Summer demands pies. Yesterday, I demanded a blackberry pie. Some of the other house inhabitants were fussy with my choice, but I know who I am, and they can't change me. If you've been keeping up with my posts, I have a TON of egg whites left over from other projects. For this reason, I decided to put a meringue top on my pie. Unheard of! Sacrilegious! Delicious. Here's how it went down.


Blackberry Meringue Pie

Get crusty. For one crust, combine the flour with the salt and sugar. Cut the cold shortening into the dough until pea-sized particles form. Slowly drizzle the cold water into the dough and mix just to combine. *I put an ice cube in my water to make it very cold*. Refrigerate an hour.

This is my pastry blade. It makes short work of short crusts. Puns always intended, you're in my house. 

Flour a work surface and roll out your crust and place it into your pan. Since we have a meringue top, I turned the edges up to hold it better.

MMmmmm, blackberries drunk on sucrose. Lovin it. Take your blackberries and add the sugar and tapioca flour. I added a teaspoon each of lemon zest and vanilla. I also added a pinch of salt. Always salt fruit. 

Time to whip it good. Take the egg whites that have come to room temperature (we actually danced around with them waiting for them to come to temperature this time because they will whip so much better than cold eggs). My good and long-standing friend Amanda then beat the whites to medium peaks and added the cream of tartar and the salt. She then slowly added the sugar and vanilla and beat the whites until they had  an illustrious shine, not unlike myself after Zumba. 

Pour your filling into your shell and bake. You may make a tin foil wreath around your crust if you find it is browning way faster than your filling is cooking. When the pie has finished baking, crown it with the meringue and bake under the broiler for a few minutes until it browns. 

Look at that pie. The majestic egg white mountain of beauty means this pie needs to be chilled so it doesn't pick up any little, nasty friends that will set your insides on fire and pillage what's left. 

Now for the footnotes:

• I used corn starch instead of tapioca and the pie came outta hot mess. Pun intended per usual. I think the low temperature listed sets tapioca better, whereas a high temperature would have let the starch bubble and set. 
• Since we cooked it for so long, waiting for it to set, an angelic mutation happened in the crust. The sugar in the filling set on top of the bottom layer of crust, leaving behind an igneous layer of sugary glory.
• The pie still tasted like cherubs dancing in my mouth, regardless of all the mishaps.

Recipes

Temp: 350 F

Time: 45 min

Yield: 8-10

Pie Filling:

4c blackberries

1 1/4c sugar 

3T quick-cooking tapioca

Crust:

1 1/2c flour

1T sugar

1/2t salt

1/2c cold shortening

1/4c cold water

Meringue:

4 large egg whites, room temperature

1/4t cream of tartar

pinch of salt

1/2c sugar

1/2t vanilla

*All recipes adapted from Ken Haedrich's book "Pie", which I highly suggest getting if you have an interest in pies.