Leaf Lard Pie Crust and Blueberry Pie

Sometimes, two problems have a way of taking care of each other. A few weeks ago, we inherited a case of already ripe blueberries. After snacking through and giving away as many as we could, 10 cartons remained. As it happened, our first batch of leaf lard arrived in the kitchen, and we needed a few recipes to test out. It doesn't take too much creativity to see that a blueberry pie made with lard crust was an easy fix to both.

For this one, we wanted to try an all-lard crust instead of the half-lard, half-butter crust you usually see. Butter is about 16% water (USDA), and that water lets flour build gluten. Leaf lard is pure fat, so there's no water to start gluten. The paste method below also coats most of the flour before any water goes in, so very little gluten forms. On our first bake, we only added ½ of the water as our dough started getting pretty wet and the resulting pie crust was amazingly flaky, but very crumbly due to the low water and therefore gluten content.

In terms of lard flavor, it is mild enough to sit under fruit, which is what sets leaf lard apart from regular lard. The dough is a sweet, all-lard cousin of our half-tallow crust.

The crust uses the fat-paste method from J. Kenji López-Alt's easy pie dough at Serious Eats. The filling borrows America's Test Kitchen's trick of cooking half the berries first.

What you need

For the crust (a double crust for one 9-inch pie):

• 315g all-purpose flour (2½ cups), plus more for rolling
• 1½ tsp fine sea salt
• 2 tsp sugar
• 210g leaf lard (about 1 cup), cold, cut into ½-inch cubes
• 90-120ml ice water (6-8 tbsp)

For the filling:

• 3 cups blueberries (about 425g), to cook down
• 4½ cups blueberries (about 640g), left whole
• ¾ cup sugar (150g), divided, plus up to ¼ cup more if the berries are tart
• 1½ tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• ¼ tsp ground coriander
• 1 tbsp cold leaf lard, in small pieces

To finish: 1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp water, and coarse sugar.

Make the crust (25 minutes, plus 1 hour to chill)

Spread the cubed lard on a plate and freeze it for 15 minutes. Whisk the flour, salt, and sugar, then set aside 60g of the mix (about ½ cup). Pulse the rest with all the lard in a food processor until it turns into a smooth paste with no dry flour left. Add the reserved flour and pulse 6 to 8 times, until it looks like coarse meal. Tip it into a bowl, drizzle in 90ml of ice water a tablespoon at a time, and toss with a fork until a squeezed handful holds together. It should look shaggy. Add more water only if it won't bind. Divide into two discs, one a little larger, wrap them, and chill at least 1 hour or up to 2 days. No food processor? Rub the lard into the flour with your fingertips until no dry flour is left, then toss in the reserved flour.

Cook the filling (about 20 minutes, plus cooling)

Cook 3 cups of the blueberries with ½ cup of the sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, mashing now and then, until about half have burst and the mix has cooked down to roughly 1½ cups, 10 to 12 minutes. Spread it on a plate to cool. Toss the remaining 4½ cups of berries with the remaining ¼ cup of sugar, the cornstarch, lemon juice, salt, and coriander, then fold in the cooked-down berries and the lemon zest. Taste a berry. If it's tart, add sugar a tablespoon at a time.

Build and bake (about 2 hours)

Heat the oven to 425°F (220°C) with a heavy baking sheet on a rack in the lower third. Roll the larger disc to about 3mm thick and let it slump into a 9-inch pie plate without stretching it. Pour in the cooled filling and dot it with the tablespoon of cold lard. Roll the second disc, lay it over the filling, trim both crusts to a ½-inch overhang, fold the edges under, and crimp. Cut four slits in the top. Refrigerate the pie for 30 minutes. Brush the top with egg wash and sprinkle it with coarse sugar. The egg wash gives an all-lard crust most of its color. Bake on the hot sheet for 25 minutes, then lower the oven to 375°F (190°C) and bake 45 minutes more, tenting with foil if the edges darken early.

The verdict

Cool the pie on a rack for at least 3 hours. The filling sets as it cools, so it slices clean. Our first one worked! For a dough that's easier to roll, go half leaf lard and half cold butter: cut the butter in first, then process the lard as above.

The crust starts with our leaf lard: the leaf fat from pasture-raised pigs on New England family farms, slow-rendered in small batches with nothing added. Of our rendered fats, it's the one for pie crust and biscuits.

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Leaf Lard

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