Summer Berry Pie

Fantastic Mr Fox and I went to America (New York and Washington) on honeymoon in 2010 and then to Chicago, New England and Boston the following year. One side effect of this (and my love for the TV series Pushing Daisies) was that I developed a minor obsession with pies, fruit pies in particular. Unfortunately, pastry is not my strong point.

In a branch of Barnes & Noble (what's a holiday without a visit to a book shop?) I found a Williams-Sonoma Pie and Tart book by Carolyn Beth Weil. Now, I LOVED Williams-Sonoma kitchen store when I visited it (and I'm trying to forget that they now deliver outside USA...), so this seemed liked a perfect way to develop my pie repertoire. 

Last summer I tried a couple Georgia peach and strawberry-rhubarb, which were very good. I've also made the caramel cranberry almond tart (not a frangipane) that tasted brilliant even though I burnt it slightly (and it's on my remake list).  

Anyway, a flick through the book and I narrowed it down to blueberry pie or summery berry pie and Fantastic Mr Fox voted for the latter. 

The pastry for the pie is straightforward to make - but slightly odd because you don't chill it before rolling it out. It rolls out just fine. And also whereas most recipes tell you to rub the butter in until it looks like breadcrumbs,  this recipe suggests lumps of butter no bigger than small peas. 

So with the pastry made and rolled out you mix the fruit (I used radpberries, blackberries and blueberries) with sugar, cornflour (I used almost 4 tablespoons, substituting additional cornflour for instant tapioca), cinnamon and salt and then make the pie. Chill the pie and then bake it (to try and avoid a soggy bottom, I put a baking tray to pre-heat - but I was also using a ceramic dish). Then leave the pie to cool completely before serving to let it set (you can reheat). 

I made it on Sunday evening and it wasn't quite cold when I went to bed. This resulted in a major dilemma this morning: is pie a breakfast food? 

I think I slightly overbaked the pie and the filling was perhaps a little wet, but it was delicious - i really liked the cinnamon in it. I definitely want to make it again!

Happy baking!