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summer perfection: blueberry crumble pie

By on July 23, 2013

Julie, By The Recipe

Note: I have had very little interaction/conversation with adults over the last three days. That should explain a lot.

What is it ‘they’ say (whoever ‘they’ are)?

It’s better to have too much food than not enough. Is that it?

I’m at the cottage this week and obviously making up for lost time, seeing as this is my third post this week.

In preparation for the week, I did some grocery shopping. I would be at the cottage with my two little people. Nine days. And for 5 of those days we would be joined by two other ‘little people’, who sadly happily are just as tall and taller than me. Granted it doesn’t take much.

Anyway, 4 kids equals lots of snacks.

My kids are snackers. Always have been. Likely always will be. I recognize that they snack more when they are bored. I also recognize that this is not a good thing.

So to prepare, I bought a lot of snacks. Everything from individual yogurt cups, a big bag of mini cucumbers, a box of cut up veggies, and a big box of blueberries.

I know you’re probably rolling your eyes right now thinking ‘what on earth did she go and buy all those fruit and vegetables for?’ And ‘that’s it? What about the good snacks?’

I knew that our guests would arrive with a bunch of ‘good’ snacks. They were crossing the border from the USA to Canada and fruits and veggies can be tricky to bring across. So they brought Pirate Booty, Veggie Sticks ( a healthier version of cheesies), Clif bars for kids and wafer cookies, to name a few.

Three days in, and they’ve only eaten one bag of Pirate Booty. Of course they did finish off an ice cream cake, as well as all the homemade granola I brought with me.

They are spending their days at Raised Jay, a day camp program located at Jay Peak Resort in Vermont. A great success so far, I pick them up at the end of the day, exhausted. Our 30 minute car ride back to the cottage recharges the batteries. Enough energy can be found for some soccer and swimming in the lake.

This was taken after a tram ride up to the top of Jay Peak.

By the time they are tired again, dinner is ready. A bit of a movie followed by bedtime means that only one of those bags of snacks has been consumed.

Crap. What am I going to do with all this food?!

The blueberries would have been eaten with the granola and yogurt had they tasted better. I think they were just a bit over-ripe.

So on the hottest week of the summer, I decide I need to bake so that I don’t end up throwing the blueberries into the compost.

And that’s where things get complicated.

1. My blueberry recipe is on my laptop, in the city.
2. The pie plate here is a tad bit too small.
3. I don’t really like to make crust.
4. Did I mention it’s really hot?

Our little country store at the end of the road, thankfully carries frozen pie crust (2 to a package). And the crust is in a foil pan! Too lazy to take the one crust out of the pan to use for a top crust, (and with my luck it will crack and fall apart and not go back together again) I decide to make two pies, with crumble topping. Well be perfect to rave as dessert on Friday when I am joined by 3 adults!

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Jewitt’s Store, Vale Perkins, Quebec

All of my searching on the Internet, pies made, and I realize that my pie recipe (store bought crust and all) is posted over at The Kid Scoop. I forgot that I had submitted that recipe as a blog post last year. By the way, The Kid Scoop is a great resource if you need kid friendly things to do in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver!

Blueberry Crumble Pie

This recipe has been created from a number of different sources online. Often when I am searching for a specific recipe I blend a few together, based on my ingredients on hand, tastes and ratings of recipes. I do use a store bought crust, but if you’d rather use homemade, please do so!

2 pie crusts (only needed for the bottom not the top)

Pie Filling
2 pounds or 907 grams of blueberries
2/3 cup of sugar
3 tbsp flour
1 tsp cinnamon
juice of one lemon

Crumble Topping
3/4 cup butter, cold, cut into pieces
3/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cup of oats
3/4 cup of brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400F.

Prepare pie crust as necessary. For mine, I pre baked them in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.

In a small bowl, mix the sugar, flour and cinnamon for the pie filling.
In a large bowl mix the blueberries and lemon juice.
Add the dry ingredients and stir well.

Divide the blueberries into the pie crusts.

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Using your food processor, mix the oats, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon. Add the pieces of butter and mid until a crumb mixture is formed.
Divide crumble topping between your two pies.

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Put both pies on a cookie sheet. Reduce oven temperature to 375. Out the pies into the oven and bake for 45 minutes, until topping is golden brown and the blueberries are bubbling over (which is why you use the cookie sheet).

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

 

Julie of By The Recipe says this about her food writing:

I’m not sure which came first: my sweet tooth, or my desire to bake.  Before I was a wife and a mother, I was a baker.  I love to bake.

Before kids, I wasn’t much of a cook. After kids, my cooking abilities improved, I guess because I needed to feed my family. Over the years I have come to enjoy cooking, almost as much as baking.  But let’s be honest, the best part of baking and cooking are the accolades of a great mouthful of food. That inspires me.

When I cook, I cook by the recipe. Almost always.

 

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