I am eating a piece of homemade blueberry pie that was baked with local fruit purchased last summer and frozen for this very purpose. A blueberry pie in January is my own winter ritual. But I am not just chewing any old pastry, but folding my tongue around bursting balloons of blue brilliant with the warm rains and velvet nights of summer.
I have a love affair with blueberries. This is what the color blue tastes like; not too sweet, not too tart, a pop of pure honesty, soft bells of the gods heralding the honesty of the tiniest of fruits. There is something so innocent in their eagerness to give themselves up all in one season.
I prefer having pie for a mid-morning snack. You can taste it better at 10 o’clock in the morning when your palette isn’t overloaded with dinner and looking for something to do. I also cut myself an extra large slice, reasoning that since I didn’t have “my” piece the night before after dinner, I could have twice the usual portion size.
Here’s an easy recipe:
January Blueberry Pie
Pie Crust (easy!–recipe from Mom):
1 1/3 cups sifted flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup corn or vegetable oil
3 Tblsp milk
In small bowl, mix flour & salt together. Pour oil in measuring cup, and carefully pour in milk. DO NOT MIX THE MILK AND OIL. Let the milk slip to the bottom.
Make a “well” in the flour mixture, then pour in oil/milk and mix carefully. Roll it out between two sheets of waxed paper (sprinkle some water on the rolling surface so it doesn’t slide.) Peel off the top sheet of paper, then pick the dough up with the other and mold into pie plate, then carefully peel paper back. Makes one crust.
For Filling:
4 cups blueberries
2 Tblsp cornstarch
1/4 cup water
2/3 – 1 cup sugar
Mix cornstarch and water, then mix in sugar. Pour over berries. Mix gently and let stand 15 minutes, folding berries occasionally.
Pour berries into crust and top with 5 slices of butter. Put another pie crust on top, brush with milk and poke holes in it so the steam can escape.
Bake at 350 degrees for one hour or until crust is golden.
Enjoy! Cut yourself an extra large slice!
OakintheSeed 
OK, you now owe me a new keyboard–I just drooled all over mine 🙂 That pie–and your description of your experience with it have me a-hankerin’ for a wedge–with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, of course.
This is so unusual. I also save my blueberry pie for the winter. I was thinking of baking it this week as a matter of fact. Blueberry pie is my favorite too and I’m not opposed to putting a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. You have described the deliciousness of the pie so well, I am going to pop mine in the oven today. As for a perfect mid- morning snack, of course you’re right and then you have the entire day to work off some of the calories too!
mmm…I love their texture. I have childhood memories of being sent out by my mother to gather wild blueberries that grew in an expansive patch at the end of Dale Rd here in ringwood…circa 1963-1967…then Mom would bake the most glorious blueberry pie…Nina
My favorite too! Yum!
I have never made blueberry pie, and now I’m wishing I had summer blueberries in my freezer…Enjoy!Kim
Loved the phrase of “bursting baloons of blue!” Blue is one of my favorite colors but you have given me a new way of looking at it….oh, yeh, and now I HAVE to bake this pie!
I too love pie, heck I prefer it over cake. I especially like it for breakfast! Yummmeeee.