Mrs. Weber Bakes: DazzleBerry Pies

This post was inspired both by a show called The Mindy Project and the fact that I will be teaching a pie class containing this recipe tomorrow morning at work.

On The Mindy Project there was one girl that was trying to apologize to the main character, and the way that she chose to do so was with a Razzleberry pie. This caught my attention because A. the pie was BEAUTIFUL and B. what the hell is in a Razzleberry pie??

Unfortunately Brian and I were fresh out of razzleberries, but we did have some leftover blackberries from Easter and a few bags of blueberries and in our freezer. I've gotten weird about throwing produce away in the past year (hence the compost tumbler in the corner of my back yard). So instead of even turning these beautiful berries into compost, I decided to practice for work, and write a post for you guys!

I got these great removable bottom tart pans at Sur La Table around Thanksgiving. I initially used them to make caramelized onion goat cheese tarts out of the Balthazar bakery cookbook. These little suckers were EXPENSIVE, so I've made it my mission to use them at every opportunity I get.

Cute huh??

Start by spraying a little nonstick spray, the berry goo that will be emerging from these tarts will quickly turn into cement if given the chance, better safe than sorry.

Using your favorite pie dough recipe (mine is my Gran's Crust with a little added vanilla) grab a small ball, place it between two pieces of parchment paper or the super easy and convenient method of breaking open a gallon sized zip-top baggie. Flatten out to begin the rolling process then using your rolling pin, roll out to about an 1/8th of an inch.

Place the tart pan on top of the rolled out dough to ensure it's wide enough to fill the pan.

Once the dough is rolled out to the correct size, open up the zip-top bag and gently place the dough on top of the tart pan.

Carefully peel away the plastic.

Lift and place the dough so that it fits easily in the pan and start to press it into the crevices. You're going to want to make sure that there aren't any air bubbles in between the dough and the pan.

Once you get the dough in place, using your finger or rolling pin remove the excess overhang so you have a nice, clean crust.

Ain't she a beaut?

Line with heat proof plastic wrap and fill with your baking rice or beans....mmmmm red beans and rice.... I might have to bribe my Grumps with one of these tarts to make me some of his incredible red beans and rice... good thinking Lauren.

Now put these little babies in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.

Carefully so as not to rip the plastic, remove the baking rice with a pair of tongs.

Voila!

You can see in this picture that the part touching the rice bag still seems "wet". So prick the damp looking dough with a fork and place back in the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes or until it looks like the following photo.

The reason you prick the crust is so the steam that will be coming out of the dough has a rout to escape from, this prevents large bubbles from forming in your crust.

Now that our crust to ready we can start working on the filling!

Grate the zest of one lemon into a cup of granulated sugar.

Add in 3 Tablespoons of corn starch and stir to combine.

Add in about one Tablespoon of lemon juice to your sugar mixture and stir to incorporate.

I used fresh blackberries, frozen blueberries and frozen strawberries.

Toss in about 4 cups of any berries you have around the house. If you use all frozen berries, do NOT let them thaw all the way, pull them strait from the freezer and into this dish. If given time to thaw you will lose all the delicious berry juices needed for this pie. So toss the fruit to coat in your sugar mixture and fill your par-baked pie shell(s).

Don't overfill the pies or else you will have some wicked overflow.

Put these babies in the oven at 375 for about 30 minutes for these mini pies, 40-45 for a regular sized pie. You are just looking for the crust to be golden brown and the juices from the fruit to be thick and bubbly.