I went pear picking with my sister, Liz, oh about 10 days ago with the goal of baking a pear pie from the harvest. Well I finally got around to it, thanks again to Liz, who turned me on to this recipe from Gourmet magazine. The pie wasn’t half bad if I do say so myself.

It’s a very different texture that’s for sure – not nearly as juicy as apple pie -  but Dad said he like it and that’s good enough for me. Up to this point I had been relying on Martha for recipes but now that I’ve discovered Gourmet recipes online, there’s no turning back. I’ve got this cake currently in the oven.

Ok so the fruit was actually foraged from my brother’s backyard and I had to climb the trunk of the tree and reach up to the top to find any apricots that were sufficiently ripe for the tart. But it was so worth it! A few weeks ago I was inspired by a recipe I saw in the NYTimes.com and I was very eager to try it out. It’s perfect. Doesn’t it look so European? So Gourmet magazine? So Martha Stewart? I am so darned proud of myself I can’t even speak.

I already have another batch of dough in the fridge awaiting the next FFT. Alas, I may have waited too long as it’s already noon and we’re having another super hot day here so I’m loathe to turn on the oven.

You’ll just have to feast your eyes on the finished FFT below. I should explain that I used red currant PRESERVES instead of the called for red currant JELLY and that explains the little berries you see in the picture.

blueberry pie, originally uploaded by alicethelma.

It’s the of winter but as chance would have it, I had a couple of bags of frozen blueberries in the freezer from last summer’s harvest. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve made three pies and I’ve been experimenting with just the right ratio of tapioca to sugar and the optimum oven temps to produce the perfect pie. Here is my results:

Perfect Blueberry Pie

Filling:
4 cups frozen blueberries
¼ cup tapioca
¼ cup sugar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons butter

Pie Crust for 9 ½ inch pie

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees (Fahrenheit).

Mix together the blueberries, tapioca, sugar and lemon juice and let stand for about 15 minutes. Assemble pie, dotting the filling with pats of butter sealing the pie with the top curst and place in oven on bottom rack. Bake for one hour.

Yep, that’s all there is to it. The secret was baking the pie on the bottom rack. That technique produced a lovely brown, crispy bottom crust and perfectly formed pie wedges. Wish I could show you, but we ate it!