Happy National Pi Day! In honor of the March 14 holiday, which is the annual celebration of the mathematical constant π, we’re celebrating here in Maine by whipping up some of our favorite wild blueberry pie recipes. Some are more traditional, some aren’t – but we know you’ll love the wild goodness in each and every bite just the same.
Wild Blueberry Pie: Keep it sweet and simple by baking this classic Wild Blueberry Pie. Not only is it filled with purple and blue goodness, but the flaky golden brown crust is extra delicious!
Mini Wild Blueberry Cream Pies: Baked individually in cupcake tins, these Mini Wild Blueberry Cream Pies are the perfect bite size, so you don’t need to feel a shred of guilt indulging in one (or two). I mean hey, it’s National Pie Day after all!
Creamy Wild Blueberry Pie: Lastly, this recipe is a new twist on a classic Maine dessert – this creamy wild blueberry pie carries a wonderfully intense wild blue flavor, allowing every bite to melt in your mouth.
Planning to bake a wild blueberry pie in honor of National Pi Day? We want to see what you come up with. Take a picture, post on social media, and tag us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter so we can see the wild in every slice!
There’s a hot local bakery in Portland, Maine, that’s churning out hundreds of pies a week all year long but especially during the holiday season. At the top of the bakery’s popularity list is Wild Blueberry Pie. In fact, Two Fat Cats Bakery scoops out 210-pounds of frozen Maine Wild Blueberries a week into its delicious pies, scones, muffins, and cakes – that’s seven 30-pound boxes. “We make a batch of 10-15 blueberry pies a day,” says bakery owner Stacy Begin. “In the summer we can’t keep up with the demand.” We visited Two Fat Cats Bakery and chatted with Stacy about why she thinks Wild Blueberry Pie is hands-down her top-selling pie – no matter what the season! She also busts the myths about using frozen Wild Blueberries in pie making, shares some tips on how to use them and says it’s the only way to go to make the best Wild Blueberry Pie.
What’s behind the popularity?
Well, it’s a couple of things. People who come to Portland have heard so much about Maine Wild Blueberries and they want to try them. For tourists it’s on their to-do list, along with trying a whoopie pie and a lobster roll. Everyone loves Maine Wild Blueberries and Blueberry Pie never goes out of season – even over the holidays.
What makes the Wild Blueberry so distinctive?
Two things. First, is size. The Wild Blueberry is much smaller and this gives it a special quality. Second is taste – it’s sweeter and so different from a cultivated berry. I think people who know the story of the Wild Blueberry – how it’s native to Maine and how it’s grown and harvested – they understand that it’s a very intriguing and special berry.
Are frozen berries better for Wild Blueberry Pie?
Definitely. Frozen Wild Blueberries are more dependable because they were picked at the height of their ripeness, which preserves their great taste and texture. Not only that, but there are a couple of myths out there. One is that frozen fruit is not as good in a pie. This is just false. At Two Fast Cats, we always use frozen Wild Blueberries in our pie. A second mistake is that people allow the berries to thaw first. We never thaw the berries in advance.
So how do you make the pie?
The trick is to use frozen Wild Blueberries and keep them frozen.
Don’t thaw them out in advance.
Pour your dry ingredients (sugar, thickener and spices) over the frozen berries and stir gently.
Let everything sit for 15 minutes.
While this mixture sits, the fruit starts to absorb the sugar and the thickener.
The sugar will cling to the fruit and this is exactly what you want.
Give it all a good stir.
Then, pop everything into your pie shell and bake it.
What do people say about your pie?
What we usually hear is: “This is the best pie I have ever had.” I believe it’s not just due to our techniques or our recipes, I think it’s because a lot of people have never had the Maine Wild Blueberry and it’s so different than a cultivated berry pie. It’s an awakening to them. The blueberries are smaller, there lots of ‘em, so you get that delicious taste of the fruit.
Are there any special ingredients in your pie?
We make a very traditional Wild Blueberry Pie—and there is really no secret to the recipe. We just take the time to make it right. A pie can be time consuming and there is a temptation to take short cuts. If you really want a good pie, you have to put the time into it and use the very best ingredients.
Who buys your pies?
Well we all know that Mainers love their pie and we sell to a lot of local people. Tourists love them too and once they’ve tasted our Maine Wild Blueberry Pie, they want to visit again. For them, it’s like a taste of summer. We also sell to the Portland Lobster Company, which dishes up a ton of lobster and Blueberry Pie in the summertime.
Where do you get your berries?
We buy our Maine Wild Blueberries from Wyman’s and Allen’s, both are Maine growers with long histories. We get weekly deliveries of frozen berries throughout the year.
What are some favorite recipes that use Wild Blueberries?
We make a Bumbleberry Pie that uses local apples, rhubarb, raspberries, and Maine Wild Blueberries. This is also known as Heritage Pie – and it’s a recipe that people have made for generations. It’s traditionally made at the end of the season with whatever fruits people had left on hand from the summer.
Make your holiday complete with a Wild Blueberry pie from Two Fat Cats bakery or make your own using this delicious recipe! For other wild twists on traditional Thanksgiving side dishes take a look Danielle Omar’s recipes: Wild Blueberry Relish and Wild Blueberry Stuffing. Danielle is a registered dietitian, clean-eating coach, teacher and cookbook author and enjoys sharing plant-based recipes and nutrition strategies on her Food Confidence blog.
Mince meat, apple, derby – they’ll all have their day. This holiday is made for berries – they emphasize the bounty of the fall harvest, provide a burst of color, and are perfect as part of a holiday that revolves around cuisine.
Of course, some Thanksgivings can resemble a game of pie poker with so many varieties anted up on the table. So why go all in with a berry pie? Plenty of reasons.
Taste. Tart, sweet, and savory pleases the palate after a meal. Warm from the oven, a berry pie provides a final flourish of intense flavor, and it’s less likely to weigh you down. Superb when solo, berry combinations are a pleasure as well – mixing tart with sweet by using cranberries with wild blueberries, for example, creates a unique taste sensation and grabs rave reviews at the table.
Health advantages. While healthy eating may not be at the forefront on Thanksgiving, berries, especially wild blueberries, are still antioxidant powerhouses. Just because it’s pie, doesn’t mean you aren’t getting the benefit of healthy, whole food in every forkful. And, calorically, most berry pies are on the light side. One slice of wild blueberry pie is approximately 360 calories. Pumpkin weighs in at about the same, while pecan pie is comes in at 503, says Slim Calm Sexy Diet author Keri Glassman.
Visual impact. Nothing pleases the eye like a dessert piled high with berries. A berry pie bubbling when it emerges from the oven, oozing its dark blue and red juices onto its golden crust, can make mouths water. You can achieve the perfect texture says Serious Eats by adjusting the cornstarch: less will yield a runny pie while more will provide a jammy texture.
Because it’s seasonally on target. It used to be some pie lovers stopped baking berry pies after the fresh season. Times sure have changed. Bakers know better today – waiting around for fresh is a thing of the past, and berry pies are served up in the best kitchens long after summer. Fresh frozen technology makes berries like wild blueberries superb for baking. Top chefs, bakers, and cooks routinely choose frozen for its convenience and baking ease as well as its frozen-at-peak taste and nutrition.
So start rolling your dough, and pour copious amounts of glorious berries into that crust. A search for the best berry pie is always fruitful. Here’s a taste to get you on your berry way.
Cloudy with a Chance of Berries
Amanda and Merrill over at Food52.com help you bake with confidence whether you are making a pie, a tart or clafoutis. Roll a pastry, hack a tart pan, and make it vegan if you choose. Then, try your hand at making this Lemon Cloud Winter Berry Tart – its blueberries float on a cloud. If you’re the unconventional type, this Very Odd But Delicious Pie is for you. It’s a blend of berries, including wild blueberries, pear, and apple, mingled with a shot of whiskey. Peculiar just might be the new delicious.
Berry Serious
We commend Serious Eats for touting frozen berries! They’re a winter blessing in this Mixed Berry Pie, and in this Classic Blueberry Pie, in which lemon zest works to bring out the tangy brightness of the blueberries – wonderful. Remember to go “wild” with your blues for optimum taste, nutrition and more berries per bite.
You can also head over to atendercrumb.com to delight in the wonders of dessert. This Double Crusted Blueberry Pie provides culinary rescue to pie monotony, paired here with vanilla bean ice cream.
Traditional, Not Conventional
Call it cranberry-blueberry or blueberry-cranberry – these two berries are perfect harmony inside a crust. This Cranberry and Wild Blueberry Pie is a paradigm of palatability. Must have pumpkin pie? Understood. We think this Pumpkin Blueberry Pie has great flavor potential.
Crust Conversion
Mix it up in the crust department this year. Start with Martha’s pie crust 101. Then, put your mad skills to work with in Deep Dish Mixed Berry Pie or go rectilinear with Blueberry Slab Pie to win high appraisals for unique geometry.
Or, forget the share tactics and choose individual pies to make every guest feel special. Remember frozen always substitutes for fresh – no compromising on flavor or nutrition necessary.
Oh, Yeah – The Ultimate Berry Pie
Six colorful cups of wild blueberries make this Wild Blueberry Pie the ultimate in flavor, health, and visual impact. Bake, slice and serve, and bask in the sweetness of blue – the perfect ending to the perfect culinary day. Happy Thanksgiving!
The term “rick” is in rare use today. It is most likely to be heard from the mouth of an “old timer” from Washington County referring to the long space between two lengths of twine that designates a raker’s area on the barrens. Sometimes you are lucky to get a “good rick” or unfortunate enough to have to rake a “bad rick”. The “bad ricks” are usually the start of the fields or near the woods. Today, most people refer to the section simple as a “row”.
Thanks to Todd Merrill of Merrill Blueberry Farms in Hancock Country for this information and for confirming my recollection of this term. –Ed.
Sunny Jennings, known by many as The Tantra Cook, was kind enough to share her own childhood memories of living in New England and picking wild blueberries — what she calls her favorite fruit — in the nearby hills. She also shares a favorite recipe.
On The Tantra Cooking Blog, Sunny joins her culinary passion and a penchant for fun with “Tantra Cooking,” a method of putting the focus on the process of the meal, from beginning to end. That might mean shopping for ingredients with the kids, chopping veggies with a girlfriend or chatting with family over the grill. It’s a wonderful approach that lends itself to choosing whole ingredients and helps us rely less on food short cuts that undermine our health. You Go, girl! Here’s a preview of her post for Wild About Health:
“…one Saturday each August, we created the largest wild blueberry test kitchen on the planet. Or, so we told ourselves. We told stories, caught up on our news, laughed, experimented, carefully or casually measured ingredients, shared equipment and gently critiqued each creation as it reached its optimal temperature. We loved our time together and each of us carried timers hooked to our waists to remind us to race back and check on whatever was in the oven or refrigerator.”
— Sunny Jennings
Relied-Upon Recipe Classics for a Wild Season
The season is ON! Use your fresh while you can in these Maine favorites this weekend.
