Recipe for a Berry Pie

Prepare all the ingredients for the berry pie. There are a few points to consider before preparing it. The butter should be at room temperature and of very good quality. It is the butter that gives the main flavor to the pie crust. Do not substitute butter with margarine. Otherwise, your pie will turn out greasy and denser. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Prepare the dough for the berry pie. In a deep bowl, place room temperature butter. Add egg yolks, sour cream, and powdered sugar to the butter. Do not substitute egg yolks with whole eggs. This will make the dough denser and less tender. The use of powdered sugar in the dough allows you to achieve a lighter texture of the pie crust. The fat content of the sour cream is not essential. In this case, 20% fat sour cream was used. It can be replaced with the same amount of thick unsweetened yogurt.

Mix everything well using a whisk. The mixture should become homogeneous and smooth. At this stage, you can add any flavoring to the dough. It can be vanilla extract or orange zest. Choose according to your taste.

Add sifted flour and baking powder to the bowl.

Knead a soft dough. Note that the dough should be kneaded quickly to avoid the butter melting from the heat of your hands, resulting in a harder dough.

Prepare a baking form. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Spread the dough on the bottom of the form, making sure it covers the entire bottom and rises 2-3 centimeters on the sides. You can easily do this by using a rolling pin to slightly flatten the dough and then level it by pressing against the form with a jar or small cup. The diameter of the form used in this recipe is 22 centimeters.

Sprinkle breadcrumbs evenly over the entire surface of the dough. Note that the breadcrumbs should be from light bread or baguette. You can buy them at a bakery or make them yourself. The breadcrumbs help absorb the juice released by the berries during baking and add tenderness to the berry pie.

Arrange blueberries on top and spread them evenly over the entire surface of the pie.

Sprinkle the berries with sugar and cornstarch. The amount of sugar depends on the sweetness of the berries and the desired sweetness of the finished pie. If the berries are sweeter, less sugar is needed, and vice versa. When baked, cornstarch mixes with the juice released from the berries. Then, as the pie cools, the cornstarch helps to maintain some viscosity to the berry layer. You can also determine whether you want a more liquid or viscous consistency for the finished pie. Therefore, this step is recommended but optional.

Remove the finished pie with berries from the oven and let it cool slightly.

Remove the pie from the mold and let it cool completely.

The finished pie can be served with a scoop of ice cream, whipped cream, or sprinkled with powdered sugar. Or it can be enjoyed as is. The berry pie is ready. Bon appétit!