Apple and Wild Huckleberry Pie

Happy Autumn. With these warm sunny days, and crisp cool nights, the weather this week has been perfect. After an unusual summer in the garden, the sight of our pear and apple trees loaded with fruit has been a welcomed delight. One that has also inspired a new season of kitchen experiments. The warm pleasure of spiced apples encased in buttery, flakey crust is a cherished American classic that needs little adjusting. However, with a bag of foraged wild huckleberries sitting on the counter, I felt challenged to try a twist on the expected. The resulting pie had a fabulous jewel-toned filling with a perfect balance of sweet and tart.

Ingredients:

For the crust:

2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour

½ teaspoon fine salt

12 tablespoons cold butter, cut into ¼-inch cubes

½ cup ice water

For the filling:

⅔ cup sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon ground allspice

½ teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon kosher salt (or 1/2 teaspoon fine salt)

2 ½ pounds tart baking apples

½ pound huckleberries

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon butter, cut into pieces

Directions:

First make the crust. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. Working quickly, add the butter and cut in with a pastry cutter, or use your fingers to blend into the flour. Work until you have a course, crumbly texture, leaving large irregular pieces of butter throughout. Add about half of the ice water and mix with a fork until the dough begins to clump together. Keep adding more water if needed until the dough is shaggy and just clumps together. Divide dough in two balls and then gently form them into disks. Wrap dough in plastic or wax paper, and chill in refrigerator for at least one hour.

While dough is chilling make the filling. In a large bowl, whisk to combine the sugar, flour, spices, and salt. Core apples and thinly slice. Add the sliced apples, lemon juice, and vanilla to the sugar mixture. Mix thoroughly and leave on counter to rest for about 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out one disk of dough and line a 9 inch pie dish, leaving 1-inch overhang. Spoon apple filling into the crust and dot the top with butter. Roll out the second dough disk and lay over the filling. Trim to fit and then fold bottom crust over and decoratively crimp edges together. Cut small 1-inch slits around the top.

Place pie on a foil lined baking sheet to catch any drippings. Set on middle rack of oven and bake for 20 minutes. Then reduce temperature to 375 degrees, continue to bake until filling is bubbling, about another hour. Rotate pie halfway through the baking time, and if needed loosely cover with foil to prevent over browning.

Allow the pie to cool on wire rack for 1 to 2 hours before serving warm.

Notes:

Use your favorite baking apples such as Granny Smith or Golden Delicious. When shopping for apples look for fresh, local and organic if available. We are lucky to have some wonderful apple trees on our property, which have had a productive year this year. Also, a good friend who lives outside of town gifted us a box of fantastic tart apples from her property which have gone into several pies and tarts. When using seasonal high quality apples, I prefer to leave the skin on, for the color and texture. If your apples are non-organic and have been waxed, it is better to peel them.

Wild huckleberries, like other foraged treats, often appear in our kitchen as gifts from neighbors. From the Blue Mountains to Idaho, I have tried huckleberries from all around the inland-Northwest. Recently, we discovered an abundant patch of the coastal variety of huckleberry growing in the dunes around our favorite beach. On our last trip to the coast we brought back a bag full of the little gems. If you can not find huckleberries, you can substitute blueberries for this recipe, or even fresh ripe currants.

This colorful, sweet and tart pie is lovely with a dollop of fresh whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Enjoy.