Page 114 - United States of Pie

Blackberry Jam Pie

Imagine the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich that you have
ever tasted: ethereal white bread, sweet jam with just the right
number of seeds to stick in your teeth, and salty peanut butter. Now,
take the peanut butter out of the equation, and that is what you get
when you make this pie: a buoyant, jammy confection that is piled in

a traditional salty short crust.
This pie was made by Mrs. H. V. Parsons and won the prize at the
Louisiana State Fair. Her recipe has been passed down through her
family for sixty-five years, and I can see why. It’s both a luxurious
and a simple pie. Because it calls for blackberry jam instead of fresh
berries, you can make it even in the dead of winter, when the taste of
fresh berries is a distant memory. The original recipe, in true

Southern fashion, calls for a lot of sugar. I cut the sugar down. If you
use a high-quality jam with minimal extra ingredients, the true berry
flavor will shine through. The voluminous meringue adds a chewy
crust, just like the bread in a jam sandwich.

½ recipe Standard Pie Dough

For the filling
3 large egg yolks
¼ cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup blackberry jam
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup buttermilk

For the meringue
3 large egg whites, at room temperature