Berry Crumble Pie

With friends coming over for dinner on a Friday in March, and the dinner being one of our standards, Meredith felt that it was time to try out an experiment she had been mulling over for a while. She had the basics for a graham cracker pie crust and was working an idea for a berry filling as well.

It came together, and stayed together incredibly well, and tasted amazing, of course. Unfortunately, I didn't have the presence of mind to take a picture of a slice of the pie (it didn't last long enough) so you'll have to just believe me that the pie didn't fall apart.

Berry Crumble Pie

Part 1: Crust

1-1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup oats
1/2 cup butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 375-degrees.
2. Combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar and oats.
3. Add butter and mix in until crumbly.
4. Press mixture into a 9-inch pie plate bake for 6 minutes.

Part 2: Filling

3 cups mixed berries (fresh or frozen)
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp lemon juice

1. Combine berries and half of the water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to low and let simmer for 2 minutes stirring frequently.
3. In a small bowl, stir together remaining water, cornstarch and lemon juice.
4. Gradually stir cornstarch mixture into blueberry mixture and continue stirring blueberry mixture for about 30 seconds or until mixture thickens.
5. Pour filling into pie crust.

Part 3: Topping

2 tbsp oats
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp butter

1. Mix all ingredients together until it reaches a crumbly texture.
2. Sprinkle on top of filling.
3. Bake pie for an additional 15 minutes.

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Blueberry Coffee Cake

February didn't strike me as blueberry season, but there they were. Three pints for $5. I guess I was buying blueberries!

My mistake was not having something in mind for them before bringing them home. I'm not a baker, so this would be Meredith's decision. She looked through her favourite baking books at all of her choices until she realized that she wanted something easy. No phylo. Nothing else too crazy, but that didn't stop her from boiling the blueberry filling all over the newly-cleaned stove top :-)

The final product was delicious, of course!

Blueberry Coffee Cake

Filling:
2 cups blueberries
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp potato starch

Cake:
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup butter
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Topping:
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp butter

1. Preheat oven to 350-degrees.
2. Filling:
   In a saucepan, combine fruit and water and bring to a boil. Reduce to medium-low and let simmer, covered for around 5 minutes or until fruit is tender.
3. Stir in the sugar and potato starch and continue heating until mixture thickens and bubbles, and continue to cook for another 2 minutes before removing from heat and setting aside.
4. Cake:
   In a medium bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder and baking soda.
5. Cut in the 1/4 cup butter and continue mixing until mixture looks like a bowl of coarse crumbs and make a well in the centre of the bowl before setting aside.
6. In a separate bowl, combine the egg, buttermilk and vanilla and pour the mixture into the well of the flour mixture.
7. Stir the mixture until until it's all moist (the batter should still be lumpy) and spread half of the batter into a ungreased 8x8x2 baking pan.
8. Spread the filling over the first layer of batter and drop the remaining batter in mounds over the filling and set aside.
9. Topping:
   In a separate bowl, combine the flour and sugar.
10. Cut in the butter and continue mixing until it looks like a bowl of coarse crumbs.
11. Sprinkle topping over cake.
12. The finale:
    Bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden and serve warm.

Recipes by the Haggis and the Herring: tasty world recipes tested in our kitchen
Try other tasty recipes