Nothing says summer like a classic Saskatoon berry pie. You can have your blueberries, but I’ll take slightly tart Saskatoon berries instead any day of the week. This Saskatoon berry recipe is just like the one Grandma used to make and can be made with either fresh or frozen berries.
Any saskatoon berry recipe starts with a trip to the berry patch, sometime between the second and fourth week of July, depending on how warm or cold summer has been.
Related: The Ultimate Sour Cherry Pie
Saskatoon berries are next to impossible to find at supermarkets, and can only be obtained in the wild, at u-pick farms, and at farmer’s markets. If you have the time, I highly recommend picking at least one of your own pails. It will take an hour, but I swear the berries just taste better somehow.
Watch this video for some quick Saskatoon berry picking tips.
Related: For the Love of Berry Picking
Once you get home, it’s time to clean the berries. If you pick clean as you pick them, cleaning Saskatoon berries goes quickly.
Finally, it’s time to make delicious pies, cakes, muffins, and other desserts! Saskatoon berries freeze well and are delicious in pancakes, with oatmeal, or in your yogurt.
Planning on making lots of pies to freeze for later? One ice cream pail of berries with make three small 8 inch pies, or two large deep dish pies.
Learn exactly how to organize your next pie-making day here!
Full disclosure–When I’m photographing pies, I do not make homemade crust. I’ve found that it’s too difficult to braid or make lattices with it, so I use store bought butter pastry instead. If I’m making the pie for my friends and family and don’t need to get fancy, this is the recipe I use.
Saskatoon Berry Pie
Classic Saskatoon berry pie just like Grandma used to make.
Ingredients
- Filling:
- 10 cups Saskatoon Berries
- 1 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- Crust:
- 4 1/2 cups flour
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/3 cup shortening
- 8 to 10 tbsp cold water
Instructions
Clean Saskatoon berries and mix in sugar, flour, and lemon juice.
Crust: Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender, or your hands. When the mixture looks like a bunch of little pebbles, add cold water until combined. Let dough rest in the fridge for 10-30 minutes and roll out.
Cover the pie plate with dough and trim the edges that go over the pie plate with a knife.
Fill with 3-5 cups of Saskatoon Berries, depending how full you like your pie and how large of a pie plate you are using.
Cover the pie with another circle of dough, and poke holes all over the crust with a fork or knife. If you want to make a lattice crust as pictured, here's how. If you like the braided look, cut out twelve long strips of pie dough, and make four braids before following the instructions to make a lattice.
At this point, you can freeze the pie if desired.
If you are baking the pie immediately, brush on a bit of milk with a pastry brush (or your fingers) and sprinkle with a pinch or two of white sugar. This will help your crust get a nice brown to it.
Bake at 350 degrees for 60-75 minutes. The pie is done when The fruit is bubbling through and the crust is golden brown.
Did you end up with a bit of extra pie filling? Don’t throw it away! Make these super easy hand pies instead!!
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Kristen is a former farm kid turned urban gardener who owns the popular gardening website, Shifting Roots. She is obsessed with growing flowers and pushing the limits of what can be grown in her zone 3b garden. She also loves to grow tomatoes, but oddly enough, dislikes eating them raw.
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