fiddleheads, and lobsters. This pie is indeed old fashioned and utterly delicious. It’s so old I’m not sure where I ate this pie– possibly a roadside dinner somewhere years ago—or from whom I got a recipe. In any case I’ve tweaked it over the years and this is perfect for a summer day.

Keep reading for the recipe…

For the pie crust

1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons lard, cut into bits

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into bits

4 to 6 tablespoons ice water

For the filling

4 cups blueberries

1 cup grade B maple syrup

¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour

¼ cup quick cooking tapioca

4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

For garnish

Grade A maple syrup

1. Place all the pie crust ingredients and a metal bowl in the freezer for 10 minutes. Remove from the freezer and mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together. With a pastry cutter or two knives, work the lard and butter into the flour until it looks like a coarse meal. Add ice water, a tablespoon at a time, until the dough can be formed into a bowl, handling the dough as little as possible. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 or 2 hours.

2. Preheat the oven to 375ºF.

3. Cut the dough into two halves, one a little larger than the other. Roll the balls of dough out with a rolling pin into two thin sheets about 1/ 8-inch thick, using as little flour as possible to keep it from sticking. Cover a 9-inch pie pan with the larger sheet of dough.

4. In a mixing bowl, combine the blueberries, maple syrup, and lemon juice. Gently fold in the flour and tapioca. Fill the pie pan with the blueberries and cover with the second smaller sheet of dough. Crimp the edges closed and cut off any excess dough with scissors. You can use this excess dough to decorate the top of the pie with cut-outs if you like. Make several vent slits in the top of the pie with a knife. Bake until golden brown about 45 to 55 minutes. Allow to cool until it is just warm and serve with maple syrup.