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Blueberry Pie

DIRECTIONS

Pastry: In a large bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg. Cut in the butter and Crisco, using 2 knives, a pastry blender or your fingers. When the mixture resembles coarse meal, sprinkle in the ice water and vanilla extract. Gently gather the dough into a ball with a fork. Divide it into slightly uneven halves; one half should be larger than the other. Press each half into a disk about 1 inch thick. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes. While they chill, prepare the filling.
Filling and Assembly: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, with one rack near the bottom of the oven and the other near the top. Butter the bottom and sides of 2 9-inch pie pans. On a floured rolling surface, roll out the larger half of dough until it forms a circle about 12 inches in diameter. Line a pie pan with the dough, being careful not to stretch the dough. Crimp the edge in whatever decorative fashion you choose. Stick the pie pan in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
Put the blueberries in a medium bowl and toss with the lemon juice. Add the rest of the ingredients in order; mix well. Transfer the filling to the second buttered pie pan. Cover the filling with a sheet of foil that you've pierced all over with a fork.
Roll out the second half of dough to a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Using an 8- or 9-inch round cake pan as your tracing guide, cut out a circle of pastry. Cut this circle into 8 evenly sized wedges. Transfer the wedges to the foil- or parchment-lined cookie sheet. Brush them with a pastry brush dipped in milk and sprinkle them with sugar. Decorate them with little pastry cutouts, if you want.
Ideally, the 2 crusts and the filling should be baked at the same time, if you have a two-rack oven. If you don't, bake the filling separately.
Butter a 12-inch square of foil and lay it, butter side down, in the pastry-lined pie pan. Fill the shell with raw rice, raw beans or other pie weights. Set it on the lower oven rack. Set the dish of blueberry filling next to it. Put the cookie sheet with the cut-out pastry wedges on the top oven rack.
Bake everything for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, stir the filling; carefully lift the foil and the pie weights out of the pie shell, switch the contents of the upper and lower oven racks, and continue to bake the filling and the crusts for 15 more minutes, stirring the filling every 5 minutes.
After 30 minutes, the filling won't be done yet--it needs to bake for at least 45 minutes--but the crusts may be. If they're brown enough to suit you, take them out now. If not, leave them in a little longer, making sure to check them frequently.
Stirring every 5 minutes, continue to bake the filling until it's thick and bubbling. After 45 minutes, check the filling often. When it's thick enough to suit you, take it out.
If you're going to serve the pie hot, carefully transfer the baked filling to the baked pie shell. Arrange the wedges of baked top crust over the filling as decoratively as you can. When you cut the pie, cut around each "top wedge" so that each person you serve will receive a piece of pie that basically resembles a regular piece.
Alternately, you can keep the top wedges separate until you've already cut the pie. Then top each piece with its own perfect wedge.
If you're serving the pie cold, you can let the filling cool before putting it into the pie shell. That will keep the crust even crisper.