My birthday was Thursday. Due to circumstances you don’t care about, I was absolutely tired of cake. Everybody was asking me if I had to make my own birthday cake. I did not. I had to make my own birthday pie.
I made pie because I love pie — and also because my husband got me a fun pie cutting kitchen gadget I wanted to try. It’s an offset metal pie-piece-shaped doo-hickey you bake under the pie crust that helps you get the first piece out without having to scrape it into a misshapen mound of crust and filling.
I chose blueberry because I had berries leftover from my Girl Scout talk I wrote about Wednesday.
So I made my favorite pie crust and used the recipe for blueberry pie from “Joy of Cooking,” for the directions and the filling.
Here it is:
BLUEBERRY PIE
1 recipe double-crust pie crust
5 cups blueberries
3/4 to 1 cup sugar
3 1/2 to 4 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon of grated lemon zest, optional
1/8 teaspoon salt
1. Combine blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, zest and salt in a large bowl and let sit for 15 minutes.
2. Move oven rack to the bottom third of the oven. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
3. Line a 9-inch pie pan with crust and trim if necessary around the edge of the pie pan. Add filling and cover with the top crust. Pinch the top crust and the bottom crust together to seal. Cut vent holes into the top crust.
4. Bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. Take the pie out of the oven and put it on a baking sheet to catch drippings. Set heat to 350 degrees and bake the pie 20 to 30 minutes more, or until filling is bubbly, and top is golden brown.
5. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before slicing.
Adapted from “Joy of Cooking”