Fill a measuring jug with water and ice, place in the fridge. Take out 2 pieces of plastic wrap and place it near where you are working.
Take half of your butter and cut into thin slices, about ⅛ inch thick and then place in the fridge.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and sugar.
Take the remaining butter and cut into ½ inch cubes. Toss the cubes of butter in the dry ingredients, making sure they’re all evenly coated. Use your fingers to smoosh the butter into the flour, you want to completely flatten the cubes and make them smaller until the biggest pieces of butter are about the size of a pea.
Take out the chilled butter slices and add them to the bowl, tossing to coat in the flour, then use your fingers to flatten the butter slices. You’ll now have a mixture of very small and slightly larger bits of butter.
Drizzle 10 tablespoons of your ice water into the flour (make sure not to have any ice fall in). Use your hands to toss the flour and butter. Continue tossing the mixture until it forms a shaggy mass. Continue drizzling ice water, a tablespoon at a time, and kneading the dough until just a couple of dry spots remain and you have one large piece of dough.
Divide the piece into 2 and form into 2 discs. I made one disc slightly larger for the pie crust, the other slightly smaller for the pastry cut outs. Wrap them tightly in the plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Note, go to pie making step with the fruit while it chills!
Take them out of the fridge and let it sit for about 5-10 minutes (depending how cold your kitchen is) to make it easier to roll out. One disc at a time, place it on a lightly floured surface and roll the dough out into a rectangle. Fold the dough in thirds, then rewrap tightly in plastic. Refrigerate for at least another 30 minutes (or up to 2 days). This step is optional but gives you a flakier pie dough and I find it easier to work with.
Make Pie
Place the fresh berries in a large mixing bowl. Drizzle over half of the sugar (save the other half for later in the recipe!) and your lemon juice. Toss everything together and leave for at least 1 hour, up to 4 hours. Do this step while your pie dough is chilling. Toss every so often, until a lot of juice has collected at the bottom of the bowl. If your fruit is very ripe and in season, it should only take an hour to do this.
Take out a saucepan and place a colander or fine meshed sieve on top. Drain the juices from the fruit, collecting the juice in the saucepan. Put the fruit back into the large bowl. Simmer the juices on medium-low heat until you have 2-3 tablespoons left, it should be thick and syrupy. For me this took just 10 minutes but it depends how much juice you have!
Pour the 2-3 tablespoons of juice back over the fruit and add the rest of the filling ingredients - the rest of the sugar, cornstarch, salt, vanilla extract and cinnamon. Toss together.
With an oven rack in the middle position, preheat your oven to 425°F/220°C
Take the large disc of dough out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature for 5-10 minutes. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface until it is about an inch or two wider than your pie plate. I find it easiest to gently lift the dough and place it on to the plate, but you can also roll it up on to your rolling pin and then unroll it on to your pie plate.
Let the dough slump into the plate and press very firmly on to the bottom and the area where the side and the bottom of the pie plate meet – this is going to help it not slump when baking!
Tuck the overhang underneath, this is going to give you a thicker edge. Go back and use your hand and fingers to firmly press the dough into the pie plate. Crimp the edges as desired, crimping firmly into the pie plate is going to help it not shrink and hold its shape.
Place your pie plate in the fridge for 15 minutes. While it is chilling, take out the other disc of dough and roll it out on a lightly floured surface. Cut cookie cutters or pie crust cutters to cut out shapes. Place these shapes on a plate. You can brush them with a beaten egg to make sure they get golden brown.
Take the chilled pie crust out of the fridge and pour in your filling. Place your pastry cut outs on top.
Place the pie straight into the oven (don't wait too long as you want your pie crust to be very cold!) and bake for 15 minutes at 425°F/220°C. After 15 minutes, lower the temperature without opening the door to 350°F/175°C and bake for another 45-50 minutes. The filling should be bubbling. If your crusts are getting too brown, cover them with aluminum foil.
Take the pie out and let it cool completely before slicing. Letting it cool will allow the filling to set.
Notes
My recipes have been developed and tested in metric grams. I highly recommend using a weighing scale and measuring out your ingredients the metric way.Salt: If you don’t have kosher salt, halve the amount of salt called for in the recipe. 1 teaspoon kosher salt = ½ teaspoon fine salt.Butter: I use European style butter, like Kerry Gold, in my recipes.Making Ahead: You can make the pie dough up to 2 days ahead. You can make the entire pie the day before. Storage: Cover leftovers tightly and keep in the fridge for up to 5 days.