Blueberry Pie

This is inspired by an American recipe but changed to suit European quantities and ingredients.

Ingredients

Filling	Pastry
120 ml water	300 gm plain flour
70 gm caster sugar	1 tbspn sugar
4 level tbspn cornflour	1 tspn salt
400 - 450 gm blueberries (see note 1)	170 gm stork margarine (cold)
1 - 2 tbspn lemon juice (see note 4)	1 medium egg
	1½ tspn lemon juice (see note 2)

Preparation

Place a baking sheet into the oven and preheat the oven to 220° C.
Filling
In a non-stick saucepan, add the water and sugar and gradually stir in the cornflour.
Heat quickly, stirring constantly, until the mixture just begins to thicken, then remove from the heat and continue stirring until everything is smoothly combined, then set aside to cool. Be warned that if this is heated too much it will almost become solid. When cooled, mix in the lemon juice and then, using a large bowl, carefully combine with the blueberries.
Pastry
Sieve the flour, sugar and salt into a large bowl.
Cut the cold margarine into small cubes and add to the flour.
Rub the margarine into the flour until the texture resembles breadcrumbs.
Using a fork, beat together the egg, and lemon juice.
Using the blade of a large flat knife, mix the beaten egg and 1 tbspn of cold water into the flour and combine into a soft dough, adding a little more cold water as needed to ‘bring the dough together’ finally completing the task using your hands. Take care to handle the dough as little as possible (see note 3).
Split the pastry into 2 pieces and roll out one piece on a floured surface large enough to fill an approx 8 inch (20 cm) diameter, 1 inch (2.5 cm) deep pie tin.
Line the pie tin with the pastry and trim off the excess.
Spoon the blueberry filling into the pie tin.
Roll out the second piece of pastry so it will cover the pie tin.
Brush a little milk onto the edge of the pie base and add the pie crust pressing the edges together. Then trim off the excess.
Using a fork press the edge of the pie crust onto the pie base to form a seal.
If desired cut some thin shapes from the remaining pastry and add to the top of the pie as decoration, ‘sticking’ them with a little milk.
Sprinkle with a little caster sugar and cut a few vents to allow steam to escape during baking.

Cooking

Place the pie into the oven onto the preheated baking sheet and bake for 20 min.
Reduce the heat to 180° C and continue to bake for another 20 min.

Notes

(1) 450 gm is about right for an approx 8 inch (dia) x 1 inch (deep) pie tin.
(2) The lemon juice tends to inhibit the gluten in the flour from toughening the pastry.
(3) Handling the dough can ‘develop’ the gluten and toughen the pastry.
(4) I use 2 tbspn of lemon juice as I like it a little ‘tart’, but use 1 tbspn if you prefer.

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