Easy Blackberry Cream or Cherry Cream Pie

I love blackberry pie, it’s one of my favorites and my sisters always make one for our family reunions and I always have to fight someone for the last piece!  Lol  Blackberry pie is really one of the easiest fruit pies to make because there is no stove top cooking, you just mix up everything in a bowl and fill the crust, put on the top crust and bake.  But I came up with an idea of making blackberry cream pie and for this one I had to use canned pie filling – I am working out the kinks of making my own filling with this recipe so I might have a follow up recipe soon but why wait to enjoy something so good?   J

FILLING

INGREDIENTS

1 can of blackberry or cherry pie filling, you can use whatever flavor you want but these are my favorites.

1 large size box of vanilla pudding – cook and serve – not instant.

  NOTE:  If large box of pudding is too much for your size pie just pour in about ¾ of it or until the crust is filled about ½ way.

PIE CRUST   (or you can use premade crust)

INGREDIENTS

·         1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

·         1/4 teaspoon fine salt

·         1 teaspoon granulated sugar

·         8 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (1 stick), cut into small pieces

·         4 to 5 tablespoons ice water

INSTRUCTIONS

1.     Combine the flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl and stir briefly until the mixture is aerated. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it’s in pea-size pieces that are slightly yellow in color, about 4 to 5 minutes.

2.     Drizzle in 4 tablespoons of the ice water and mix just until the dough comes together. (Add the last tablespoon of ice water if necessary, but don’t overwork the dough or it’ll become tough.)

3.       Shape the dough into a flat disk, cover it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

4.       Roll out the dough so that it will fit a 9 inch pan with about a ½  to 1 inch overlay.  Fold in half and lay in pie plate and unfold.   Fold edges under and crimp or style the way you want.  Take a fork and make a few holes across the bottom and sides of crust.  Bake at 375 until golden brown,  if the dough bubbles up a bit take a wooden spoon and gently press it down.

If using a store bought crust, or making your own bake them according to instructions above or according to the instructions of the store bought crust.   Let the crust cool.

Once both the crust has cooled (pudding can be warm)  pour the pudding into the crust and cover it with plastic wrap and set it in the refrigerator to finish cooling.   Then remove plastic and pour or spoon the can of pie filling over the top of the pudding, spread evenly.

Toppings:  You can top this with either meringue or whipped cream – it’s really good either way but if you want to keep it simple and easy – I recommend using whipped cream.  J    Put in refrigerator until ready to serve and keep any leftovers in the refrigerator.