-
1
Prepare the crust: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, & granulated sugar. Add the cold butter cubes and mix until evenly coated.
-
2
Place everything into the bowl of a large food processor. Using several short bursts, pulse until the mixture resembles cornmeal (it will look very dry). Transfer the mixture back to the large mixing bowl and place the bowl into freezer. Freeze for about 30 minutes.
-
3
Remove the bowl from the freezer and sprinkle about 3 Tablespoons of the cream (or whole milk) on top of the mixture. Use a wooded spoon, a rubber spatula (or your hands) to gently work the cream into the dough. Keep adding cream, one Tablespoonful at a time, and mixing, until the dough starts to form a ball (you might not need all 8 Tablespoons). Don't add too much cream - the dough should be cohesive and slightly wet, but not sticky. Gather the dough into a ball and divide it in half. Flatten each piece of dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours. {Note: Well wrapped, the dough can be refrigerated for three days.}
-
4
Remove one disk of dough from the fridge. On a very well-floured surface, using a well-floured rolling pin, roll the disk into a 12-13 inch circle that's about 1/4-inch thick. Gently place the circle of dough into a 9-inch pie plate - make sure it's centered, if you try to stretch the dough at this point it will shrink back in the oven. Trim the overhang to about 1/2-inch and tuck it under forming a neat edge; refrigerate while you prepare the top crust.
-
5
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Roll out the second disk of dough into a 12-13 inch circle, use a small fluted fondant (or cookie) cutter and cut out as many shapes as possible (re-roll the scraps and continue to cut out shapes). Place pieces of cut out dough onto parchment-lined sheet; refrigerate for about 10 minutes.
-
6
Preheat oven to 375 F.
-
7
Remove dough-lined pie pan from fridge; set aside
-
8
In a large mixing bowl, stir together the blackberries, flour, sugar, orange juice and almond extract. Scrape berry mixture into crust, pressing down gently so it's even. Remove cookie sheet with cut-out dough pieces. Brush pieces of dough with beaten egg. Gently press shapes onto edges of crust, overlapping as you go; continue overlapping pieces over filling until completely covered. Dab pieces with beaten egg and entire pie with sugar.
-
9
Bake 45-55 minutes, or until the filling is bubbly and the crust is golden brown. If the edges are browning too quickly, cover them with a loose foil tent or pie protector. {Note: some of the berry juice oozed out of the pie and onto my oven - if your pie looks like it will do the same, place the pie onto a thin cookie sheet and continue baking.} Remove pie from oven and immediately place onto a cooling rack: cool completely before serving with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream!
