Nothing says summer to me like fresh blueberry pie. Sure, pie is great year round and I definitely have a soft spot for apple pies and pumpkin—yeah, among others– 
but during the height of summer when berries and stone fruit are at their ripest my allegiance is with them. My favorite kind of blueberry pie is an open faced, single crust pie. The crust should be a crisp, flaky, buttery contrast to the blueberries. The crust should snap slightly when you bite into it—a surprise and textural contrast–then melt in your mouth. The filling is the most important part. This is not the time of year for a cooked filling or one made with frozen blueberries. For this particular pie, a small portion of the blueberries are set aside, cooked with a bit of water, sugar and cornstarch to make a sauce and then tossed with the remaining uncooked blueberries before being poured into the pre-baked pie shell. This is pure blueberry flavor. The uncooked blueberries are just barely held together by the fresh blueberry sauce and will pop in you mouth when you sink your teeth into them. I like to serve this with lightly sweetened whipped cream or a drizzle of crème fraiche. Of course, I wouldn’t turn down a scoop of vanilla ice cream either!
Open Faced Fresh Blueberry Pie
1 pre-baked 9” pie crust
*When I’m not up to making my own crust, I like to use the all butter ‘French Picnic’ brand located in the freezer section of many grocery stores.
Blueberry Filling
From the Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum (aka the Baking Goddess—she is amazing!)
4 cups of Blueberries, leaves, stems and green berries removed, then rinsed and dried.
½ cup of sugar
½ cup of water
2 Tbsp. cornstarch dissolved in 2 Tbsp. of water
1 tsp. of lemon juice (optional)
A pinch of salt.
- In a small sauce pan combine 1 cup of blueberries with ½ cup of water.
- Bring the water and blueberries to a boil, reduce the heat and allow to simmer for a couple of minutes. You want the blueberries to pop and exude their juices.
- Once you have a juicy mixture– it only takes a couple of minutes—add the sugar, lemon juice and salt. Bring to a boil and add the cornstarch/water mixture. Return to a boil and allow the mixture to become translucent.
- Remove from the heat and pour over the remaining 3 cups of blueberries. Stir gently to combine. Pour into your prebaked pie shell.
Let the pie set up for at least 2 hours before serving.
Bon Appetit!
The blueberry filling is a great topping for Greek yogurt or vanilla ice cream too!