Rochelle French Spotlight

Rochelle French is a bestselling romance novelist and the author of the Meadowview series and the Vineyard Springs series. Her books feature contemporary characters falling in love in small town settings. She currently lives in Northern California in the same small town where she grew up, where she spends her days writing, wrangling her teenaged twins, or hiking in the woods. She loves to hear from readers and can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

In Charming the One, a neighbor (Trudy from Finding the One) brings over a blackberry pie to welcome Neva Tipton to the small town of Meadowview. This is my favorite pie recipe of all time. The crust is made in the same way my great-grandmother taught me–flakey and delish. While you can buy frozen blackberries in the grocery store, I like to use the wild ones I pick when I’m out hiking (I have a favorite spot to gather blackberries but always leave enough for the bears–yup, bears).

 

Wild Blackberry Pie

Ingredients 

Pie Filling

5-6 cups wild blackberries (Loganberries or Marionberries work well, too)

¾ cup sugar

¼ cup quick cooking tapioca (not pearl)

zest of ½ orange

1 tablespoon butter (hold in reserve)

Pie Crust

3 cups flour

1 stick cold butter

⅔ cup vegetable shortening

1 teaspoon salt

6-8 tablespoons ice water

(extra flour to have on hand)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Filling:

Mix berries, sugar, tapioca, and orange zest together. Let stand. 

Dough:

Mix the flour and salt together. (I’m a bit of a traditionalist–some make pie dough with a food processor, but I use a traditional pastry cutter)

Add the butter and shortening to the flour mixture.

Use a pastry cutter until the flour/butter/shortening mixture is in the size of small peas (don’t overmix, and make sure to keep cold!)

Divide in half, put one half in the fridge to keep cool.

Dust a solid surface with a handful of flour. Quickly form a patty from the dough and roll it out until it’s not quite half the size. Carefully lift up the dough and redust the surface. Flip the dough over and roll it out until it is the correct size. (I sometimes flip my dough 4 times) Place onto a large pie tin.

Gently stir the berry mixture, making sure the tapioca is blended well among the berries.

Ladle mixture into the pie bottom.

Using the same process above, roll out the top layer of dough.

Cut the tablespoon of butter up into eight equal parts and dot over the top of the berries.

Place the top layer of dough over the berries. Trim dough, then crimp. Be sure to cut decorative venting in the top to release steam as the pie bakes! If you’re using tapioca, I suggest not using a lattice top–the tapioca dries out fast.

Bake at 400 degrees for 40-50 minutes, or until the juice forms thick bubbles.

Enjoy!

You can find Rochelle here:

http://www.rochellefrench.com/

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorRochelleFrench

https://twitter.com/RochelleFrench

 

http://www.pinterest.com/rochellefrench

http://instagram.com/rochellefrench

You can find Rochelle’s book, Charming the One here:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BLKYS0K

iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/charming-the-one/id999127894

Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/charming-the-one-rochelle-french/1123387408?ean=2940152840025

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/charming-the-one

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Rochelle_French_Charming_the_One?id=6qeJCwAAQBAJ

Charming the One

Rochelle French

Bloomfield Publishing

February 9, 2016 

No one could ever call Peter Leary a natural born charmer—no matter what, he always says the wrong thing. Down-to-earth Neva Tipton isn’t happy when it seems the gorgeous Peter is after her prissy twin. But if Peter doesn’t want her, the least she can do for her new neighbor—and former best friend—is help him charm her sister. But playing matchmaker comes with a price, and after Neva pretends to be her twin, both Peter and Neva discover things about themselves that change everything.

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17 thoughts on “Rochelle French Spotlight”

  1. Oooooh, that pie sounds good. I grow black raspberries, a.k.a. black caps, here in Calif., and I think they would be wonderful in that pie.

      • July/August. Patti, this is Alison, by the way. “Ruthitchka” is the Slavic endearment form of my middle name. I am on Disqus to be able to comment on the religion articles and didn’t want to use my real first and last names. Some church members monitor fb, and report things back to our priest. Not kidding. I may be moving to a different Eastern Orthodox parish because our priest is weird & so are some of the parishioners. Sounds almost like a cult!

        • Yikes. Yep, I’d say close to a cult. We have such a short growing season here in WI. And, to be honest, I work so much that I wouldn’t garden if I could. If I’m not working at the law office, I’m writing or marketing and if I’m not doing that and it’s nice outside, I want to be on a motorcycle going somewhere else. Priorities!!!!

          • I don’t actually garden, either. I just stick the bare – root plants in the ground & water when I remember. Luckily black caps are actually wild plants native to California. They tend to thrive on moderate neglect!

    • I haven’t heard of black caps but they sound so good. I’m sure they’d work great in that pie!

      • True confession, I need to revive my black cap patch next year with new bare – root plants to bring it to “pie level”. But, the black caps are really tasty with vanilla ice cream!

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