Blueberry Pie

I guess you could say I grew up in a UPick family.  Not just as in UPick up your room - U do your own laundry - UPick up your brother, but also my favorite -  UPick your own peas, grape leaves, apples and berries.  We spent many a balmy afternoon bent over in various fields and leaning into bushes, trying to avoid the brambles and find the best of what the birds had missed.  One of the most memorable of these events took place within 1/2 mile of home - in a generous neighbor's backyard on July 24, 1989.  We'd ambled over to pick some blueberries, when all of a sudden my mother told me (a scrappy 6 year old tomboy) that she was going to have a baby.  At first I thought she was insulting my intelligence "Yeah mom - that's pretty obvious!" and then she said, no, she meant soon, like today.  I don't recall what happened to those berries on the day I became I big sister, but I'm sure if they'd made it home they might've made a darn good pie.  Kind of like this one - which is just the thing when there's 4 feet of snow outside and you're trying to pretend it's July!

Lime-Scented Blueberry Pie

Lime Scented Pie Crust
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 sticks (12 Tbsp) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp sugar
zest of one lime
chilled juice of the lime and additional ice water as needed (3-6 Tbsp total)

Combine flour, butter cubes, zest, salt and sugar in a medium bowl.  Use a fork, pastry blender or your fingers to work the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles course meal.  The butter bits should be slightly even in size but generally pea sized.  Add lime juice and knead slightly to see if it comes together into a dough.  If its still crumbles, slowly add ice water until it starts to stick together into a ball when you squeeze it in your fist.  Form the dough into 2 portions - 2/3 of it into a round disc and the other 1/3 into a rectangle.  Plastic wrap each and refrigerate for one hour or overnight.

Preheat oven to 425 F.  On a floured surface, roll out the round disc of dough to a thickness of 1/8 to 1/4 inch.  Grease a pie pan (10 inch diameter), then transfer the dough to the pan.  There should be a lip of dough peeking out about 1/2 inch past the edge of the pan.

Roll the remaining dough out into a large rectangle, about the width of the pie pan and the same thickness as the bottom crust.  Cut this into 1-inch wide strips with a rotary blade such as a pizza cutter.

Blueberry Filling
8 cups of blueberries (a little less might work - but at least 6 cups)
1/2 cup sugar
zest and juice of one lime
1/4 cup cornstarch

Toss together ingredients in a large bowl, then pour them into the prepared pie crust.  Use the strips of pie dough to weave a lattice pattern over the top.  Simply Recipes has a great tutorial.

Bake on the lower rack of the oven for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375 and bake for another 30-40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling slightly.

Let cool for 20-30 minutes before serving.  Serve slightly warm with almond scented whipped cream (add some almond extract when you whip it).