Not About Cake

I recently started doing some grocery shopping at the 99 cents store. We are tightening our belts around here. Last week they had perfect blackberries and I put myself in a blackberry pie kinda mood. While it is not the cheapest pie to make, it makes a big difference when you spend 99 cents instead of $2.98 or more on 6 oz packs of blackberries.

I used my favorite crust recipe, which I will keep a secret for now, and looked up recipes for the filling. I found a few similar versions that got really high ratings that mixed between 4 and 6 cups blackberries with sugar, cornstarch and a little lemon juice. I should have looked further. I used one of said recipes and ended up with a beautiful tasty pie containing a lake of juice inside.

My hubby came home and caught me with a straw in the pie, sucking out juice and spitting it into the sink. I know, not a pretty picture. The pie was still yummy - plump blackberries and perfectly thick buttery crust. I was surprised to find that my crust did not end up soogy. Maybe I got the juice out in time. Next time, however, I'll cook down my filling first.

The pie ended up costing about $6 or $7. My husband commented that I could have purchased a pie for less. True, true; but it wouldn't have been as good (at least that is what I am claiming), and this one pie can serve as dessert for a whole week. So that works out to about a $1 a day. Except that it only lasted half the week. I won't recalculate.