Although adding apples to a blackberry pie may sound strange, my grandma insists that they soak up the juice, therefore I can no longer eat blackberry pies without them.
| Prep Time: | 40 mins |
| Cook Time: | 40 mins |
| Additional Time: | 50 mins |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 10 mins |
| Servings: | 10 |
| Yield: | 1 9-inch pie |
Ingredients
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
- 7 tablespoons ice water, plus more as needed
- 6 cups fresh blackberries
- 1 apple, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch thick slices
- ½ cup white sugar
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
Instructions
- Beat the egg and vinegar together in a small bowl, and set aside. Whisk together the flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl. Cut in the cold butter with a knife or pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. (This can also be done in a food processor: pulse the cold butter or shortening until it’s the size of small peas. Turn mixture into a bowl and proceed.) Stir in the egg and vinegar mixture. Add the ice water a tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork, until the flour mixture is moistened. Do not add more water than you need: when you squeeze a handful of the moistened pastry mixture, it should form a ball. Divide the dough in half and shape into balls. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to three days.
- Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- Roll one ball out to fit a 9 inch pie plate. Place bottom crust in pie plate and chill for at least 20 minutes before baking. Roll out top crust and set aside. Arrange the apple slices on the bottom of the pie crust, then scatter the blackberries on top. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup sugar. Place the second pie crust on top of the fruit mixture, and pinch the top and bottom crusts together. Lightly sprinkle the top crust with water, followed by the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar. Poke several holes in the top of the crust with a fork to allow steam to escape during baking.
- Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, 40 to 45 minutes.
- Always nice to have a cookie sheet under the pie pan in case the juices spill over so you don’t have to clean the whole oven.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 340 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 48 g |
| Cholesterol | 53 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 6 g |
| Protein | 5 g |
| Saturated Fat | 9 g |
| Sodium | 339 mg |
| Sugars | 19 g |
| Fat | 15 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Loved the idea of using apples for the pectin. Here is a hint when making berry pies: use Minute Tapioca in the red box and follow the directions on the back. Tapioca is fool-proof for thickening fruit pies. I never use cornstarch or flour. Tried arrowroot once. Didn’t work. My mother was an incredible baker and her berry pies were out of this world!
Mine was extremely runny; the juices didn’t thicken any–ran like water when I cut it. Next time I’ll cook the berries with something like tapioca or corn starch to thicken it before pouring into the crust to bake. It wasn’t sweet at all, but I like it like that.
will definitely make this again. Love blackberries, but it is expensive to buy enough fresh berries to fill a pie. This pie had good flavor and less seeds (less blackberries) is a positive. After reading reviews, I added 4 teaspoons of corn starch with the sugar. The pie set up nicely when cooled. Did not measure the apples exactly. Used 3-6oz. packages of berries and enough apples diced to fill an 8″ pie shell. Would like the apples to be less obvious in the pie so I could pass it off as a “real” blackberry pie. Still thinking about that.
I will certainly make this again! Only change I made was I added 2 table spoons of flower to the berries after reading other reviews about being soupy. I had no issues with soupiness! My family loved this.
I had been searching for the best Blackberry Pie recipe (filling) since I started making a pie which my tennis friend’s favorite that her deceased mother used to make for her birthday. I followed the idea of apple slices on the bottom of pie crust. That is wonderful! I used only 4 cups (4 of 6oz package) of blackberry. A little more than 1/2 cup sugar (I usually reduce amount of sugar for any recipe). Other additions are 1/4 t-spoon of dried lemon zest for blackberry mixture with corn starch, sugar. Little cubes of 3 T-spoon butter over the blackberry mixture. I sprinkled cinnamon on the top pie crust along with sugar, but did not add in the blackberry mixture. I wanted to keep the fruits taste as pure fruits. I believe apple slices gave an extra good taste for the whole pie! As other blackberry re As other reviewers say, it is too soupy. I even added one T-spoon of corn starch, but it did not help. I will try 3 T-spoon next time, which other recipes include in their ingredients. After tennis match we had a petite birthday gathering, and everyone loved it!! This will be my keeper and will be in a pie recipe book that I want to make for the friend. Thank you for sharing your grandmother’s recipe!
My pie was soup. I put lots of apples in the bottom of the shell, berries, etc. The crust was perfect, easy to make and roll out and tastes pretty good. The filling was a disaster. It didn’t thicken even one little bit. Very disappointing. I will make the crust again, but the filling needs thickener.
I have been sitting on my tush with a broken leg dreaming up food cravings and a craving for blackberry pie has been tormenting me. Last night my hubby was a sweetheart and made me this! We only had about 3 cups of berries, so we made this in a 6″ pie plate and used Pillsbury pastry. We used 1/3 cup of sugar to compensate for the amount of fruit and it was delish with some ice-cream! The idea of putting the apple on the bottom really worked for us.
My all-time favorite pie is blackberry-been making for years. I find when you have pastry cold then put pie pan on a pre-heated cookie sheet it helps to stop bottom crust from getting so mushy. I also use tapioca to thicken the filling. I only pick the juiciest, sweetest berries I can find so my blackberry pies can soak up a lot of tapioca. I haven’t tasted the Oregon blackberries another reader talked of however berries on Vancouver Island are delicious!
If you will use pears instead of apples, pears are much sweeter and you won’t have to use as much sugar. I’m going to try this with 2 small pears and use 1/4 c of sugar. I am going to mix the pears throughout the mixture instead of laying on the bottom. This is a little trip I learned years ago with making sweet apple pies when your apples are tart and lessening the sugar for a healthier pie. Pear juice is many times added to fruit juices for sweetening so less sugar is used. Check your fruit juice ingredients the next time you purchase a bottle.
My Granma was born in 1890 and this is her exact recipe for crust and pie filling! On the prairies of Minnesota (think Laura Ingalls) they used wild blackberries and grated crab apples. As one poster said, the apples don’t SOAK up the juices; it’s the natural pectin in the apples that gels the juices. I’ve been making and eating this pie for 60 years; it’s nice to see this recipe published.
Very good recipe. Instead of cutting the apple I grated it on the large holes of a boxed grater then squeezed the juice out in a towel, and mixed in with the blackberries (saw this technique on a public radio program for blueberry pie). The pectin that the apple releases is what helps to thicken up the pie.
This is very similar to my husbands grandmother’s pie, same crust – filling slightly different. The berries are 3 cups and apples 3 cups and add a teaspoon of cinnamon and some thickner like cornstarch or tapioca. I like a little more apple because of the seeds of the blacberries. If anyone else has the same thing about seeds this will give you the same blackberry taste without so many seeds.
the apples did an amazing job taking in the extra juices from the black berries. It was a very unique and great tasting dish.
I basically liked this pie. The crust was good although I had trouble rolling it out. I used frozen berries which in hindsight wasn’t the best option, my pie was a little runny. I don’t think the apples did much either. I liked this enough to want to try again with FRESH berries though.
My first pie, EVER. Making, not eating. I’ve eaten many. Sarah walked me through it, step by step. Even showed me how to use the medieval torture device cleverly disguised as an apple peeler/corer she kept out on the counter. Great pie, though I’m not convinced the apple slices in the bottom of the crust do anything to absorb the liquid. They’re great in the pie, however! Thank you, Sarah!
Well now.. nothing like a blackberry pie according to my husband. I had some problems with the amount of moisture in crust.. alot of water, along with the addition of the vinegar and egg.. so I ended up only using 3 or so TBS.. USE CAUTION HERE! I also whipped it up in my food processor. No muss, no fuss! I prefer my own family recipe for crust, but I like to try a recipe exactly as written at first – it’s not fair to stray from a recipe then criticize it. My pet peave! I think your Grandma is wise beyond her years.. blackberry pies are either incredibly way too juicy or they are thickened way too much with flour or cornstarch – this is just perfect. I did use frozen blackberries and added a tablespoon of flour to toss into them though.. just to be on the safe side. From a former Oregonian, I can attest that Oregon blackberries are the best anywhere on earth.. we had them growing wild everywhere.. and I could never keep my horses, or my husband out of them! Delish, thanks for sharing.