No summer party is complete without berry pie. This triple berry pie is a combination of raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries.
Happy Fourth of July! What’s more American than pie?
Maybe hot dogs and baseball? Football and Thanksgiving? This week we celebrate America’s independence, and I say its best done with berry pie!
I’m not sure about you, but I usually spend this holiday outside all day and all night.
During the day, I’m either poolside or lounging by the beach, eating barbecue and corn on the cob. By nightfall, I’m at Disneyland waiting for their spectacular fireworks display.
Mixed Berry Pie
Sweet yet slightly tart. Buttery and crisp. Served a la mode with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream, and you’ve got a perfect summertime treat!
This mixed berry pie is a delicious edible celebration of summer fruits!
Use a combination of your favorite berries: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, marionberries, huckleberries, or cloudberries.
Or, skip the berries altogether and use a combination of other summertime fruits such as: peaches, plums, nectarines, or figs.
Whatever fruit you choose to use, be sure to cover the pie with a lattice top to showcase the beautiful jammy flavors peaking through!
How to make pie dough during warm weather
I have my go-to all butter pie crust recipe during the cooler autumn and winter months.
However, that favorite recipe isn’t the best during the summer months.
The warm temperature along with the heat of my hands causes the butter in the pie dough to melt.
During warm weather, I prefer to use pie dough make with shortening. There are many shortenings to choose from. I highly recommend this Spectrum All Vegetable Shortening in the image below.
Shortening works wonders in the summer! Shortening has a higher melting point compared to butter. Meaning, shortening based pie doughs are a lot easier to work with during hot seasons.
Also, because shortening has no moisture, it makes flaky pie crusts.
I find it easier to make pie dough in a food processor during the summer. (Like I said before, my warm hands melt the butter and I end up with a gooey mess.)
Add all the ingredients into the food processor and pulse until you get a crumbly sand mixture.
Slowly add ice water and continue to pulse until you get a dough similar to the last photo above.
Dump in out on a clean working surface and push the dough together until it’s a cohesive mass.
Best Results for Summer Pie Dough
Hungry for more pie? Here are summertime favorites:
- No-Bake Blueberry Icebox Pie: cooked blueberries mixed into a cream cheese based filling inside a gingersnap cookie crust.
- Cinnamon Toast Crunch Ice Cream Pie: transform your favorite breakfast cereal into a delicious frozen treat!
- Strawberry Pie: from-scratch pie using a two-crust dough filled with fresh strawberries.
Triple Berry Pie
Ingredients
Pie Dough:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- 7 Tablespoons vegetable shortening
- 10 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons, chilled
- 7-9 Tablespoons ice cold water
Triple Berry Filling:
- 5 cups mixed berries (6 oz raspberries, 6 oz blackberries, 12 oz blueberries)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 Tablespoons cornstarch
Instructions
Pie Dough:
- In the bowl of a food processor, pulse together flour, salt, and sugar until combined. Add the shortening and butter and pulse until the texture of coarse sand.
- Add 7 tablespoons of water and pulse until dough has almost come together. If dough is try, add another 1-2 tablespoons of water. Turn dough onto a clean working surface and push dough together into a cohesive mass.
- Divide dough into two pieces, one slightly larger than the other. Flatten the two pieces and wrap separately in plastic wrap. Chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour, up to 2 days.
- Remove dough from fridge and let stand at room temperature until pliable.
- Roll the large piece into a rectangle about 15×11 inches, a little less than ¼ inch thick
- Using a knife or pastry wheel, cut the rectangle into at least 9 strips about ¾-inch wide. Place strips in the fridge to chill until slightly firm, 15-30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, roll out the smaller dough on a lightly floured surface to about an 11 inch circle, about ¼-inch thick. Place pie plate upside over the rolled dough to make sure it is the right size.
- Transfer rolled dough to a 9-inch pie pan. Firmly press dough into the bottom and sides of pan. Trim the excess dough leaving ½-inch of dough overhang. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill for 10-15 minutes.
Triple Berry Filling:
- In a medium bowl combine berries, sugar, salt, and cornstarch. Toss to ensure berries are evenly coated with dry ingredients.
- Transfer berries to prepared and chilled pie bottom.
- Remove lattice strips from fridge. To make a lattice, lay out 5 strips of dough horizontally on parchment paper. Fold the first, third, and fifth strips back to the right side. Place a strip of dough vertically down the center.
- Unfold the first, third, and fifth strip over the perpendicular strip. Fold the second and fourth strips back to the right. Add a second vertical strip about ¾-inch away from the first vertical strip. Unfold the second and fourth strip.
- Repeat this process with the remaining strips. Chill completed lattice in the fridge for about 15-30 minutes until firm.
- When ready, slide lattice on top of filling. Trim off any excess and fold over the overhang from pie bottom. Crimp edges with a fork or your fingers. If you have excess pie dough, roll out to ¼-inch thick and punch out desired star shapes. Attach cut out stars to lattice using a little bit of water. Chill the pie while you preheat the oven to 450° F.
- Place chilled pie on a baking sheet. Lightly brush lattice top with water and sprinkle pie with turbinado sugar or white sanding sugar.
- Bake at 450°F for 15 minutes. Then reduce heat to 350°F and bake for another 15 minutes. Rotate pie and continue baking for another 20-30 minutes until pie is golden brown and filling is bubbling and boiling. If crust browns too fast, cover with foil while baking. Let pie cool on rack before serving.
Notes
- PIE CRUST ADAPTED FROM BAKING ILLUSTRATED
- BERRY FILLING FROM THE LITTLE EPICUREAN’S STRAWBERRY PIE
It looks amazing!
I must try making it, I love berries.
beautiful pictures!
btw – do you think it might be better if the pastry was baked a little before putting in the berry mix?
Thank you so much! No, this isn’t a pie that you can par-bake because you wouldn’t be able to attach the lattice top. Also, the berry filling does not affect the bottom pastry from crisping and cooking in the oven. Once cooled, the berry filling is quite stable and holds up. I hope that answers your question! :)