About This Quick and Easy Blueberry Crumble Pie Recipe
This blueberry crumble pie recipe is filled with tons of blueberries, topped with a crunchy cinnamon streusel crumble, and baked in a flaky pie crust! It’s perfect for the folks who can’t decide between the rustic, crunch of crumble desserts and their love of buttery pie crust. It turns out you can have both!
The best part? The recipe is fast and easy, thanks to the use of store-bought pie crust!
Although I love making pie dough from scratch, I don’t have the patience for it during the summer. So I used store-bought crust instead. And with that shortcut, the rest of the recipe comes together really quickly and easily. Both the crumble and blueberry filling only take 5 minutes to make!
Looking for more delicious baked blueberry recipes? Check out these Blueberry Cornflake Muffins, this Light & Fluffy Blueberry Breakfast Cake With Crunchy Streusel, and these Copycat Levain Bakery Blueberry Muffins.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Now that I’ve convinced you to make blueberry crumble pie, here’s everything you need for the recipe:
Shopping List for Blueberry Crumble Pie Recipe
Be sure to scroll down to the recipe card for the exact ingredient amounts and quantities:
- granulated sugar
- all-purpose flour
- ground cinnamon
- kosher salt
- unsalted butter
- fresh OR frozen blueberries
- cornstarch
- lemons
- frozen store-bought pie crust (preferably 9-inches wide and in a pie pan)
And let’s talk about some key ingredients, where to find them, and any potential substitutions for anything:
Ingredient Substitutions and Sources For The Blueberry Crumble Pie Recipe
- All Purpose Flour: Want to make it gluten free? Replace the all-purpose flour with a 1:1 gluten free flour like Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour or King Arthur Gluten-Free Measure For Measure Flour.
- Kosher Salt: Learn why kosher salt is the best salt for baking recipes in this blog post. But in a pinch, you can replace the kosher salt in the recipe with half its amount in table salt.
- Cornstarch: You can substitute the cornstarch with the same amount of any other starch like arrowroot, potato, tapioca, and more.
- Lemons: I recommend using freshly squeezed and strained lemon juice for the recipe. But if you want to make your life easier, feel free to use shelf-stable lemon juice!
- Frozen Store-Bought Pie Crust: You need a store-bought, 9-inch pie crust (preferably already in a pie pan) to make this blueberry crumble pie.
Typically, grocery stores sell two different types of store-bought pie crust. The first kind is where the dough is rolled up in a sheet, and you need to do the work of fitting it onto the pie plate yourself. The second kind is where the dough is already molded onto a pie pan (usually one made of disposable aluminum), and all you need to do is fill it. Depending on the brand, you end up with either an 8-inch or 9-inch pie. For this blueberry crumble pie recipe, I used the latter kind where the pie dough has already been fitted into a plate. Learn more below!
Best Store-Bought Pie Crust
Confession: I am not the best person to answer this question. I always use the generic store-bought pie crust from Safeway because I like the way they crimp its edges (they look like these ones from Marie Callender’s). But is it the best tasting? I really don’t know. Instead, I encourage you to check out these articles from Epicurious and The Kitchn that compare different store-bought pie crusts under the same filling.
Can I make this blueberry crumble pie recipe with store-bought gluten-free pie crust?
Yes, absolutely! But note that the filling itself is not actually gluten-free. The crumble uses all-purpose flour (though I provide some help above on replacing the all-purpose flour with a gluten free flour).
But you’re the kind of baker who wants to make pie crust from scratch… no problem! Check out this 15-Minute Stand Mixer Pie Crust Recipe. I teach you how to make an all butter pie crust with your stand mixer in just 15 minutes!
How To Make The Pie
Here are the basic steps to make blueberry crumble pie from scratch:
First, make the crumble.
- Prep the ingredients for the crumble. (Prep Time: 5 minutes)
Prepping the crumble is incredibly easy. Simply measure out all the ingredients, then melt the butter. That’s it! I like to melt the butter first—either in the microwave, or in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat on the stovetop. Doing so gives it time to cool slightly as I measure out the rest of the ingredients. - Make the crumble. (Work Time: 5 minutes)
You’ll be SHOCKED at how easy it is to make the crumble. Simply whisk together the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl. Then, pour in the butter and mix everything until it looks like wet sand and large crumbs form. That’s it! - Freeze the crumble while you make the blueberry filling.
For best results, freeze the crumble while you make the blueberry filling. Doing so will help prevent the crumbs from melting too much in the oven, ensuring an extra crunchy crumble!
Next, make the blueberry filling.
- Prep the ingredients for the blueberry filling. (Prep Time: 5 minutes)
Similarly, prepping the ingredients for the blueberry filling is a breeze. If using fresh blueberries, give them a quick rinse in the sink. Then, measure out the rest of the ingredients and prep your lemon juice. Easy peasy. - Make the blueberry filling. (Work Time: 5 minutes)
Real Talk—prepping the ingredients for the blueberry filling is probably the most time consuming part of the recipe. Because once all the ingredients are prepped, all you need to do is throw everything in a bowl. Toss the ingredients together to combine them all. I told you it was easy!
Finally, assemble and bake the blueberry crumble pie.
- Assemble the blueberry crumble pie. (Work Time: <5 minutes)
Once you’ve made the filling and crumble, it’s time to assemble it all. Unwrap your frozen pie crust, pour the blueberry filling into it, and then sprinkle everything with crumble. The crumble might have hardened into a solid mass in the freezer—if this happens, don’t panic! Just break it up with your fingers and sprinkle the crumbs over the filling.
- Freeze the assembled crumble pie while you preheat the oven.
Again, for best results, freeze the pie for 10 to 15 minutes while you preheat your oven. Doing so ensures that both the pie crust and crumble keep their shapes while baking in the oven! - Bake the blueberry crumble pie. (Bake Time: 60 minutes)
The blueberry crumble pie needs around 60 minutes in the oven. It can be hard to tell when the pie is done—look for a golden brown pie crust and crumble, with blueberry fruit juices that are bubbling slowly in the edges AND center of the pie. But note that if you’re using especially juicy and ripe blueberries, don’t be surprised if the pie needs another 10 to 15 minutes extra in the oven! This is totally normal, I promise—learn more in the Best Tips section below!
Recipe Troubleshooting and FAQ
Help! My crumble doesn’t look as crumbly as yours. Instead, it looks more like sand. What did I do wrong?
Don’t worry! Even if your crumble comes out sandy, it will still work as a topping for the pie. There’s no need to start over—feel free to sprinkle it on top of the blueberry filling!
Usually, the crumble comes out a little sandy if you didn’t mix the butter in fast enough with the rest of the crumble ingredients. Once you pour the butter into the ingredients, quickly toss everything together to moisten all the ingredients and toss until large clumps form. Large clumps are better than small ones—you can break them up later as you assemble the pie. And of course, don’t over mix it! You want it to look like streusel, and NOT cookie dough.
Help! My crumble seemed to melt after I baked it in the oven. The crumbles are mostly gone, and I have one solid mass of crumbs. What did I do wrong?
Hmm. It sounds like your crumble wasn’t cold enough when you baked the pie! Note that in the recipe, I instruct you to chill the crumble twice. The first time, I instruct you to freeze it while you prep the blueberry filling, and the second time, I instruct you to refrigerate the assembled pie while you preheated your oven. If you skip even one of these steps, the crumble has a tendency to melt in the oven!
But if you chilled the crumble both times, it’s likely that you overmixed the crumble. When mixing the crumble, mix only until large clumps form. You don’t want it to look like cookie dough—instead, you want it to look like pebbly sand. Let me know if that makes sense in the comments!
Help! My blueberry crumble pie leaked when I sliced it. What did I do wrong?
Ah, yes. To me, a sign of a good pie recipe is this: 1) you should be able to pop the crust out of its pan without it falling apart in your hands, and 2) if it’s a fruit pie, you should be able to slice the pie without any of its fruit filling leaking and running. Like how my pie looks in these pictures!
But alas—you sliced into your blueberry crumble pie and were dismayed to find that it leaked a ton of blueberry juice everywhere after doing so. Usually this is a sign that the pie is underbaked. You needed to bake the pie for longer. Definitely check out the recipe tips below on how to prevent underbaking your pies in the future!
And another thing? Leaky pies usually occur when the pie is sliced when still warm. I know that warm pie is delicious, but real talk: cooling the pie is important for clean slices. Cooling the pie allows the fruit juices and filling to set properly!
So if you want a “clean” slice of warm pie, I suggest cooling the pie completely, slicing it, then reheating the individual slices in the microwave. But if you don’t care about aesthetics, have at it! Enjoy your pie warm and juicy. It’ll still be delicious.
Can you freeze blueberry crumble pie?
Yes! You can freeze the blueberry crumble pie in the following ways:
Freeze the unbaked blueberry crumble pie.
Follow the recipe instructions to make the crumble, blueberry filling, and assemble the pie. Tightly wrap the assembled pie in two layers of plastic wrap, then a layer of aluminum foil. Freeze for up to 3 months. When ready to serve, follow the recipe instructions to bake and serve. There’s no need to change Bake Time!
Freeze the baked blueberry crumble pie.
Follow the recipe instructions to assemble and bake the pie. Cool completely at room temperature. Then, wrap the baked assembled pie in two layers of plastic wrap, then a layer of aluminum foil. Freeze for up to 3 months.
When ready to serve, position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake on a parchment-lined sheet pan for 15 to 20 minutes, or until re-warmed.
Note that you can also freeze and rewarm individual slices in this way.
Best Recipe Tips
About The Recipe’s Ingredients
- Although I love using weight measures for all my recipes (it’s the only way to guarantee results—you can learn more in my cookbook, Weeknight Baking!), I’m less stringent when it comes to fruit. Why? The weight of fruit will vary significantly depending on what strain/type/variety it is, what season it is, and other factors. As a result, this is one of the few recipes where I encourage you to just use a measuring cup to portion out the fruit! (But only the fruit—I’m still an ardent believer in weight measures for everything else!)
- If you used either your own homemade pie dough OR a store-bought pie crust you fit into a pie pan yourself, you might find that you don’t have enough filling for your crust. Why’s that? The store-bought pie crust I developed this recipe for (Marie Callender’s), despite being deep-dish, still tends to run a little shallow. So let me warn you now; if you’re using a different type or brand of pie dough than I am, you might need more fruit to fill your pie! I recommend having an extra ½ cup of blueberries on hand.
About Baking The Pie Until It’s Done
- Similar to how most recipes lie about how long it takes to caramelize onions, most pie recipes lie about how long it takes to actually bake a pie. I don’t believe it to be malicious—it’s mostly because fruit itself tends to be pretty unpredictable (you read my earlier tip about the same kind of fruit weighing differently depending on strain and season, right?). Sadly, many recipes will instruct you to underbake the pie, leading to running fillings and a pale, soggy crust.
So my advice? Don’t be afraid to bake your blueberry crumble pie beyond the recipe I recommended to you for its Bake Time. It’s pretty difficult to overbake fruit pies, and, depending on how ripe and juicy your fruit was, it can take an additional 30 to 60 minutes (yes, 60!!!) to fully bake the pie.
How do you know when the blueberry crumble pie is done? Its fruit juice will be thick. It should be bubbling, with bubbles that pop slowly. Note that the juices will usually start bubbling at the edges of the pie. It can be easy to spot this and think that the pie is ready. But wait until the juices bubble at the pie’s CENTER. When they bubble slowly at the pie’s center, the pie is done!
How To Avoid A Leaky Pie With A Soggy Crust
- I mentioned this earlier, but it bears repeating: if you want to avoid a pie that leaks fruit juice from its filling, cool the pie completely before slicing. Doing so allows the fruit filling to set completely, leading to perfectly clean and self-contained slices!
Get the Recipe: Homemade Blueberry Crumble Pie (Fresh or Frozen Berries)
Ingredients
For the Crumble
- 1 cup (7 ounces or 198 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (4.5 ounces or 128 grams) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 6 Tablespoons (3 ounces or 85 grams) unsalted butter, melted
For the Blueberry Filling
- 3 ½ cups (17.5 ounces or 496 grams) fresh OR frozen blueberries
- ⅓ cup (2.35 ounces or 67 grams) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (1 ounce or 28 grams) cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed and strained lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Assembly
- 1 frozen store-bought pie crust in a pie pan
Instructions
For the Blueberry Crumble Pie
- First, make the crumble. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt for the crumble. Add the melted butter and use a rubber spatula to stir until a crumbly mixture forms with some large pieces still intact. Do not overmix. Place the bowl in the freezer, uncovered, to freeze while you make the blueberry filling.
- Make the blueberry filling. In a large bowl, combine the blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and salt. Toss to coat.
- Assemble the pie. Scoop the filling into the frozen pie crust and use a rubber spatula to spread it into an even layer. Sprinkle with the frozen crumble.
- Chill the pie while you preheat the oven. Place the assembled pie in the refrigerator, uncovered, to refrigerate while you make the blueberry filling. while you preheat the oven. Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- Bake the pie. When the oven is ready, place the chilled pie in the center of the sheet pan. Bake the pie on the sheet pan for 60 minutes, or until the crust and crumble is golden brown and the fruit juices are bubbling slowly in the edges of the pie. Check the pie 45 minutes into the Bake Time—if the crumble is browning too quickly, loosely cover the top of the pie with a sheet of foil.
- Serve and store. Cool completely on a wire rack before slicing. Serve warm or at room temperature. The pie can be stored at room temperature, under a cake dome or a large bowl turned upside down, for up to 1 day. After that, cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 2 days.
Did you make this recipe?
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Over the past several years of running Hummingbird High, I kept a crucial aspect of my life hidden from my readers: I had a full-time, extremely demanding job in the tech world. In my debut cookbook, Weeknight Baking, I finally reveal the secrets to baking delicious desserts on a tight schedule.
it’s so rare that i feel confident in chiming in on………………… anything lol
but i’ve been making a lot of blueberry crumble pie lately because it’s my favorite when i’m doing the work. i made one using some leftover cut up limes for juice, instead of lemon, and that was lovely. and our local grocery outlet had little keebler shortbread crusts for $.99, and they work just fine, though i recommend keeping the aluminum edge pinched up so the topping doesn’t tumble over and out. but the edges get nice and crunchy and ugh pie is so good
Why put salt of any kind in any recipe?
All it does is add a preservative to the cooking
I would make this without salt.
Oh David! Salt enhances and brightens the flavor in this recipe. And for some other baked goods (like bread), it is essential to its structure, and helps brown and color the final product. But by all means, feel free to leave out the salt in this recipe if you prefer less tasty foods.
Although this pie tastes good, a bit sweet, but 90 percent of my crumb topping was sunk into the pie and took 2 hours to cook.
Hi! Is it okay to use frozen fruit/blueberries in this recipe? What would be done differently if it can?
Yes, the recipe states you can use either fresh OR frozen blueberries! No need to change anything else 🙂
Rating= 6!
This is simply a marvelous recipe that yields a super pie even on the first try. Many thanks.
I made this pie last night and it turned out great! I used monkfruit in place of the suger to reduce the glycemic index and it worked perfectly.
The crumble got too hard, the filling was too dry. Maybe I overbaked the pie by checking and rechecking for fruit bubbles in center of pie and not just edges. I would bake for less time were I to make this again but I think I’ll look for a better recipe. This one didn’t even taste great … but at least my pie crust was 5 stars because it was my great-aunt’s recipe and it’s absolutely a no-fail pie crust recipe. So simple and perfect, flaky, delicious pie crust every time!
I made this pie today and I actually followed the directions! I wound up cooking it for about ninety minutes and it turned out perfectly. My husband loved it. Thank you.
I just finished putting this pie together and it is now baking in the oven. I must say, making the crumble is so much easier with the melted butter than trying to make crumbs with hard butter! I used frozen blueberries but did not have enough; therefore, I added canned blueberry pie filling to the frozen concoction of blueberries.
I’m hoping this turns out ok with the combination of frozen and pie filling blueberries. It sure looked good after topping with the crumble and putting in the oven to bake.
I gave this 5 stars because it was so easy and looked so good going into the oven!
Do NOT substitute tapioca flour one-for-one for the corn starch. You will get a gelatinous goo that has the texture of slime. I’d estimate 1/4 to 1/3 tapioca to corn starch ratio. I had to spoon out most of my mixture and add mew blueberries to get a consistency that wasn’t snot-like. Since I don’t have a recipe, my advice is add tapioca one tablespoon at a time, fully incorporating it before adding more. Add much less than you think you need because it will continue to thicken as you cook it down.
This was wonderful!! I used a homemade pie crust instead of frozen, but I followed the rest of the recipe almost exactly as written. I did add some lemon zest to the filling and a sprinkle of nutmeg to the crumb. I didn’t need quite all of the crumb topping, but the pie was beautiful and perfectly baked! Definitely my go-to recipe for blueberry pie now!
Thank you, Michelle!! I’ve just had a baby and the ease of this recipe was exactly what I needed to feel like my old self in the kitchen again! Wildly delicious -as all your recipes are -and just as easy as the description promised! Loved it so much that I made it twice, this holiday weekend!
My kids loved it, but I found it wayyyy too sweet. Would make again with less sugar
My pie and crumble turned out like Michelle Lopez.I read the directions twice everything turned out perfect. I froze the crumble and then just broke up some frozen pieces. My pie is cooling now and I can’t wait to try it!
I made the pie today and it looks just like Michelle’s. I read the directions twice to make sure I had it all down. I used flour instead of cornstarch, I froze the crumble while I was mixing the fruit together with the sugar, flour, salt and lemon juice. It came out perfect! I covered the edge of pie with strips of foil I don’t like a brown crust. I did let my pie bake an additional 20min and I think it needed the extra time on mine. I had my fruit piled high with crumble on top. it looked like a bee hive! My pie is cooling right now and I can’t wait to try it.
Can you substitute maple syrup for the sugar in the filling? If so, how much maple syrup would you use?
No, sorry! The maple syrup would add too much liquid to the filling and make the whole thing too soggy 🙁
I made this pie and it was very easy and was good. I did make one change I do not use store bought pie crust so I used my homemade from scratch pie crust. I will make this again but I will make a few changes:
I would back it in the lowest part of the oven and would increase the temp to 400 degrees. This way my bottom crust will not be soggy and underbaked.
The crumble topping I would not melt the butter. i would follow this method instead: I would mix the dry ingredients and then I would add cold butter and blend with 2 knives or a pastry blender until it resembles crumble.
I will still bake it for 60 minutes or longer if need be to make sure filling is bubbly and bottom crust is done.
This was my first time making a blueberry pie let alone blueberry crumble pie. I’ve only ever made pumpkin pie before. This pie turned out, absolutely perfect. I App Store bought the crust, and use frozen blueberries— it looks delightful, taste delicious, five stars!