Blueberry Pie & Tarts

This recipe can be made with fresh wild blueberries, or frozen wild blueberries. The wild berries are smaller, but have more taste than the cultivated larger berries. You can usually find the frozen wild berries from Canada or Maine.  Since they will have some ice crystals on them, it's a good idea to rinse them quickly under cold water and dry them in paper towels before using them in your recipe.

Two crust recipes are given - you can use butter or shortening depending on the texture you like.
The butter makes a shortbread-like crust, and the shortening or lard makes a flaky, puffy tart shell.

Filling: 

For one pie, or 24 tarts

4 cups of fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 TBS (or a bit more) of lemon juice

#1 Pastry made with unsalted butter 

2 1/2 cups of flour
2 TBS sugar
pinch of salt
1 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into small chunks
4-6 TBS ice water

#2 Pastry made with lard or shortening

1 1/4 cups of flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 TBS brown or white sugar
1/2 lb shortening or lard
1/2 egg
1/2 TBS vinegar
1/2 cup of cold water


Directions: 

Mix the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl, or put into a food processor.
Add the butter and process on/off for about 1 minute till the pieces are the size of peas.
Add the water, one TBS at a time and mix with a wooden spoon till it holds together.
Lightly form into two balls and flatten to disks.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

If you don't have a food processor, you can make this dough by using a pastry cutter to incorporate the butter into the flour.  Turn the bowl often as you go so you get all the flour into the butter.
Then add the water a little at at time to your bowl, and mix with a wooden spoon.

Roll out and cut 12 tart circles for each ball of dough.  I like to use a martini shaker as it cuts the dough to a nice size. Press the tart circles into a muffin pan so the shell is near the top of the muffin cup.  Or if you're making a pie, roll out each disk to about a 12" diameter.  Use one for the top and one for the bottom.

Fill each tart with the blueberry mixture. If using the butter crust, bake the tarts at 375F for about 20-25 minutes, till lightly browned. Let cool in the pans before removing them.

If using the shortening or lard crust, bake at 425F for about 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature for the remaining time - 10-15 minutes. This will puff the pastry.

For a pie, bake at 425F for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350F and bake another 25-30 minutes.