Longtime Forum friend Rosie Batcheldor of Lake Stevens recently mentioned she’s looking forward to what looks to be a bumper crop of evergreen blackberries this year. “I like them in pies,” she said, “but a lot of people don’t because of the seeds. Does anyone have a recipe for a ‘seedless’ evergre
en pie?”
It had better be a great crop, because when you see what our clever cooks have come up with, you’ll realize their pies will create unending make-again pleas from family and friends.
Let’s start with this letter from Arlington cook Dianna Baldwin, who writes, “I grew up in the Lake Goodwin area and during the 1950s and 1960s roamed the woods and logging roads, picking the small native blackberries, totally shunning the bigger, less sharply flavored evergreen and Himalayan (less lacy leaf) non-native blackberries.
“The native berries are extremely time limited as to when and where they grow. They seem to cycle in a year or two after a clearcut logging operation, and then quit producing as they are shaded out as the trees grow back. The evergreen berries seem to thrive and take over any open area that’s not mowed, and they are easier to pick with small children.
“So, in time, I have gotten over my blackberry snobbery and started picking the bigger berries. I did find the pies a little less tasty — a bit bland. I tried adding lemon juice and sometimes tried replacing part of the sugar with Country Time lemonade mix. Better, but they still tasted like bland blackberries with lemon added.
“Last summer, after picking blackberries with my grandkids, we found we were short about a cup of berries for the second pie, so I thawed some frozen raspberries. (A side note here: These raspberries were from plants that had grown from seeds left by grateful birds that used my bird feeder; berries were of unknown variety, probably a throwback from a hybrid and, although full of flavor, were a bit tart.)
“The resulting pie was absolute bliss. It was very much like the old wild blackberry pie, without much raspberry flavor.”
Now for the {important} step in this pie: “I use an old-fashioned food mill,” Dianna says, “”the kind you crank that presses the pulp through holes at the bottom, to get out the seeds of about half of my blackberries.”
Also, as everybody knows, a good pie crust is essential, and Dianna has that covered for us, too. “I use an old-fashioned pie crust: 1 cup shortening, 2 2/3 cups flour and 1 teaspoon salt. Blend the salt, flour and shortening with a pastry blender. Then add water, a few drops at a time to a specific part of the flour mixture, until it is all moistened without much manipulation of the dough. The result is a tender and flaky crust.”
Last but not least, Dianna says, “I only use glass pie plates. I cook my fruit pies in a microwave oven for 20 minutes and then finish them in a regular oven for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. The pies do all of their ‘running over’ in the microwave, which doesn’t scorch the fruity sauce. If I cleaned my microwave turntable plate before I put the pie in, we enjoy eating the spilled sauce.”
Next up, Evelyn L. Larson of Snohomish tells us, “The request for a seedless evergreen pie interested me as I also wanted one a few years ago.
“I cooked the blackberries and strained out the seeds. Then I diced a cooking apple that held its shape when cooked, a Granny Smith or Golden Delicious, and cooked it in the blackberry juice to replace the seeds and pulp removed in the straining process. Then I sweetened it to taste and thickened the juice so it would hold its shape when cooled, adding cinnamon and a glob of butter.
“When it was cool, I poured it into a baked pie shell and topped it with baked crust cut-outs, or it can be topped with whipped cream or frozen whipped topping. Or the top can be sprinkled with a baked streusel topping, like a Dutch apple pie.
“You can also make a cobbler using the filling mixture, but don’t thicken as much. Basically, you’re replacing the amount of seeds and pulp with the diced cooked apple.”
The next Forum will appear in Wednesday’s Good Life section.
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