Directions
1. Clear the kitchen of hangers-on. It's much more fun when they have to guess what's coming their way. Preheat oven for 350 degrees not the Celsius kind!2. Crack egg, making sure no bits of shell are present. Whip it up. Measure out 1/8 cup of egg. Set the rest of the whipped egg aside; you'll need it later.
3. Beat the other crust ingredients together (including the 1/8 cup of egg) with a handy fork until they become dough-like. Then knead the dough a bit with your hands until it's mixed well.
4. Spray your pie tin or pie dish with cooking oil like Mazola. Refrain from mistaking varnish or Windex for cooking spray. It's a simple mistake and can happen to anyone, especially on their first try. (Ahem.) You can also use a bit of butter and then smooth it around with your hands. Don't forget to use the spray or butter along the sides of the pan as well as the bottom. This is so your pie does not stick to the bottom and sides of the pie pan like rice pudding.
5. After you've done that, put some flour in the pan, a small handful. Tap the pan around until the entire dish is slightly coated with the stuff, including the sides of the pan. After all, the pie will be there, too. Dump the excess flour into the sink.
6. Divide the dough roughly in half, with one half just slightly larger than the other.
7. Take a large cutting board and sprinkle it with a bit of flour. Rub a rolling pin with some flour, too. Then take your larger half of dough and roll it out into a circle. The best way to do this is to rotate the cutting board if you have the room. Otherwise your dough will turn into any shape but a circle, and the last thing we need to hear from certain people is that we make triangular or square pies. Roll out the dough until it is several inches bigger than your pie pan. Place the pan close to your board, for purposes of comparison.
8. Work at the edges of your flattened dough with your fingers, then pick it up off the board and slap it into the prepared pie tin. This is harder than it sounds, and may require special training and focus. Make sure that the dough is big enough to cover the whole bottom and sides of the pan!
9. Mix all filling ingredients together with a spoon, trying not to crush all the berries. Try a turning-over motion with them. That seems to keep them from turning into a berry juice, which Nabiki drinks before I ever get a chance to put it in the pie.
10. Dump mix into waiting pie dish.
11. Flour the cutting board and rolling pin again. Take the other half of the dough and roll it out, remembering to turn the board so you're making a circle. It should be a bit smaller than the one before, since it just has to go on top, and won't need to cover the sides.
12. Once more, work at the edges with your fingers and place the dough atop the fruit-filled pie dish.
13. Take a fork and press it gently but firmly into the place where the two pieces of dough meet, all around the edge of the dish. Do this until you've gone all the way around the pie dish.
14. Use a knife or pastry scissor to remove any dough hanging outside the pie tin.
15. Remember the whipped egg you set aside? Put a VERY thin layer of egg atop the pie crust. Don't feel you have to use the rest of the egg. You should be throwing some away. Sprinkle some brown or white sugar atop the pie, too. These two things will make the crust crispy and good.
16. IMPORTANT! Poke holes in the top of the pie with your handy-dandy fork. If you don't, the pie will explode. No... I mean, really explode. This was the third pie attempt. And no matter how much Ranma teased me about it, the same thing would happen to anyone's pie. The steam needs a way to escape.
17. Put the finished pie in the oven for fifty minutes. Wait until cooled to serve, and if you cover it, don't cover it all the way. The first slice will be runny, but each successive slice will be better than the last one.
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