Triple Berry Pie for 4th of July 2024

 

The family was getting together at Grandpa's for a 4th of July cookout and I was to bring dessert.  I thought of making strawberry shortcakes, but ultimately decided to make a Triple Berry Pie. I wish I could remember how I got the idea!

I prepared to make this recipe found online on Taste of Home.  I'd made the pie dough the day before, and set out to start the recipe until, literally at the very last minute, I took a closer look. First of all several reviews mentioned that the pie came out runny and people recommended increasing the amount of cornstarch.  Then, it began to look odd to dot the filling with butter, and it looked even more strange that this recipe had half the amount of berries in the filling than every other recipe I compared it to.  I decided not to take the risk of changing this recipe around and find another recipe. I've been satisfied with the pies I've made from Sally's Bake Blog so I decided to go with it.  To contrast, the Taste of Home recipe calls for 3 cups of berries whereas Sally's recipe has 6.  I also looked at a King Arthur recipe that called for 7-8 cups of berries!

My own pie turned into more of a strawberry pie because I had a surplus of strawberries and not enough raspberries or blueberries.  I figured this wouldn't be a problem, since most recipes advise that you can freely substitute berries.

One small tweak when making the jammy filling was to not combine the lemon juice and cornstarch until the berry juice was also available for mixing. I've found that after you mix a liquid and cornstarch it starts to dry out rather quickly and you can't quite reconstitute it.  Other than that the mixture came together just as the recipe called for.

I'd made one of the two disks of dough a bit bigger than the other, a difference of only about 15 grams. Not sure if this change anything. I think in the future when making a double crust pie I'll increase this difference yet a bit more, making sure to still roll out the bottom disk as thin as I normally would, but leaving more crust to make a full edge.  I spooned in the filling, which had cooled by now, and put the pie in the refrigerator to chill a bit while I rolled out the top.

For the top, instead of a lattice top I decided to cut out stars using cookie cutters.  I have three star-shaped cutters: a large one, a medium one with scalloped edges that was my Mom's, and a mini one. I was disappointed that I couldn't find the mini because it would have allowed me to use up every scrap of dough and would have made the whole thing SO cute.  But it wasn't in my cookie cutter box and I have no idea where it went.  My Mom's cutter is an old-fashioned aluminum one where the entire top of the cookie cutter is covered and it has a small handle.  Even after flouring it thoroughly for each cut, it's still tough to get the dough out of the cutter. Pie crust or cookie dough are sticky things and gravity isn't enough!  I used a toothpick inserted at an angle into the opening under the cookie cutter handle to gently poke a couple of edges and the shapes popped out easily and undamaged.  So that was a little relief!  I wasn't sure how much of the filling to cover, and in retrospect I wish I'd used up all the dough, because I had enough left over to make two or three more stars.  

The recipe calls for brushing the top with an egg wash. I went one step further and combined 1/4 cup sugar with 1/2 tsp cinnamon to make a cinnamon sugar mixture. After applying the egg wash, I generously sprinkled each shape with this cinnamon sugar.  Then I placed the shapes on a tray and put them in the refrigerator to firm up a little bit before placing them on the pie.

Triple Berry Pie ready for the oven

This pie is supposed to bake at 425F for 20 minutes then at 375F for 45-55 minutes.  After the first 20 minutes you're supposed to cover the edges with a shield.  I fashioned a shield out of aluminum foil and followed these directions exactly. Also, for the first 20 minutes I baked the pie with the rack on the lowest position, then raised it to the center position for the rest of the time. 

I checked the pie at 45 minutes and the filling looked solid but was not bubbling. I then covered the entire pie with aluminum foil and added another 5 minutes. At this point I checked the temperature of the filling and it was over 200F which, according to the recipe indicates that the filling is done. However, it was only bubbling a bit around the edges.  Now I reduced the oven temperature to 350F, placed the aluminum foil back over the pie, and added another 3-4 minutes. At last the filling was bubbling in the center and all over!  The pie was ready to come out of the oven. 

I had placed stars all along the edge of the pie but during baking they migrated a little closer to the center. Next time I make a pie like this, I'll actually place them on the edge, maybe even "stuck on" with egg wash.  I'd also cover more of the filling with crust. 

The menu for our 4th of July cookout included appetizers of shrimp cocktail, cheese array (Port Wine cheese, Camembert and Emmenthaler) with crackers, spicy Asian chip & peanut mix, and raw veggies with ranch dip.  Then, charred-over coals steak for some and grilled chicken for us, R's homemade coleslaw, and roasted potato cubes. The Triple Berry Pie rounded all this out and it tasted fantastic!  I was surprised, when I cut it, that some of the filling was a tiny but runny, although in general it help it's shape and I wouldn't have wanted it to be firmer yet gelatinous in the mouth.  The crust on the bottom was baked perfectly.  From the way the placement of the crust stars moved during baking, I saw that I could have used more stars and still had plenty of area for the heat to vent and the top would have looked even better. It looked good as is, but even better.

This pie was so good that I'm already trying to find an opportunity to make it again. It will happen!

***UPDATE***

Later in the Summer, in August, friends came from France for a long-planned visit. We hadn't seen each other since before the pandemic, and I hadn't met his new partner nor her children.  When friends visit from France, I know they want to try American foods. We put together a spread of guacamole with corn chips, pineapple chunks, couscous salad, grilled chicken, lemonade and other beverages. I was still thinking of how good the 4th of July Tripe Berry pie had been, so I decided to make it again. Instead of cutout stars I used cutout butterflies because I have big and small cookie cutters in that shape.  I'd thought, when making the 4th of July pie with the star cutouts, that there was room for more stars and I wished I'd used more. So, I decided to make a border with small butterflies and place larger butterflies in the center. But when the pie came out of the oven, I wasn't thrilled with how this looked. Especially after being dusted with cinnamon sugar, they just looked like "dirty" blobs.  I think they'd have looked better with plain old egg wash, and the whole thing would have looked more appealing and more traditionally American with a lattice top. No one commented on the butterflies and I don't even know if the guests knew what they were. Still, the pie was a success, the French guests loved it and ate the whole thing the spot.  My friend's lovely new partner even commented as they were leaving that she'd loved the "tarte". So I was still very happy with this choice. Triple Berry Pie for the win! 

Tripe Berry pie with butterflies