So I've been horrendously bad at posting my recipes to this blog! If you follow me on Instagram you've probably seen loads of cooking and food photos/videos in my stories, along with my fitness and training posts. Somewhere between posting to IG and eating said meals, the recipes get lost in the mix and haven't made it online! (I do a lot of cooking based on "feel" - smell, taste, appearance (color) and memory...) BUUUUUTTTTT, by popular demand, this "Thank You" Pie recipe is going to be the one to break my 6 month dry spell of posting any recipes.
A short story on how this "Thank You" Pie came to being. So back in October I did a little race, you might've heard of it; the Ironman World Championship, here in my beautiful (and very HOT) home: Kona. :) I trained like crazy squeezing my biggest mileage weeks between mid August to late September and thought to myself, "I'm ready!" And I was; I had a great race. But, there were many, and I do mean, MANY times during race day where I thought to myself, "I really forgot how hard an Ironman is!" ~5 years let's you forget all the "tough stuff," and only remember fondly those "finish line feels." Well, I was reminded! One of the things that really kept my spirits up all day was the outpour of love and support I felt from all my friends, my family, my sponsors; I knew they were all giving me their positive thoughts, and so that really kept me going and smiling along the way (mostly). A couple days after the event I decided I wanted to say thanks to those who helped me get to the start line and the finish line, so I made some "Thank You" pies. I took a couple recipes, made some edits and below is my version of a pretty yummy berry pie. It works great with plain frozen blueberries, mixed berries, or strawberries; and you don't need to defrost these first.
The “Thank You Pie”
Berry pie with Mixed Spelt Flour Crust
*This receipt is adapted from Williams Sonoma Basic Pie Dough and Costco Connection Triple Berry Pie
Makes a 9” pie:
Ingredients:
· Double Crust (top and bottom)
o 1.25 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
o 1.25 cups spelt flour
o 2 Tbs sugar
o 1/4 Tsp salt
o 1.5 Sticks Butter (12 Tbs)
o 6 – 8 Tbs ice water
· Filling
o 3 – 3.5 cups of frozen blueberries, or mixed berries, or strawberries
o 1/3 – 1/2 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you like your pies! I don’t like mine too sweet so I use 1/3 cup)
o 1/3 cup blackberry jam or preserves
o 3 Tbs potato starch
o 1.5 Tsp ground cinnamon
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. I usually make the pie crust dough by hand – literally, but you can also use a stand mixer! In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar and salt. If you make it by hand, WASH AND DRY YOUR HANDS SO THEY’RE SUPER CLEAN! J
3. Cut up the butter into ¼” slices and add to the flour mixture by using your hands to mix/squeeze the butter until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal with butter pieces no larger than small peas.
4. Add the ice water about 3 Tbs at a time and mix it in with a fork. Add water just to the point that the dough starts pulling together as you mix it, but it should NOT be wet, it should look “shaggy.”
5. Sprinkle a flat, clean work surface with flour and transfer dough here. Pat dough into a ball and divide in half so you end up with 2 even portions. Roll these into balls then flatten each into a disk.
6. Roll out a disk to about 1/8” thickness and about 12” in diameter, then transfer this into a pie dish. You can leave the other disk out (for the top crust) or you can wrap it in plastic wrap and store it in the frig.
7. To make the filling, mix sugar, potato starch and cinnamon in a small bowl.
8. In a large bowl add your frozen berries, then add the sugar mixture and gently stir so it’s evenly coated. Fold in the jam and mix evenly.
9. Transfer the berry filling to the pie crust in the pie dish.
10. Roll out the remaining pie crust disk into 1/8” thickness and about 12” in diameter and place on top of the filled pie shell.
11. Crimp the edges of the pie crust to seal the edges, I just use my hands to do this, some people use tools or a fork.
12. My favorite part! Cut slits or fun designs into the pie crust top to let the steam escape.
13. Bake pie for 50 min – 60 min, checking periodically (I check it every 10-15 min) to make sure the edges are not getting too brown. If the edges start getting brown (this could happen around 25-35 min in), then cover the edges with foil and let the pie keep baking until the top is golden brown.
14. Cool pie completely before serving…or digging in…
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