Blueberry Cardamom Pie

We’ve recently been featuring recipes with late summer produce as the star. After having Corn Chowder for dinner, what’s for dessert? While the carrots in our Carrot Cake recipe have a pretty long growing season, Michigan blueberries are really only in abundance in late June through the end of August. So what did we use our last box of blueberries to make this year? Blueberry Cardamom Pie.

Blueberry and lemon go together so well, with just the right combination of sweet and sour notes. We wanted some aromatic spice to go with it, though, and decided on cardamom. Freshly grinding the cardamom in a mortar and pestle resulted in what we think is some of the most delicious blueberry pie we’ve ever had.

Part of this is down to the texture of the filling. We’ve made blueberry pie many times, but in the past it ended up very liquidy, which impacts the bottom crust (too soggy) and the structure of the piece when you serve it (basically nonexistent). Two ingredients are key to getting this Blueberry Pie to set in a somewhat thicker way: first, cornstarch, which is a pretty common pie thickener; second, patience. That’s right, I’m proposing you wait about a full day before you eat this pie, because the texture is, I think, much better than if you only wait a couple of hours.

A good pie crust requires as little handling as possible, which is why you should use the smearing butter technique written in here minimally. It’s a winning trick, though, and I learned about it through Joanne Chang and her cookbooks from Flour Bakery. This crust is one you can practice and master, which gives you the ability to use it for other pies.

As written, it’s for a double (top and bottom) crust like in this Blueberry Cardamom Pie, so if you want to do fancy stuff like a lattice, you’ve got plenty of dough. For a pumpkin pie or other types that use only a bottom crust, best to make about ⅔ of this recipe to ensure you’ve got enough to cover the sides of the pie dish.

Pie practically begs to be served with ice cream, which is how we devoured ours. If you’re intent on an all homemade dessert and have an ice cream maker, why not try using our yogurt recipe to make frozen yogurt? Or if you’re craving even more lemon flavor in here, whip up a batch of Lemon Curd to dollop on top. Regardless, you’ll be sending the summer off in style with this Blueberry Cardamom Pie!

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Blueberry Cardamom Pie

Tons of blueberries, lemon zest, and aromatic spices make this Blueberry Cardamom Pie a sweet, sour, well-spiced perfect end-of-summer dessert with an easy, flaky pie crust.

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Crust

• 245 g all-purpose flour (approx. 1 ¾ cups)
• 1 Tb sugar
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 2 sticks butter cut into 8 pieces each
• 2 egg yolks
• 3 Tb milk chilled

Filling

• 1200 g blueberries (8 cups)
• 4 Tb cornstarch
• 150 g white sugar (¾ cup)
• ¼ tsp kosher salt
• Zest of 2 lemons (about 2 Tb)
• 1 tsp cardamom seeds freshly ground
• 1 beaten egg

Recipe

Prepare the Crust

1. Mix flour, sugar, and salt together in a stand mixer until combined.
2. In a pourable measuring cup or bowl, whisk egg yolks and milk together until combined.
3. Spread the butter pieces over the surface of the dry ingredients and mix on low speed for 1-2 minutes until butter pieces are 3-4 times smaller.
4. Add the eggs and milk to the butter and dry ingredients. Mix on low until dough just comes together. It will still be very messy at this point.
5. Working quickly, dump the dough onto unfloured surface and push together with hands into a pile. Run your hands down the pile and slightly onto the surface to smear the butter, doing this in all directions around the pile.
6. Using a bench scraper, gather the dough into an inch-thick disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate between 4 hours and overnight.

Prebake the Crust

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and let rest on the counter for about 10 minutes to start warming up.
3. Split the dough into two pieces: one should be about ⅔ of the dough (approx. 560g) and the other should be ⅓ of the dough (280g).
4. Roll out the larger piece of dough to be about an inch wider than your pie pan and about ⅛ inch thick.
5. Gently, using flour where necessary, roll the dough onto the rolling pin, then drape and roll out over the pie pan.
6. Press the dough into the pie pan, shaping it into the edges and leaving a bit of overhang.
7. Line the pie shell with parchment paper and distribute pie weights (you can use dry beans or rice if you don’t have weights).
8. Place the pie pan onto a sheet pan to catch any drips and bake for 30 minutes until the shell is light brown.

Make the filling

1. While the crust prebakes, heat the cornstarch, sugar, salt, and ¼ of the blueberries (300g/2 cups) in a saucepan over medium heat for 5-10 minutes. The berries should break down and start to melt with the sugar and cornstarch.
2. Remove from the heat and stir in the rest of the blueberries, the lemon zest, and the cardamom.

Bake the Pie

1. Roll out the remaining dough into a round about the width of your pie pan and about ⅛ inch thick.
2. When ready, remove the prebaked crust from the oven and take out the pie weights.
3. Pour the blueberry filling mixture into the prebaked crust, making a dome in the middle if it is over the top of the crust.
4. Roll the remaining dough round onto the rolling pin, then drape and roll out over the filled pie.
5. Brush the top crust with the beaten egg, then use the tip of a knife to cut decorative slits or a single hole in the middle of the crust for steam to escape.
6. Keeping the pie pan on a sheet pan, bake in the oven for 90 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.
7. Remove from oven and let cool on rack for 12-24 hours. The longer you let it go, the thicker and more consistent the filling will be.
8. Top with ice cream and enjoy!