We’ve been having a serious heatwave here in Portland over the last few weeks. Don’t get me wrong, I love the sunshine but it’s been almost 100° for too long. I’ve started taking refuge in the walk-in fridge and freezer at work to keep cool.
Yesterday, my friends and I met up at 9 so we could go berry picking before it got too hot to do anything. We picked some blueberries (eating them as we went), then braved the prickly marionberry bushes to get just over 6 pounds of those succulent berries. We came away with scratched up arms and red-stained hands, but it was so, so worth it.
The views from the farm we picked our berries from can’t be beat and I came away with some pretty impressive tan lines, so I’d call it a successful day!
At work on Friday I was given some extra 5″ pie shells we had, so of course I brought these along and we used our berry haul to make some incredible marionberry-blueberry pies. We also made some marionberry lemonade and drank marionberry cider while we watched the Women’s World Cup Final. Safe to say, by the end of the day we pretty much looked like marionberries 🙂
We blind-baked the pie shells, made a sweet berry filling and topped them with some raw-sugar sprinkled pastry decorations.
Then we paired it with some vanilla ice cream and our tastebuds were beyond satisfied!
Mini Marionberry & Blueberry Pies
Ingredients
- 3 5-inch pie shells, raw
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp. cornstarch
- 4 cups marionberries and blueberries
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- Raw cane sugar, for sprinkling
Directions
- Step 1 Heat oven to 330°F. Line 2 pie shells with some parchment paper and fill with rice or baking beans. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the sides of the shells are brown and the bottom is cooked. Set aside. {You can throw away the rice once you’ve used it}.
- Step 2 With the third pie shell, make your decorations for the top of the pie. Sprinkle with raw cane sugar and bake until cooked, about 15-20 minutes.
- Step 3 To make the filling, whisk together the sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan. Add berries and lemon juice and place over low heat to cook, stirring occasionally until thickened. Once filling is done, pour into cooked pie shells. Top with your decorations and place in the fridge to set.
