Blueberries, blueberries, blueberries!  My girls and I, along with another family, went blueberry picking yesterday.  We have spent many days at the swimming pool this summer and we were itching for something different.  A friend told us about Blueberry Valley which is no more than 30 minutes outside of Columbus.  The u-pick blueberry fields were plentiful for the picking (I think u-pick lasts throughout the month of July or as long as supplies last).  We’ve picked a lot of apples in the past few years but never blueberries. My girls loved how they could put their hand around a ripe bunch of blueberries and with a gentle pull, the berries slid right off the stem into their hands.  They dropped their handfuls in their 8 lb buckets, which they seemed determined to fill to the top despite my assurance that we didn’t need gather $50 worth of blueberries in one hour.

So we came home with a slew of blueberries (more like $20 worth) and my wheels started turning.  I have already posted a tasty blueberry muffin recipe and an individual berry crumble recipe so I started thinking about pie.  I’m not typically a big fan of plain fruit pies but I have always had a weakness for a cream pie….a good old fashioned peach cream pie served chilled….yum!!! I still remember the best peach cream pie I’ve ever had at a tiny little restaurant at Lakeside, Ohio.  I recalled that months ago I had pinned a blueberry cream pie onto my “Sweet Treats” board on Pinterest.  I instantly looked it up, was pleased to see that it had just a few simple ingredients and called for a whopping 3 cups of blueberries for each pie (a great way to use up a lot of these fresh berries since I decided to make two pies).  I hit the grocery for what I didn’t have and got to work.  A little sweetened cream (I cut it with half and half) and lemon zest whisked together and then poured overtop these most delicious, fresh off the stem blueberries…….heavenly!

Blueberry Cream Pie (Serves 8)

Credit to Little Indiana who adapted from Taylor Takes a Taste Blog

Ingredients:

1 pie crust (homemade or store bought)

3 cups fresh blueberries (could substitute 3 cups of any fresh seasonal berry or peaches…August is peach month!)

2/3 cup sugar

4 Tbsp. flour

¼ tsp. salt

1 Tbps. lemon zest (or orange)

8 oz heavy cream (I used 4 oz heavy cream and 4 oz half and half)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Pour blueberries into unbaked crust.  In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, salt, lemon zest and cream.  Pour cream mixture over blueberries.  Set pie on a cookie tray and bake for 35-40 minutes.  Cool and keep in refrigerator.  Best when eaten chilled.