Very Berry Pie

With July 4th just around the corner, we wanted to share one of our favorite summer desserts with you – Very Berry Pie. Indulge in this perfectly patriotic pie — a medley of juicy strawberries, bursting blueberries, and luscious blackberries — all nestled in a flaky, buttery crust! Decorate the top with Stars and Stripes for a truly delicious and festive celebration! 🇺🇸

We used red and blue berries for this pie in honor of July 4th, but you can use all red berries, all blue/blackberries or any combination of berries that you like best. The result will be similar but with slightly different colors and flavors.

We also love to make this pie with a crumb topping and our Peach Plum Crumb Pie recipe includes our favorite crumb topping recipe, if you would like to go that route, which is not only delicious, but a real crowd pleaser. In our peach plum pie, we actually made both a crumb topping and a lattice pie dough crust on top of the crumb topping, and you may think that’s over the top. It is, but we love it that way! Just saying … it’s pretty darn delicious … you can never have enough toppings!

Be sure to use chilled butter when making the crust. The cold butter is what allows the crust to be nice and flaky. In fact, it’s not a bad idea to chill your finished pie crust for an hour or so before baking it, to get the bits of butter back to nice solids.

The recipe for our Very Berry Pie is below, but first we wanted to give you a sneak peak at some of our favorite summer fruit pies:

Peach Plum Crumb Pie with Lattice Crust

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

Huckleberry Pie

Very Berry Pie

A thick strawberry, blueberry and blackberry filling nestled into a flaky buttery crust makes the perfect summer dessert!

Servings 10 Servings

Prep Time 45 minutes mins

Cook Time 50 minutes mins

Equipment

• 1 9 x 11 rectangular casserole dish Or use a 9.5-inch pie dish

Ingredients

Flaky, Buttery Pie Dough

• ▢ 3 cups all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1 tsp. salt
• ▢ 2 1/4 sticks unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces 9 oz. or 2 cups + 2 tbsp.
• ▢ 3 tsp. cider vinegar
• ▢ 1/2-3/4 cup ice water

Berry Pie Filling

• ▢ 32 oz. fresh strawberries, stems and leaves removed and cut into quarters
• ▢ 36 oz. fresh blueberries
• ▢ 12 oz. fresh blackberries
• ▢ 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• ▢ 1/2 cup all-purpose flour May need slightly more flour if the berries are very juicy
• ▢ 1 tsp. cinnamon
• ▢ 1/2 tsp. cardamom
• ▢ 1/4 tsp. salt
• ▢ 1/2 lemon (juice of 1/2 lemon)

Instructions

Pie Crust

• Blend flour and salt in a large mixing bowl.
• Mix flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. With a pastry cutter (or your cold finger tips) crumble butter into the flour until well integrated, and the butter is about the size of small peas.
• Sprinkle cider vinegar over the mixture and stir in with a fork. Stir in ice-cold water, a little at a time, and blend with a fork until the dough is moist enough to roll into a ball, but not too wet.
• Divide the dough into 2/3 and 1/3 and roll each into a ball.
• The larger one will be rolled out into a rectangle or circle, depending upon the kind of dish you use, and the smaller one will be rolled out into a flat shape so you can cut the star shapes out of it. Be sure to roll the dough out to a dimension of 5 inches larger than the shape of the dish, so you have plenty to cover the entire inside of the dish, plus some for rolling and fluting the edge.
  
• Flute the edges of your pie crust and cut out the star (and stripes if making them) from the second ball of dough. Use any remaining dough for cinnamon roll ups. Recipe in notes.
  

Very Berry Pie Filling

• Preheat oven to 400 ℉.
• Rinse and air-dry on a baking sheet, or use a paper towel to remove excess moisture. Remove stems and leaves from strawberries and cut into quarters. Place in a large mixing bowl.
• Add blueberries and blackberries and gently toss berries together. Add brown sugar, spices and flour and gently toss with a wooden spoon. Sprinkle in lemon juice.
• Pour berry mixture into prepared pie dish. Arrange star cut outs on top of the berries.
  
• Bake for approximately 45-50 minutes, or until the filling is bubbly and hot all the way through and the crust is flaky and golden-brown.
  
• Remove from oven and cool for at least one hour before serving to allow the pie filling to firm up a bit. Serve warm, cold or at room temperature, depending upon how you like your pie.
• You can make this pie a day ahead of time and store, covered, on the counter or in the refrigerator. Serve cold or reheat as desired.

Notes

Cool Pie Before Serving

We like to make this pie a day ahead of time, so the filling has time to firm up and the flavors have time to meld. It stores very well either in the refrigerator or on the counter for a day. 

Make Crust a Day or Two Ahead

You can also make the pie crust a couple of days ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator covered with plastic wrap to keep it from drying out. Then, make the berry filling when you’re ready to bake it.

Roll-ups

To make cinnamon or Boursin roll ups with any leftover dough, simply roll the dough out into a rectangle. For sweet roll ups, spread the top of the rectangle with butter, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. For savory roll ups, spread your favorite spreadable cheese blend over the top of the rectangle. In either case, starting on one of the long ends, tightly roll the rectangle into a log. Cut into one inch pieces and bake on a greased baking sheet for about 12 minutes, or until golden brown. 

Course: Dessert

Keyword: berry pie, blackberry, blueberry pie, homemade pie crust, mixed berry pie, strawberry pie, summer desserts