The best blackberry pie ever. No kidding! All butter crust, loads of blackberries, spiced with a little lemon, cinnamon, and almond extract. Yum.

Photography Credit: Elise Bauer

Yes my friends, it’s time for blackberries! The season is here, the berries are ripe and ready for picking.

Blackberries grow wild here along the American River, and pretty much around all of the creeks and streams in California. Heck, they even grow wild in empty lots and neglected back yards in San Francisco.

Some friends and I went berry picking at the river this week and brought home a couple pounds of fresh, ripe, juicy berries, perfect for a pie.

And a perfect pie it is, or was. It didn’t last long.

Honestly I think it was one of the best pies I’ve ever made, and that’s saying something, because I like to make pie. The filling held together (instant tapioca is a great thickener), the additions of lemon, cinnamon, and almond extract just intensified and enhanced the blackberry flavor.

And the crust? Well, in my opinion, homemade pie is just an excuse to eat homemade butter crust.

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Wild blackberries or store-bought blackberries for pie

Not everyone has access to wild blackberries. If that’s you, you can easily use market berries or frozen berries. Trader Joe’s carries a good quality bag of frozen mixed berries that would work perfectly well with this pie.

Store-bought blackberries tend to be sweeter and have more moisture than wild blackberries. So if you use store-bought berries, you’ll want to add a little more lemon juice to the filling to balance the tartness, and use more thickener (cornstarch or flour) than if you are working with wild blackberries.

How to select wild blackberries for the best pie

If you do have a blackberry bush nearby, pick mostly berries that are all black, or deeply purple. Do include a few berries that are still a little red. They’re not quite ripe and will be rather tart, but they’ll help to add a tart balance to the sweetness of the pie, and their pectin will help the pie thicken.

A truly ripe berry should be easy to pick. You shouldn’t have to tug on it too much to get it off of the vine.

Tips for blackberry picking