Nettle & Honey: Red, White, & Blue Pie

Hello friends! Every Independence Day for the last few years I've whipped together a festive berry pie. It's fun, delicious, and perfect for summer. I like to place the berries in a flag pattern in accordance with the holiday, but you could easily mix them all up to reuse the recipe all summer long.

For the pie crust

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, chilled and diced

1/4 cup ice water

In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles course crumbs. It's important for the butter to be chilled, because that's what gives it the nice flaky texture. Slowly stir in the ice water until the dough forms a ball. Wrap in plastic, and place in the fridge anywhere from an hour to overnight.

While the dough is chilling move on to your filling!

Blueberry Filling Ingredients:

3/4 cup white sugar

4 cups fresh blueberries

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 tablespoon cinnamon

Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir in the blueberries.

Raspberry Filling Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup flour

2 tablespoons cornstarch

5 cups fresh raspberries

1 tablespoon butter

Mix sugar, cornstarch, and salt in large bowl. Stir in the raspberries.

Once the dough is easy to handle, divide it in half and roll it out on a lightly floured surface. Transfer the dough to a 9" pie pan and trim the edges to fit.

Arrange the berries in a flag pattern, placing the rest of the filling mixture to the side, and dot with butter. Roll out the remaining dough and cut in strips for the stripes of the flag, and a large star. (For the remaining berry filling I like to pour it into a pan and sprinkle it with a crumble mixture of oats, cinnamon, and vanilla. Bake that up for a few minutes and you have an easy second dessert!)