Triple Berry Plum Pie

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.

BUT - you can also use frozen berries and plums to make this pie all year round. 👏👏👏

In my house that means making this pie with fresh berries and plums in the summer and with frozen fruit in the colder months. Most notably, around the holidays because who doesn't want to end a holiday meal with thick slice of really good pie???

Ingredients Needed to Prepare This Recipe

• Two pie crusts. My favorite recipe is Fool Proof Pie Crust, but if you have a favorite recipe, please use it. Or, use a couple of frozen prepared pie crusts.
• 6 heaping cups fresh or frozen berries, any mix of varieties. For the pie pictured here, I used raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries.
• 6 small black plums. Cut the plums in half and remove the pit. Then, cut them into ½-inch slices. There's no need to peel them.
• Lemon juice. A bit of lemon juice is essential to bringing out the fresh fruit flavor of the berries and plums.
• Granulated sugar. Just ¾ cup sugar is enough to both sweetened the triple berry plum filling and work with the tapioca and cornstarch to thicken the filling and create a gorgeous gloss.
• Quick cooking tapioca. Tapioca comes in several different forms, but the one you want to use in pies is instant (quick-cooking) tapioca.
• Cornstarch. Cornstarch works with the tapioca to thicken all that delicious fruit juice so your pie holds together when sliced.
• Salt. Obvi. Just a bit of salt helps to bring out the flavor of all the other ingredients.
• Honey. Honey adds both sweetness and flavor to this fruit pie.
• Lemon zest. A bit of lemon zest brightens the flavor of the fruit and provides a nice balance to the sweetness of the pie.
• Vanilla extract
• Good quality fruit jam or preserves - Like this Strawberry Rhubarb Jam. This ingredient is optional.
• 1 large egg

Why The Filling for this Berry Pie Includes 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.

Top Tip for Making the BEST Triple Berry Plum Pie

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 of delicious.

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...

1. A few hours before you want to bake your pie, toss the berries and plums with some sugar and lemon juice.
2. 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.

Once you've collected the extra fruit juice, pour it into a saucepan and add cornstarch, tapioca, a bit more sugar, and a touch of honey. Let it simmer for a bit, which 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.

Bye, bye runny fruit pies.

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

What if you're using frozen fruit in this pie?

Follow the same method, adding the frozen berries and plums into a colander with the sugar and lemon juice. As the berries thaw, the juice will drain out and collect in the bowl.

What Kind of Berries are Best in this Pie?

This is a "mixed berry pie" for a reason. You can use whatever kind of berries you want, in whatever proportions you like.

In the pie pictured here, 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 or frozen berries and your pie will be fabulous.

For An Extra Layer of Flavor, Spread the Bottom Crust with Fruit Preserves

This recipe includes the instruction to spread some jam or preserves across the bottom of the pie crust before adding the fruit filling. This step is one of those "extra" kinds of things that gives each bite an even more intense fruit flavor.

There are two kinds of jam I especially love to use in this pie:

• Morello Cherry Preserves. Morello cherries are 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 ½ cup of Morello Cherry Preserves, which leaves about ½ cup of jam in the jar - just the right amount to cover the bottom crust of a fruit pie.
• Homemade Strawberry Rhubarb Jam. Every summer, I make as many batches of this jam as I have the time and ingredients for. No matter how much I make, we never have any left over by the next summer. It's just that good.

More Delicious Pie Recipes

• Sweet Cherry Crumb Pie
• Chocolate Cream Pie
• Strawberries and Cream Pie
• Triple Cherry Pie
• The Best Blueberry Pie
• Caramel Apple Pie
• Perfect Summer Peach Pie

This is so delicious! I used my own tried and true pie crust recipe, but was really excited about the new technique of thickening the liquid before baking the pie. It is definitely one of the best pies I’ve ever baked!

-Suzanne

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

Happy baking!