Stars and Stripes Cherry and Blueberry Pie

4th of July is a big deal in our home, especially with my husband being a proud Army EOD soldier. So this year I decided to go all out and make a Star and Stripes Pie from scratch. This pie was a labor of love and worth all the work. I have included all the steps below for homemade cherry pie filling, blueberry pie filling, and extra flaky pie crust along with how to assemble the Stars and Stripes Pie. To save time you can use canned blueberry and cherry pie filling and premade refrigerated pie dough. I prepared the pie fillings and dough the day before so most of my prep was done and on the 4th I just had to assemble and bake!

Our 4th of July weekend was jam packed with barbecues, pool parties, fireworks, and family time!
I couldn’t have asked for a better way to celebrate our Independence Day.

First stop: fireworks tent! How cute is my little patriotic babe?

My little fireworks shopper. Made her Daddy proud!

Then we stopped for fro yo before going to a friend’s barbecue.

Ava got a new pool and we managed to squeeze it into our patio.
Add toys and bubbles and you’ve got the best pool EVER!

Pool fun with Daddy all weekend long!

My two loves sharing homemade ice cream after lunch on Saturday.

Ingredients:

Serves 10

Extra Flaky Pie Crust (double crust), recipe below
Cherry Pie filling, recipe below
Blueberry Pie filling, recipe below
1

large

egg, slightly beaten in a cup
3 tbsp
Turbinado sugar
You also need: 1 1/2- to 2-in. star-shaped cookie cutter

*You can substitute premade pie dough and canned pie filling if you would like.

Preheat oven to 400°F.
On lightly floured surface
with lightly floured rolling pin, roll 1 pastry round into a 12-in.
circle.
Fit into a 9-in. pie plate, letting edges overhang.
Bend a clean 6-in. square of
cardboard in middle forming a wedge. Place in upper left corner of pie
(like hands of a clock pointing to 9 and 12).
Fill with blueberry pie
filling.
Spoon cherry pie filling into rest of pie. Lift out cardboard.
Roll other pastry round into a 10-in. circle. With a pastry wheel or knife (I used a garnish knife) cut round in five 1/2-in.-wide strips.
With cookie cutter, cut 5 or 6
stars from rest of pastry. Brush strips and stars with beaten
egg;sprinkle with sanding sugar.
Starting
in middle of pie, carefully place three long strips, evenly spaced,
across filling toward bottom edge.
Cut remaining 2 strips into
4-in.-long pieces. Lay over cherry filling on upper right corner.Press
ends of strips into edge of crust. Roll overhang of bottom crust up
over ends of strips to form an even rim.
Flute or crimp rim (I use a fork). Brush rim
with beaten egg; sprinkle with sugar.
Place stars on upper left corner
of pie (on blueberry filling).
Bake 30 minutes in the center of the oven. I place a aluminum foil covered baking sheet on the rack below to catch any juice the bubbles over.
Reduce heat
to 350°F; bake 25 to 30 minutes longer until pastry is golden brown and
filling bubbles.
Place on wire rack and cool completely.
Cut into slices and serve warm or at room temp. Great alone or with ice cream!

*Some crust cooks faster and sometimes the edges brown faster that the crust in the center. Adjust heat accordingly and cover the edges of crust with aluminum foil for last 20-30 minutes if needed.

You can see in the pics above my outside crust got pretty dark!

Recipe adapted from womansday.com

Extra Flaky Pie Pastry

Cake flour makes the pastry extra tender and flaky, due to the
soft nature of the wheat used in the flour and shrink resistant if
prebaked.

Ingredients:

(double crust)

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp cold vegetable shortening, cut into pieces
1/2 cup cold water

Directions:

(I make this in a food processor but it can also be made by hand or with a mixer)

Put the flours, sugar, and salt in the food processor.
Pulse several times to mix.
Scatter the butter over the dry ingredients and pulse 5 or 6 times to cut in.
Fluff the mixture with a fork, lifting it up from the bottom of the bowl.
Scatter the shortening over the flour and pulse 5 or 6 times.
Fluff the mixture again.
Drizzle half of the water over the flour mixture and pulse 5 or 6 times.
Fluff the mixture and sprinkle in the remaining water.
Pulse 5 or 6 more times, until the dough starts to form clumps.
When it reaches this point, do not continue to process.
Empty the crumbs into a large bowl.
Using your hands, pack the dough as you would a snowball.
If making a double crust, divide the dough in half, making one half-for your bottom crust-a little larger than the other.
Knead each piece 2 or 3 times.
Put each in the center of a piece of plastic wrap and flatten it into a disk about 3/4 inch thick.
Wrap in the plastic and refrigerate until firm enough to roll, about an hour or overnight.

*If you don’t have cake flour, substitute 1/4 cup cornstarch for 1/4 cup of the all purpose flour. Sift it into the flour, then proceed as directed.

Recipe from the cookbook Pie by Ken Haedrich.

Homemade Cherry Pie Filling

Ingredients:

5 to 6 cups fresh pitted sweet cherries, about 2 1/2 to 3 pounds (I used Bing)

1/2 cup water

2 tbsp lemon juice

2/3 cup sugar

4 tbsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp almond extract

Directions:

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine
cherries, water, lemon juice, sugar and cornstarch.
Bring to a boil;
reduce heat to low and cook, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes.
Stir in almond extract.
Cool slightly before using as a topping.

Recipe from: www.mybakingaddiction.com

Blueberry Pie Filling

Ingredients:

2 cups blueberries – fresh or frozen
6 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tbsp corn starch
pinch salt
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, heat blueberries over medium heat until they release their juices & soften. (about 7-9 minutes)
In a separate bowl- whisk sugar, cornstarch, & salt.
Once your blueberries have cooked, pour in dry mixture & thoroughly combine.
Heat & stir constantly until mix thickens- 2-3 minutes.
Remove from heat & stir in lemon juice.
Transfer to glass jar & let cool in refrigerator.

Recipe adapted from www.kleinworthco.com

I absolutely love how beautiful ripe, red cherries are! Almost too pretty to eat. Almost.

Pitting cherries takes some work. If you don’t have a cherry pitter try using a plastic straw like my husband did. Be aware: it’s a messy job (but someone has to do it- thanks Ashton!).

All washed and pitted and ready to cook.

Add to a saucepan over medium heat and stir in cornstarch, lemon juice, water, and sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Turn heat to low and let cook for about 10 minutes.

The secret ingredient for cherry pie filling: Almond Extract (I love it in sugar cookies too!).

Remove from heat, stir in the almond extract and let cool before serving or adding to the pie.

In a saucepan, heat blueberries over medium heat

until they soften and release their juices (about 7 minutes).

In a bowl combine sugar, cornstarch,and salt. Mix into blueberries.

Stir until thickened, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice.

Cool before adding to pie.

For the pie dough:

Put the flours, sugar, and salt in the food processor.

Pulse several times to mix.

Scatter the butter over the dry ingredients and pulse 5 or 6 times to cut in.

Fluff the mixture with a fork, lifting it up from the bottom of the bowl.

Scatter the shortening over the flour and pulse 5 or 6 times.
Fluff the mixture again.

Drizzle half of the water over the flour mixture and pulse 5 or 6 times.

Fluff the mixture and sprinkle in the remaining water.

Pulse 5 or 6 more times, until the dough starts to form clumps.

When it reaches this point, do not continue to process.

Empty the crumbs into a large bowl.

Empty the crumbs into a large bowl.
Using your hands, pack the dough as you would a snowball.
If making a double crust, divide the dough in half, making one half-for your bottom crust-a little larger than the other.
Knead each piece 2 or 3 times.
Put each in the center of a piece of plastic wrap and flatten it into a disk about 3/4 inch thick.
Wrap in the plastic and refrigerate until firm enough to roll, about an hour or overnight.

Remove dough ball from the fridge and roll out on a floured surface.

Invert into a 9-in. pie plate, letting edges overhang.

Bend a clean 6-in. square of cardboard in middle forming a wedge.

Place in upper left corner of pie (like hands of a clock pointing to 9 and 12).

To save time I made my pie dough and pie fillings the day before and

stored them in the fridge until ready to assemble my pie.

Fill the top left corner with blueberry pie filling and the rest with cherry pie filling.

Remove cardboard and discard.

Roll out the second dough ball.

Use a pastry wheel, sharp knife, or improvise like me and use a crimped garnish tool and cut 5 strips of dough. Using a small star cookie cutter but 3-5 star shapes.

Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Place the stars on the blueberry filling and lay the strips (5 total, 3 long, 2 short) across the cherry filling to resemble an American flag.

Press ends of strips into edge of crust. Cut off excess bottom crust overhang (or roll up to form a rim).

Flute or crimp rim (I use a fork and press around the sides). Brush rim with beaten egg; sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes in the center of the oven.

I place a aluminum foil covered baking sheet on the rack below to catch any juice the bubbles over.

Reduce heat to 350°F; bake 25 to 30 minutes longer until pastry is golden brown and filling bubbles.

*Some crust cooks faster and sometimes the edges brown faster that the crust in the center. Adjust heat accordingly and cover the edges of crust with aluminum foil for last 20-30 minutes if needed.

You can see in the pics above my outside crust got pretty dark!