Award Winning Blackberry Streusel Pie - Recipe

     Today was a very good day!  I made two Blackberry Streusel Pies for the EatLoCo and One Loudoun PIE-IN-SKY- BAKE-OFF CONTEST and won 1st place!  It was held at the One Loudoun location of the Loudoun Famers Markets in Ashburn, VA.  I am so excited!  It was a lot of fun to see the people at the market enjoying all 15 of the great pies!

      The crust is made with one half whole wheat flour and one half bread flour to give it a slightly nutty rustic flavor.  The blackberries are tart and sweet, spiced with cinnamon.  I did not over-sweeten them with too much sugar though.  I wanted to get maximum blackberry goodness in every bite!  The streusel is sweet and crunchy with oatmeal, brown, sugar, butter, and spices.

     Along the edges are cut out pie dough blackberry leaves and little pie dough blackberries.  It was not too difficult to do the extra decorations, and it was worth the extra time to give it a beautiful presentation.

 

Award Winning Blackberry Streusel Pie

(Makes 2 9-inch Pies)

Crust 

(for 2 9-inch pies with decorations)

Bowl 1
1 c. Whole Wheat Flour

1 c. Bread Flour

1/2 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1/2 c. Solid Palm Oil 
         (Non-hydrogenated Vegetable Shortening)

1/2 c. Butter

4-5 T. Ice Water

Bowl 2
1 c. Whole Wheat Flour

1 c. Bread Flour

1/2 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1/2 c. Solid Palm Oil 
         (Non-hydrogenated Vegetable Shortening)

1/2 c. Butter

4-5 T. Ice Water

Filling

14 c. Blackberries (frozen are fine)
1 c. Sugar
2 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
5 T. Tapioca Flour
1/8 tsp. Salt

Streusel Topping

1 1/2 c. Flour
1 1/2 c. Brown Sugar
1 1/2 c. Oatmeal
2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Cardamom
1 c. + 2 T. Butter

 

For the Crust

Because we are making two pies, use two bowls to make separate crusts.  It is better to mix separately for better control and to get the best texture for your crust.  Just place one bowl next to the first one.

In each bowl:  Whisk the flours, salt, and baking powder together. Add the palm oil to the dry ingredients. Mix with your hands to a fine sand texture. Add the butter and mix with your hands to a course gravel/pea size texture. Add a few tablespoons of ice water and mix to bring the dough together. Continue to add 1 tablespoon of ice water at a time until the dough forms a ball.  Split dough to make two balls (one twice as large as the other), shape into disks, and wrap in plastic. 

You will have 4 dough disks altogether.  Place in refrigerator for one hour. Before rolling, let the dough rest for 3 minutes wrapped on the counter.

Note: The bread flour gives the dough a consistency that is easier to roll out, since we are including whole wheat flour.

For the Filling

If you are using frozen berries, make sure they are thawed before you begin.

Place berries in a very large heavy bottomed pot.  Whisk together the sugar, cinnamon, tapioca flour, and salt together in a bowl.  Add the sugar mixture to the berries and gently stir together.  Bring to a simmer on medium heat stirring as little as possible to keep as many of the berries intact as we can.

Turn heat to low and simmer about 5 to 8 minutes just until it begins to thicken a little and the juice no longer has a cloudy appearance.  Remove from heat and set aside to cool to lukewarm.

For the Streusel Topping

Stir together the flour, brown sugar, oatmeal, cinnamon, and cardamom in a mixing bowl.  Cut the butter into the flour mixture, then with a fork (I use a large serving fork) quickly and repeatedly press down on the butter to work it in.  This will take a couple of minutes.  Just keep going and move about the bowl.  You are done when everything is evenly distributed and there are no longer any chunks of butter.

Assembly

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Remove 1 large and 1 small dough disk from the refrigerator.  On a floured surface roll out the larger dough disk and place in the bottom of a 9-inch pie pan.  If using a disposable tin, use two tins together to make a thicker pan.  Cut the overhanging dough off to make it look nice.

Make decorations:  Roll out the smaller disk, and with a sharp knife cut out some narrow leaves.  Draw a vein down the middle and make angled indentations on each side.  Place the leaves along the edge of the crust at angles.  One angling up and the next angling downwards, and so on.  Roll out very small dough balls to place in the open space on the edges in between the leaves.  These will be your blackberries.  Poke them with the tip of a knife to give them a berry look once they are attached.

Repeat the above steps for the second pie shell.

Check to see if your filling is lukewarm.  You do not want to put a hot filling into the pie shell!  If the filling is not cool enough, gently cover the pie shells with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator.

Once your filling is ready, remove the plastic from the pie shells and discard it.  It is time to pour the filling evenly between the two pies.  I use a measuring cup to distribute between the two.  Next crumble the streusel topping over the tops of the pies.  Leave a tiny space in the center of the pie uncovered for monitoring in the oven.

Place the pies on a center rack next to each other and bake for 45 minutes until the crust is slightly brown on edges.  Check to see if there is any bubbling movement in center of the pie.  One tiny bubble is all you need.  If you see it in one of the pies, that is sufficient.  If they are being stubborn, and you do not see any movement, it is alright to take them out of the oven to prevent over baking the crusts.

Remove from the oven and cool on racks.

Ready for the oven.

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