If you've never had a slice of raspberry pie, you're missing out. This is the taste of summer in a pastry crust. Tangy, sweet, and bursting with fresh berry flavour, raspberry pie is the best!
What food evokes more comfort than a slice of pie? Apple pie, cherry pie, pumpkin pie, lemon meringue pie.
And then there's raspberry pie - the shy cousin who doesn't come to the party very often. But when she does, she causes quite a stir, and everyone wonders where this beauty has been all their life. She is the belle of the ball.
Our raspberries came into their own this year. We had moved them from our vegetable garden to our orchard garden about three years ago, and they sat and slept the first couple of years. This year, they finally burst forth in a glory of raspberry abundance.
There's nothing better than picking sweet, ripe raspberries right off the canes and popping them, still warm from the sun, into your mouth. Then there's the deliciousness of a bowl of fresh raspberries sprinkled with sugar and doused in cream. Or a slice of bread slathered with raspberry jam. Or a slice of amazing raspberry pie with a scoop of ice cream melting into the buttery crust and mingling with that gorgeously tangy filling, glowing a most startling shade of shining ruby red.
Raspberry pie is in a class all of its own - its fresh, fruity, raspberry flavour is unparalleled. The berries cook together into a soft and silky filling, just holding together enough to be cut into a glorious wedge. This pie is not too sweet, highlighting the berry flavour. A hit of bright elderflower liqueur imbues the fruit with a subtle complexity and light floral flavour, bringing it right into the realm of heavenly.
Your taste buds will be dancing a sprightly waltz at the raspberry ball.
What You'll Need
Start with your favourite pastry for a two-crust pie (if you need it, I've included a recipe for my crisp & flaky gluten-free pie crust in the recipe card below).
You'll need fresh raspberries, of course.
A touch of elderflower liqueur is the secret ingredient which adds a brightness to the pie and complements the raspberry flavour beautifully.
Can the Pie be Made Without the Liqueur?
Any other fruity liqueur would work well, too. I've used crème de cassis and it is delightful in this pie, but I imagine a peach liqueur or other berry or fruit-flavoured one would also be great (even an orange liqueur like Grand Marnier, Triple Sec, or Cointreau). If you don't want to add alcohol, substitute it with elderflower cordial diluted 1:1 with water, or use straight apple, raspberry, cranberry, or pomegranate juice.
As Easy as Raspberry Pie
Make your pie pastry, roll out the bottom crust and fit it into the pan, then chill it.
Combine the sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk in the liqueur and lemon juice. Then gently stir in the raspberries.
Scrape the filling into the chilled pie shell and dot it with the butter. Roll out the top crust and cut it into half-inch strips to use for the lattice crust.
How to Weave a Lattice Top for your Raspberry Pie
Lay 5 pastry strips, spaced evenly, in one direction over the raspberry pie. Press down the ends on one side to attach them to the rim of pastry around the top edge of the pie.
To weave the lattice crust, flip back strips 2 and 4. Lay a new strip crosswise across the attached strips. Flip strips 2 and 4 back down over the crosswise strip. Then flip back strips 1, 3 and 5. Place a second new strip crosswise across the attached strips, then flip strips 1, 3 and 5 back down over the new strip. Repeat with strips 2 and 4 again. Continue alternating flipped strips until you have added 5 crosswise strips and the lattice is woven over the whole pie.
Press the edges of all the strips down to attach them to the crust rim around the pie.
Trim off the excess crust all the way around the pie, holding the knife perpendicular to the crust. Then press down the edge with the tines of a fork to firmly attach the top and bottom crust. Trim once more to remove any crust that pushed out past the rim.
Now Bake the Pie
Set the unbaked raspberry pie onto a baking sheet to catch any drips. You can line the baking sheet with foil or parchment paper to make clean-up even easier (but if you used a deep-dish pie pan, you shouldn't have any drips). Then slide it into the preheated oven to bake.
Let the pie cool completely so the filling sets before you cut into it. (I know, it's hard to wait!)
A scoop of vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt takes this raspberry pie right over the top and into the realm of ooh-là-là!
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Raspberry Pie
Equipment
- a 9-inch (23 cm) deep-dish pie pan
Ingredients
- 1 recipe pie crust of your choice for a 9-inch double crust pie (for a good gluten-free version, see below)
- 4 cups (500 g) fresh raspberries
- ¾ cup (150 g) sugar, preferably natural evaporated cane sugar (for a sweeter pie, use up to 1 cup/200 g sugar)
- 4 tablespoons cornstarch
- ⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ⅓ cup elderflower liqueur or apple juice
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons butter
Gluten-Free Pie Crust for Double-Crust 9-inch Pie:
- 3 tablespoons ground golden flax seeds
- 6 tablespoons water
- 2¼ cups (310 g) gluten-free flour blend
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder (gluten-free)
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¾ cup (150 g) cold lard or butter or a mix of both
- 2 tablespoons yogurt
Instructions
To Make the Gluten-Free Pie Crust:
- Stir the ground flax seed into the water in a small bowl or cup and let it sit for 10 minutes to swell up.
- In a large bowl, stir together the gluten-free flour blend, baking powder, and salt. Cut the cold lard or butter into small cubes and add it to the flour. Toss the cubes to coat them with the flour. Squish the butter cubes between your fingers to flatten them, or cut them into the flour with a pastry cutter or two butter knives, until the lumps are pea-sized.
- Add the flax gel and the yogurt and mix it just until the flour is all moistened and the mixture is a shaggy mass. Press the dough firmly into a ball, then flatten it into a thick disk, about 1-1.5 inches thick. Wrap it in plastic food wrap, and chill it for 30 minutes (or up to 3 days). At this point the wrapped dough ball can be put into a ziptop freezer bag and frozen for up to 6 months.
- Remove it from the freezer and let it warm slightly for 10 minutes. Unwrap the dough disk and cut off ⅓ of it to use for the top crust. Rewrap the smaller piece and rechill it. Shape the larger piece back into a disk and place it on the counter between 2 large squares of parchment paper. Bang it with a rolling pin to flatten it slightly, then roll it out between the parchment sheets. When it is thin enough, peel off the top parchment sheet and invert the dough onto a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate. Fit it gently into the dish, patching any cracks, then trim off the overhanging crust. Chill the crust for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 425℉ (220℃).
To Fill the Pie:
- In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, liqueur (or apple juice), cornstarch, lemon juice, and salt. Gently stir in the raspberries. Set aside while you prepare the lattice strips. Roll out the pastry for the top crust (between two sheets of parchment paper if making a gluten-free crust). With a knife of rippled pastry cutter, cut ½ the dough into half-inch (1 cm) strips (you'll need 10 of them).
- Scrape the raspberry filling into the chilled bottom pie crust. Dot with the butter.
- Lay 5 strips, spaced evenly, in one direction over the pie. Pinch down the ends on one side to attach them to the rim of pastry around the top edge of the pie.To weave the lattice crust, flip back strips 2 and 4. Lay a new strip crosswise across the attached strips. Flip strips 2 and 4 back down, over the crosswise strip. Then flip back strips 1, 3 and 5. Place a second new strip crosswise across the attached strips, then flip strips 1, 3 and 5 back down over the new strip. Repeat with strips 2 and 4 again. Continue alternating flipped strips until you have added 5 crosswise strips and the lattice is woven over the whole pie.Press the edges of all the strips down to attach them to the crust rim around the pie. Trim off any excess pastry with a knife.
- Press the tines of a fork down onto the rim all the way around the pie to firmly connect the lattice strips to the bottom crust, then trim it once more to remove any excess pastry that pushed over the edge.
- Set the pie onto a larger rimmed baking sheet to catch any drips. Bake the pie on the middle rack of the oven at 425℉ (220℃) for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350℉ (180℃) for another 30 to 40 minutes (for a total of 45-55 minutes).
- The pie is done when you can see the filling bubbling up around the edges, and if you watch carefully, you see the slight movement of a bubble occasionally moving under the filling in the center of the pie. If the edges of the pie brown too much, cover them loosely with strips of foil.
- Let cool completely before slicing, to allow the filling to set up.
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