Blackberry Pie

Ingredients

• 1 package (2 crusts) refrigerated pie dough (store-bought or homemade), or a double batch of homemade dough
• 6 cups fresh or frozen blackberries
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 tbsp lemon juice, extra
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)
• 1 tbsp coarse sugar, for sprinkling

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C). Fit one crust into a 9-inch pie dish.
2. In a large bowl, gently toss the fresh or frozen blackberries with the sugar, thickener, spice, lemon juice, and salt until evenly coated.
3. Pour the filling into the crust and dot with the butter pieces.
4. Top with the second crust, forming a lattice top, or cut several vents in a full top crust. Crimp the edges to seal, then brush the top with the beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
5. Bake for 45–55 minutes, until the crust is deep golden and the filling is bubbling through the vents.
6. Cool on a wire rack at least 2 hours before slicing so the filling has time to set.

The Tale of Blackberry Pie

Story updated September 18, 2026

Blackberry pie traces back to Britain, where wild brambles have been foraged for centuries, but it became especially significant in early America, where wild blackberries and black raspberries grew abundantly in the woods of New England and Appalachia. Colonial and 19th-century households relied on these free, plentiful berries for summer desserts, and the pie carried enough national stature that it reportedly appeared on Abraham Lincoln's inaugural luncheon menu in 1861, and was said to be a favorite of George Washington. In Appalachia in particular, blackberry pie, often in fried hand-pie form, became a defining regional dessert, tied to the annual ritual of foraging brambles along fence lines and forest edges each July. Because blackberries bruise and spoil quickly and don't travel well, the pie remained largely a home-kitchen and farm-stand tradition rather than a commercial one, keeping it closely associated with rural foraging culture in the South and Appalachia well into the 20th century.