The concept of you-pick farms is a wonderful piece to the larger farm-to-table puzzle. The best part of you-pick farms, at least in my opinion, is that often you get to taste what you are picking so you know how good it is. And you get to see exactly where and how your food is grown and produced.–Kevin Belton
Blueberry Custard Pie FAQs
A custard that hasn’t been cooked properly is heartbreaking. Too long and it becomes rubbery and grainy, not long enough and it won’t set and is possibly uncooked. When cool, buttermilk pie should be set, not runny.
So how do you know? The key is in the jiggle. About 5 to 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time, open the oven and give the pie a little jiggle–it should have just a bit of movement, not a sloshing back and forth.
LC Tester Callie M. passed on this brilliant little visual to show you the difference. Remember that the custard will set a little as it cools, so you still want that movement so you know it’s not overcooked.
This custard pie needs no embellishment, but a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream would always be welcome.
Cover any leftover pie tightly with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Blueberry Custard Pie
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon (1 oz) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries or frozen blueberries, thawed
- 1 9-inch (23-cm) store-bought or homemade pie crust, unbaked
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
- In a large bowl, whisk sugar, buttermilk, eggs, butter, and vanilla until well combined. Add flour and salt and whisk until no dry flour remains. Gently stir in blueberries until well incorporated.
- Place pie crust in a 9-inch (23-cm) pie plate. Pour pie filling into pie crust. Bake until just set, 50 to 60 minutes.
☞ TESTER TIP: You’ll need a pie plate that can hold 5 cups of filling. You can check that your pie plate is large enough by filling your empty pie plate with water, 1 cup at a time.
- Cool at room temperature for 1 hour. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
I got a call today after bringing this blueberry custard pie to a dinner party last night. “I’ve been thinking about the blueberry pie all morning,” my aunt whispered. “Why didn’t I bring home leftovers? Were there any leftovers?!”
This pie was a cinch to throw together and a welcome twist on the normal summer fruit pie. I finished prepping the filling before the oven even had time to finish preheating! I sometimes find berry pies a bit overwhelming, not to mention VERY expensive, but this was balanced on both counts. It takes less than a pint of blueberries, which rise to the top of a perfect custard. Thanks to the buttermilk, the custard is sweet without being cloying, and wasn’t tangy like I was expecting.
I admit that I’m always a bit nervous about custard pies–how much jiggle is the right amount of jiggle? So I checked YouTube and found this video on baking pies, which helped me decide to leave the pie in the oven about 5 minutes longer.
This blueberry custard pie is a simple elegant pie worthy of a special occasion. While this was an easy dessert to put together, it was gorgeous and amazingly delicious. We’re big buttermilk pie fans which is what originally drew me to this recipe. The addition of blueberries was a nice twist.
I also served it with whipped cream which elevated it just a bit, the contrast of the cream with the tart blueberries and buttermilk was perfect. It was such a good recipe I can’t wait to make it again.
In my household, we like pie … a lot. Sweet pies, savory pies, any and all pies. So when there is a recipe in need of testing, this is the choice of test recipes.
What I like about this recipe for blueberry custard pie is how easy it is to put together. If you’re new to pie-making, this is a recipe for you. Or if you are an old hand at it, this is a great tasting custard pie, so give it a try. As well, it could be adapted to other fruit pies.
This blueberry custard pie is as effortless as it gets. No blind-baking or egg wash for the pie crust, and no need to bring the custard ingredients to room temperature. The recipe is even simpler for those who have pie dough in the freezer. (Mine is never without a few discs individually wrapped in foil.)
Not only is the pie a breeze to make, but it’s also delicious with vanilla-scented custard and juicy blueberries. It’s a lovely treat when the fruit is in season, but you can also bring summer back to the table by using frozen berries in cooler months.
But “easy” doesn’t mean it’s completely carefree. Where this pie needs a little attention is the baking time to ensure the custard stays creamy, even after two-plus hours of chilling in the fridge. The “jiggle test” is important here, but it can be pretty ambiguous. My go-to visual clue for a 9-inch pie: give it a gentle horizontal shake, and the entire surface looks set and dry, but the center (about 4 to 5 inches in diameter) wobbles like it’s silken tofu underneath.
The bottom of the crust was a bit paler than I prefer, so next time I will bake the pie on a baking sheet that’s been preheated for 5 minutes—a trick I often use when recipes don’t require blind-baking.
This blueberry custard pie is a nice change to straight fruit pies and has the added bonus of aging very well. After a day I found the buttermilk chess to be even creamier in texture with no loss of structure. This pie slices well, comes together super fast, and can serve as a simple base for endless variation.
If you’ve got a pie crust ready to go, make sure to preheat your oven well before starting to put this pie together. Know that this is a sweet pie, emphasis on sweet! I would recommend adding some lemon zest to the custard, or perhaps pairing a tart topping to the finished pie if you are hoping to mellow out the sugar.
Keep in mind as well that even though the pie comes together very quickly, there is some significant cooling time.
This blueberry custard pie was an easy, delicious, dessert to make that resulted in a beautiful presentation with the blueberries rising to the top and covering the top of the pie. The custard was creamy, but not too sweet which allowed the flavor of the blueberries to come through. I do think a little lemon zest in the batter would give an extra ‘zing’ to the pie and take up up a notch.
This recipe is easy as pie (ha! See what I did there?!), but you need time, lots of time. The good news is that most of the time spent is on cooling times, so if you’re making this on, say, a Sunday morning, you can make the crust (the recipe I used took all of five minutes to put together, but needs to spend an hour or two in the fridge), and make the filling later (again, it takes 5 minutes to make, but one hour to bake and another three hours to cool).
The pie? It’s lovely. Not too sweet. Lots of blueberry goodness. I might add some lemon zest or almond extract (or both) to the custard before baking.
