Black Blueberry Pie

This black pie has been a staple in my family for generations. My great grandmother started a trend of making black pies in the 30s and it continued in my family to this day. Back then, rhubarb was a very popular and a cheap pie filling and people didn't always know about rhubarb leaves being poisonous. One of my great grandmother's brothers got accidental rhubarb poisoning from eating the leaves and he was treated with charcoal and fully recovered. But... everyone was spooked. So, to prevent any more possible poisoning my great grandmother started making pie crusts with powdered charcoal. I have no idea if it would even help in the event of poisoning, but it sure made for interesting desserts. Until I was 10 I honestly had no idea pies were normally brown, not black. We continue this bizarre tradition in my family and at least once a year we make black pies to honour my great grandmother.

The pie crust has no distinguished flavour and only uses a small amount of charcoal, so it won't interfere with your digestive system.

The filling of this pie is a bit different than usual pie filling. I don't like my pies to have overflowing fruits, I like them to hold their shape almost like a cake and to do that I'd have to use a lot of cornstarch. But using large quantities of cornstarch produces an aftertaste I'm not fond of. To fix that I like to whip a small amount of thick pond cake batter to coat the blueberries. The filling is a hybrid of pie and cake, overflowing with fruit, but held together by cake batter.

-1/3 cups white sugar

-3 cups flour

-1 tablespoon finely powdered charcoal (food grade)

-250g cubed, cold butter

-30-60ml cold water

Use food processor or hand whisk to mix flour, charcoal and sugar. You will end up with gray flour, not black. Don't be tempted to add more charcoal, the mixture will get darker once you add moisture.

Use food processor or pastry cutter (https://www.amazon.co.uk/ORBLUE-Pastry-Cutter-Stai...) to combine cold butter cubes and flour mixture until it resembles crumbs.

Add 30ml cold water to the mixture and knead until it's a smooth ball. If your pastry is too dry and won't get together, you have to add more water.

Roll the dough to 3-4mm thickness and line your pie dish. Trim the sides roughly and put the dish in the fridge while you prepare the filling. Any and all leftover pastry should be flattened into a disc, covered in cling film and put in the fridge too.

-500g fresh blueberries

-3 tablespoons softened butter

-1/2 cup white sugar (add more if blueberries aren't very sweet)

-1 egg yolk

-3 tablespoons lemon juice

-lemon zest from 2 lemons

-1/2 cup flour

-1-2 tablespoons milk

Use a whisk or a wooden spoon to mix softened butter with sugar, once combined add egg yolk.

Next, add lemon juice and lemon zest and stir well, it will look awful and as though the mixture seized, but don't worry, it's supposed to look like that. Add half the flour into the mix, mix well and add remaining flour. You want the batter to be the consistency of thick pancake batter. If it's too thick, add tablespoon or two of milk to thin it out.

Add blueberries and gently coat them in batter.

Once filling is made, remove the pastry case from the fridge.

Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs on the bottom and level it- this is optional, but breadcrumbs create a protective layer between pastry and filling and prevent it from going soggy.

Transfer the filling to the pastry case and pack it down with a spatula or spoon, try to push it down until there are no visible gaps.

Roll the leftover dough out and cut strips for the top. You can go with thick or thin stripes, completely overlapping pattern, or traditional lattice pattern.

Arrange the strips directly on top of the pie, or do it on the sheet of baking paper and, once assembled, transfer the lattice on top of the pie.

Trim the edges and crimp the sides.

Place in the fridge to chill for 1 hour before baking.

Bake at 350F for 50-60 min.