Wild Huckleberries Pie
 
 
Ingredients
Lattice Pie Crust
  • 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 lb lard, cold from the fridge
  • 1 tbsp vinegar
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • ice water
Filling
  • 4 cups wild huckleberries, rinsed and patted dry
  • 2/3 cup white granulated sugar
  • 3 tbsp light brown sugar
  • 3 tbsp instant (Minit) tapioca powder
  • 4 tsp fresh lemon juice
  • heavy whipping cream
  • coarse sugar
Instructions
Lattice Pie Crust
  1. Whisk together flour and salt in a large mixing bowl.
  2. In a one cup measuring cup, whisk the egg and then whisk in the vinegar. Add the ice water until you have one cup.
  3. Using a knife, cut the lard into large one inch cubes. Then, using a pasty cutter, cut the lard into the flour mixture until you have pieces that look like oatmeal and larger pieces as well.
  4. Quickly stir in some of the liquid using a fork. Gradually stir in additional liquid, stirring each time. Add only enough for the dough to start coming together. You’ll know you have enough when you can press with your hands and the dough forms a ball in the bowl.
  5. Keeping the dough in the bowl. Press the dough into a ball. Cut into four large pieces for deep-dish pans or six pieces if you have regular pie pans. Flatten each dough ball into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap.
  6. Refrigerate the dough while you make the filling.
  7. After you’ve made the filling, remove two of your pie disks (the remaining two can be frozen for use later) and lightly flour both your countertop and your rolling-pin. Roll out one disk of the pastry until it is a circle larger than the bottom of your pan and sides. Make sure to lift and dust under the dough as you roll out. Repeatedly dust your rolling-pin as well so that the dough doesn’t stick to the counter. Lightly roll the dough around your rolling pan and lay it in your pie pan.
  8. Tuck under extra dough around the top edges and flute. We left the sides of the crust high to allow for any shrinking.
  9. Once the filling is made, preheat the oven to 450°F. (Yes, 450°F, even with a convection oven.) Pour the filling into the raw pie shell. Roll out another disk of dough as above. Using a ruler or straight edge and knife, cut rectangles for your lattice top. Lay across in a weaving pattern. If a piece breaks, just tuck the end under the other piece and keep going, no one will know once it bakes.
  10. We had one inch thick pieces, but smaller ones would be more intricate. You can also buy a special pie crust cutting tool for making fancier lattice scalloped edges. Once the top has been laid across, pinch the edges to the sides of the crust. Put the pie in the oven for 15 minutes. Then reduce the oven to 350º F, wrap the edges of the crust with foil to avoid over-browning and bake for an additional 25 minutes. We baked ours for a full 10 minutes longer. You’ll know the pie is set when the filling is fully bubbling between the lattice top.
  11. Remove and set on a wire rack to completely cool before trying to slice.. or you’ll have a runny pie.
Filling
  1. Place washed and dried berries in a large bowl. Sprinkle with sugars and tapioca powder and gently stir in. Sprinkle over lemon juice, stir in and let sit for 15 minutes.
  2. Spoon filling into the unbaked pie shell, top with lattice. Lightly brush the lattice portion of the crush and liberally sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake as written above.
Recipe by Just a Smidgen at https://justasmidgen.com/2012/08/29/wild-huckleberries-for-smidge/