Fresh Blueberry Deep Dish Pie
  by Amy Rabb-Liu


1 pie crust
1 1/2 cups sugar (or just 1 cup sugar for a less sugary pie)
5 scant Tbsp cornstarch
big pinch salt
1 1/2 cups water
2 1/2 - 3 pints fresh blueberries (2 full pints, plus what's left 
in the third pint after eating a few big handfuls ;-)
whipping cream
confectioner's sugar

Preheat oven to 425F.  Ease pie crust into deep dish pie plate.  
Press into plate, crimp crust edges just above edge of pie dish.  
Prick the crust all over.  Bake 12-15 minutes until crust is golden.  
If crust "puffs" during baking, immediately push back into shape 
when removing from oven.  

Wash blueberries and remove any stems.  Let berries sit in colander
to drain as much water as possible.

Meanwhile, thoroughly mix sugar, cornstarch and salt in generous saucepan.
Add the water.  Stir over medium-low heat until mixture comes to a simmer 
and thickens.  The final texture should be a bit thicker than honey.
Remove from the heat, and allow to cool a bit.

After glaze has cooled somewhat, add berries to saucepan with glaze.  
Stir gently but coat all berries with glaze.  Pour into prepared pie crust.  
Put pie in refrigerator for a couple of hours to set.  

Whip cream with confectioner's sugar.  Texture and amounts of this 
are up to you - I would use about 2/3 of a pint of cream and a couple 
of teaspoons of sugar to go with a whole pie.  I like a cream that is 
stiff enough to hold its shape, but just barely.  For some pies, 
whipped cream is just a pretty garnish, but for this pie the cream is 
more necessary.  The glaze in this pie is rather sweet and the cream 
really balances the flavor on the palate.  

Serve slices of pie with generous dollops of cream.  
Makes about 10 polite servings.  

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