After making the chess tart a few weeks ago I quickly researched other versions of chess pie and found one that involves two things I know and love: blueberries and mascarpone cheese.  I happened to have some mascarpone cheese leftover from something I baked a few weeks prior, so thought it was a sign from the heavens.

This pie was not as sweet as the chess tart and the blueberries and mascarpone complimented each other well.

A short post today but will be back later in the week with a rustic cherry pie.  My favorite!

Blueberry Mascarpone Chess Pie (recipe by John McMillan published in Fresh Home magazine)

• Pie dough (see recipe below)
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup 2% milk
• ½ cup butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
• ¼ cup Mascarpone cheese

Roll dough out and place in 9-inch pie plate; flute edges.  Line unpricked pastry with a double thickness of heavy-duty foil.  Bake at 450 for 8 minutes.  Remove foil; bake 5 minutes longer.  Cool on a wire rack.

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar, milk, butter, 1 tablespoon flour and vanilla.  Toss blueberries with remaining flour; fold into filling.

Pour into crust.  Drop cheese by teaspoonfuls over filling.

Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean (cover edges with foil during the last 25 minutes to prevent overbrowning if necessary).  Cool on a wire rack.  Refrigerate leftovers.

One Crust Pie Pastry (from Betty Crocker’s Cookbook)

• 1 cup all-purpose or unbleached flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon shortening
• 2 to 3 tablespoons cold water

Mix flour and salt in medium bowl.  Cut in shortening, using pastry blender or crisscrossing 2 knives, until particles are size of small peas.  Sprinkle with cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and pastry almost leaves side of bowl (1 to 2 teaspoons more water can be added if necessary).

Gather pastry into a ball.  Shape into flattened round.  If desired, wrap flattened round of pastry in plastic wrap and refrigerate about 30 minutes to firm up the shortening slightly, which helps make the baked pastry more flaky and lets the water absorb evenly throughout the dough.

Roll pastry on lightly floured surface using floured rolling pin into circle 2 inches larger than upside-down pie plate.  Fold pastry into fourths and place in pie plate; or roll pastry loosely around rolling pin and transfer to pie plate.  Unfold or unroll pastry and ease into plate, pressing firmly against bottom and side and being careful not to stretch pastry, which will cause it to shrink when baked.