Part two of a crusty story and The End!

Now that you've made your pie crust and it's been sitting in the fridge you are ready to make........a pie! Imagine that!



You can make whatever pie your little heart desires. Today, I'm going to show you how to make a blackberry pie since I have a gargantuan amount of blackberries frozen in my freezer.

Now, ideally fresh is better right? But! If it is January.......and you want blackberry pie....frozen works just as well!



Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

Flour your counter top, table, where ever you're going to roll out your crust. Take the bag of dough and turn it inside out. I know. It looks slurpy and disgusting. Just do it. Run your fingers over the bag to get it all or as much as you can of the sticky stuff.



Knead it into a ball. Knot too much! Just enough so it isn't quite so sticky.



Cut it in half. One is going to be your bottom crust, the other your top crust.



Set one ball of dough aside and make sure you have a cute tummy showing while you're at it. Makes the process easier and more enjoyable.



Start rolling out your bottom crust.



If you place your pie dish on your rolled out dough you can see if you've rolled it out enough.



Pick up your bottom crust and place it in your pie dish. There are different ways of doing this. Some I've seen roll the crust over their rolling pin and then unroll it over their pie dish, I just flop it over my arm.



And then place it over my pie dish.



After you get the crust in your dish you can take a pair of scissors and trim the edges so they are somewhat even. Don't stress over this part or people will think you bought your pie in a store instead of making it. "Homemade" looking is a good thing here! There! Your bottom crust is ready.



Meanwhile, back at the ranch......the filling is ready to be prepared. Now, here's the deal sparky. These berries were frozen so that means when they thawed there was a ton of juice. So, we have to cook the pie a little differently because there is more liquid. I strained the berries but I did leave in some juice. Juice is good!



Sugar. You'll need 1 Cup of sugar.



Pour the sugar into a seperate mixing bowl from the berries for now.



Dump in 1/2 Cup of flour. The recipe calls for 1/4 C. and if I were using fresh berries I'd use the 1/4 C. but because I have more liquid with frozen I'm upping the flour.

Question: Why do we pour in sugar and dump in flour?



Add 1/8 tsp. of salt. I know my measuring spoon says 1/4 tsp. I'm very well aware of that but all of my 1/8 teaspoons (and I have several) seem to be missing and not to steal a line from PW but I can guarantee they truly are out at the ditch or in the sand box. It's a boy thing.......

Lemon juice. You also need 2 TBL. of lemon juice and I'm sorry I didn't get photos of that but you try and pour a liquid into a measuring spoon AND hold a big luggy camera in the other. Try it!



Locate the nearest pirate, it's okay if his hand is missing and all he has is a hook and ask him to stir up the flour mix for you.



Now ask that same pirate to dump the flour mix in with the berries. He'll do it for you! If you ask nice.



Now carefully I tell ya! Fold in the flour mix with the berries. Don't mix! Fold as in go very easy and gently because you do not want to mash your berries. You want them as plump as their shriveled frozeness will allow.



Gently pour your berry mix into your pie dish with the bottom crust.



Take 1 TBl of butter and cut it up into a bunch of pieces. Confession: I never do this so uniformally. Normally I stand over the pie and break off pieces with my fingers and drop them evenly over the pie.



Look! A smiley face!



Take the dough you'd set aside earlier. The second ball and roll it out just like you did the bottom crust. Place it over your pie.



Again, trim your top crust so that it is about an inch larger than your pie dish. Some like it smaller. I really like pie crust so I tend to make mine a little bigger.



Grab both the bottom and the top crust and roll them tucking them down in the pie dish.



This seals the pie so that normally your pie filling will stay tucked away in the pie crust and not ooze all over the place. In theory anyway.....



Again, people tend to crimp their pie crust edges in a myriad of different ways. I just take the edge and place it between my thumb and pointer finger with one hand....



And with my other hand, or a willing pirates, using the back of my other pointer finger make a kind of "V". All the way around.



Now this next part is a must. This makes the crust out of this world delish. Take some milk and brush it all over the top crust.



This is my favorite part! Sprinkle sugar all over the top. Sprinkle liberally!!



As your pie cooks it becomes a living breathing thing. It needs vents. It needs vents so the steam can be released. Once again, everyone seems to have their "design" they like to cut into the tops of their pies. My mom always did a leaf so naturally......



I do a leaf! Throw it into the oven at 450 for ten minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and cook for another 25-30 minutes.

Side note: Because my pies are quite full and deep I cook for literally twenty minutes more. Look at the center of your pie and when you can see it boiling then it is done. Not boiling....add more time.



When it is done it should look like this. Oh heavens my house smells absolutely delish!!!

Blackberry Pie Filling

5 Cups fresh blackberries or 2lbs. frozen
1 Cup sugar
1/4 Cup flour
2 TBL. lemon juice
1/8 tsp. salt
1 TBL. butter