Kinky Pie

...And we're back. After a yearlong hiatus forced by two moves, two jobs, grad school and a brief stint documenting the horrors of a terrible class, Food Libido returns with a new kitchen and new appetites.
I've made a lot of pie in my day, and I've hardly been shy about experimenting when doing so. But lately I've been in a dessert-rut, I've run out of ways to spice up brownies, and though I had a fantastic foray into Kentucky Derby Pie last week, it's left me wanting more. Today we're breaking new ground in overlapping sugar cravings, by layering three things I love - pie, blueberries, and brownies.
To do this, we'll overcome a number of obstacles:
1. Fit a 9" pre-made pie crust into an 11" pie pan. Yes, that should be easy, but I want a crust, not just a crusty bottom. And yes, it would be easier to make my own crust, but I tend to cook through bricolage, not new developments, so it wouldn't do to make too much too new.
2. Find an acceptable blueberry pie filling recipe - we'll use Valerie's, sort of, whoever she is, because it's the first one I clicked that used iPaper.
3. Guess how long the blueberries should cook, if at all, before dumping brownie mix over the top of them to create a top crust.

So here's what we threw in:
1 Cup blueberries (frozen, I keep a decent sized bag in the freezer)
1 Cup water (with a shot of bourbon to loosen things up)
2 tbsp butter (we don't take kindly to margarine around these parts)
1 tbsp cinnamon
3 tbsp corn starch
3/4 cup brown sugar
A pinch of salt and a good long squeeze of lemon juice (from one of those plastic lemons)
Of note--bourbon, blueberries, and cinnamon smell amazing together when heated.









The mixture won't do anything like boil, if stirred over low heat, but will congeal nicely for spreading over the frozen blueberries in the pie crust.

Given the existing thickness, we're going to opt against pre-cooking the blueberries, and toss the brownie mix over the top of everything.

So we've tossed a package of Betty Crocker Dark Chocolate Brownie mix over the top (and snuck in Coke instead of water).
Now it's into the breach, 325, for god knows how long.







Here's the final product, after an hour in the oven.
For the future:
1. Blueberries are awesome, but this could easily be adapted for raspberries or strawberries.
2. I'd like to try something that would allow a bit of red pepper into the mix.
3. I have no idea how thick this brownie crust is going to be relative to the mantle of molten blueberry beneath, it may require some fractional batch for an optimal ratio.
4. Bourbon, blueberry, and cinnamon together, either as ingredients or flavor components, would make for some awesome cocktails.