Winter Cherry Blueberry pie, updated

Very fast fruit and berry pie

UPDATE  I gave myself the challenge of making this dish into a mix-in-the-baking-pan item, thus eliminating the pot and food processor to clean. This is very tidy to make. I have photos to add later, maybe_ I start with two apples. which I peel on a cutting board and swish into the compost bin under the counter. (Not too bad a cleanup if I miss...and it's fun to practice. I slice the apples with a sharp knife, add a scant 4 cups of frozen cherries and berries and mix it around with a spoon. Hands would work also but you will get cherry berry juice stains. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons cornstarch over the top and stir it around. Put it in a 350 oven. I thought it would be ready in 40 minutes or so, although with frozen fruit and berries it might be longer. I got very excited at the arrival of my wonderful housekeepers whom I haven't seen since the lockdown last March (exactly a year).  In all the excitement, and the difficulty of being sure they know what I'm saying since they don't speak English and I have about 6 words of useful Spanish, I forgot to set a timer in the bedroom where I am hanging out.(Usually their daughter-in-law, who was born in the US and speaks both excellently, comes along but she is home supervising her children's video classroom. But I digress)

So when I jumped up and masked up and dashed to the kitchen, the oven had turned off and I was not sure how long it had cooked.I poked the filling with a fork and it's not ready yet. I set the temp for 375 and gave the dish another 20 minutes, got distracted and forgot the timer again, but went to check when I remembered about 20 minutes later. It's done! Looks perfect! I took the pie dish out, showed it to Antonia, said "Caliente!!" and put it in the studio on a big desktop where she or Luis probably wouldn't forget and touch it.

I will serve it with real whipped cream that I froze in a divided brownie pan and put in fridge  to thaw .

Life in a body that seems determined to make mistakes is a challenge. Making a bit of fun at my own expense helps. For example,  I have a list of items tipped over, dropped, broken, dumped on counter or floor in the process of cooking and maintaining the kitchen. I'm watching for Personal Best in number per week (bigger is better) and most unexpected. The kind that cause a normal person to say, "Naaah, she made that up!"

Onward

I invented this recipe in an effort to make a pie faster and get the thickness of the filling right, whatever fruits and berries go in it.  I keep big bags of frozen blueberries and cherries on hand and have variations on the basic fruit pie theme to include whatever is handy. I like including more filling and no top crust--just whipped cream. An interesting side effect is the cherries, which have a fresher testure and taste, as though I'd stirred them in at the last minute.

Step 1
Start with a baked crust. I use pre-made whole wheat and just follow the directions.  While crust bakes, make the filling.

Step 2

Mix cherries and berries in a four-cup measure.  If it exceeds 4 cups(i.e. piles up to the top of the cup), that's okay--just increase other things as described

Mix 1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar (if fruits and berries are sweet, you can use just a tablespoon or two), 2 tbsps plus 1 tsp cornstarch :(up to 3 tbsps for overflowing cup measure), 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Stir in 1 tbsp lemon juice. Pour into medium saucepan

Pour in cherries and berries. Mix around until they are coated. Turn on stove to medium-high.  The berries/cherries yield juice. Squish a little if needed. Cook until juice bubbles for 30 seconds up to a minute. It gets a bit thicker as it cools. Pour into pie shell, cover, place in fridge.


Variations: If you are out of cornstarch, take 1 tbsp butter, melt in saucepan, add 3 tbsps flour (4 if 5 cups), 1 tbsp lemon juice.Mix, add fruit, mix around until coated, then cook until juice thickens and bubbles 1-2 minutes.

If you want to include apples, I've done it by slicing them and putting them in the microwave until they are just about ready to eat. Then I stir them into the rest of the ingredients and cooked as described above. I haven't tried leaving the raw apple slices in the pan to cook with fruits or berries because they need longer to soften. I prefer using cornstarch and cornstarch thickener can't stand that amount of boiling.