Huckleberry Pie

Celebrating our state’s beloved wild huckleberries:

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Huckleberry Pie is a quintessential Montana dessert, celebrating our state’s beloved wild huckleberries, which grow abundantly in our mountainous regions.

This user submitted recipe, is inspired by sources like The Taste of Montana, it delivers a sweet-tart, flaky-crusted pie that’s a perfect finale to a meal featuring dishes like Butte Pasties or Baked Trout.

If fresh huckleberries are unavailable, frozen ones work well.

Ingredients:

    • 2 cups Flour
    • 1 tsp. Salt
    • 2/3 cup Lard
    • 3 cups Huckleberries (fresh or frozen)
    • 1 cup Sugar

Directions:

    • Heat oven to 425°.
    • Pour huckleberries into medium bowl and toss sugar (6-8 tablespoons gently) until all berries are covered.
    • Set aside and make pastry.
    • In medium bowl mix 2 cups flour, salt and lard, using two knives or any other pastry blender.
    • I always do it with my fingers, squeezing the lard into the flour mixture until it’s all crumbled and looks like cornmeal. (Wash hands first)
    • Add about 8 tablespoons of ice water, tossing gently with a fork until it sticks together and can be rolled out. (Add more water to make it stick, a little at a time)
    • Roll out 1/2 of the dough on a floured, flat surface.
    • Place on bottom of pie pan and fill with huckleberry mixture.
    • Roll remaining dough and put on top of pie.
    • Deal the edges and crimp edges in decorative style.
    • Put fork pricks in the center for air to escape.
    • Bake for 45 to 50 minutes.
    • Let cool completely.

Note: This always leaks, no matter how carefully you try to crimp the edges, so if you don’t have an oven that cleans itself, put a lining of tinfoil under the pie to catch the spill.

J. Thomson
Bigfork Summer Playhouse