Huckleberry Pie

This year, according to everyone, has been an excellent year for huckleberries in the area. Probably because of the late spring and even later summer we had. My brother likes to pick huckleberries and has his own special little patch he won't even share with me. My roommate, J, and her mom are also huge huckleberry pickers, and many an evening this summer, they have gone to their special patches and come home utterly laden with berries. J has about 20+ cups of huckleberries stored away in the freezer, as a matter of fact, and Saturday she decided to make some pies.

She got up at 5:30 to do this, because, in case you didn't know, it's bloody ridiculously HOT here right now, and baking is the last thing anyone - including me - really wants to do right now. Since it's cooler first thing in the morning and J is a morning person to begin with, she got up at the crack of dawn to bake these pies, and I got a piece for breakfast.

This filling recipe is courtesy J's mom, and I have J's permission to publish it here. I do not have permission to publish the location of their berry patch - not that I know where it is anyways!

Berry Pie Filling

1 beaten egg
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 tbsp flour
2 tbsp lemon juice
4 cups berries

pastry for double-crusted 8" pie

Combine the first 4 ingredients, then fold in the berries. Put berries in pie shell and dot with butter. Put top crust on pie. Bake @ 450F for 15 minutes, then reduce the oven to 350F and bake for an additional 35 - 45 minutes. J made a good call and baked the pies on a baking sheet because the filling can boil over and spill onto the floor of the oven, so I'd recommend doing this, too. I generally do that when making a fruit-filled pie.

The result: excellent! The initial poof of the hot oven helps make the crust nice and flakey, and the filling was delicious - tart and sweet at the same time.

I guess I should go out into the bush and find my own huckleberry patch, eh?