A Perfect Blueberry Cream Pie that Uses Fresh and Cooked Fruit | America’s Test Kitchen

In this blueberry cream pie, ripe summer blueberries offer tartness when whole, and jammy sweetness when cooked. Ashley Moore shows Bridget Lancaster how to use a cooked berry puree to hold fresh berries in place, then finishes the pie with a blueberry-streaked cream cheese topping.

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– I love blueberry pie. And guess what? So do you, because blueberry pie is ranked annually in the
top five pies in America, but I think we can do better than five. Let’s raise this to number one. And Ashley’s here. She’s got just the right
blueberry pie recipe. – You better believe it. This pie is all about the blueberries. – [Bridget] Mm-hmm. – And not just any blueberries, the peak summertime blueberries that you find at the road stands. – Mm. – Oh my gosh. You can’t get
anything better than that. – Right. – So we’re gonna use a graham
cracker crust for this. This is 12 graham crackers
that I’ve torn into pieces, but what’s more important is the weight. So this is six and a half ounces total. Now different brands have
different weights per cracker. – [Bridget] Okay. – So I’m gonna process this for 30 seconds until the grand crackers
are finely ground. All right, so this is
two tablespoons of sugar, and I’ve got just a pinch of salt, and I’m just gonna give this three pulses just to combine everything. – [Bridget] Okay. – And finally, just to
bring it all together, I’ve got six tablespoons of unsalted butter that’s been melted. – [Bridget] Okay. – I’m gonna give this eight pulses. I’m gonna transfer the graham crackers to our nine-inch pie plate. All right, I’m gonna use the bottom of this dry one-cup measure. And the dry cup measure is gonna help to evenly disperse the graham crackers throughout the pie plate. And then once it gets nice
and even on the sides, gonna use my thumb just to guide it along, and I’m packing it pretty firmly. All right, Bridget, that
is looking pretty good. And I’m gonna actually
bake the crust first before we go any further
with the blueberry filling. – [Bridget] Okay. – I’ve got an oven
preheated to 325 degrees, and I’m gonna bake this
for 16 to 18 minutes until the pie crust is beginning to brown. Now let’s move on to the filling
while the crust is baking. I’m gonna process two
cups of these blueberries for about two minutes until
they are totally smooth. I think we’re in good shape,
but let me just go back in. Yep. Let’s move on down to the stove top. So this is a half a cup of sugar. This is four teaspoons of corn starch and a quarter teaspoon of salt. – [Bridget] Okay. – [Ashley] I’m just gonna
whisk this together. You’ll notice that I don’t
have the heat on at this point. I’m gonna put this strainer
right over the sauce pan, ’cause that’s gonna help
to collect the skins and any of the seeds. So it’s gonna be a smoother texture of the pie.
– [Bridget] Okay. – Now I’m gonna use the whisk, help push the blueberries
through the strainer. So still off heat. I’m just gonna whisk this now
just to combine everything before I turn the heat on. Now I’m gonna turn the heat to medium, and I’m gonna bring this
filling to a simmer. – [Bridget] Okay. – [Ashley] And you wanna
be sure just to whisk this while the filling is
coming up to a simmer. – [Bridget] Okay. – We are at one minute, and
that is looking perfect. Now, off the heat, I’m
gonna add a little bit of lemon juice, and that’s one tablespoon. Almost done. I’m gonna reserve two
tablespoons for the topping. All right, so we are done here. The last thing I need to do
is add a few more blueberries. This is two and three-quarter
cups of blueberries. We’re gonna have that really amazing, velvety soft blueberry filling. So good. All right, so
this is done at this stage. I’m gonna go check on the crust, then we’re gonna move on to the topping. – Sounds great. – Here is our crust. Beautifully baked. And now it’s time to add the filling. All right, I’m just gonna put
this into an even layer here. We’re gonna take this to the next level. We’re gonna be adding a
little bit of cream cheese to the topping, and it’s
gonna make your brain think that you’re eating a blueberry cheesecake. So this is eight ounces
of softened cream cheese, and I’ve got a quarter cup of sugar and a little bit of vanilla
extract, one teaspoon. And now the first step here is I’m going to whisk this cream cheese
for about two minutes until it’s super smooth. – [Bridget] Okay. – Step one. – All right. – Is done. I’m just gonna wipe down
the bowl one more time. So with this mixer running,
I’m gonna add one cup of some chilled heavy cream. I lowered the speed just a little bit just to make sure it
didn’t splash up at us. – I really appreciate that. – You’re welcome. (laughs) All right, now I’m
gonna slowly increase it just to medium-high, and I’m gonna let this go for
about one to three minutes. I’m gonna be looking for stiff peaks. – [Bridget] Okay. – [Ashley] That’s a stiff
peak if I ever saw one. – [Bridget] That is stiff peak. – So I’ve got a piping bag. It’s with a fitted closed star tip. If you don’t have a
piping bag, no worries. We’ve got instructions for how to use a substitute on our website. – [Bridget] Perfect. – Now we’ve got the reserved
blueberry mixture from earlier. Again, that’s two tablespoons. All right, so I folded it over. Now I’m going to go in and
just use a regular table knife, and going all the way
down into the star tip, I’m gonna work the filling all the way up. I’m gonna make three stripes in total. Now, this next part feels a
little wrong, but it’s right. I’m gonna load up the spatula
with the filling here, and I’m gonna just flop it on in. You don’t want it to really
bring down the streaks of that filling. – Gotcha. Just plop it in
the middle as best you can. Gotcha. – And it’s perfect. I’m using this glass just
to kind of collect anything that would’ve spilled out,
getting all the air out as much as possible. I’m gonna turn this over right side up, and twist, twist, twist. Okay, so now we’re gonna
be making some rosettes. I’m gonna go into the center
and make three rosettes first. (Bridget gasps) – [Bridget] How pretty. – Isn’t that awesome, ’cause
of the stripes along the side? – [Bridget] Oh, how pretty is that? – Isn’t that pretty? There isn’t enough room for
me to make more rosettes. So I’ve got this beautiful star tip. I’m gonna go in there and
just squeeze ever so gently and make some stars. – [Bridget] Oh, love it. – I’m gonna put this in the refrigerator for a minimum of four hours, but it can hang out in
there for up to 24 hours. – [Bridget] Oh, that’s handy. – Mm-hmm. That was a long four hours. – It was really long. – Really long.
– Yeah. – [Ashley] But it’s an important step, because you want everything to cool down. It’s gonna be much
easier to slice this way. – [Bridget] Okay. Sold. – [Ashley] All right. So I
like to use a boning knife. There we go. Perfect. – Mm. All right. It’s spectacular. All right. First bite. Got a little bit of everything, a little bit of crust, little
bit of cream cheese topping, and a lot of blueberry. Best part, where to start, right? – I know. – But that jammy filling, you
get a pop of fresh blueberry. – Mm-hmm. – Gorgeous, because that
was only in that sauce pan. – [Ashley] Yeah.
– Just for a minute. – I can really taste the lemon
juice too. Not overpowering. It just gives a little bit of acidity to balance everything out. – It sure does. That topping is ethereal. For full episodes of your
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