We went grocery shopping this morning and saw these
Piles and piles of ripe, juicy, tangy New Jersey Blueberries! That’s right. Jersey is the garden state, and besides tomatoes, we turn out some awesome blueberries.
Those glistening blue gems were screaming to be made into something, and what better way to kick off the first weekend of summer than with a blueberry pie?!
There are a lot of recipes out there for blueberry pie.
It got kind of overwhelming flipping through them actually.
So I took some from one and some from another and then I added my own little twist. Hence the fizz part of the pie.
One of the best pairings is blueberry and lemon.
I think the best blueberry pies include a squirt of lemon juice. It adds such a refreshing hit of brightness that gives the pie a great flavor. It keeps the berries from being one note.
But lemon juice and some sugar seemed a little… predictable.
So instead, this pie uses limonade. It’s a sparkling lemon soda. It’s French. My boyfriend introduced me to it. And I’ve been finding ways to add it to dishes.
For the pie, use your favorite crust recipe, or a store bought crust, or, you can use my grandma’s. It’s amazing. Here’s the recipe from when we made Strawberry Pie a while back.
For the filling you will need:
- 2 pints of blueberries, washed
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/3 cup limonade (any lemon soda will do. you can also use lemon seltzer but then you will need to add in sugar. since the soda has sugar, I didn’t add extra to the berries)
- Turbinado sugar (for sprinkling on top, can be eliminated)
Preheat the oven to 400.
In a bowl, toss the berries with the cornstarch and the soda. The cornstarch will take all the juices that seep out when the berries bake and turn them and the soda into a sauce to hold the pie together.
Pour the berry mixture into the pie crust.
Sprinkle the top with some of the turbinado sugar.
Pop in the oven and bake for about an hour. When you remove, the berries will be all bubbly and will have changes to a gorgeous midnight blue.
Slice it up and top with whipped cream.
When you bite into it, the blueberries will pop in your mouth and you’ll catch a little hint of the lemon soda. A slight refreshing fizz that lingers on your tongue.