Blackberry crumble pie is a blackberry pie with crumb topping. It brings together a blackberry pie and a blackberry crumble in one delicious holiday dessert. Featuring a homemade blackberry pie filling with a hint of warming spices, this crumble pie is the perfect non-traditional addition to your upcoming holiday menu. With a classic pie crust on bottom and a buttery crumble on top, you no longer have to choose between crumble or pie – you get to have both!
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Oregon Berries. All opinions are 100% mine.
Blackberry Crumble Pie – Both a Pie and a Crumble!
Is it a blackberry crumble? Is it a blackberry pie? Yes and yes. A blackberry crumble pie is a blackberry pie with a crumb topping. It gives you the best of both worlds and makes both pie lovers and fruit crumble lovers happy!
The most famous crumble pie I know is a dutch apple pie, but here we’ve swapped out the spiced apple filling for one made with spiced blackberries. Like an apple pie, a blackberry crumble pie is a welcome addition to your Christmas or Thanksgiving menu, but it’s also delicious as an end of summer treat when the heat has finally cooled enough to use your oven again.
This blackberry crumble recipe has three elements: the all butter crust, the spiced blackberry pie filling, and the crumble topping. Making pie from scratch isn’t going to be quick or easy, but it will be oh so worth it.
What You’ll Need
For this blackberry crumble pie recipe I’m going to break things down into three sections: the pie crust, the filling, and the topping. We will work through them in order, the assemble and bake.
Pie Crust
- Pie Crust – The foundation of your crumble pie, you can find pre-made versions in the refrigerator or freezer sections of your local grocery store, or you can go fully homemade and make it yourself from scratch. My post on pie crust covers all your bases including instructions for making it by hand, with a food processor, or a stand mixer.
Blackberry Crumble Pie Filling
- White granulated sugar – Sweetens the filling and helps to create the signature syrupy texture that makes a good pie filling.
- Ground Cardamom – My favorite warming spice, often under appreciated, can be swapped for more ginger or cinnamon.
- Ground Ginger – Another warming spice that adds flavor to the pie.
- Ground Cinnamon – The last warming spice in our spice blend, it also adds flavor to the pie.
- Kosher Salt – Just a pinch. Brightens up the sweetness and turns up the flavor.
- Blackberries – Fresh blackberries, frozen blackberries, or thawed blackberries will work, but the volume changes slightly based on what you choose. I’ve included notes and a chart below.
- Dessert Wine – This acts as the base for our cornstarch slurry, while also adding flavors. Read on for non-alcoholic substitute suggestions.
- Cornstarch – Thickens the blackberry crumble filling so that it sets up properly.
Crumb Topping
- All purpose flour – The bulk of the crumble topping. You can also use pastry flour.
- Cold butter – The temperature is important, take it out of the fridge when you are ready to use it.
- Brown sugar – Adds a rich sweetness.
- Ground cardamom, ground ginger, ground cinnamon – The same warming spice blend as we use in the pie filling.
- Kosher salt – Just a pinch will dial up the flavors and sweetness without adding more sugar.
Recommended Kitchen Tools
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- Mixing bowls
- Wet measuring cups or a food scale
- Dry measuring cups
- Measuring spoons
- Spatula or mixing spoon
- Sharp knife, pastry cutter, or grater
- A 10″ pie pan
How to Make a Blackberry Crumble Pie
This blackberry crumble pie is made in four steps: the crust, the fruit filling, the crumb topping, assembly and baking. The bottom crust is the most labor intensive, if you are making it from scratch. The filling is a no-cook version, that thickens and bakes in the oven while the pie cooks. The crumb topping is fairly straightforward, as is assembling and baking.
Pie Crust
The first element of our holiday worthy blackberry crumble pie is the pie crust. If you’ve never made homemade pie crust you must see my post on perfect pie crust. It’s an old family recipe that always give me great results and I’ve adapted it to include instructions to make it by hand, with a food processor, or a stand mixer. It works so well and tastes so good that it’s the only pie crust I’ll use.
If you have a pie crust you know and love, by all means use it. If you aren’t ready to tackle homemade pie crust (or just don’t have the extra time) a store bought crust will work. Check the refrigerator and/or freezer sections at your local market.
Whichever you choose, be sure to make the pie crust first. Once the pie dough is rolled out and fitted to the pan it needs time to chill completely before assembling and baking the pie, which it can do while you make the filling and topping.
Blackberry Pie Filling
This blackberry crumble pie recipe uses a no-cook blackberry pie filling with cardamom, ginger, and cinnamon warming spices, that is perfect for your Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.
To make the filling combine together the sugar, spices, blackberries, and salt in a medium sized mixing bowl. Since blackberries are so juicy and we aren’t going to cook them down, we have to use some sort of thickener to prevent a blackberry mess that runs all over your pie plate. For this crumble pie we are using cornstarch.
Cornstarch works by absorbing the liquids in the filling, then thickening when heated, or in this case, baked. In order to get it evenly distributed among your berries, blend it with the port wine to make a slurry. Once the cornstarch slurry is smooth, combine it with the berry mixture and set aside.
Blackberry Crumble Topping
The crumble part of the blackberry crumble pie comes from the buttery crumble topping. The goal here is to have chunks of butter wrapped in a layer of sweet, spiced, flour. When the crumble topping bakes, the fat melts, the flour and spices crisp up, and the sugar caramelizes.
In order to get that perfect crumbly texture, start with cold butter. The butter needs to be broken down into smaller pieces before you mix it with the flour, which can be done a number of ways. My preferred method: chop it into smaller chunks then incorporate it by hand.
You can also use a food processor, pastry cutter, or coarse grater. Whichever method you choose, once the butter and flour are worked together it should not be uniform. You want both large and small chunks and the rest should be the texture of damp sand.
What you don’t want to do is work the butter so that it starts to melt. While stand mixers are great for creaming or whipping butter, they won’t give you the texture we are looking for when making a crumb topping. Stick to one of the other methods above.
Assemble and Bake
The last step is to assemble and bake your crumble pie. No need to par bake the crust on this one. Simple pour the filling into the prepared crust, then layer the crumb topping on top.
Cover the pie with aluminum foil and bake on the lowest rack for 30 minutes at 375º. Remove the foil and drop the oven temperature down to 325º. Continue to bake 25 – 35 minutes or until the filling is bubbly and the crumb topping has turned a golden brown. Your kitchen should smell like spiced blackberries.
Let the pie cool before slicing. I know it’s hard, but the only way for the pie to set up is for the filling to cool. If you simply cannot wait, be prepared for the pie filling to run. It’s still going to taste great, it will just be a bit messy.
Cooking with Dessert Wine
If you’ve never cooked with dessert wine before you are in for a treat! Most dessert wines are strong and usually a little bit sweet with underlying wine flavors of vanilla, oak, and berries, making it the perfect compliment for this pie.
You can use something like semillon, late harvest zinfandel, a ruby or tawny port, or use another sweeter wine like a moscato or a sweet reisling.
If you want to omit the wine, you do need to replace it, as it’s the liquid that makes the slurry. My favorite substitute is apple juice (or apple cider) with a splash of balsamic vinegar.
Oregon Blackberries
Today’s blackberry crumble pie features Oregon blackberries. From the soil, to the climate, to the family farms, when it comes to producing blackberries Oregon does it best.
Picked at peak ripeness, some of our locally grown berries end up in grocery store produce sections, but many more of them are frozen within 24 hours and distributed across the country. Those frozen blackberries are the ones that make for the best year round blackberry sweets and treats.
So, if you’ve found this recipe at the height of the summer season, by all means use those fresh, juicy berries to make this blackberry crumble pie. If it’s any other time of the year, check the freezer section at your local grocery for frozen Oregon blackberries and start baking.
Frozen or Fresh Blackberries
Like these recipes for blackberry lime tart and pork chops with blackberry applesauce, this blackberry crumble pie can be made with either fresh or frozen blackberries.
I tested it with blackberries picked from the side of the road, store bought in season berries, and frozen berries. While I won’t recommend one over the other as far as flavor or texture goes, depending on how you measure them, the quantity of blackberries may change based on the state of the berries used.
The way you measure the blackberries when switching between fresh and frozen is hugely important.
To explain: Blackberries measured by volume (ie: cups) will not give consistent results compared to blackberries measured by weight. Berries that are frozen solid take up more volume than firm fresh berries, which take up more volume than soft overripe berries or thawed berries. However, once baked, all these different volumes cooked down to give pies of a similar size.
What this means for you: If you have a scale, use it. If you don’t have a scale, adjust the volume of berries depending on their state by using the chart below. Don’t worry, exact quantities are not necessary to get perfect blackberry crumble pie.
Frozen Berry to Fresh Berry Equivalents
- Frozen berries: 2 lbs = approximately 8 cups
- Fresh berries: 2 lbs = approximately 6 1/2 cups
- Thawed berries (previously frozen): 2 lbs = approximately 6 cups.
Serving Suggestions
You can serve this crumble pie slightly warm, at room temperature, or chilled. If you try to serve it while it’s still hot, the filling will run all over the pan. I like my pie ala mode, with a serving of vanilla bean ice cream or sweet cream ice cream. You can also opt for whipped cream too!
How to Store and Reheat
Like most pies, this one can be stored for 3 – 5 days at room temperature or in the fridge, depending on personal preference. If your house is hot, the fridge may be the better option.
If you want it warmed up, you can pop individual servings in the microwave or reheat the entire pie in the oven.
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Blackberry Crumble Pie
Ingredients
- [1 homemade pie crust – 10″]
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cardamom
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- 2 pounds blackberries (see notes)
- 2 tablespoons dessert wine
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cold butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cardamom
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- pinch of salt
Instructions
Pie Crust
- Make the pie crust according to the recipe directions. Roll it out and place it in a 10" pie pan. Press the edges into desired shape. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes.
Blackberry Pie Filling
- Preheat the oven to 375º.
- In a large mixing bowl combine sugar, spices, and salt. Add blackberries and toss to combine. In a small bowl make a slurry by combining the cornstarch and dessert wine. Pour the cornstarch and wine slurry over the berries and toss to combine. Set aside.
Crumble Topping
- In a small bowl combine together sugar, flour, spices, and salt. Chop or grate the cold butter into small chunks. Work the butter into the flour until you have a texture of large chunks, small chunks, and a mixture the texture of damp sand. Set aside.
Assemble. Bake. Serve.
- Pour the berry mixture into the chilled pie crust. Spread the crumble topping over the berries, making sure to cover them as evenly as possible.
- Cover the pie with foil and bake on the bottom rack of a preheated oven for 30 minutes.
- Remove the foil cover, drop the heat to 325º and bake an additional 25 – 35 minutes.
- Allow pie to cool at room temperature for 20 minutes before serving with your choice of ice cream, whipped cream, or clotted cream.
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Notes
- Frozen berries: 2 lbs = approximately 8 cups
- Fresh berries: 2 lbs = approximately 6 1/2 cups
- Thawed berries (previously frozen): 2 lbs = approximately 6 cups.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated and is for general information purposes only. For the most accurate information, calculate using your select brands and exact measurements.
