A Pie Per Week: Gooseberry Pie

Gooseberry Pie

Brian:  Ever since we picked up a pie booklet with a recipe, Hoosier Gooseberry Pie, I've wanted to add that to our list.  First of all, I'd never eaten a gooseberry, and secondarily I like to make recipes indigenous to our area of the world.  Gooseberries certainly are of the world, and you can read more about them here.

Gooseberries!

Angie:  I found out from my Aunt Sandi that this was my grandfather's favorite pie, so I was glad to be able to try it.  However, I will tell you, this was the most difficult pie we have ever made, in terms of preparation.  We bought the berries frozen, and if you look at the picture below, there were stems on each berry.  

Gooseberries with stem.  Boo.

Brian:  We tried one, and they are extremely sour, and the stem just didn't seem like it would taste good.  So we decided to trim the stems... one gooseberry at a time.  It took the two of us working 2 hours, just to get the 4 cups necessary for one pie.  We didn't have enough time to spend another two hours on berries, so we ended up not having a pie of the week recipient.

Adding the ingredients

Angie:  Preparing the pie proved to be much easier than trimming the berries.  You place your berries, sugar, cornstarch, butter, salt, and nutmeg in the saucepan over low heat, and cook until the sugar is melted and the butter is soft and let cool.  The recipe called for tapioca, but as I don't like the texture of tapioca, I substituted corn starch.  One of the things I learned is that gooseberries have lots of pectin in them, so they have a built in thickening agent.

Gooseberries mixture cooking over low heat

Brian:  I liked this pie, but it wasn't a big hit with the kids.  It is definitely a tart berry, but I really enjoy trying new things.  I will say this, if I ever make this again, I'm going to make sure the stems are removed, because that was a job!

Angie:  I liked the sourness of the gooseberries raw.  I did not try any of this pie so I can't comment on the taste, but it smelled delicious!!

Pie Recipe

1 9-inch unbaked double pie crust

4 C Gooseberries

1 3/4 C Sugar

2 Tbs. Corn Starch

2 Tbs. Butter

1/8 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Gently wash berries and remove stems.  Add all ingredients to the sauce pan and put on low heat until sugar is melted and berries are soft.  Let cool and then add to your unbaked pie crust, pinching edges to seal.  Make 5-6 slashes in top crust and bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and continue baking for 30 minutes longer.  Filling should be nice and bubbly through the slashes, like with most fruit pies.

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