Making pie crust * rolling out dough * preparing fresh cherries * care of a wooden rolling pin

Raspberry Pie

Pastry:

* 2 c all-purpose flour

* ½ tsp salt

* 1 ½ tsp sugar

* ¾ c cold butter, cut up (or shortening)

* 3-4 Tbsp icewater

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl and cut in shortening or butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add just enough water to hold together. Chill 30 minutes, divide dough, and roll out. Line the bottom of the pie pan with pastry, add filling, then top with the remaining pastry.

Filling:

* 5 c. raspberries (or frozen, thawed)

* ½ to ¾ c sugar

* 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour

Heat oven to 375.

Mix sugar and flour in a large bowl. Add berries and toss until coated. Pour into the pastry-lined pie dish. Top with the remaining pastry and crimp edges. Brush top crust with milk and sprinkle with sugar, and cut slits in the top to release steam. Cover the edges with tinfoil to keep from overbrowning.

Bake for 25 minutes, remove foil, and bake another 25-30 minutes. You can substitute blueberries, blackberries, or cherries for about half of the raspberries, if desired.

Pitting cherries? Or MURDER? And the difference between raspberries (red, hollow inside) and blackberries (purple, has a dob in the center):

The pastry while I’m working (that’s a pastry cutter), the pastry when it’s ready to add water, and the dough balls ready to chill:

The bottom crust partially unfolded into the pie plate, putting tinfoil on the crust, the crimped edges of the second pie I made:

 

The two pies. The one in my green pie plate is prettier, but the one in the deep-dish pie plate didn’t leak all over the oven:

Welcome to the Real Life Cooking Podcast. I’m Kate Shaw and this week we’re going to learn how to make raspberry pie. And yes, you are going to learn how to make your own pie crust. Do not be afraid.

I want to stress going in that this is not hard. It is 100% simple and you are going to make it successfully and be proud and it will be delicious. You can buy a premade pie crust, of course, but I guarantee you that a homemade one is better and well within the abilities of even a novice cook.

This recipe came from my friend Amanda, and I make it every summer when the raspberries and blackberries are ripe. You can use all raspberries in the filling or you can use a mixture of raspberries and other berries, like blackberries, blueberries, and fresh cherries. Amanda says not to use strawberries, though. I’ve never tried it, but I suspect strawberries are both too full of moisture and too lacking in pectin for the filling to gel properly.

The recipe calls for five cups of berries, and Amanda suggested a ratio of two cups of raspberries, two cups of cherries, and one cup of blueberries. I typically use about two to three cups of raspberries, about two cups of blackberries, and enough blueberries to make up the difference. You can use frozen berries, but thaw them first. Fresh is best, of course.

This time—you guessed it—I had to make the recipe before raspberries were ripe where I live, so I had to buy raspberries. I used frozen, along with fresh blueberries and fresh cherries. I didn’t have enough raspberries and it really showed. The pie was fine, but it wasn’t fantastic the way it would be if I’d had more raspberries. So I waited until nearly the last minute, when I had to get the episode finished and uploaded in time, until the raspberries were ripe. I made the pie again with about half and half raspberries and blackberries, with a half-pint of blueberries just to add a little sweetness. The result was much better. So if you look at the pictures in the show notes, the reason it looks like some of the pictures are from a different pie from the other pictures is because they are.