Pie!

March 14, for those of you who are not math nerds or who love a math nerd, is also known as "Pi Day", because the date 3.14 is the same as the number called pi, which is used to calculate the measurements of a circle. (Please don't ask me for more in depth information than that! My geometry class is merely a distant trauma.)  In order to encourage an interest in my children for math - and to eat pie - I have vowed to honor this day by making my family a pie.

I asked my girls what kind of pie they wanted. First they wanted cherry, then blueberry, then cherry-blueberry. Then I decided to only use stuff that I had at home and asked if any berry pie would be acceptable. They agreed.

Spring is a tough time of year for me for some reason. I think my body figures if the weather can't make up its mind, I should just hibernate until things smooth out. And while this is a lovely idea, it's not going to happen. So I drag my tired self all around trying to do the whole living and momming thing. But this also means that I was in no mood to fight with pie crust. The funny thing is that I can do just about any baking with yeast, do ok with meringues and biscuits, bake cookies and bars without a problem, and enjoy making cakes from scratch. But pie crust eludes me. My mother makes the most wonderful pie crust and I cannot manage to copy it. I've tried other crust recipes and I wind up frustrated. Fortunately I remembered my friend made us hazelnut chocolate tarts the other day and she used a shortbread crust. I'd never heard of such a thing, but it turns out to be a wonderful creation. You don't have to roll it, which makes me super happy. You mix it, pat it into the pan, and boom - you're done.

So I looked at my beloved Pinterest and found this recipe Easy Shortbread Pie Crust So many times something says "Easy" and it's absolutely not my definition of easy. This was. I mixed it - adding a bit of almond extract for fun - patted it and baked it for 9 minutes before putting the filling in. I don't know if I needed to prebake, but I figured better safe than sorry. And the crust didn't shrink or bubble up much at all.

Then I found this recipe for the filling. Almond Crumble Blueberry Pie I didn't want a double crust pie and I'm not sure it would be possible with a shortbread crust. But I'm a sucker for anything with a crumble, so this looked like it would work. BUT...I have major issues with making a recipe as written. I always have to mess around with it. It's a compulsion with me. Crazy, but it usually works.

I didn't have blueberries, but I did have mixed berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries). For the crumble topping, I absolutely love oatmeal, so I reduced the flour to 1/4 cup and added 1/4 of oatmeal. It worked. I also omitted the cinnamon because cinnamon has it's place, just not in every baked good under the sun. I upped the citrus and everything was just fine flavor-wise. And a useful tip I came across - you can freeze citrus fruits to use later for zest and juice. So I pulled out a lemon and an orange, ran my zester over each one several times, then popped them back into the freezer.

This is my filling and crumble based on the Pillsbury Almond Crumble Blueberry Pie:

FILLING

• 3 cups fresh or frozen mixed berries, thawed and drained
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup All Purpose Flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel (or more)
• 1/2 teaspoon grated tangerine or orange peel (or more)

TOPPING

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour
• 1/4 cup rolled oats
• 1/3 cup chopped almonds

(I apologize for the quality or lack of quality of my photo. I hadn't planned on blogging this, but I had to get the recipe written down somewhere because it turned out well enough that I want to eat this again!)