The first time I baked this pie it felt like magic when I took it out of the oven.
Not only has this dish been around for centuries, I got to taste a bit of Britain’s beautiful food heritage. There are quite a few cookery books around that were written more than hundreds of years ago and are still influencing cooks today.
Like in politics, we are supposed to learn from our history. So whenever I am cooking a dish I research it to find out how it was prepared by the Elizabethans, Victorians, Edwardians and learn about how tastes changed and some things just stayed the same.
I am eternally grateful to Florence White who wrote the book ‘Good things in England’. Born in 1863 she was the first ever freelance journalist specializing in food and English cooking in particular.
For the creation of the book she went out looking for traditional British recipes that were handed down in families for generations. Some of the regional recipes that she found or had been sent by her readers, dated back as far as the 14th century.
In 1931 she founded the ‘English Folk Cookery Association’ and later she set up a cookery and domestic training school in Fareham.
Another interesting read about English traditional cooking are the books from Jane Grigson, some of the recipes in her books are from or inspired by Isabella Beeton, the author of the book ‘Mrs Beetons’s Book of Household Management‘ in 1861.
Both White and Beeton’s books influenced the work of Elizabeth David and so do we go on to keep British food heritage alive.
This pie is inspired by Jane Grigson‘s Blaeberry pie from the 70s.
These days puff pastry is more popular for fruit pies but in the old days Shortcrust pastry would have been used.
I am not a big fan of puff pastry and when I read about Flaky Shortcrust pastry in Beeton’s book I thought I would give it a try. The recipe was very similar to my recipe for savoury pie pastry.
The pie worked best with the Flaky Shortcrust pastry, I added a pinch of sugar to the dough and used sparkling water instead of still water.
Blaeberries are known in England by various of local names, these include Bilberries, Wimberries and myrtle blueberries. In Ireland they are known as Fraughan and are traditionally picked on Fraughan sunday on the last sunday of july.
Bilberries were gathered by the Gaelic on the feast of Lughnasadh which is celebrated on the first of August. The Bilberries were gathered to bake pies and make wine.
Lughnasadh is a harvest celebration, a time when food is plenty and has to be preserved for the more lean days ahead in the year.
I am fascinated by these feasts which all celebrate food, fertility and life. Things were so simple and so straight forward. People were looking forward to the first berries and now we can buy them all year long. We are losing our connection with the seasons…
By chance while I write this, it’s the last sunday of July. So this pie is for the harvest and the start of a whole new chapter in my life… but more on that at a later date.
What do you need
a 22 cm pie dish, I used enamelware
For the pastry
this recipe is for a pie in a 22 cm pie dish, including the bottom part, I only use the top for this pie so you will have some leftover dough to freeze or make little pies with
• 250 g plain white flour
• 150 g cold butter
• 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice
• 100ml ice cold sparklingwater
• pinch of sugar
• 1 egg white for egg washing the pastry
You can do this with a food processor, but I like to do it by hand.
Mix flour and sugar.
Finely slice half of the butter finely into the flour, shake the bowl so the butter is covered in flour.
Use a round knife to cut the butter into smaller pieces until the mixture resembles crumbs. You can also use a fork to do this.
Put in the fridge for 30 minutes
Now add the other half of the butter and do the same thing, cutting the butter into smaller pieces.
Add the lemon juice to the water
Start adding the water to the flour and butter, bring the dough together.
Make sure you don’t over handle the dough, when it gets sticky, refrigerate again.
The dough needs to stay cool.
When you’ve managed to bring the dough together into a large lump, wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Now prepare your pie filling
For the filling
• 500 g blueberries
• 85 g cane sugar (you can add 100g if you like things very sweet)
• 1 level tablespoon of cornflour (cornstarch)
Mix the sugar with the cornflour
Add a layer of berries to the pie dish
Add a layer of sugar and cornflour mixture and keep on doing this until the pie dish is slightly heaped with fruit.
When the dough has rested enough.
Preheat your oven to 220°
Roll out your dough on a flowered surface.
It should be half a cm thick.
Line the pastry over the pie dish filled with fruit and trim the edges.
Give the pastry a generous egg wash
score the middle of the pastry with a sharp knife so the steam can get out.
Put the pie in the bottom part of the oven for 15 min at 220°
After 15 min reduce the heat to 180° and bake for 20-30 minutes
When ready, leave it to rest for 20 minutes so the fruit can set a bit.
Enjoy with a dollop of clotted cream, double cream or ice cream.
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| The magic that is opening the lid of a pie and discovering color… |
Please leave a comment, I enjoy reading them
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Regula Ysewijn is a food writer, stylist and photographer, with a particular interest in historical recipes. he is a Great Taste Awards judge and a member of The Guild of Food Writers, as well as one of the two judges on 'Bake Off Vlaanderen', the Belgian version of 'The Great British Bake-Off'. A self-confessed Anglophile, she collects old British cookbooks and culinary equipment in order to help with her research. She is the author of 5 books: Pride and Pudding the history of British puddings savoury and sweet, Belgian Café Culture, the National Trust Book of Puddings, Brits Bakboek and Oats in the North, Wheat from the South. 
A splendid pie and beautiful post! I love old-fashioned recipes and I am a fervent defenser of British food… You just made me happy!
Cheers,
Rosa
Thank you Rosa, eating and baking this pie made me happy and it fills me with joy that it brought you happiness as well x
This pie looks amazing! I don't think we get blaeberries at all in the US–although obviously ordinary blueberries would produce good results too. (Or are they actually the same thing?)
Hi Eileen, Blaeberry is just another word for blueberry. There are many names for blaeberries as I stated in my post. There is some difference with the American blueberries but the difference is so small that you won't notica at all!
Hi Eileen, when I liven in Scotland, we called them "Blaeberries", here in Cheshire everyone calls them "blueberries", they grow wild and are great fun to pick. I'm not sure if there's a horticultural difference, but we make our pies with blueberries and they taste just fine.
Indeed they are quite the same, that's why my recipe states to use blueberries 🙂
I discovered a deep love for pies only few months ago and since then I've been studying English and American desserts recipes! I like your tarte but I love the mug and the little cup in the first photo above all! Could you tell me if you know any webshop where I can buy them?
Thanks a lot and come to visit me on http://www.chefperpassione.blogspot.it!
Hi Chiara, the mug is like the pie dish Falcon enamelware, they have a website and they ship overseas: http://www.falconenamelware.com/
The cup is from Marcks&Spencer, don't know if you can get it online though. Will have a lookie on your blog!
Gorgeous pie, darling – seems we were of one mind this weekend as I made a peach & raspberry lattice pie 😉
How long did you let your pie sit before you sliced it up? Just wondering if it sets a little more when cooler as your slice looks quite runny. I find I often have to let pies cool for at least 2 hours, usually more like 3-4, or I end up with (albeit delicous) juice everywhere.
xxx
Thanks darling! I let the pie sit for 20 minutes 🙂 I couldn't wait! But also, I like a blueberry pie runny 🙂 I don't remember if your pie had a base? Mine doesn't, if it had a base it should be more set of course. When I look at various of blueberry pies from 'the old days' they never use more cornstarch so I didn't either. Perhaps this is how it was eaten in the past? I will have to find a very old English lady and ask her 🙂
Ah I see! And mine had a base but I didn't let it sit for long enough so it was a little on the runny side, too 😉 x
hehe and I did reduce the amount of sugar so this will also lead to a more runny pie 🙂 Why wait, it's there, it's hot it's yummy!
Lovely post. I am all into food history, folklore, traditional old recipes, and I have to thank you for feeding me with more information on the subject, and the pie. I love my pies with only the top crust, my grandmother use to make this way her pies. Wonderful! 🙂
Thank you Marina; I also am a big fan of a pie with only the top crust!
OOh I have been so craving pie lately and this looks simply divine. I love blueberries but thinking maybe cherries! Looks simply wonderful!
Hi Meeta, yes cherries will work wonderfully in this pie!!!
I love love love this post, for the information about English writers (all women, girl power! now I finally see where Elizabeth David came from!), for the historic and legendary bit about blaeberry (you know I love rituals related to Mother Nature) and most of all, for your sparkling energy and contagious enthusiasm!
xx
Hi Giulia, thanks so much! Indeed British food culture is full of women! Girl power indeed! x
I was delighted to find a recipe for Blaeberry pie and your attention to detail is stunning, right up my street. As a keen forager though I was really disappointed to see you had used blueberries in the actual pie, I hope they were at least home grown! 😉 (Activate smug-mode).
Wild Blaeberries taste divine and although commercial blueberries descend from them making Blaeberries essentially 'wild blueberries' they taste quite different. I urge you to go find some bushes and forage some! We spent two lovely hours with our dogs foraging our harvest last night while watching the sun set over Edinburgh as we picked happily away! I look forward to making your pie with the wee beauties.
Thanks for the recipe, I'll be giving it a go, just to clarify some users questions, blueberry and bilberry (blaeberry, whortleberry etc etc) are both species of Vaccinium, but bilberry is smaller, juicier and cooks a lot better and make better jam, i think they have better flavour, although thats often the case with wild fruit.
Matt
Eden Wild Food
http://www.facebook.com/edenwildfood
This looks like a good recipe but your photograph shows blueberries (they are far too big) not wild bilberries as we say in Yorkshire (or blueberries in Scotland) which are far smaller and thus take forever to pick enough for just one pie…making it all the more special of course!! Lisa
My new favorite pie recipe. The crust is absolutely awesome though, so we have experimented with putting crust on the bottom as well as the top, especially when working with large amounts of blueberries, and it works out wonderfully.
Thanks for sharing!
Hi Matt, I’m glad the pastry and pie are working for you!! Enjoy!!
Thanks for posting! I’m reading “The Old Man of Lochnagar” and was curious about Blaeberries and a receipt of what the US calls “Blueberry pie.” The crust looks absolutely delicious.