Easy Blackberry Pie
Nothin’ says southern like a blackberry pie in your oven. There’s no need to worry either–you can use a refrigerated crust and frozen berries if you don’t have fresh ones on hand and you may need some boxing gloves–just to fight everyone off so you can have a slice. Or okay maybe two.
For the last four years, I’ve entered an apple pie in our county fair. It does well–and this year I mentioned to my husband that I was going to enter my blackberry pie instead.
“You can’t give away my pie!” He said.
His pie? I guess in a way it is. It’s his favorite. It’s his birthday cake and his father’s day present. We all love it and hoard it. We never share it. If you want one, you’d better make it and plan to keep it all for yourself.
Blackberries are NOT hard to grow. I raise a thornless tame variety called Navajo–they make berries as big as your thumb and will start to bear in about two years. A bonehead can raise these things. Just keep them watered. Easy. And think of it this way–if you want berries, you won’t get any if you don’t start somewhere.
This recipe is an adaptation of one I found in the 1985 edition of the Southern Living cookbook series. I’ve collected every year since they started in 1975 and I go back to them regularly for traditional, tried-and-true recipes.
Sometimes newer just isn’t better, and this pie will stand the test of time in your recipe library. If you’re terrified of pie crusts, you can certainly use a store bought one–you’ll actually need two–one for the top and one for the bottom. I won’t knock you for it. But if you want to go all turbo, make it from scratch with my recipe.
Fresh or frozen berries are fine here. Just know that this is a super juicy pie so bake it on a cookie sheet lined with foil and if you want it more firm, refrigerate it overnight before you cut it. Otherwise just keep licking the juice off your fingers or get a straw…I might have been known to do either one.
Watch me make this pie in its full version on my YouTube Channel!
Blackberry Pie
Ingredients
- 2 rolled pie crusts this is one box of refrigerated pie crusts if you buy them at the store (if making from scratch use a “double crust” recipe)
- 6 cups fresh or frozen blackberries thawed if frozen
- 1 cup granulated sugar (if your berries are very sour add an extra 1/2 cup of sugar)
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- juice of 1/2 of a fresh lemon
- 2 tablespoons cold butter
- 1 tablespoon beaten egg mixed with 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Place a pie crust in the bottom of a standard pie pan. In a bowl, mix the berries, sugar, cornstarch, salt and lemon juice and place in crust. Roll out the second crust and cut strips to make a lattice top, weaving the strips together.
- With a pastry brush or the back of a spoon, brush a light coating of the egg wash over your crust. Cut away any long strips of pie crust and crimp the edges or press around the edge with a fork to seal the crusts together.
- Dot with butter and sprinkle with one tablespoon of granulated sugar before baking. Bake 50-55 minutes until golden and bubbly. If your crust starts to get too brown, cover it with aluminum foil while it bakes
It sure what I did wrong but this didn’t set up at all. SL bakes goods usually do well for me. Tastes good though.
Did you make any changes Maggie? I know cornstarch can, if baked too long, go backwards and the sauce can re-loosen. Did you use frozen berries or fresh? Wild or tame? It sets up just fine for me, but I have to let it cool totally first…and I don’t mind a little sauce here and there anyway. 😉 I’m glad Southern Living works for you because I don’t tend to like anything I’ve ever really made from their baked goods. Personal preference I suppose! –Rachel
I haven’t made the pie yet, I was wondering if you think I could use tapioca instead of cornstarch.
I haven’t worked with tapioca Tina so I’m not sure on that. –Rachel
@Rachel Ballard,
Your recipe is great! But your story was the best. It made for much laughter in this household. My husband said the exact same thing….and it is his birthday cake!
@Tina, I always use tapioca (minute or flour) with berry pies. If you use the minute tapioca, make sure the pie bubbles real well. That gives the time for the little pearls to cook and absorb the berry flavor.
I have no idea how old this post may be, I came across it searching for something else this evening but I just had to stop and say this crust is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. The heck with the pie, the crust alone is worth having this pie. My family built and runs a retirement community. One of our residents last autumn asked if I could bake him a blackberry pie. I said I would be happy to do so. For some of our residents, especially the men who are widowed, they may not have had favorite desserts since their spouse passed away or some even, since their mother has died. Some men end have wives that just never did bake (some don’t even cook) and if the gentleman himself can’t bake something, they go without. Not everyone has a daughter who is a hobby baker to make all the family recipes. It was fine for each family member, they only had one or two things to make…..but as each one passed away the number of items I need to bake at the holidays keeps growing. We still try to have all the family favorites at the holidays. I’m hoping the things both my dad and I grew up with become important to the next generation. His grandparents were my babysitters so I grew up eating all the same things he did, at least through the day. My dad is also an only child so its up to his children to keep his family traditions going. My mom still tries to make at Christmas her mother’s Filled Cookies, which my dad likes quite a lot and she’s still making homemade noodles, which I’ve actually never made. Last word is she’s been teaching my nephew to make them. However her heath is not good at all so I’m not sure when she’s not going to be able to make those things. We’re one of those families that never get rid of anything which means not only possessions but also recipes and traditions. Anyway, at Christmas when I wanted to make this resident a blackberry pie he said, oh please no. He said he is so overloaded in sweets at the moment he couldn’t eat it. I think that now that the holidays are well past I may make him several small individual pies, about 3 or 4-inches in diameter and tell him how to freeze them, this way he can enjoy them any time he wants. Do you think the pies should be frozen baked or unbaked? I would think this gentleman would be fine heating an oven and placing the pie on a small baking sheet of some sort or even in a cake pan and baking it if I attach the instructions on the pie. These look so good I might try this recipe.
Hi Pamela–goodness thank you for your compliment on the pie. It’s not that old of a recipe but it’s certainly one that we just love. It’s replaced birthday cake in our house in fact. And how nice of you to make things that the residents enjoy. As for freezing…this pie is extremely juicy. Extremely. If you wanted to have the best success with it, I don’t know if freezing it would be best. I’d recommend baking it, then allowing it to cool to room temperature then put it in the fridge overnight. That helps a TON with the watery nature of the berries (there’s very little thickener in this recipe and we like it that way). You might be able to get away with freezing them after that but my fear is in the reheating–that the crust will be super soggy–but you’re welcome to try it if you want to. If you froze them unbaked, they’d probably turn out better but need a crazy amount of time in the oven to cook. An hour and a half or so depending on the size and thickness of the pie. You may just have to experiment and have a good attitude about whatever comes out of the oven. 🙂 –Rachel
We used wild blackberries we picked ourselves. They may have been small but they were amazingly sweet. I added only 1/4 cup sugar and probably didn’t need that!! Thanks for the recipe, with wild blackberries, it was an amazing pie!!
Oh wild blackberries are THE BEST! I think it’s an amazing pie no matter what you use to make it but those wild ones are probably cream of the crop. I have some here on my farm but my husband keeps mowing them down with the bush hog! No good. I’m so glad you enjoyed it. –Rachel
What’s the secret to a good pie crust mine tend to be very crumbly they don’t roll like they should they don’t look anything like the store-bought ones so I don’t know what I’m doing wrong and they don’t have very good flavor it’s not bad flavor but it’s not a great flavor either
Hey Penny, pie crusts stump a lot of people. I think a lot depends on whether you use butter or shortening to make it. I tend to really like all butter ones a lot more these days but here’s a post I wrote on how to make them a few years ago: https://feastandfarm.com/how-to-make-pie-crust/ See if there’s anything in there that helps. Sometimes you just need to practice a lot! –Rachel
My pie was very tart….not sweet at all. The blackberries were Frozen with no sugar added.
Hey Norma, thanks for your thoughts. Here’s what I always do when I have a fruit dessert to make: first, taste your fruit. See how tart or sweet it is and adjust any sugar you add from there. My recipe is certainly a starting point but by no means a hard and fast line you have to follow. We grow our own berries and they are often very, very sour. If you were expecting the sweetness of what you might find in a canned pie filling or something like that, then no this pie isn’t sweet–it’s not meant to be like that. My best recommendation is to taste those berries out of the bag and then taste them after you have added sugar and see if the sweetness suits you. Trial and error! –Rachel
This is a great receipe! It turned out delicious. I made it in a square corningware glass pan. I lightly sprinkled top with a little sugar and cinnamon on top of the egg wash. I will keep this receipe for the future. Thank you!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Debbie. It’s our most favorite pie and we’ve even swapped it for birthday cake now. I’m so glad you enjoyed it! –Rachel
I love the use of fresh blackberries! I don’t make pies often, but I feel like there was a lot of sugar involved! I may try 1/2 cup of sugar in my next attempt. Otherwise, it was a great recipe!
Hey Ginger, the amount of sugar you use totally depends on how sweet your berries are. And my blackberries tend to be very tart. Plus I don’t put any sugar in my crust so it’s not sweet. Every cook should taste their berries and feel free to dial back the sugar as much as they choose. It’s never been too sweet for me (and I’m sensitive to that) but please feel free to adjust yours any way that suits you. 🙂 –Rachel
In the ingredient list, it has 1 tbsp beaten egg mixed with 1 water. Is that 1 tbsp of water? Thank for the clarification. It sounds delicious. In the process of putting it together now.
Yes Toni it is…sorry about that. My recipe conversion software has glitches sometimes! Let me know how you like it!–Rachel
That pie is absolutely gorgeous. I love the way you made the top crust! One of my goals for 2017 is to become better at making pie crust. Fingers crossed!
Making pie crusts from scratch sure seems to terrify people but I know you can do it! I made my first one when I was 7 or 8 so I’ve been at it a long time–longer than I care to admit! Thanks Mary, let me know how you do.–Rachel
Love!
Hello from NZ. I want to thank you for your delightful recipe which inspired me to fuss and do the lovely lattice top …it’s in the oven as -I-write…the oven is begining to exhale some sweet Summer scent… wild blackberries; Oh Joy ! x
That’s wonderful Janine! I hope you really enjoy it. –Rachel