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• Cook a quarter of the berries into a jam first. Simmer 250 g of the fruit with the sugar and starch until thick, then fold that through the remaining raw berries. The pie then has a set matrix holding whole fruit, rather than a shell of loose berries swimming in juice. This is the single technique that fixes runny blueberry pie.
• Lemon zest and a little acid. Blueberries are low in acid and taste flat without it. Zest of a whole lemon and a tablespoon of juice.
• Wild or lowbush berries are smaller, more acidic and much better in a pie than cultivated highbush; frozen wild berries beat fresh cultivated ones.
• Tapioca or cornstarch, 40 g per kilo. Blueberry juice is thin and needs more starch than apple.
• A lattice or a generous set of vents. Steam has to leave.

One 23 cm pie. Serves 8.

• 1 batch all-butter pie crust
• 1 kg blueberries, fresh or frozen
• 180 g granulated sugar
• 40 g cornstarch
• zest and 1 tbsp juice of 1 lemon
• 3 g fine salt
• 2 g ground cinnamon, optional
• 20 g unsalted butter
• 1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp milk
• coarse sugar

Line the tin and chill. Roll the top crust or cut lattice strips and chill those.

Put 250 g of the berries in a saucepan with the sugar, cornstarch, salt and lemon juice. Cook over medium heat, mashing, until it thickens and turns glossy, about five minutes. Take it off the heat, stir in the zest, and fold the mixture through the remaining berries. Cool 15 minutes.

Heat the oven to 220 °C / 425 °F with a heavy tray inside.

Fill the shell, dot with butter, top and seal. Chill 20 minutes, glaze, sugar.

Bake 20 minutes at 220 °C, then 190 °C / 375 °F for 35–45 minutes, until the centre bubbles.

Cool four hours.

• It stains everything. Line the oven shelf below with foil.
• A blueberry-rhubarb or blueberry-peach pie is a good use of a short glut; see Rhubarb and peach pie.
• Keeps three days at room temperature and freezes baked for two months.

Method and theory: Pie and tart recipes · pies and tarts · all-butter pie crust

Nearby: cherry pie · strawberry rhubarb pie · fruit galette