Lisa's Blueberry Almond Pie
My mother is such a good cook that my husband tells people he starts gaining weight when he gets within five miles of her kitchen. It's true; before retiring my mother owned a small catering company, and organized many extremely successful bake sales, spaghetti suppers, and pancake breakfasts because patrons knew she'd be in the kitchen.
My sister took after Mom, and is the head cook in a local, very popular restaurant. She caters, too as do several cousins, and an aunt who owns a little pizza joint that's been in the family for nearly seventy five years so popular and so good there are often waiting lines just to place an order.
Sadly, yours truly flunked in the cooking department. Despite years and years of mom and sis trying to coax me into the kitchen to help prepare Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas dinners the furthest I got was peeling carrots and potatoes, and stirring cookie batter. I had no interest in the kitchen, and busied myself setting tables, cleaning up, doing the dishes all of which had to be done, but none of which improved my pitiful cooking skills.
I have a shelf of cookbooks, hundreds of recipes begging for use, and pots and pans and gadgets I've never touched.
However, several years ago I surprised myself, mom, my sister, friends, and probably my whole family when I asked for the recipe for an apple pie mom had made. My husband raved about it over his third piece, and wondered out loud if I could make the pie just one thing as good as mom's.
My husband, who does all the cooking, never complained about my lack of incompetence in the kitchen, that I once burned a hole in the ceiling above the stove in our first apartment and he had to have his cousins come in and make repairs before the landlord found out, that I've ruined dozens of meals with my feeble attempts to cook.
That day I announced to everyone that I would bake the pie as good as mom's and left with the recipe in hand - determined!
Over the next few months I made the pie many times, changing ingredients, putting a different spin on the original recipe, and noting the changes each time so I could score myself during taste tests.
Finally, I modified the recipe and even surprised myself. I baked the pie of all pies worthy of a blue ribbon!
Mom's delicious apple pie morphed into Lisa's Blueberry Almond Pie, and has received rave reviews from every taster and there have been plenty of them. My husband, my parents, my sister, many friends. Once I took two pies to a community event and they were gone in minutes before any of the other dozen or so desserts were touched.
I am pleased to share this recipe with you now, and even happier to tell you I've taken an interest in baking.
Lisa's Blueberry Almond Pie
Pour 1 can of Blueberry Comstock into a 9 glass pie dish.
(Frozen berries aren't as good, and fresh ones are only available for about 6 weeks in the summer. Go for the Comstock.)
In a large mixing bowl combine the following ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup brown sugar
cup no salt butter
1 room temperature brown egg (from cage free chickens, please)
Once the ingredients are combined into a stiff batter, spread over the blueberries. Pat the dough down a bit and make sure to cover all the fruit.
Paint a little melted butter over the dough. Generously layer sliced almonds over the top, and then sprinkle just a bit of brown granulated sugar over it all for a sparkle.
Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes or until the top is light golden brown and the sugar is sparkling. (Watch that the almonds don't burn!)
Let cool completely. If you want to serve warm, remember: there's no bottom crust so it's messy and you'll need a spoon to eat it. (A little vanilla bean icecream on top is nice, too!)
Enjoy!