My Blueberry Sunrise

Before reading the following post, please put this song on. 

Elizabeth: So what's wrong with the Blueberry Pie?
Jeremy: There's nothing wrong with the Blueberry Pie, just people make other choices. You can't blame the Blueberry Pie, it's just... no one wants it.
Elizabeth: Wait! I want a piece.

And so did I. Ever since I saw that charming movie, My Bluberry Nights I always wanted to try a piece of blueberry pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. (This is the movie in which Norah Jones had her first and only role on the big screen. Boy, had I been looking forward to it because of Norah! And the always sexy Jude Law. And the always beautiful Rachel Weisz. ) That was about three or four years ago, and, even though I found a neat recipe on the internet, blueberries were nowhere to be found in my neck of the woods, not even frozen ones. Although I really really wanted to trick my grandma into baking me a bluberry pie, the main ingredient was missing, hence my plan fell through. However, eventually, every once in a while I would come across some (dubiously) fresh blueberries at tesco's, but these were sold in such small portions (125g a box, I think), and so expensive (about 2200-2500 HUF/kg), that I always talked myself out of buying them. Especially since I needed about half a kilo of blueberries to make one pie.

But then, about two months ago, all of a sudden I bumped into frozen blueberries at tesco's which were/are sold relatively cheap, at the price of 400 HUF/300g. Now that really turned me on! I bought a pack, and the day before we went to see the sunrise I baked my first blueberry pie with Zsö. It turned out marvellously! Although the blueberries were not fresh, the pie ended up being really delicious, and, not at all complicated to make. Most certainly worth to try it out once or twice. However, next time I will substitute the blueberries with sour cherries, I am pretty sure it will be just as yummy, and only a tiny bit sourer. (I love sour fruits, so that won't scare me away.)

Here is the recipe we used: 

Ingredients for pie crust: (source)

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, chilled and diced
• 1/4 cup ice (= really cold) water

Ingredients for filling: (source)

• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch plain flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 4 cups fresh blueberries  (I only had one pack = 300g ~ 2 cups of blueberries. It was enough, but the pie will most certainly be richer if you add at least 500g or 2 packs of blueberries.)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). 
2. In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. (The original recipe does not include sugar, however, it could have used one or two spoonfuls, to make the crust a bit sweeter.) Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. (I never had the time and the patience to refrigerate the dough. We rolled it into the cake pan right after making it. Still, it worked out fine.)
3. Divide the dough into two, to 2:1 ratio. (So one ball is twice as big as the other.)
4. Roll the bigger dough out to fit a 9 inch pie plate. Place crust in pie plate. Press the dough evenly into the bottom and sides of the pie plate.  
5. To make the filling, mix sugar, flour, salt, and cinnamon, and sprinkle over blueberries. 
6. Pour berry mixture into the crust, and dot with butter. Cut remaining pastry into 1/2 - 3/4 inch wide strips, and make lattice top. Crimp and flute edges. 
7. Bake pie on lower shelf of oven for about 50 minutes, or until crust is golden brown. ( I don't think we baked it for more than 30 minutes. It is sufficient enough. And 220° is too high, about 175° is high enough, otherwise the crust will burn in a few minutes and the filling won't be baked.)

Have fun baking & then enjoy the pie!