mix, mix… stir, stir

I have just returned from Hong Kong and what better way to embrace being home than by making a blueberry pie? I think it is even more all-American than apple pie. It is my all-time favorite pie and the version in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours is classic and perfect.

The local berries haven’t quite hit yet in the Northwest, so I turned to the freezer selection and went with one bag of wild blueberries and one bag of standard farmed blueberries. The wild berries are tiny little gems that gave my pie a fantastic texture. The filling was beautifully set and though flour was used as a thickener, I think the smaller berries played a big part in the structural integrity of the pie.

Though Dorie’s pie stays true to the berrie by only adding a bit of lemon, sugar and a pinch of salt, the enlightening aspect of the recipe is in the use of breadcrumbs. No soggy bottom crust here! Plain breadcrumbs sprinkled over the crust before adding the filling - brilliant!

Though Dorie didn’t venture into the spice cabinet for this pie, I couldn’t help myself. I added a quarter-size piece of crystallized ginger, snipped into very fine threads, to the berries and sprinkled the crust with crystallized ginger sugar. If you haven’t been collecting the ginger sugar at the bottom of the container of crystallized ginger you are missing out! It is wonderful to use when you want to sprinkle on a touch of flavor.

Thanks to Amy of South in Your Mouth who made the recipe selection for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie baking group; I have been in pie heaven! I have only shared two slices of this pie. I am going to go have more pie now.