Have you ever heard of black raspberries? How is it that I never heard of them prior to this summer?! I don’t ever remember them growing up in California. Well, I went to my local farmer’s market recently and saw these little purple things that seemed a lot like raspberries but tasted completely different.
The flavor was much more intense and bright–definitely a bit seedier than the red variety, but I think that adds to its more wild quality.
Interestingly, black raspberries (aka blackcaps) were used for their dye to mark USDA meats! Natural food dyes scream antioxidant richness. In fact, these wonderful berries are very high in anthocyanins, an antioxidant that gives plants and fruits their beautiful colors.
With about 3 times the antioxidant level of blueberries, black raspberries are very beneficial to your health by combating harmful free radicals.
I never actually understood the amount of love that red raspberries got from everyone because frankly, they taste dilute to me. Am I the only one? Don’t get me wrong–give me a bucket-full and they’ll be all up in my belly in no time. I’ve never met a fruit that rubbed me the wrong way. It’s just that I love the tart, big flavor of the black raspberry. But if you like your red raspberries, and you mind any seediness in your berries, then by all means, follow your tastebuds.
All I know is that after having a taste at the farmer’s market and buying a carton to take home with me–only to eat them all before I even got home–my tastebuds so politely said, “more, please.” I wanted to go pick them myself, because if there’s fruit to be picked, rest assured I am there like a moth to a flame. No, really, a moth to a flame.
Well, as per usual when I go fruit picking, I ended up with a ton of these lovely berries and my husband wanted to bake a pie with all the extras. Let me tell you, this pie is so delicious and truly showcases the fruit, front and center. Whether you’re baking black raspberry pie, blueberry pie, blackberry pie, or any other berry pie, this is still the case. It’s super easy but tastes like you’ve spent all day on it.
Just FYI, I don’t like adding any corn starch, pectin, or tapioca to thicken my pies. I just add a bit of flour to the fruit mixture and find that in addition to the natural fruit pectin that’s released in the cooking process, this is more than enough to keep the pie together once it cools. That being said, I can’t wait more than 10 minutes for a pie to cool down before I’m all over it. Oh, and another thing–don’t you hate it when you get a slice of pie somewhere and the filling is all gelatinous? After all, it is a fruit pie, not a jiggly jelly pie.
Try my super easy and fresh, amaaaazing strawberry pie recipe! And don’t forget my key lime pie with a salted graham cracker crust!
Black Raspberry Pie
Ingredients
- Any store-bought Pie Crust should do just fine. It should come with 2 crusts one for bottom and one for top
- 6 cups Black Raspberries rinsed
- 1/4 teaspoon Sea Salt
- 1/4 cup Brown Sugar plus a little extra to sprinkle on top of pie
- 1/3 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1/4 cup All-Purpose Flour
- 1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons Butter
- 1 Egg White
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425º F (219º C).
- Place bottom pie crust on greased 9-inch pie dish.
- Mix berries, brown sugar, regular sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt in large large mixing bowl.
- Pour filling onto the pie crust.
- Break up little pieces of butter and place on top of filling.
- Top with pie crust. Fold edges back and below bottom crust so that the filling doesn’t pour out during the baking process.
- Make two small cuts to form an “X” right in the middle of the top crust to let steam out during the baking process.
- Mix the egg white with 1 tablespoon of water and brush on to the top of the pie.
- Sprinkle a little brown sugar over the pie and put it in the oven for 35 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice-cream if you like 🙂
Nutrition
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it looks amazing!
Thanks Dina! 🙂
Can I do frozen berries?
Hi Natalie, I was just filtering through my spam and your comment ended up deep in the pile for some reason! Sorry about that but I do hope you got my FB message answering your question. Just in case (and for any other curious people) you can definitely do frozen berries. I would just rinse and pat them dry first. 🙂
Awesome pie
Thanks! 🙂
why use brown sugar in the black rasp pie recipe? How does that change things vs using all white sugar?
So it just deepens the flavor because the difference between the two sugars is that brown sugar includes molasses. I would definitely use white sugar if I didn’t have brown sugar on hand though. No sweat off my back 😉
First pie I have ever made and was easy and loved by all in the family. Will make again and will not tweak the recipe at all.
Thanks, William! Thrilled you all loved it! 😀
It was perfect! The only thing I did was add 1 tbs of vanilla extract. It added great flavor. We will be keeping this recipe!
(also, homemade crust cooked just until barely golden is the way to go with this pie)
Thanks for commenting, Kelly and so happy you loved it! 😀
I used my grandma’s recipe for a long time, but decided to try this because of the brown sugar and butter added to the filling. Nice! The family loved the pie. I can’t say it’s better or worse than Grandma’s, just slightly different. Thanks!
That’s so sweet, thank you! So glad you all loved it! 😀
Wonderful pie. All my friends loved it.
If you want to use 1 tbsp vanilla extract you should try 1 tbsp of dark rum instead.
Thank you! Go ahead and try it! Have fun with it! 🙂
I usually can taste the alcohol in pies because the alcohol can’t completely escape the pie, but if you enjoy it, by all means, go for it, girl!
Yeah, I don’t do this with my pies. I do, however, add a dash of dark rum to my Christmas cookie recipe. Some people can taste it, some can’t. Everyone loves the cookies though.
Can I use all Brown Sugar?
Yes, you totally can 🙂
I’ve been picking wild black raspberries since the 60’s. My all time favorite pie. I agree with you on the red ones. I get what I can while they’re in season. Add everything to the berries for one pie then freeze them. When I want a pie set a bag in fridge and make the pie the next day.
That’s brilliant! I wish we had black raspberries where I live now! I do miss them!
OMG it was amazing! I was about 2 cups shy of fresh picked black raspberries from my yard so I added red raspberries. Amazing!!!!!
I was able to pick enough black raspberries for 5 pies. Froze 4 batches for later and made one fresh pie. Delicious.
Had tons of extra berries even after making jam, and turned to the internet. This turned out great! I made a homemade crust and added a little extra sugar, next time I’ll probably use a tad less cinnamon too though. My family all loved it though, thank you for the lovely recipe!
This was soooo good! Not sickeningly sweet and I didn’t even notice the seeds. We used a King Arthur Flour gluten free crust and America’s Test Kitchen wheat crust. Thank you for keeping this recipe up! (I don’t do baking, let along pies, so I wanted to get it right the first time and you came through from so many years ago. )
I would recommend adding cornstarch to thicken. It was way to runny. Tastes great but it really needs a thickener. I won’t be using this recipe again.
I have made this several times and it is fabulous. I have the luxury of many black cap bushes (that’s what we call them) in our back yard. I put about a cup of black caps that are not quite ripe into my pie as they have more pectin in them and helps to thicken up the pie quite nicely.
I followed the recipe to a T. The pie came out amazing. It took us two pickings to get 6 cups. We have wild black raspberry bushes in our back field. So that made the pie even better. I used the crisco pie crust recipe. My son and hubby loved it. Thank you!!