Like Sal, I find blueberries hard to resist this time of year. Sadly I don't live next to Blueberry Hill -- although I would love to see Baby Bear up there eating his fill of berries -- so I don’t have the luxury of picking buckets of them. I can, however, find beautiful mounds of blueberries everywhere I shop. Ripe, plump and juicy, they are ephemerally at their sweetest right now. So in addition to the handfuls of blueberries I like to eat while standing in my kitchen, and the blueberry muffins I’ve enjoyed recently, I have also made my yearly fresh blueberry crumble pie.

The key to this pie is fresh blueberries. It can be made with frozen berries, but I recommend making it now while the fruit is firm and plump, deliciously sweet with a slightly tart burst. Cooked in a prebaked pie crust, the pastry is buttery and crisp and sits firmly beneath the berry filling (instead of getting soggy). I then top the pie with a traditional fruit crisp topping of oatmeal, flour, sugar and butter.

As Sal's mother and Mama Bear knew, blueberry season passes quickly; so why not make the most of it with a pie?

Blueberry Crumble Pie

Makes: One pie

Ingredients:

1 pie crust
5 cups blueberries (cleaned and dried with stems removed)
4 Tbsp flour
2/3 cup granulated sugar
Pinch salt
Zest from 1/2 a lemon
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

Topping
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 stick butter

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place pie crust in you baking dish, top with parchment paper and either pie weights or beans, and bake for 20 minutes. Take crust out of the oven then and then remove the pie weights and parchment paper. Let cool until ready to use.
2. Mix berries, white sugar, flour, salt, lemon zest and peel in a large bowl. Set aside.
3. Mix topping ingredients, being sure to thoroughly incorporate the butter into the flour, oatmeal and sugar so it resembles small pebbles.

4. Set blueberries into the cooked pie crust. Top with the oatmeal and flour mixture, being sure to mound it securely on top. Bake for 50 - 60 minutes or until the topping is golden brown and the filing is bubbling. If the topping browns too quickly while baking, place foil on it.
5. Let pie cool and serve with ice cream.

Robert McCloskeyRobert McCloskey

Blueberry Crumble Pie