Pie

For my husband's thirtieth birthday party, I made those pies in jars I had been dying over a few weeks back. They were lots of work but lots of fun. I made some apple, some peach, some pumpkin, and some blackberry, at Chris' request. I found the short squatty jars at Ace Hardware, since they were sold out on Amazon. Here is the blackberry pie recipe I used, adapted from a Blueberry pie I found in my ATK cookbook. This recipe makes one regular pie, follow the link to the pies in jars for instructions on making and baking those.

Blackberry Pie

6 cups blackberries

1 C. plus one T. sugar

4 T. potato starch

2 tsp. fresh lemon juice

1 tsp. grated lemon zest

1/4 tsp. allspice

pinch nutmeg

1 recipe double crust pie dough

2 T. unsalted butter, cut into tiny pieces

1 egg white, lightly beaten

Adjust oven rack to lowest position, and heat oven to 500 degrees. Toss blackberries, 1 C. sugar, potato starch, lemon juice, lemon zest, and spices together and let stand for 15 minutes. Place bottom crust into pie plate and roll out top crust to a 12 inch circle. Spread berries in the unbaked crust bottom and dot with butter. Lay top crust over berries, seal and crimp the edges, and cut four vent holes. brush crust with egg white and sprinkle with 1 T. of sugar. Place pie on baking sheet and in the oven, then lower the temp to 425. Bake til top crust is golden, about 25 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet, reduce oven temp again to 375, and continue to bake til crust is deep golden brown, about 30-35 minutes longer. Transfer to wire rack and cool before serving. You can store this pie at room temperature wrapped in foil for two days.

Double-crust Pie Dough

2 1/2 C. all-purpose flour

2 T. sugar

1 tsp. salt

8 T. vegetable shortening, cut into small pieces and chilled

12 T. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cun into small pieces and chilled

8 T. ice water

Process the flour, sugar and salt in a food proccesor til combined. Scatter shortening over top and process about ten seconds. Scatter butter over top and, using short pulses, process til it resembles coarse crumbs, about ten pulses. Transfer to a bowl. Sprinkle ice water over mixture. Stir and pressdough together with a rubber spatula. Divide dough into to even pieces and flatten into a disk. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate one hour. Let dough soften slightly before rolling out.