Mixed Berry Plum Pie with 3 Kinds of Fresh Berries

Triple Berry Plum Pie with a Sugared Lattice Crust

 This mixed berry and plum pie has a perfectly balanced sweet-tart filling made with raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and plums inside a flaky, sugar coated lattice topped pastry. I can’t think of a better way to take advantage of fresh berry season. 

This pie is the July Bake Club Challenge! Click here for more information and to join the Bake Club.

This pie is quite possibly my family’s favorite dessert of the summer. Not just this summer. Every summer. This is especially true for my oldest daughter who loves it so much she nearly cried last week when I told her it was in the oven.

I’ve learned a few tricks over the years which contribute to this pie being consistently delicious. We’ll talk about those in a moment. But, the real secret is to start with really good, ripe, juicy berries and plums.

Here in Colorado, that means this pie doesn’t get made until around mid-June because before then you’re likely to spend a small fortune for berries that taste a little bit like cardboard. I don’t care how many tricks you have up your sleeve, you can’t make a fruit pie taste good if the fruit itself isn’t good to begin with.

Start with good fruit and you’re more than halfway there to a gorgeously delicious berry and plum pie.

A Few Secrets to Making the Best Berry Pie. Ever.

Oh Shirley Corriher, how I love you and your book Bakewise because it’s overflowing with handy little tips and tricks that takes already good things (like chocolate chip cookies) and elevates them to a whole other level. In this fabulous cookbook, I learned a fantastic method for capturing and condensing all the flavor of the fruit while creating the perfect consistency for the filling. Here’s what you do…

A few hours before you want to bake your pie, toss the berries and plums with some sugar and lemon juice. Pile the fruit into a colander set over a bowl and let it stand at room temperature for about 3 hours. This does a couple of things. The sugar sweetens the fruit while the acid in the lemon juice helps the berries retain their shape.

Most importantly, it draws out a lot of the juice inside the fruit, capturing it in the bowl. Cooking the fruit juice along with cornstarch, tapioca, more sugar, and honey concentrates the flavors so that you end up with the most flavor-packed pie possible.

Equally important, this method allows you to thicken all that delicious fruit juice before the pie bakes, giving you much more control over  the thickening process.

If you happen to be using a particularly juicy batch of berries and plums, you might need to add a touch more cornstarch to achieve the right consistency. Since you’re doing this on the stovetop, adding a bit more thickening power is easy-peasy. If the entire thickening process is happening in the oven, there’s nothing you can do except cross your fingers and hope that you’ve added enough thickener to do the job.

Thickening the fruit juice before baking the pie means you will never ever end up with a runny pie. 🙌 🙌 🙌

Also, because you’ve only cooked the juice, and not the berries, they will (mostly) retain their shape. The fruit juice is transformed into a gorgeous glossy glaze that coats the berries and plums, giving each slice a beautiful glossy luster.

Another huge benefit to this method is that because you’ve already drained the berries and plums of excess water, cooking it down to concentrate the liquid, the fruit filling will not shrink down in the oven as the water evaporates. The result? A flavorful, thick pie, that’s densely packed with fruit.

Why thicken the berry and plum pie filling with both cornstarch and tapioca?

You can certainly use only tapioca or only cornstarch to thicken any kind of fruit or berry pie, but I think a combination of both gives you the best of both worlds. Too much cornstarch can make fruit pie filling cloudy and give it a slightly chalky taste.

Tapioca creates a berry filling that is bright and clear, but can sometimes result in a gluey consistency. Combining smaller amounts of both cornstarch and tapioca is a great solution, creating a glossy, luxuriously silky filling.

Q: What kind of berries are best in this pie?

A: Whatever berries you like, are in season, and are ripe and flavorful.

This is a “mixed berry pie” for a reason. You can use whatever kind of berries you want, in whatever proportions you like. In this pie, I used an equal amount of raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries. But, the type of berries you use, or whether you use them in equal amounts is not important. Just use a total of 6 heaping cups of fresh berries and your pie will be fabulous.

Q: Can you leave out the plums?

A: Absolutely. The addition of plums in this mixed berry pie is delicious, but if you don’t like plums, or can’t find good ripe, flavorful ones, just leave them out, substituting another 2 cups of berries in their place. 

Spreading the bottom crust with jam is optional but delicious.

You’ll notice that this recipe calls for the addition of a layer of jam, spread across the bottom of the pie crust before adding the fruit filling. This step is one of those “extra” kinds of things that boost the flavor of the pie slightly, but not so much that it’s not an optional step. Sometimes I do this, and sometimes I don’t.

My favorite kind of jam to use in this pie is Morello Cherry Preserves because it’s rich, tart and incredibly flavorful. If we have it in the house, it most likely means that I’ve made Black Forest Cake at some point in the recent past. Black Forest Cake requires 1/2 cup of Morello Cherry Preserves, which leaves about 1/2 cup of jam in the jar – just the right amount to cover the bottom crust of a fruit pie.

If you have some really good jam in your refrigerator, use it in this pie. If you didn’t know that it was in there, I don’t think you could pick it out. But if you taste two slices of this pie back-to-back, one with jam and one without, you WILL notice that the pie with jam has a bit more fruity flavor. 

Other Fruit Pie and Tart Recipes You Might Like

• Strawberries and Cream Pie
• Triple Cherry Pie
• The Best Blueberry Pie
• Mixed Berry and Lemon Custard Tart

If you give this recipe a try, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, or take a picture and tag it #ofbatteranddough on Instagram.

Happy baking!

Triple Berry Plum Pie Recipe

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★★★★★

4.9 from 13 reviews

• Author: Rebecca Blackwell
• Prep Time: 60 minutes (plus 3 hours to let the fruit drain)
• Cook Time: 1 hour
• Total Time: 2 hours (plus 3 hours to let the fruit drain)
• Yield: 8 slices 1x

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Description

 This mixed berry and plum pie has a perfectly balanced sweet-tart filling made with raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and plums inside a flaky, sugar coated lattice topped pastry. I can’t think of a better way to take advantage of fresh berry season. 

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Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

• 1 recipe Fool Proof Pie Crust, chilled for at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator
• 6 heaping cups fresh berries, any mix of varieties (for the pie pictured, I used raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries)
• 6 small black plums, unpeeled, pitted and cut into 1/2-inch slices
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• ¾ cup + 2 tbsp granulated sugar, divided (plus more for sprinkling over the top crust)
• 1/4 c quick cooking tapioca
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp salt
• ¼ cup honey
• 1 tbsp lemon zest
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup good quality fruit jam or preserves (Optional. *See note)
• 1 large egg

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Instructions

1. Wash the berries in cold water and let drain. Put them into a large bowl with the sliced plums and very gently toss the fruit with 1/2 cup of the sugar and the lemon juice. Pour the fruit into a colander and set the colander over the bowl so that it catches all the juice. Let sit for 3 hours. If you think about it, gently stir the fruit in the colander every now and then to encourage as much juice as possible to drip down into the bowl. (If you forget, or are unable to stir the fruit, don’t worry about it. It’ll be fine.)
2. Preheat the oven to 400.
3. Remove the colander with the fruit in it from the bowl and pour the fruit juice that’s collected in the bowl into a medium size saucepan. Dump the fruit into the bowl and set aside.
4. Using a spice grinder or food processor, grind the tapioca into a powder. (*See note) Add the ground tapioca, remaining sugar, cornstarch, salt, honey, and lemon zest to the fruit juice in the saucepan. Whisk vigorously to combine and set it over medium-high heat.
5. Cook the fruit juice mixture, stirring constantly, until the mixture comes to a boil. Boil, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes, until it’s thickened to the consistency of gravy. (*See note) Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
6. Pour the fruit juice mixture over the fruit. Toss gently to combine and set aside while you roll out the pie crust.
7. Remove the pie dough from the refrigerator. On a floured surface, roll out a portion of the dough to a 12-inch circle that’s about ⅛-inch thick. Using a large spatula, gently loosen the dough from the work top, fold it in half and then fold it in half again. It will form a triangle shape. Lift the crust and place it in a pie plate with the point of the triangle in the center of the plate. Gently unfold the dough in the pan and press into the corners gently. Leave any dough that overlaps the edges of the plate in place.
8. OPTIONAL (*See note): Spread 1/2 cup of fruit jam or preserves in an even layer over the bottom of the pie crust.
9. Roll another portion of the dough into a large circle, about 18 inches. With a pizza wheel, fluted pizza wheel, or paring knife, cut the disk into 1 or 2-inch wide strips.
10. Pour the fruit filling into the bottom crust, smoothing it into an even layer.
11. Starting in the center of the pie, lay half the strips across the top of the filling in one direction. Lay the remaining strips perpendicular to the first, weaving them into the first strips to form a lattice pattern. Trim the edges of the strips so that they are even with the edge of the bottom crust.
12. Fold the edges under, forming a rim around the pie that is a bit higher than the pie plate. With one hand on the inside of the edge and one hand on the outside, use the index finger of your inside hand to push the dough between the thumb and index finger of your other hand to form a U or a V shape. Continue this crimping motion around the entire edge.
13. In a small bowl, whisk the egg with 1 tbsp of cold water. Gently brush the egg wash over the top crust with a pastry brush and sprinkle evenly with 2-3 tablespoons of sugar.
14. Put the pie on a foil covered baking sheet and place in the oven. (To catch the drips. *See note) Bake for 30 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 and bake for an additional 30-40 minutes. The pie is done when the crust is a deep golden brown and the filling in the center of the pie is bubbling.
15. Remove from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack, about 4-6 hours, before slicing.

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Notes

• Spreading the bottom crust with jam is optional, but delicious. If you didn’t know that it was in there, I don’t think you could pick it out. But if you taste two slices of this pie back-to-back, one with jam and one without, you WILL notice that the pie with jam has a bit more fruity flavor. My favorite kind of jam to use is Morello Cherry Preserves because it’s rich, tart and incredibly flavorful.
• The bowl of my food processor is kind of large, so I find it easier to grind a larger amount of tapioca at once. Store ground tapioca in a zip top bag in the cupboard, just as you would unground tapioca.
• The amount of juice you get from your berries will vary, so after boiling the fruit juice with cornstarch and tapioca for a few minutes, if your juice isn’t thickening to the constancy of gravy, you might need to add a bit more cornstarch. Sprinkle in another teaspoon or two, cook for a few seconds longer, and see if that does the trick. If not, add a touch more.
• Placing the pie on a foiled covered baking sheet is super important because most of the time, some of the filling will bubble up and drip over the sides of the pie plate. The foil covered baking sheet will catch these drips, saving you from an oven of burning fruit. Covering the baking sheet with foil (or parchment paper), makes clean up super easy. Just be sure to remove the pie from the baking sheet right after baking or the foil (or parchment) will stick to the pie plate as it cools and be somewhat difficult to remove.

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