A double-crust pie filled with Oregon marionberries, a blackberry cultivar, thickened with cornstarch or tapioca and brightened with a little lemon. The filling is deep purple-black and sweet-tart; the crust is flaky butter pastry, topped solid with vents or woven into a lattice. It is Oregon's official state pie, often served warm with vanilla ice cream. The pie is the standard American fruit-pie form built around the state's signature berry.
The marionberry was released in 1956 by the United States Department of Agriculture in cooperation with Oregon State University, a cross of the Chehalem and Olallie blackberries bred by USDA breeder George F. Waldo, who made the initial cross in 1945. It was named for Marion County, Oregon, where it was extensively trialed, and Oregon now grows over ninety percent of the world's marionberry acreage. The pie itself is the ordinary double-crust berry pie with no single inventor. In 2017 the Oregon Legislature designated marionberry pie the official state pie by concurrent resolution.
The filling is dark and glossy, sweet-tart with an earthy, almost wine-like depth that runs tarter than a common blackberry. Large juicy berries hold some shape against the set juices; the crust shatters and flakes around them. Warm, the filling is loose and fragrant; cooled, it slices clean. A scoop of vanilla ice cream melting into the dark juice is the usual finish.
The crust is flaky because cold solid butter is cut into the flour in pieces rather than blended in; the fat coats the flour and restrains gluten, and in the oven its water flashes to steam that pries the dough into thin layers. The filling sets because berry juice plus a starch gelatinizes on baking, the starch granules swelling to thicken the juice into a sliceable gel; tapioca holds up better than cornstarch against the acidic fruit. Vents or a lattice let steam escape so the filling concentrates. Baked near 200 to 220 degrees Celsius, the pie must cool before slicing so the starch fully sets.
Variations
Marionberry cobbler and crumble swap the top crust for biscuit or streusel; the pie is often served a la mode with vanilla ice cream. Full top, vented, or lattice are all common. Mixed-berry versions blend in raspberry or blueberry. The marionberry is itself one of a family of Pacific-coast trailing-blackberry hybrids: the Oregon-bred olallieberry, and the California-bred boysenberry and loganberry are its siblings.
On the Palate
Where Marionberry Pie sits in the American flavor cloud
Keep the butter cold and in visible pieces when you cut it into the flour — those flat chunks steam apart in the oven into flaky layers, and warm, over-worked dough bakes up tough instead.
Ingredients
Serves 8
How it's made
8 steps · 40 min
- 155 min
Cut cold butter into the flour and salt until coarse and crumbly, add ice water just to bind, form two discs, and chill.
Watch outStop cutting when the butter is in pea-sized bits still visible in the flour, and add ice water only until it just holds together.
- 220 min
Gently toss the marionberries with sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice, then let them stand so the juices release.
- 310 min
Roll out the bottom crust and fit it into a nine-inch pie plate.
- 43 min
Spoon in the berry filling, mounding it slightly.
- 515 min
Roll the second crust and lay it over as a vented top or a woven lattice, then crimp the edges.
Watch outCut vents or a lattice into the top crust so steam can escape and the filling thickens instead of staying watery.
- 62 min
Brush the top with egg wash for sheen.
- 770 min
Bake near 200 to 220 degrees Celsius until the juices bubble through and the crust is deep golden.
Watch outDone when the juices bubble thickly through the vents and the crust is deep golden — bubbling juice means the starch has activated.
- 860 min
Cool the pie so the filling sets before slicing.
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