Blueberry Crumb Pie

Ingredients

• 1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust (store-bought or homemade)
• 6 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 tbsp lemon zest
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup cold butter, cubed
• 1/4 tsp salt

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Fit the crust into a 9-inch pie dish and crimp the edges.
2. Toss the fresh or frozen blueberries with the sugar, thickener, spice, and lemon juice, then spread evenly in the crust.
3. For the crumb topping, rub the flour, brown sugar, butter, and salt together with your fingers until it forms coarse, pea-sized clumps.
4. Scatter the crumb topping evenly over the filling.
5. Bake for 50–60 minutes, tenting the edges with foil if the crust browns too quickly, until the topping is golden and the filling bubbles at the edges.
6. Cool on a wire rack at least 2 hours before slicing.

The Tale of Blueberry Crumb Pie

Story updated September 18, 2026

Blueberry crumb pie merges two genuinely American strands: blueberries, one of the few pie fruits native to North America and long gathered by Indigenous peoples before becoming a fixture of New England's "pie belt" baking by the 19th century, and the streusel crumb topping carried to Pennsylvania by German-speaking "Pennsylvania Dutch" settlers, best known through Dutch apple pie. There's no documented moment when the two were first combined; it likely happened gradually in 19th- and 20th-century home kitchens and church cookbooks, as the crumb topping, quicker than rolling a second crust and good at soaking up juicy fruit, was applied to whatever filling was on hand. Maine's wild lowbush blueberry industry, which eventually made blueberry pie the state's official dessert, helped keep blueberries widely available for home bakers well beyond New England, and the crumb-topped variation became a common way to dress up a humble, native berry into something a little more special for company.