Recipe: Dark Chocolate Berry Pie

Made with lots of love!

I realize that I just made a berry pie last week (read that recipe here). But seeing as I had defrosted more berries than necessary for that one, and I had picked more blackberries myself, I still needed to do something will ALL those berries.

Throughout the summer I've baked a lot of berry recipes,* but I usually don't like to make the same recipe twice. So I wanted to make another pie, but different. I Googled recipes that were chocolate berry pies, and I found this one on the Flour Covered Apron blog. Please note that I never make my own pie crust (Pillsbury sells refrigerated ones all rolled out and ready to go. Instant pie crust!), so I have removed those directions from here. You can refer back to the original blog post for the full instructions.

Ingredients (filling only)

·         6 cups mixed berries (I used blueberries and blackberries)

·         2/3 cup sugar

·         3 tablespoons cornstarch

·         1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips, separated

·         1 egg (this is for the egg wash on the top crust)

Directions

For the Filling

1.     Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit and set out a nine inch pie plate.

2.     Combine berries, sugar, and cornstarch in a medium sized bowl. Mix gently to combine and set aside.

Assembling the Pie

1.     Place one pie crust in the bottom of the pie plate. Put 1 cup of chocolate chips on the bottom. Distribute evenly.

2.     Add remaining 1/2 cup chocolate chips to the berry filling and mix gently. Dump berry mixture on top of chocolate chips in pie plate.

3.     Top with remaining crust, creating a lattice, or other design as desired. Seal the edges and trim excess as necessary. Then crimp the edges.

4.     Beat the egg with a whisk. Brush the top crust with egg using a pastry brush.

5.     Bake at 350° F for 50-60 minutes. Top should be golden brown, filling should be juicy and bubbling.

6.     If top is browning too quickly while baking, place foil over the top, or a pie ring around the edges.

7.     Remove from oven and let cool completely.

I knew I had used a lot of corn starch in my last pie, but I didn't realize how little I had left. I probably had just over a tablespoon, and here I needed three. Eek! I looked up online and saw that flour can act as a substitute for corn starch in a 2:1 ratio. So I went with that. And I used a little more sugar and chocolate chips than called for; sweeter is better, right? (Okay, maybe it was too many chocolate chips) Also, I only had four cups of berries, but that was plenty. The filling I prepared nearly overflowed the pie plate. Six cups never would have fit!

The chocolate does overpower the berry flavor, but it's still a delicious pie. I even enjoyed it with ice cream! I went with vanilla since that's classic, but since this pie is very chocolate-y, maybe chocolate ice cream would have been just as good!
*Read my other berry recipes here:
Blackberry Crisp
Blackberry Scones
Blackberry Muffins
Blackberry Cobbler (I totally forgot I ever made this!)