First a Cook 

I love ritual, especially those involving food and connection with family and friends. My favorite ritual is Friday night Shabbat dinners. It’s quite lovely when we get together with extended family for Shabbat, but I am especially fond of those that we share quietly in our dining room as a family of four. There is something intimate and palpably sacred about taking a bit of time each week (or at least every other week when we have the girls we share with my ex-husband) to slow down a bit, light candles, share a challah, a cup of wine, and a meal ending in a dessert that’s fancier than the girls’ typical scoop of ice cream or bit of chocolate.

My parents were devout Catholics when I was a child. On Sundays we entered a quiet church, our family of five sat, kneeled, and stood rigidly in pews for the 45-60 minute mass, and then exited as silently as we came in. There was little-to-no congregating. We never broke bread together or otherwise socialized aside from the solitary Eucharist. The religious, cultural, and ritual practice of Catholicism took place in church—in a place where hushed obedience was the only apparent form of piety.

Values and beliefs aside, the dining room table based practice of Judaism was a natural fit for me. My Judaism is home based, food forward and family focused.

There must have been a time before I started cooking, but I don’t remember it. Cooking has always been my way of gathering and loving my people. In college, I cooked dinners of braised beef and mashed potatoes or grilled salmon and vegetables. I made roasted garlic aioli for grilled chicken sandwiches on crusty bread and at parties I served artichoke white pizza when it wasn’t typical to be offered more than a cup of warm beer, if that.

In grad school, I made friends (and friends of those friends) with people who love food—if not cooking—as much as I do. We had monthly dinners that always included cheese or an appetizer, wine, crusty bread, salad and dessert. Every. Single. Time. I loved the way dinner was elevated to ritual by including all of these elements and sharing them around a table.

The years since school have included countless developments and lifestyle changes (marriage, kids, divorce, dating, (re-) settling down). But cooking and gathering loved ones around the table has been one of few constants in my life. I dabble with baking, but am really a cook at heart and my approach to pie (were you wondering when I would get there?) reflects this completely.

My pie personality = follow the precise measurements of pastry + taste and adjust filling.

In other words, I almost always make the same all butter pastry no matter what pie I am making. My crust is not fancy. I do not make decorative crusts (I only last year made my first lattice topped pie along with the help of a friend who is both a scientist and an MBA). I do not put sugar in my crust. But it is flaky and delicious and everyone thinks anyone who makes homemade crust is a superstar. (If I’m a superstar, it’s not because I make homemade crust. But that can be our secret.)

Once the pastry is made, I treat the filling as a cook would. I may read a few recipes to see what others have come up with, but most of the time I just follow some basics (3-ish T. flour or corn starch, at least 1/3 c. sugar, acid, extract, spices, salt) and then mix and taste as I go. I use whatever fruit I have and buy whatever is in peak season. I love mashups of two or more different fruits in a pie and I rarely make the same exact pie twice. In fact, I certainly have my signature pie (coming soon, I promise), but never wrote a recipe before my first post here for cherry pie.

A couple of weeks ago I ordered 1/4 peck of apples for the week for my kids’ lunches but ended up with a much bigger bag than anticipated. Apple pie is a go-to fall dessert, and I’m not ready to surrender to the start of the school year just yet, but I had to use these apples before they went bad. I combined them with the previous week’s pint of blueberries hidden away in the back of the fridge giving my apple pie a surprising brightness in both flavor and color. (And then I carved a heart and the word “love” on top only because I was inspired and challenged by my partner in pie, Emily.)

Print Recipe

Apple Blueberry Pie

Ingredients

• 2 Christie's All Butter Pastry Dough click here for recipe
• 8 medium apples, peeled, cored and sliced *It's usually best to use a combination of apple varieties for contrast in texture and flavor, but those rules go out the window when I have a huge bag of tart green apples in the fridge
• 2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon cardamom
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar **I started with 1/3 cup of sugar and tasted the filling before adding the second 1/3. The amount of sugar needed will vary based on the sweetness of your apples and personal preference.
• 3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 pint fresh blueberries
• 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 Tablespoon milk or beaten egg white
• 1 Tablespoon coarse sugar

Instructions

1. Roll out the larger piece of dough (keep second piece refrigerated) between sheets of parchment paper into a 13-inch round. Fit into a 9” pie plate. Refrigerate.
2. Combine apples with lemon juice and vanilla, followed by cinnamon, cardamom, sugar, flour, and salt. Gently fold in blueberries and let sit for at least 20 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 425 degrees with the rack in the middle of the oven. I also place a lipped cookie sheet lined with foil on the rack to catch the juices that are sure to bubble over.
4. Roll out the dough for the top crust into an 11-inch round.
5. Toss apples and blueberries gently and spoon into refrigerated shell. Dot the top of the fruit filling with butter. Cover with the top pastry round. Press or fold edges to seal and crimp decoratively. Brush top of pie with milk or beaten egg, cut steam vents, and sprinkle crust with sugar.
6. Put pie in oven and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees, and bake until crust is deep golden and filling is bubbly in the center, 45-60 minutes more.
7. Cool completely on a rack. Serve to friends and family. Be happy!