My friend Amy spent a couple of years traveling the country as a nurse. Her assignments took her to both coasts and a few spots in between and I was lucky enough to visit her for lovely long weekends that includes lots of catching up, shopping, sightseeing, and eating.One of my favorite memories from these trips was picking blackberries from the bush that grew outside her rental home in Cape Cod. We took our basket of berries into the house and created a simple blackberry crisp. To date, it is still one of the best blackberry desserts I have ever eaten and I have to assume that is due not only to the wild berries, but the sweetness that came from picking our own fruit and the fun we had while doing it.
This week's Baked Sunday Mornings recipe is for Blackberry Pie. I had hoped for local berries, but it's a little too early here so I opted for fresh berries from the market. I wanted something easily portable and decided to make baby pies in a muffin pan. I loved the easiness of the handheld, portion-controlled mini-pies and their rustic appearance.
The pie crust recipe included in both of the Baked cookbooks was easy to make and work with although I found the flavor to be a bit bland. I may use a different recipe for the upcoming Peaches and Dream Pie but then again, I may use this one because it was incredibly forgiving.
The recipe for the filling is fairly straightforward and the only surprise ingredient was brown sugar. I loved the slightly caramel flavor it added and will definitely use brown sugar in future fruit crisps and cobblers. I also loved the bright note that a shaving of lemon peel and a squirt of lemon juice added. The filling was pretty awesome. While blackberries are delicious, they come with the aggravation of seeds. The seeds in my berries were plentiful and large and plan on making this again when berries are available at the farmer's market in the hopes I can enjoy them without breaking a tooth on a seed.
I love the end result of almost all of the Baked recipes I have tried, but feel a need to complain once again about their sloppy recipe writing. This particular recipe called for too many bowls for the filling (mixing the lemon peel and lemon juice separately?!) but didn't include instructions to cook the pie on a baking sheet to catch overflow. Their recipes are often complex and the addition of more explicit instructions would make their cookbooks much more accessible to all cooks.
Check out the other Baked bakers and their rendition of this recipe, here.
Blackberry Pie for breakfast, great start to the day! The pastry looks crumbly and delicious
ReplyDeletewow! your mini pies turned out awesome! i'm always on the lookout for ways to reduce dirty dishes, and i totally missed that lemon juice thing. and the pie totally made a mess of my oven. and i ruined the pie... amateur hour here.
ReplyDeleteCute pies! I wanted to make small pies, but I didn't have any small pie tins. I never though of baking the pies in muffin tins. That's a great idea! Did you have to decrease the cooking time? I also found the pie crust to be a little bland but so, so easy to work with. It rolled out like a dream.
ReplyDeleteOh, mini-pies -- what a wonderful idea! The filling is awesome, and your pies look fantastic! Yum!!
ReplyDeleteYour pies look fantastic! However, I've heard too many issues with Baking's instructions. I don't want to be frustrated while baking. It's supposed to be a release!
ReplyDeleteI love your hand-held pies...way fun. And I agree about the recipe how-to write up. Sometimes if there is not a photo it is hard to guess what the final outcome should be. And there are assumptions made so if I were a new baker several recipes would be a disaster just because the recipes are not clear or leave out important steps in the how-to. Sometimes I wonder who edited the book.
ReplyDeleteYours are adorable! I love the idea of small pies.
ReplyDeleteSo cute! Like the mini pie idea! They look very yummy!
ReplyDeleteSuper cute pies! I too went with a mini pie option. Yours look wonderful! Well done!
ReplyDeleteThe mini pies are adorable. That is what I have to do. I am intimidated by a full crust. I generally manage to drop it or fold it where it should not be folded. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteThese pies look so beautiful! I love that you made them in muffin tins. I love picking my own berries, it has become kind of a tradition in our family! Nice post!
ReplyDeleteVery nice post & really great idea to make mini-pies! I agree with Kris & you - I just do what I know works. For example for the apricot filling last time, I used an immersion blender right in the pot rather than transfer everything to a food processor and make a big sticky mess! And, I guess I've spilled enough stuff in my oven that I automatically put a baking sheet covered in foil on the shelf below the pie... but, that's why we do this to learn from each other how to be better cooks & bakers!
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