Mixed Berry Sour Cream Pie
Last week I interviewed Zoe Nathan about her new book Huckleberry. Of course one of the topics of our conversation was Pie. She talked about how much she loves a messy pie. So of course I had to make one. I love when professional bakers reinforce the idea that perfection often looks different than you imagine. So in this case messy=beautiful (and delicious). I remembered that Patti of worththewhisk shared a recipe on the Good Food blog for Strawberry Sour Cream Pie. I used that as a general idea, but to get to the messy place I wanted I added a lot more fruit so that the sour cream-flour-sugar would act more like a gentle binder of flowing juices than a major player like the custard of a chess pie.
Mixed Berry Sour Cream Pie
Course: Dessert, Snack, Tea Time
Cuisine: American
Ingredients
1 prepared pie pan with dough ready for baking very cold or frozen
1 quart blackberries
2 cups raspberries
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1 lg egg
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 450
2. Gently wash berries and remove any stay stem bits. Set in colander to drain.
3. Whisk together the flour, salt and sugar to mix. Do this in a bowl large enough to eventually accommodate the berries,
4. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream and egg.
5. Add the sour cream-egg mixture to the dry mixture and stir to mix.
6. Add the cleaned berries to the sour cream-flour mixture and gently fold in. Don’t worry about mixing it perfectly. You don’t want to break down too many berries in the process. The mixture will be thick and strange. Don’t worry.
7. Add the mixture to your unbaked pie shell. Use a rubber spatula or the back of a spoon to gently coax the mixture fairly evenly into the shell. Don’t pack it in (thanks Patti!), but be sure to bring filling up to the edge.
8. Place on rack lowest to the bottom of the oven if using gas. Cook at 450 for 15 minutes then turn heat down to 475 and bake until crust is nicely browned on bottom. (If you use a pyrex pan this is easy to check). I wanted a bit of brown on the top of my pie so I moved it to the top shelf to get some top heat. You could broil it for a few seconds if you’re very careful.
9. The pie is done when the filling is oozy and the crust is golden brown, about 45 to 50 minutes. If you find your edge browning too quickly you can always make a collar for it out of aluminum foil.