Blueberry Tall Pie
I am giving away my produce calendars over at Brian Samuels’ wonderful A Thought For Food. You should go check it out and enter! Who knows you could win. And if you haven’t been to Brian’s blog, then you need to head on over. You won’t be disappointed by his delightful, beautiful posts.
A delicate glow fills a cluttered room. The dew-laden windows diffuse the harsh rays of the morning sun letting only the pleasant brightness poke through to wake tired eyes. Patterns of light, filtered through trees and blinds and fading dew, fade in and out; their marks on the carpet and walls appear and disappear as distant clouds race about the sky.
Coffee is brewed. Rogue dishes from the night before are cleaned up. A bowl of blueberries is rinsed. The long streaks of light drawn across the cold tile floor fade away as a cloud hides the sun. Soon the diffused glow filling the room disappears too. Distant booms perk up the ears and hint at a pending storm. They build in intensity and quickly becoming close enough to shake the house.
Another summer storm quickly passes leaving the air filled with the metallic smell. Clouds begin to dissolve. Rays of light soon find their ways back inside, bouncing about a messily set table and the family scattered around it enjoying the delicate tang of a tall blueberry pie. Maple syrup adds a nostalgic sweetness and lemon cuts through the strong blueberry flavor.
Slices are cut. Fallen blueberries are spooned onto an already too-tall slice. A fork prepares a bite-sized pile and the cackling laughter over a years-perfected inside joke cease for just a moment as bites are savored.
Tall Pies: Despite the name, this dessert is actually technically a tart (tarts are freestanding desserts where the dough holds the filling; pies are filled desserts that must remain in the pie dish as the crust would be unable to support the dessert on its own). This tall pie is baked somewhat like a tart (using a springform pan instead of a tart pan) and somewhat like a pie (everything going into the oven at the same time with no blind baking and filled more like a traditional pie).
Because of the size, a long baking time is required. Even at 1.5 hours, the filling can still be runny so for a more congealed or set filling I suggest mashing about half of the blueberries and allowing the pie to rest and cool completely after baking before slicing.
Blueberry Tall Pie
Difficulty: Easy
Yield: 1, 8″ pie, 3″ tall
Prep Time: 1 hour
Bake Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Rest Time: 4 plus hoursTools:
8″x3″ springform pan
Parchment paper
Large bowl
Wooden Spoon
Lemon zesterIngredients:
2 pounds Whole Wheat Brown Sugar Crust (recipe blow)
3 pounds blueberries
Zest & Juice from 3 lemons
1 cup maple syrup
6 ounces sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch1/2 pound blueberries for topping
Instructions:
1. Combine the 3 pounds blueberries, lemon juice and zest, maple syrup and sugar together in a bowl. Stir to combine and mash half of the blueberries (less if you want more whole blueberries and a runnier pie). Set aside to macerate for an hour.
2. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line the bottom and sides of the springform pan with parchment paper.
3. Roll out the whole wheat brown sugar crust to 1/4″ and line the springform pan with the dough, pushing it to the bottom, sides and corners. Trim any extra dough from the top so it is level with the pan. Set aside.
4. Add the cornstarch to the blueberry macerate. Mix in well. Pour the pie filling into the lined springform pan.
5. Place the pie in the oven. Reduce the heat to 375°F. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes (or until the filling looks thick and bubbly). You may need to cover the top of the pie with foil after 30 minutes to keep the crust from over browning.
6. Remove from the oven and let the pie cool completely. Add a layer of fresh blueberries on top if you like.
Short Dough: Most tarts use a form of short dough to create the base. Short dough is essentially a cookie dough (butter, sugar, eggs & flour). Unlike pie dough that is flaky, short dough becomes firm and rigid allowing the tart to stand on its own. Because short doughs often contain a lot of butter and sugar in relation to flour, they are a very wet/soft dough. Short doughs must be refrigerated for an hour or more before rolling out. The brown sugar in this recipe gives this dough a tangy sweetness while the whole wheat pastry flour gives it a wonderfully earthy, nutty flavor.
Whole Wheat Brown Sugar Crust
Difficulty: Easy
Yield: 2 pounds or enough for 1, 8″x3″ round tall pie
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Tools:
Stand mixer with beater attachment or
Large bowl & spoon
Parchment paperIngredients:10 ounces unsalted butter, at room temp.
8 ounces brown sugar
2 eggs
15 ounces whole wheat pasty flourInstructions:1. Mix the sugar, butter and egg together until combined.2. Add the flour and mix until a dough forms.3. Form the dough into a disk and wrap in parchment paper.4. Place in the refrigerator and chill for a couple hours.
Enjoy!
This is beautiful! I love blueberries, I may have to buy a springform pan just so I can make this!
Wow. This is a hard core blueberry pie indeed. I primarily express my affection to my partner in one of two ways: one involves cheerfully baking blueberry anythings (tarts/pies/scones/cakes etc), the other involves duct tape. So. Blueberries are pretty high up on the list. This absolutely will be made. Soon.
Whoa mama that is one hardcore pie and a whole lotta blueberries! What I wouldn’t give for a slice with a small dollop of ice cream!
SUCH an incredible-looking pie, Russell – I’m in awe!
Loving your crust. I have yet to make my own crust (intimidated), but yours looks simple enough. Looking delicious as always! ^_^
Jeesh! Russell, this looks like a dream come true. I think my boyfriend would be even more excited than I am about this – which is hard to believe! I love it, I wish I was there to eat it, and I will most definitely be trying this soon!!
This is beautiful and a creative pie/tart. I’m so in love with blueberries even though I won’t be able to buy fresh-from-farm blueberries in my country. Definitely will try it! Thanks~
Oh gorgeous! Love everything about this!!
This is really a pie and a half! And I’ve been looking for a good whole wheat pie crust so I’m extra thankful to see this today.
Whoa, beautiful (and certainly yummy!) cake! I really like the idea of the whole wheat crust, I’m sure it goes very well with the blueberries!
The best part of the pie is the filling, so I love the idea of a tall pie piled high with filling! Not to mention that it is visually stunnning ;). This looks wonderful!
This pie is seriously intense – and so, so, beautiful! I love your writing too. It’s always something special to wake up to :) Great dessert!
Gorgeous. I would love that whole wheat sugar crust.
omg wow! This looks beyond fabulous! I have blueberries on my site today too :)
This is the most beautiful pie I’ve ever seen! Absolutely gorgeous.
Pinned this last night:) Gorgeous pie!
WOW! Now that’s a pie…
Whoa. This is the most beastly pie/tart I have ever seen. I can’t stop staring at all those blueberries in there!!
Some Pie!
This is gorgeous. Drooling over the crust, for sure!
I’ve never heard of a tall pie. This looks absolutely gorgeous, though! I kind of love making pie, but kind of hate trying to make them look beautiful. This might be my perfect solution!
Looks Fantastic but it tastes as great
I’ve never seen such a tall pie filled with so much fruit. Looks absolutely gorgeous.
Let me echo everyone else – fabulous looking pie. Really beautiful, and great recipe. Love the bottom picture. Also I like the blog redesign. It’s significantly easier to read the posts and comments (not that it was difficult before, but this is easier on the eyes). New header looks good (great picture!), although I rather liked the minimalist style that you’ve been using for the last few months — in particular I liked your logo. But your tabs (About, Blogs, etc.) are more visible in this format. Great job both on this post and the new design.
I wanted to make blueberry pie for my dad this weekend, but now I’m thinking I need to make a Blueberry TALL Pie. It’s beautiful!
This is simply gorgeous!
Ok…..I’m convinced!!! That looks dangerously delicious!
Russell……..that is just stunning!
I found this post though Pinterest. The photo was so beautiful that I just had to come here to read the recipe! Love it! And love your site :-).
I would like to invite you to share this post (and your other posts :-) ) on a new photo based recipe sharing site that launched in May. The idea is simple: all recipe photographs are published within minutes of submission. And, of course, the images link back to the author’s site.
It’s called RecipeNewZ (with Z) – http://recipenewz.com
I hope you get a chance to visit and to share some of your delicious posts with our viewers. It would be a pleasure to have you on board :-)
My oh my. I’ve never seen a pie that high! I really didn’t intend for that to rhyme.
This looks sooo yummy! I’ll have to give it a try ASAP!
blueberry pie is my absolute favorite, and I will have to make this TALL pie soon. It looks fabulous!
Wow what a showstopping pie!
Wow, now THAT’S a blueberry pie! This is beautifully photographed and I’m sure it tastes awesome. I’m featuring this post in today’s Food Fetish Friday series (with a link-back and attribution). I hope you have no objections and it’s so much fun following your creations…
Thank you for the kind words! And feel free to share anytime! Thanks again.
Russel, Oh my GAWWWD! That is truly amazing. I just want stare at it all day long.
That looks insanely good! I love the idea of a tall pie!
I love the effect that a smaller, but taller, pan gives to cakes and pastries. Smitten Kitchen did this a while back with quiche. Stunning!
oh Russell, this is GORGEOUS!!
Wow, now that is a stunningly tall blueberry pie! Can’t wait until blueberry season.
I didn’t even know the term “Tall Pies” existed! You have achieved a wonderful colour on that crust. I wonder how long a pie like that would last in our house…
Maybe I missed it, but you never say what to do with the pie crust. It’s obvious, but maybe not for a beginner cook if they stumbled onto this.
Thanks for pointing this out Alexis. I can’t believe I let that slip through. I will go ahead and fix this! Thanks again.
Sounds delicious for this pie recipe! It’s make me hungry :) i can’t wait to eat this!
Wow, this is the epitomy of blueberry pies. It’s gorgeous!
How beautiful! There’s just something magical about the profile of an extra tall slice of pie. I love that you sweetened it with maple syrup. I think I’m going to do that for the blueberry pie I make for the 4th. Thanks for the inspiration!
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A beautiful pie with one of my favorite fruits! Thanks for sharing.
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