Hoang Samuelson

Hello, and welcome to my first post!

For some of you (or maybe most of you), apple pie is as ubiquitous and traditional as going to a baseball game. But for me, I didn’t really grow up with pie. I grew up with other pastries made out of tapioca flour, and other gooey fillings. Sometimes it involved fruit–most of the time, though, it involved meaty fillings, like shredded pork or beans or taro paste.

Can you guess where I come from?

Yes, southeast Asia. Vietnam, to be specific.

Now I’m 35 and have been living in the U.S. since I was 10 years old. But for some reason, my experience with pie has been limited. I’ve eaten my share of them at family gatherings on my husband’s side (he’s American) but never so much attempted to make them myself.

It wasn’t until I discovered Natasha’s Kitchen (or rather, I discovered her a long time ago, and somehow she was archived on my iPhone for several years) for her apple pie recipe and her easy pie crust recipe. She even has videos you can watch. Her perky personality and megawatt smile, along with perfect hair, was really enticing. So lately, with the weather and the seasons changing, I decided to try making apple pie for the first time.

And welll….it turned out okay. Except for the part where I didn’t have a food processor. It was much harder to make the pie crust from scratch without a food processor. So I bought a food processor and tried again–this time with blueberry pie, because we had a giant bag of blueberries in the freezer for the past, oh I don’t know–8 months? Goodbye, frozen blueberries. Hello, blueberry pie!

I have to admit–for someone who’s never made pie before, I felt pretty darn good about it. I am now pie obsessed. (Not so good for the waistline though).

Blueberry Pie

From Natasha’s Kitchen

Ingredients

• 1 recipe for pie crust yields 2 crusts
• 6 cups blueberries*, rinsed and well drained (2 lbs or 32 oz)
• 1 tsp lemon zest  from 1 lemon
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice freshly squeezed
• 4 1/2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 egg + 1 Tbsp water

Instructions

1. Pre-make your pie crust and let it refrigerate** 1 hour in refrigerator before using. Roll the first disk into a 13″ circle and transfer to a 9″ wide pie pan.
2. Roll the second crust into a 12″ circle and use a pizza cutter to slice into ten 1-inch strips.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine 6 cups blueberries, 1 tsp lemon zest, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 4 1/2 Tbsp flour, 1 tsp cinnamon and toss to combine. Transfer blueberries into the dough-lined pie pan, mounding it just slightly in the center and keeping the edges clean of blueberry juice.
4. Using the 10 strips of dough, create a lattice crust over the top (see photo tutorial on natashaskitchen.com), pinch the edges to seal and crimp edges if desired.
5. Beat together 1 egg and 1 tbsp water and brush the egg wash over the lattice crust and edges. Bake in the center of the oven at 375˚F for 50-60 minutes, or until crust is golden and blueberry juice is bubbling at the edges.

*MY NOTES: If you use frozen blueberries, they will take a little longer than 60 minutes. It took me about 65 minutes.

**Also, don’t refrigerate your pie crust for more than an hour if you want to be able to roll them out easily. I refrigerated mine overnight and then let it sit at room temperature for about an hour, and it was kind of stiff still.