American Flag Berry Pie

I’m excited to share my American Flag Berry Pie. I made a Red, White, and Blue Fruit Pizza a few years ago, and figured I was due for another 4th of July themed dessert.

The US has been in a lot of chaos lately, so this year’s 4th of July definitely has a different feel.

We have moved to Seattle from Philadelphia, and it has been quite a journey. B unfortunately had to work and couldn’t fly with us. Flying with a newborn, a dog, a carseat, a stroller, all my frozen breastmilk with ice, and a ton of incredibly luggages is not something I want to repeat ever again. Thankfully my mother-in-law was an extra set of hands while we were traveling, and Isabelle and Nike were mostly cooperative on the plane.

Alas, our movers were not good and even though they picked up our stuff from a month ago, they have yet to leave the East Coast! All our stuff – furniture, bed, baby bassinet, plates, cups, kitchenware is somewhere in a warehouse in Maryland.

It’s a cross country move, so I don’t expect it to arrive perfectly at the same time we arrive, but I thought they would have started during these past 4 weeks.

So we have been very limited in our kitchen items this past month. I have dearly missed my food processor during this time and making pastry dough by hand is so laborious.

Thankfully we had good friends in Seattle who lent us towels, chairs and table, and an air mattress, and helped us get food while we didn’t have a car yet. We will be celebrating 4th of July with them and I wanted to make a show stopping dessert.

Happy 4th of July! Adapted from Simply Recipes

Ingredients
PASTRY
1 frozen premade pastry crust for the bottom crust
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, very-cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon sugar
6 tablespoons cold water
turbinado sugar, on top

STRAWBERRY FILLING
1 pound strawberries (about 2 1/2 cups)
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons cornstarch

BLUEBERRY FILLING
3/4 cup blueberries
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Directions
PASTRY
Preheat your oven to 425F. Blind bake your frozen pastry dough for about 8 minutes. Take the pie out and set aside.

For the top layer, mix flour, sugar, salt, and butter in a food processor and pulse until the largest pieces of butter are about the size of peas. If you don’t have food processor, “cut” the butter with knives until they are very small pieces and mix with the dry ingredients until well incorporated. Slowly add water 1 tablespoon at a time and pulse in a food processor (or mix by hand) until the dough is just combined. Roll dough into a ball and chill in the refrigerator.

BERRY FILLING
Combine the strawberry filling in one bowl. Combine the blueberry filling in a separate bowl. Take our the prebaked pie crust and fill 3/4 with the strawberry filling, and 1/4 with the blueberry filling.

Take out the pastry dough ball from the fridge. Roll on a mat until about 1/8 inch thick. Cut thin strips to make the American flag stripes. Cut out stars for the American flag stars (you could do one big star or a few smaller stars). I handcut my stars with a knife, but you could use a cookie cutter. Design your American flag. I did not do an egg wash, but I did press turbinado sugar into the pastry.

Preheat oven to 425F. In the meantime, chill entire pie for about 15 min so the dough stays cold. Bake for about 30-40 minutes until crust is golden brown and the filling is baked. If it browns too quickly, cover the parts that are dark with foil. Set aside to cool. Enjoy!