There is nothing like filling a pie crust with fresh blueberries and then watching it bake and bubble up over the edge of the pie plate. This blueberry pie is delicious.  Don’t forget to add the ice cream to create the perfect piece of blueberry pie.

This recipe is so fulfilling to make and eat. It has a secret ingredient of honey to keep all the blueberries stuck together to create the most perfect piece of blueberry pie.

How to Make Blueberry Pie

1.  Make the pie crust.  The most important part of making pie crust is making it ahead.  I try to make the pie crust the day before I want to make the pie.  If you do not have that much time at least let it rest in the refrigerator for 2 hours.   When you are ready to roll out the pie crust, take it out of the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature for 5 minutes.

Grate the butter so you have small pieces that will cling to the flour and salt mixture. Use your fingers to coat the butter and mix well. Add five tablespoons of cold water. Use a large spoon to stir the dough. You want the flour and butter to create a large ball of dough. Keep adding a tablespoon of water as needed until everything sticks together. Really use your hands to smoosh the dough together.

There is a myth you can over work pie dough. It is true, but it is not in this stage when you are adding the water. Get your hands in there and really smash the dough together. The overworking pie dough comes if you roll it out and then mash it all together again and try to roll it out again. This problem is completely done away with by refrigerating the dough.

2.  Once all the ingredients are mixed together, separate the dough into two pieces.  Form each piece into a ball and then flatten into a disc.  Put each disc into a plastic bag and leave in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. This one step makes a huge difference when rolling out pie dough and placing it in a pie dish.

Chilling the pie dough is the secret to great pie crust.

3.  Let the pie dough disc come to room temperature.  Take the pie dough out of the refrigerator and let it rest for about 5 minutes before rolling it out.   This amount of time lets the pie dough get soft enough to roll out, but stiff enough to keep its shape.  The cold pie dough makes an easy transfer to your pie dish.

4.  Roll out the pie dough to fit your pie dish.  Place the pie dough in the pie plate and then push it down inside. Cut around the edges of the  pie dough as it rests on the top of the pie plate. You want to leave a border that sticks out from the pie plate about one inch.  After you fill the pie crust with the blueberry filling, you will place the other rolled out crust on top, cut vents on top and seal the two crusts together.

5.  Preheat the oven to 475°.  Place one oven rack in the middle and the other below it.  You will bake the pie for 15 minutes at this temperature on the middle rack and then reduce the temperature to 375° for last hour of baking.  You want the filling bubbling over the top of the pie plate.  I add a cookie sheet on the bottom rack when there is 1/2 an hour left to bake.  This will help keep your oven clean and guard it from the filling bubbling over the edge of your pie plate.

Changing the temperature while baking your pie creates a delicious filling and a beautiful, crispy crust.

6.  Make the blueberry filling.  There are a lot of blueberries in this recipe, 6 cups.  I like my pies full.  It makes every bite that much more enjoyable.  Place all the blueberries in a bowl.  Pour in the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and cornstarch.  Toss the blueberries gently in this mixture.  Coating the blueberries is an important step.  It evenly distributes all the ingredients before you add the wet ingredients.

7.  Add the honey, vanilla and lemon juice and zest.  Gently toss everything together using your hands. This way you protect the blueberries from getting smashed with a spoon.  The honey is the secret ingredient in this pie.  It helps keep everything together.  The honey creates the most delicious thick juice that coats the blueberries.  

 8.  Pour the coated blueberries in the prepared pie crust in the pie plate.   Roll out the second pie crust disc.  Place this on top of the blueberry filling.  Trim the edges to match the bottom crust.  Press the two crusts together and roll the crust underneath at the edge.  Flute the two crusts together by pushing down with two fingers.  Use your thumb from the opposite hand and push up in between the fingers.  Keep doing this around the edge of the pie to make a beautiful fluted edge.

Make several slits in the top of the crust to vent the steam.  If you do not do this, the pie crust will bubble up and not lay flat.

Don’t worry if your pie crust does not look perfect.  Sometimes you need to take some of the loft over pieces and press them where there is not enough in the bottom crust.  It is kind of like putting a jigsaw puzzle together.

9.  Make an egg wash.  Place the egg in a small bowl with a tablespoon of water and mix well.  Brush over the top crust and then sprinkle with course sugar like turbinado (raw sugar) or dusting sugar.

10.  Bake at 475° for 15 minutes and then lower the temperature to 375° and bake for another hour.  Watch the crust.  If it starts to brown too fast, cover the edges with tin foil or use a pie crust shield.
Once the pie crust looks like I want it to, I cover the whole pie with a loose piece of tin foil.  Then continue to cook for the recommended time. The tin foil keeps the crust from browning too fast and then burning before the middle is done.

11.  Cool the pie completely. You can only achieve thick and delicious pie filling if you let the pie cool completely. After the pie is done cooking, take it out of the oven and place on a cooling rack. You want the pie plate to be cool to the touch before refrigerating  overnight.   Bring the pie to room temperature before serving. Use premium ice cream for a perfect piece of pie.

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