Mulberries are one of the most bountiful fruits available to foragers. A delicious mulberry pie recipe, the filling barely holding its shape and staining everything it touches is one of the best things they can become. With their subtle taste of figs and rich purple color, this might be my all-time favorite berry pie. It's something everyone should try once.
What do Mulberries Taste Like?
Mulberry trees are in the Moraceae, meaning they're related to jack fruit as well as figs. I like to describe their flavor as "fig lite" and it's easy to taste similarities between the two. There can be some flavor differences between trees (white mulberries generally don't taste as good to me).
The delicate flavor and the ease of harvesting in quantity make them one of the greatest fruits for foragers. They're also invasive in North America, so you can harvest as much as you like.
Below my friend Peter Erik and I gently shake the branches so the berries drop into a tarp. We got 15 lbs of fresh fruit like that.
How to Make Mulberry Pie
First you'll preheat the oven to 375 F. You'll need a pie crust, 5 cups of fresh mulberries, a lemon, white and brown sugar, a pinch of cinnamon, and a dash of vanilla extract.
Like any other pie, you'll start by rolling out a pastry crust, laying it over the pie pan and trimming to make it fit.
For the pie filling, mix fresh mulberries with white and brown sugar, lemon zest and juice, cornstarch or flour, a pinch of cinnamon, and a dash of vanilla extract. I use a wild vanilla extract I make from Galium triflorum. Place the filling into the pie crust.
Finally the upper crust is rolled out and placed on top of the pie. You can leave it in one piece, or form a lattice if you want. The top crust is brushed with egg wash, and a cross or slits are cut in the center to let air escape.
If you use a pan like mine you'll want to use crust protectors or wrap aluminum foil around the edges. I like to sprinkle coarse sugar on the top before putting it in the oven.
Bake the pie for 45-60 minutes, or until the center is bubbling and the pie is golden brown. Make sure to put in on a low rack in the oven.
Let it rest and enjoy the aroma, then cut into slices and eat with whipped cream or scoops of vanilla ice cream and a sprinkle of fresh mulberries.
More Wild Berries
Mulberry Pie
Equipment
- 1 9 inch pie pan
Ingredients
Mulberry Filling
- 5 cups fresh or frozen mulberries this is 1.5 lbs
- ¼ cup cornstarch or an equivalent, like acorn starch
- ½ cup brown sugar or substitute brown sugar
- ½ cup white sugar
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1.5 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- zest of half a lemon, grated
- 1 whole egg beaten very well without water, for brushing the crust
Pie Crust
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt omit this if you use salted butter
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter cold
- ½ cup full fat sour cream do not use low fat sour cream
Instructions
Crust
- Cut the butter into cubes and mix with the flour, salt and sugar in a bowl. Mush it together with your hands until the mixture looks like coarse meal.
- Mix the sour cream in with a fork, then work with your hands to make a smooth dough.
- On a lightly floured surface, divide the dough into two balls and flatten them into round disks. warp each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.
Filling
- Look the mulberries over for twigs, bugs or debris. Toss the mulberries with the sugars, lemon zest and juice, cinnamon and cornstarch.
- Roll out the bottom crust. Put the bottom crust in the pie plate. The crust should hang over the edges a bit. Put the mulberry mixture into the crust.
- Roll out the top pie crust and place on the top. Crimp the edges well, cut a few slits in the top crust for steam.
Baking
- Preheat the oven to 375 F. Brush the top crust with the egg wash. Bake on a low rack of the oven for 45-60 minutes, or until the filling is bubbling in the center and the crust is golden brown.
- Allow the pie to cool for 20 minutes before serving, ideally removing it and letting it rest on a wire rack. From here the pie will last in the fridge for 5 days or can be stored on a counter loosely wrapped in cling film for 2-3 days.
- Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Barbi
Can I put this together and freeze it and bake a couple weeks from now?
Alan Bergo
Yes, absolutely.
Bill
Best Mulberry pie I’ve ever had. Maybe the best pie I’ve ever had. Thank you.
Annabelle M
Alan has the best recipes. This is one of many I return to again and again—everyone in the family agrees this is the best fruit pie they’ve had. Full disclosure—I only use the filling recipe, as I stick to the same all-butter pie crust recipe for all of my pies and rarely have sour cream on hand. I bet it’s a great crust though!
Alan Bergo
Hey thanks Annabelle. Now I want to make another.
Jerry
I dont' usually pay much mind when someone says this is the best, but my whole family and I were speechless with how good mulberry pie cam out. Just WOW. My two young boys said it should be a new family tradiiton. Thanks Chef.
Candace
You weren't kidding! My husband hates our mulberry tree and cleaning up the sidewalk. After he tasted the pie he said we should plant more trees! Thanks for another fantastic recipe we can make with things in our back, or front yard. We will be making this every year.
Pete
We had a huge (5 trunks!) mulberry tree in our backyard. It was the social hub for kids in our neighborhood. We had 3 small treehouses and it was not unusual for 10-12 kids to be climbing around in the tree when the berries were ripe. We would gorge on them for days (a great way to ensure regularity). My mom was an excellent pie maker. She tried mulberry a couple of times but couldn't quite get it dialed in. She would have loved to try this recipe.
Alan Bergo
Hey thanks Pete. I've really been enjoying all the childhood memories people have been sharing.
Michele Logan
Hi, I am so grateful to have found your website. Thanks for all you do! What do you do about the mulberries stems? Do they turn tender after baking?
Alan Bergo
They’re tender. You’ll never even notice they’re there.
Kelly Robbins
Ive never had mulberries before! Sounds like a treat to try indeed. I love your website and the education you provide!
I wanted to share a concern with the recipes that maybe other readers may have too… maybe not.
I would have to do a lot of converting for your recipes. Im gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free due to allergies/inflammation/autoimmune issues. Sugar doesnt live in my home due to the added inflammation it causes… only honey and maple syrup (ok, i have coconut sugar for times i need granules). I use cassava flour or nut flours. I use coconut milk as a substitute milk the most… but sometimes nut milks. Chia seeds, JUST egg, or applesauce for eggs.
Have you ever considered recipes that fit these needs? I know that not everyone will love it… its a niche.
I can sometimes find conversions from paleo, vegan, gluten-free chefs… but the combo of this specialized chef and forager has been a challenge to find.
Maybe you know of a chef that does this… but if not… maybe its an opportunity to try something new?
Just a thought… thanks for hearing me out. And no need to explain if you arent interested. I get it… this is a huge shift in thinking/creating.
Looking for recipes to create foraged things that fit my dietary needs.
Alan Bergo
Cooking can be difficult when you have dietary restrictions. The sheer amount of restrictions, allergies and differences in intensity from person to person make it basically impossible for me to provide every permutation of a recipe that could be made to accommodate every restriction. I would also need to hire a small team of recipe testers. Each individual person with dietary restrictions (myself included here) are the ones who know their body the best, and I think it's best to leave things up to them to figure out different substitutions beyond the norm, although I help where I have experience. There also comes a point with each recipe where too many substitutions would ruin it, and you're just better off moving onto the next thing. I don't get to eat as much pasta as I'd like to as I have to be gluten free, but it's not the end of the world.
Kim P.
Hi Kelly,
I just made this wonderful pie with gluten free pie crusts which I found frozen in the local health food store. I also reduced the sugar by using erythritol for the white sugar. (I have in times past replaced ALL the sugar in baking recipes with erythritol, but have found that it needs a little bit of sugar to make the crust brown.) I have also used the powdery baking stevia to replace sugar, and I think it does a better job of holding the volume that sugar would in a recipe, but I only like the taste of it with fruit dishes.
I have not been able to successfully create a nut flour pastry crust.
My son has a lot of dietary restrictions similar to yours. There are a lot of recipes out there that might work for you. If you just keep trying things, and be your own creative chef, you'll eventually find the things that work for you.
For a lot of seasonal fruit that needs to be used (or preserved) quickly, I have found the easiest thing to make is a cobbler (or 5, lol). It's pretty easy to use nut flours to make a very light and delicate biscuit-like dough, which you just plop by spoonfuls on top of a basic pie filling and bake until it's bubbly, much like a pie minus the bottom crust.
Best wishes! I hope you can make a yummy mulberry something before the season is over.
Alan Bergo
Thanks Kim. This is what I’m talking about here, it’s not practical for me to supply all the possible substitutions when everyone’s needs are so different. Glad you found some subs that work for you here.