Fresh Huckleberry Pie! Huckleberries always remind me of a survival course I took ages ago. The course was on the Idaho and Montana border… and there were wild huckleberries everywhere. We would pick fresh berries every day and make “ash cakes” by simply taking whole wheat flour mixed with water to make a dough, placing the berries in the center, and throwing them in the coals of our fire. They were delicious when all you had was bland food!! They were like candy….. BUT this is the real world and we have REAL sugar and REAL spices to create REAL amazing pies… NOT ash cakes!! lol Anyways…. I just love huckleberries! If you haven’t had them, you are in for a real treat 🙂 They are very similar to blueberries. If you can’t find huckleberries for your fresh pie, by all means use fresh blueberries instead! Your pie will still turn out fabulous!! I live in the Seattle area… and we don’t have huckleberries growing wild like they do in Montana and Idaho. BUT we have an amazing local produce stand that got a bunch of fresh huckleberries from Oregon. They were a bit pricey, but I think well worth it… because this pie was fabulous, and I think my new family favorite 🙂
- ½ recipe All Butter Pie Crust, divided into two disks.
- 5½ cups fresh huckleberries, picked over, rinsed and patted dry
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 Tbs. light brown sugar
- 2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
- 4 Tbs. minute tapioca (I grind mine in a clean coffee grinder, so it's finer in texture)
- ⅛ tsp. ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp. freshly ground nutmeg
- ⅛ tsp. salt
- milk
- turbinado sugar
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- In a large bowl, combine the berries, granulated sugar, brown sugar, lemon juice, tapioca, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Carefully stir until well combined. Set aside for a minimum of 15 minutes so the tapioca can get soft.
- Roll out one disk of refrigerated pie dough, to about ⅛ inches thick, or about 12 inches in diameter. Place dough into a 9 inch pie dish. Place the dish into the refrigerator while you roll out the dough for the top. Roll the top out to the same thickness. With a sharp knife or a fancy pants lattice cutter 🙂 cut the dough into 1 inch strips.
- Pour the filling into the pie shell, carefully weave the strips of dough to form the lattice top. Trim where necessary and crimp the edges. Lightly brush with milk and sprinkle with the turbinado sugar.
- Bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes. Turn the heat down to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 30-60 minutes. The time always varies! Just bake until the filling is bubbling. Cover the edges with aluminum foil if it's getting too brown. Let cool completely before cutting or you'll have a runny pie!
Tools I used:
A must is the nutmeg grinder!! Nothing beats freshly grated nutmeg. Period. You can buy whole nutmegs super cheap from Penzey’s Spices… a 1 oz. bag will last forever and at only $3.99 you just can’t beat it! They have fabulous prices on all spices so be sure to check them out.
Another new tool that I just LOVE is this rolling pin by Joseph Joseph. You can adjust the height of the pin for perfectly rolled dough! A perfect gift for any baker.
I also just purchased this pastry wheel… and it makes the prettiest strips for a lattice pie!! You can also make raviolis with it 🙂
Other tools:
Thank you for visiting! Please be patient as I am going in a new direction with my site and will post more soon! xoxo ~Kelly
Just stumbled across this recipe since I just went for Huckleberries and wanted to make a pie! Haven’t tried the recipe yet (maybe later today), but wanted to let you know that yes, there are wild huckleberries in the Seattle area! That is where I am from too, and there are plentiful meadows of berries near Snoqualmie pass, and also in the Gifford Pinchot National forest on the South side of Mt. Ranier. Heard there are lots near Mt. Baker as well, and Leavenworth over by Wenatchee is known for their Huckleberry products. So, I drive about 45 minutes east from Seattle and am able to get TONS of wild berries!
Can this pie be frozen? If so, at what point in the preparation process?
I’ve never frozen it… but I would assume after baking it?? Let me know if you try it and how it works out!