Easy Bumbleberry Pie Recipe

Bumbleberry Pie is a delicious way to enjoy all your favorite flavors of summer in one show-stopping dessert!

Bumbleberry pie is one of my favorite pies to make, especially this time of year after I’ve picked and frozen all sorts of delicious fruits and berries throughout the Spring and Summer.

Yes, that’s right — you can make this pie with fresh or frozen fruit!

But What’s a Bumbleberry?

Don’t worry, you’re not missing something… a Bumbleberry is not an actually berry. 😉

It’s a made-up word used to describe a random mix of berries and fruits — ones you might “bumble” upon in the wild.

That means you can use almost any fruit for this pie!

I’ve successfully tested this recipe with almost every berry… and also with apples, cherries, rhubarb, peaches, nectarines, plums, and more.

Why I Love Bumbleberry Recipes

I regularly use the Bumbleberry fruit mixture in the recipe below to make pies, tarts, crisps, cobblers, crepes, and more. The combination of sweet and tart fruits makes it extra delicious, no matter how you bake it.

It’s also a great recipe when you don’t have enough of one fruit to make a full-size dessert… just mix all the little bits of fruit from your fridge and freezer together and make a Bumbleberry Pie (or crisp or tart!)

After roughly an hour, those random bits of fruit will be a tasty treat.

Ingredients for Bumbleberry Pie

As I’ve already noted, you can use almost any type of fruit — however, I should mention that I’ve never tried melons, grapes, bananas, or dried fruits. I’m not sure they would work well — but feel free to experiment.

To keep things simple, the recipe below is my personal favorite Bumbleberry fruit combination. If you don’t like to experiment or you’re not a seasoned pie maker, start with this exact recipe… I’m confident the recipe below will give you tasty results!

• pie crust (store-bought or homemade — enough for two 9″ crusts)
• 2 c. tart apples; peeled, cored, and chopped
• 1 c. rhubarb; washed and chopped (not cooked)
• 1 c. strawberries; washed, hulled, and sliced
• 1 c. blueberries; washed
• 1 c. raspberries; washed
• 1 T. lemon juice
• 1 c. granulated sugar
• 1/3 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 T. tapioca or cornstarch
• 2 T. milk or cream
• 2 T. granulated sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Ingredient Substitutions

As I’ve mentioned multiple times already, feel free to sub almost any type of fruit into this recipe.

You also don’t need to keep the ratios “exact”. If you have 1.5 cups of blueberries and only 1/2 cup of strawberries and only 1 apple, that’s totally fine.

For the sugar, I would not substitute with honey or maple syrup as that will be too liquidy. However, you could substitute with cane sugar.

As for the flour, tapioca, and cornstarch — they are important to help with thickening the juices into a “sauce,” so the finished pie isn’t overly runny. However, you can feel free to use your favorite gluten-free flour, if necessary. I personally prefer the texture of the tapioca; cornstarch is an easy substitute if I don’t have tapioca in the house.

Dairy-free milk works just fine too.

And finally, if you don’t want to use 2 crusts, you can easily omit the top crust entirely.

How to Make Bumbleberry Pie

Prep: If using frozen fruit, defrost and drain it in a large colander for 15-20 minutes (discard juices). This prevents the baked pie from being overly soggy.

1. Preheat oven to 375º F.

2. Line a 9″ glass pie plate with 1 pie crust and set it aside.

3. In a large bowl, combine all fruit and lemon juice.

4. Sprinkle sugar, flour, and tapioca over fruit and gently toss.

5. Scoop fruit mixture into pie plate.

6. Top with 2nd crust (see notes for lattice crust below).

7. Brush top crust with milk and sprinkle with additional sugar (optional).

8. Cut a few slits in the top to allow steam to vent (unless you’re using a lattice top).

9. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until the filling is bubbly and the top crust is golden brown (you may cover with aluminum foil if the crust starts to get too brown).

10. Let pie rest for at least 30 minutes, then serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

11. Cover leftovers (if you have any) and store at room temperature.

Step-By-Step Lattice Pie Crust:

If you want to get a little fancier, here are my step-by-step instructions for a lattice top crust — which won’t change the taste at all, but it sure looks fancy!

1. Roll the crust out flat.

2. Use a knife or pastry wheel to cut thin strips in the crust (less than 1″ thick).

3. Lay half of your strips loosely over the pie, leaving gaps between each strip.

4. Weave the remaining strips over and under the bottom layer of strips. I like to do this on a 45º angle… but you could do 90º to make more of a boxy pattern.

5. Cut the overhanging strips off, or press any extra dough into the crust around the edges of the pie.

6. Use your finger and thumb to create a scalloped edge on the crust.