Mixed Berry Pie
Made with Bender Hill Maple Sugar
In addition to loving all things maple, our family also loves butter! This shortbread pastry recipe is perfect for butter lovers. The crust bakes up golden brown and buttery. That’s why I always roll out the leftover dough and cut with cookie cutters to garnish the top of the pie (if they make it that far!)
Recipe by Jackie Bender
In addition to loving all things maple, our family also loves butter! This shortbread pastry recipe is perfect for butter lovers. The crust bakes up golden brown and buttery. That’s why I always roll out the leftover dough and cut with cookie cutters to garnish the top of the pie (if they make it that far!)
Shortbread Pastry Crust
1 1/4 cup flour
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup maple sugar
8 Tbsp cold cubed butter
2 Tbsp ice cold water (optional)
Preheat oven 400 degrees
Put all ingredients in a food processor, pulse just until dough forms, add the cold ice water 1 Tbsp at a time if dough seems dry.(Kitchen aid with dough attachment or hand mixing works also.). Form dough into disk shape.Wrap in plastic wrap and chill at least 20 minutes. (I also chill my pie pan). Lightly flour your surface and roll out dough to fit your pan, with the least amount of dough handling as possible. (The colder the dough the better as sometimes it cracks and it won’t make it into the pie pan in one piece. If the dough gets too warm from handling it may become too soft to transfer to pie pan also. If it does crack just press it back together in the pie pan with your fingers)
Place a pie weight on top.
Bake about 15-18 minutes til golden brown depending on your oven.
Fill cooked pastry dough with fruit filling recipe that follows.
roll out the extra dough and use small cookie cutters to make a few shortbread cookies, bake on separate sheet and garnish the top of the pie.
This fruit pie filling recipe was given to me many many years ago from a seasoned berry picker I met while in a blueberry field. To this day it is the only fruit filling recipe I use. This recipe is so easy. I have made it with many different fruits, both fresh and frozen and several combinations of fruits to please everyone. I like that some of the fruit is cooked a bit then the rest is added so you don’t end up with a mush fruit pie. Especially in summer when berries are in season and you get that satisfying pop texture of a fresh berry in your mouth.
Fruit Pie Filling
One shortbread pastry crust baked and ready to be filled.
4 cups fresh berries or fruit of your choice
3/4 cup water, split 1/2 cup and 1/4 cup
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup maple sugar, can adjust to the sweetness you like
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
Scant 1/8 tsp cloves
1 Tbsp lemon juice
Dash of salt
In small bowl make a smooth paste with 1/4 water, maple sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt, set aside.
In a large saucepan combine one cup of the berries and 1/2 water. Bring this to a light simmer/boil for a couple minutes just to break down the berries a little bit.
Add the paste mixture and gently stir til it starts to thicken.
Fold in the remainder of the fruit and lemon juice, stir to combine and let the mixture thicken again for a minute.
Pour into the shortbread pastry crust.
Garnish with the shortbread cookie toppers if you made them.
Chill til ready to be served, and of course topping with real whip cream or ice cream is always a crowd pleaser!
