Unbelievably Easy Mixed Berry Pie

Mike and I love pie. If you've read my blog in the past few months, you're probably already privy to this quite obvious piece of information. We travel into the city for pie from the famed Dangerously Delicious shop on a nearly weekly basis. I scour the dessert case at every restaurant we attend for fruit pies, chocolate and peanut butter mousse pies, and everything in between. The dessert for our upcoming wedding (2 weeks!!!) will be not cake but a selection of pies.

I've been meaning to make a pie of my own for some time, to both save money and to ensure that it is a somewhat-healthy sweet. Then I got lazy and thought about the effort required to roll out a crust and the aftermath of a pie in our house for two (the pie likely would not last more than 24 hrs which is not so good for my confidence or my waistline).

But I finally summoned the courage and energy to make a pie from scratch and it was so easy I could barely believe it. I've watched enough cooking shows to know that plenty of those dishes that seem so scary to the average baker or cook, like risotto and pie crusts, are really manageable as long as you know the basics. And I've seen enough of those shows to have picked up on pie crust basics. So I made a whole wheat pie crust using Giada Di Laurentiis' method and then the filling was all my own.

My crust didn't come out quite as nicely as those on TV, which may have something to do with my use of whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose. Whatever the reason, it was still fairly easy to roll out despite a few cracks and I dig the resulting rustic look. With a little sprinkle of sugar over top, the crust was unbelievably delicious.

I definitely recommend trying this one out soon! Any type and combination of berries will do and if you opt for fresh ones, just try to get about 2 cups of fruit. And fresh berries won't take quite as long to cook so pop the pie in the oven for about 20 minutes, then check and see  how it's doing.

Mixed Berry Pie

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 10 Tbsp (1 1/4 sticks) cold butter, cut into small cubes
• 3 Tbsp ice water
• 16 oz (2 cups) frozen mixed berries

Directions

1. In a food processor, combine whole wheat flour, 2 Tbsp sugar, and salt. Pulse until mixed.

2. Add the cold cubed butter. Pulse until the mixture begins to resemble coarse meal.

3. Slowly stream in the ice water while continually mixing the dough. The mixture will start to clump and come together.

4. Turn the dough onto a work surface and shape it into a ball, then flatten it to a disk. Wrap the disk in plastic wrap and let chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

5. With 15 minutes of chill time left, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put mixed berries in a bowl and add 1/4 cup of sugar and a small sprinkle of salt.

6. Remove dough and unwrap. Add flour to a large flat work surface for rolling out the dough. Roll to about a 1/4 inch thickness. 

7. Cover the bottom of 9 inch pie dish with dough and then pour mixed berry filling in. Fold the remaining dough over top of the filling. 

8. Using a sharp knife, make a few slits in the pie crust to allow air to escape during cooking. Sprinkle a little more sugar over the crust for an extra sweet bite.

9. Pop the pie in the oven for about 50 minutes (about 20 if using fresh berries). Allow to cool about 10 minutes before eating. Enjoy!