I found the black cherry pie thread here which helped. I also found that I was out of instant tapioca and the store was out too. So I'll have to use either corn starch or flour to thicken the filling.

For the crust or filling?
Giving a "recipe" for a berry pie is a very iffy thing....the amount of thickening and sugar depends on how sweet and juicy the berries are....and the longer the time since they have been picked, the less juicy.
As a general rule....for a berry pie, I use 3 cups of berries per 9 inch pie 3/4 cup sugar...or a little more or less...plus 1/4 cup flour mixed with the sugar....toss the berries with the flour sugar mix place in pie shell, dot with butter and put on top crust. Bake in a preheated 425 oven for1 0 minutes, reduce heat to 350 and continue baking for 30 minutes, if top gets too brown, tent with foil>
For gooseberries add more sugar, for blue berries add the grated rind of a lemon and just a whiff of cinnamon.

Awesome. Thanks.

I love raspberry or blackberry pies.
Here is a link to my recipe.

Many people use cornstarch or arrowroot flour or tapioca for pie thickening. I prefer the "pastry" flavor that flour gives and I see that Ann does too.

I use tapioca for uncooked apple pie filling (three generations recipe), but I don't use thickener for berry pies. Is there a specific reason to do so? Or is it just for a firm filling?

Yeah...I prefer my pie filling to at least to have the consistency of chocolate syrup rather that that of orange juice.

Thanks, Ann and Linda. I've picked the wild (OUCH!) blackberries for pie when I was a teen, but haven't made an all blackberry or all raspberry pie, or cooked either. I did a mixed berry pie last year (to clean the fridge) which was strawberries, blackberries and blueberries, but it cut fine. It wasn't solid like cake (I once put too much tapioca in an apple pie and it was like that). It was more like cherry pie where a little juice escaped, but it mostly held together. Not chocolate syrup. More like maple syrup. There's pectin in strawberries, though, isn't there?

Bob - Also check out CI's no-bake berry pie. I love it.

http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/2802801-Summer-Berry-Pie

I don't put thickener in any kind of fruit pie, FWIW, and I prefer a single type of berry in a pie if there are enough to do them that way, but that's just me.

No pectin in strawberries, once they are ripe.
I am reminded of one time when my mother made a "magic cherry pie"....she cut a piece and soon she had a whole pie again....a little thinner but it filled the pie plate!...So I always add thickener to any fruit pie.

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Oh, my! That was a trick indeed!

My mixed berry pies aren't that runny, and only a little of the liquid runs, not the fruit. I don't know why. I don't use a cooked filling, if that's the difference (that is, cooked in the pie, but not separately on the stove).

Like Writersblock, I prefer a single fruit. And I hate cooked strawberries, so never use them in anything cooked.

I'm impressed by those of you who can bake a berry pie without the addition of flour or other thickener. I've never cooked a berry that wasn't juicy. You all must be using magic berries.

Either that or a very thick crumb crust! LOL!
Seriously though, berries are juicy...jam recipes say to cook the berries until the juices flow and then add the sugar and pectin.
Pillog, what kind of crust do you make?

It's actually possible that the berries I was using weren't as juicy as they might be because they'd languished in the fridge awhile, which was the point of making a mixed berry pie. It might have slightly dehydrated them. I make more apple, fig, peach, etc., and the berries rarely get old without getting moldy (and usually get 'et before they get old). Or I might make a pie with those not quite in season strawberries that are nearly crunchy but fragrant. Same with rock hard peaches. The ones that never ripen. Unripe aren't juicy. Cooking in a pie with a spoonful of sugar brings out the flavor and softens them making them pleasant rather than inedible. I do put a little tapioca in the peach.

Re crust, like the rest of my baking, I tend to like a bit firmer than some do. My go-to is a whole wheat, frozen butter, cuisinart recipe, which rolls very thin and rarely cracks. I have another cuisinart recipe for white which is flakier, but also made in the FP and firmer than a by hand crust. It also rolls thin. Best, of course, is by hand, with half shortening, half frozen butter, but if I'm just not in the mood (i.e., not just making pie, but also making meals), it becomes a matter of do it in the FP or don't bother. That's a slightly thicker crust (if you don't want it to crack to bits) but I haven't done it in a couple of years. And the whole wheat crust is very tasty. Oh, and I have a really good, wafer thin, gluten free crust that isn't the texture of a proper pie crust (it has egg in it) but people rave over it.

I won't eat thick crust, and I almost never do crumb.

I'll bet you are right, your berries were a dried out. Try it again sometime with fresh berries, preferably from your own back yard or the farmers' market if you don't have berries. I'll bet your experience will differ.
I often make my crust in the Cuisinart. I use my regular recipe but use frozen butter and just pulse to blend until the fat is cut in....and add water and pulse again, more water pulse until it hangs together....can't tell the difference than if I had cut in and tossed in the water by hand.

Well, yes, sometimes berries are dried out now that I usually use store bought, but I did them the same way when living on a ranch in the mountains where we were sent out every day with the big washtub and not allowed to come back till we'd filled it with wild raspberries, some of which went into pie as soon as we got back. Nothing in the filling but berries, sugar, lemon juice, and no pre-cooking of the filling. Yeah, it was a bit juicy, but isn't that the point?

No....the point is being able to get a pieces of pie onto your plate without having all the juice run out and leaving you with nothing but crust and a few juiceless berries. But to each his own....we all have different tastes and I know people who like beef Stroganoff made with canned cream of mushroom soup.

Checking back in. I mostly followed lindac92's general recipe, but since the berries seemed quite juicy, I also added cornstarch. The as-made recipe was:

5 cups berries
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 Tbsp corn starch
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp butter (cut into 1/4" cubes)
1 packaged pie crust
1 Tbsp milk
1 tsp raw sugar

Preheat oven to 450deg F
Mix flour, sugar and cornstarch together, pour over berries in large bowl, gently mix, add lemon juice and vanilla.
Unroll crust into 9" glass pie pan. Pour berry mix into crust, cover with other crust, and crimp around the edges. Brush top of crust with milk, lightly sprinkle with the raw sugar.
Bake at 450 for 10 minutes. lower temperature to 350 and continue baking for 30 minutes.

I made one pie that was all wine berries (W) and one pie that was mostly blackberries with the remainder being wine berries.(B)

before baking:

thanks again lindac92!

You can never go wrong with Linda's advice. Two beautiful pies. Well done Bob.

I use cake four to thicken all fruit pies. This is peach.

Oh my!!...Where's mine?
With 5 cups of berries that was a biiiig pie and I am sure you did need the corn starch too...or more flour.
Vanilla ice cream? And lattice crust peach???....sigh..
my favorite is coffee ice cream on peach pie...
Curious....why cake flour? Doesn't AP flour have more thickening power per teaspoon than pastry flour?
I have never used tapioca in a pie ( just in pudding) but have used arrowroot flour....and don't like it as it can get "ropey"...which is the biggest turn off ever!! And for a pie that needs a long cooking time, cornstarch can lose it's power to thicken....so aside from the taste which I like I think it's more reliable>
However...in spite of everything, all the variables from canned filling to premade crust...I have never yet met a piece of pie that I would turn away!!!

I'm wondering if some of the difference isn't also how cooked down the berries are? It doesn't take a lot of heat to obliterate berries and turn them into juice, but the pies on the ranch in my teen years, as well as the mixed berry or berry and something else pies I've made are chock-a-block full of firm fruit.Tapioca makes the juice solidify. A little tapioca and it's just thick juice. Too much tapioca and it's cement. You can cut straight through and have a clean cut. I don't think it changes the flavor but that might be just me thinking it doesn't because I'm so used to it.

I make my cuisinart crust the same way. The difference is that my hand crust has the mix of butter and shortening, which makes it flakier.

Why not use butter and shortening in the Cuisinart? And you think butter and Crisco makes a flakier crust than all butter? I don't....but I do think Crisco makes it easier to handle.
I do suppose if the berries you use are firm or under ripe, it would make a difference in the juiciness.

Our berries are usually ripe, but they are firm. I'm a city dweller so they're only just ripe (they have riper fruit where I shop than at the big chains, but it still has to survive transport). I'm glad we've figured out the difference.

Re crusts, it's that I've been using a friend's recipe in the cuisinart and it's an all butter recipe. I've tried amending it and it doesn't like to be changed. I don't know how to know if the water is right on the half shortening recipe if I'm not touching the dough. It's not necessarily the shortening that does it for the flakiness. It's the recipe as a whole. There is supposed to be something about the different sized fat globules and which is more thoroughly combined, and how much steam is released and all that, but it could be the proportions or something. I really don't pay a lot of attention so long as it works. I like the whole wheat recipe best, and make it far more often than the others. It's not a flaky style recipe at all but it's delicious. I put curry powder in it for topping harvest pot pie, and that's yummy too. :)

having all the juice run out and leaving you with nothing but crust and a few juiceless berries.

Still trying to understand how that would even be possible unless you use Stevia or nutrasweet or something instead of sugar.

Because sugar in a recipe acts like a liquid. Try putting 2 cups of berries into a pot, add 1 cup of sugar and cook until the sugar melts. See how much liquid you have? That's what happens in a pie.

Yep! I was trying to make ice cream the other day, and trying to get a handle on the measuring, but the sugar I put in with the not sweet enough peaches, simply turned to watery liquid for quite some time and it looked like quite a bit! Had to simmer that puppy till enough water evaporated.

There's another difference. I use about a tablespoon of sugar, not a cup!

Even with under ripe "city fruit"?...You must like a really tart pie. Yep a tablespoon of sugar for 3 to 4 cups of fruit would definitely make it less juicy.

I don't think I would bother making a pie from either dried out berries, past their prime, or fruit that was under-ripe. If I'm going to make the effort to bake a pie I want the ingredients to be at their best.

I cut the fat, usually both butter and shortening/lard in using a larger grater. Gives the perfect size pieces. I find that the food processor, cuts the fat too fine. Especially if adding the liquid using the machine. And has the potential to make for a tougher pastry crust.

~Ann

Yes, Ann, that's a difference between us. I'm not going to go to the bother of making a pie if I have beautiful fruit that is delicious all by itself. We have very good produce, year round, and are used to eating it as it comes. Pie is for rescuing it, or once in awhile for dessert between seasons when there just isn't any good fruit but cooking it will make it palatable. It could be compote, or cobbler, or whatever, but since I discovered FP pie crusts, and especially the whole wheat one, I've been making pies. Everyone loves pie. :) Make the dough by hand isn't a big deal, but I always make a mess, and the FP seems so clean and easy!

Linda, it's quite possible our berries run sweeter. The dusting of sugar is really more to encourage the juice than to sweeten the fruit. We just like pie filling to taste like the fruit, though, not a confection. I totally get why the thickener if you're using that much sugar. I've had that kind of pie, and it was really good, but too sweet for our family dinners.

I've tried the grater and it doesn't work well for me. I cut the frozen butter for the FP the same way as I do for hand, into dice, maybe 3/16" (skinny sticks cut into nine sticks (3x3) then sliced a similar thickness). It's mixed with counted pulses. I sometimes get the white one too wet, but it's a forgiving recipe, and is fine wet if it's rolled between plastic wrap. You might think my whole wheat recipe is "tough". I don't. but it isn't a flaky pastry kind of crust. It's more like empanada dough. Tender, but solid and firm.

Yes Plllog, we do have a totally different way of looking at some things.

Local blueberries are in season. Today I picked up the second five pound box in a week. The first didn't last long enough to bake anything except a batch of Blueberry White Chocolate Cream Cheese Muffins. But some of this box is definitely destined for a blueberry pie.

~Ann