blueberry pie with vegetable oil crust

I am so pleased to see the blueberry season in full swing here - there is simply nothing like picking, cooking, and freezing heaps and heaps of blueberries for the winter. Yesterday, I was intrigued to read an article in The Boston Globe comparing five different pie crusts ( lard, butter. butter and shortening, shortening, and vegetable oil) with the firm decision that the oil crust outranked the butter crust! Does anything get a cook going than questioning die hard pie making? I didn't think so either.

So I tried it. I tossed the blueberries with sugar, flour, lemon, and cinnamon, made the crust, and divided the berries between a smallish pie and a few ramekins topped with a sugared disc of crust. I'm just not much of a pie crust on the bottom person, preferring the almost-cobbler method of biscuit or pastry on top of fruit. I do have to say the vegetable oil crust is a breeze, and it stays nice and flakey. I'm sure you will make a tidier pie than I did, but I was feeling rustic today:)

How to make:

Preheat oven to 400F.

The crust:

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup milk

2 cups King Arthur flour

1/2 t. salt

Mix together well and squish with your hands to make a ball of dough.

Lay out wax paper on a wet counter, and roll the dough as wished.

The filling:

5 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed and picked over

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup flour

1 t. grated lemon zest

1 t. cinnamon

a little salt

Mix well. Heap berries into ramekins or bottom pie crust, roll out dough as wished for the tops, making sure you cut a steam vent or use a tiny cookie cutter to cut out a star or heart as a vent for the pie. Sprinkle the crust with a little sugar.

I baked the ramekins for 30 minutes - they were bubbling away like crazy after a half an hour.

I baked the pie for 40 minutes - the berries were cooked well, but still retaining their shapes.

Served with good vanilla bean ice cream would be heaven!

Enjoy!

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