Blueberry Sour Cream Crumble Pie

As we were getting ready for bed one night, C asked me to tell him a story. Having just finished baking a pie, I decided to tell him a story about the first pie I ever made. It took me awhile to remember which pie actually was my first pie. My first pie was apple. I was in high school, and for some reason, I decided I needed to make a pie. I told my mom that I wanted to make apple pie and she gave me the Oh-no-way!-I'm-not-getting-involved-in-this!-If-you-start-it-you'd-better-finish-it-yourself attitude that comes along with anything it the kitchen that she considers "fussy." If I remember correctly, my dad happily volunteered his hands for apple peeling. Anyway, after hours pie making and baking, I realized that I don't really like apple pie.

You know what's funny? I knew I didn't like apple pie, but nevertheless I decided to try again while I was in graduate school. I made not only one but two apple pies the same day (I always intended to blog about the second and post more of the beautiful pictures that my friend took, but never got excited enough about apple pie to actually do it). I ended up feeding about 60% of the two pies to said friend and inevitably threw out what was left after it sat in the fridge for a few too many days.

The pie that I often confuse with my first pie is a strawberry rhubarb sour cream crumb pie. It was the first pie I made post-GF diet. I made it on a summer day with fresh rhubarb from the farmers' market. It was delicious, but still, I could only get excited to eat a piece, or maybe two. I made it for the third time last summer and again, wasn't as excited to eat it as I was to make it. Finally, I was realizing that pie just isn't my thing. However, I've learned over the years that men love pie. We have a friend who bakes her husband a pie a month because he loves pie so much. C frequently asks me when he's going to start getting his pies of the month! Since they say that the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach, I continue to make pie, even though I don't really like to eat it. Plus, I really can't pretend that I don't get satisfaction from pulling a beautiful homemade pie out of the oven.

Each of the past two nights, I've made a blueberry pie with 2 pounds of blueberries that I saw and had to have. I started with this gorgeous Buttermilk Blueberry Pie from Adventures in Cooking. I was very glad that I made it into a mini pie, because while I really enjoyed the blueberries (and the adorable cut out stars), the "custard" was chunky and chewy and really ruined the pie. Without ice cream, all would have been lost. Instead of the logical choice to make a blueberry pie straight-up, I decided to go the "sour cream crumb pie" route for a certain man I know who loves crumble topping. Apparently baking two pies with the same fruit two ways is my modus operandi.

Objective
Adapt my Strawberry Rhubarb Sour Cream Crumb Pie recipe to make a blueberry pie with crumble topping. I made the pie crust with a variation of the rye rough puff pastry from Peach Galettes.

Materials
Makes a 9" pie (or a 6" pie)

Crust (makes enough for two 9" pies; freeze leftovers):
3.25 oz. rye flour
1.0 oz whole wheat pastry flour
4.25 oz. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
6. oz unsalted butter, cold and cubed
2 oz. ice water + 1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar

Filling:
4 cups fresh blueberries (2 cups)
1 cup sour cream/Greek yogurt (1/2 cup)
1 cup sugar (1/2 cup)
2 small limes, juiced (1 lime)

Crumble topping:
1/4 cup whole wheat flour (2 Tbsp.)
1/2 cup oats--quick cooking is fine (1/4 cup)
1/4 cup brown sugar (2 Tbsp.)
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut in cubes (2 Tbsp).

Methods
1. Preheat oven to 450º. Grease and flour pie pan and set aside.
2. To make the pie crust: Whisk together the flours, salt, sugar, and cinnamon. Rub the butter into the dry mixture with your fingers until you have pea-sized crumbles. While stirring, slowly add the water+apple cider vinegar. Mix only long enough to moisten the flour and make a dough. If it doesn't hold together when squeezed, add a little more water. Form the dough into a ball, flatten, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour or more. Roll out to 1/8" thick. Lay into the pie plate. Trim the overhang to 1/2 inch over the edge. Fold the edge under and crimp the edges. Use the trimmed edges to cut out fun shapes for decorating the top of the pie (optional)
3. To make the filling: Gently place the blueberries into the crust. Mix the sour cream (or yogurt), sugar, and lime juice. Pour over the blueberries.
4. To make the crumble topping: In a small bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. Add the butter, and rub the butter into the dry ingredients by pinching it between your fingers. Crumble over the filling. The crumble should cover the entire pie. If you decided to make decorative shapes, brush them with water, sprinkle them with sugar and arrange them on top of the crumble.
5. Bake at 450º for 15 minutes (or 10 minutes for smaller pie), then reduce the oven temperature to 350º, cover the pie with a tent of foil, and continue baking for 25-30 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack. Chill before serving.

Results
This is the "beauty and brains" version of blueberry pie. Not only does it look pretty, it tastes like blueberry with a little tartness. The crust is a lovely brown and flavorful. The crumble gives texture and oat flavor. Oh yeah, and it's even kind of healthy if you make it with protein-packed Greek yogurt!

Discussion and Future Directions
Since I used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream and added oats to the crumb topping to make it crumble topping, this pie could aptly be called "Blueberry Yogurt Parfait Pie." However my fear was that people would think that it was an unbaked pie. Instead, it's a whole grain crust filled with a creamy, tangy blueberry filling, topped with oaty goodness then baked to release the juices and solidify the cream just a smidgen. The end result is a wonderfully flavorful, juicy purple pie. I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out.

I didn't cite my Strawberry Rhubarb Sour Cream Crumb Pie recipe because I have no idea where I found it. I've tried searching for it online but can only find recipes that include flour (and often egg) in the filling. My recipe doesn't. I was beginning to wonder if that was an Abby-opps and I wrote the recipe down wrong. Sure enough, I just found an e-mail to myself from June 5, 2011 for Strawberry Rhubarb Sour Cream Crumb Pie that specifically says "Mix sugar and 1/3 cup flour with sour cream and pour evenly over fruit." There's also a note that it freezes well. As if this pie could be around long enough to freeze!

Clearly this pie doesn't require that extra 1/3 cup flour in the filling. In fact, it's gluten-free pie filling if you omit it! The crumble could easily be made gluten free by using the right oats (or just using oat flour and omitting flour all together). I'm also envisioning this served in little ramekins without even bothering to give it a crust. Fewer calories? Bonus! Oh my gosh, so many options!

Believe it or not, I had fun making and eating this pie. That makes it doubly rewarding! This recipe is a keeper, through and through.

Supplementary Materials