Peach-Blackberry Pie

It's been covered here before. I love pie. Pie Pie Pie.



Summer is a great time for pie (though in my opinion there is really no bad time for pie) because of all the fresh fruit that is in season. For my camping trip I decided to take advantage of the late running blackberry season and the early start of peach season and make a peach-blackberry pie.



One of the biggest stumbling blocks I run into when cooking is not paying enough attention. I either get am in such a hurry that I rush through and make mistakes or I get distracted and either overcooking something or letting something else get cold. I wanted everything to turn out delicious for my family so I managed to contain myself and take my time while still being quick and thorough.

Peach-Blackberry Pie
This is a new method for making crust for me but it turned out REALLY well. It may be my new favorite crust recipe.

Crust
1 cup plus 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup (one stick) butter, frozen
3-4 tbs water, ice cold
Pinch of salt

1) Take the stick of butter, frozen for at least 20 minutes, and grate into a medium-large bowl using the large holes of a cheese grater. Return to the freezer for 5-10 minutes. Use this time to chill ice-water if not already doing so.
2) In a small bowl, stir salt into flour to evenly distribute.
3) Add the flour to the butter and toss lightly with your fingers to coat the butter with the flour. Pour the water evenly over the butter and flour and stir lightly with your fingers.
4) Knead briefly with the butt of your hand until the flour, butter, and water just come together to form a dough. If the butter starts to melt stick it back in the freezer for 5-10 minutes to let rest/cool and take it out again to finish. The most important things are to keep the dough cool and not to over work it.
5) Once the dough is finished quickly shape into a ball and return to the freezer. You may wrap it in plastic and keep it for up to a month or use immediately after cooling for 20-30 minutes.

Filling
3 lbs of peaches, ripe
2 6oz packages of blackberries
2-3 tbs lemon juice, the juice of 1/2 a large lemon
1/2-3/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
5-6 tbs cornstarch
2 tbs butter, cut into 1/4 inch pieces

1) Prep the peaches by peeling, pitting, and slicing into 1/2 inch slices
2) Lightly toss together the ingredients except butter and cornstarch in a bowl. Taste and adjust sugar and spices as necessary. Start with the smaller amount of sugar, you will need to use more if your fruit is less than ripe, but should use as little as necessary.
3) Once filling is finished, add cornstarch to coat. Line an empty pie plate with plastic wrap, pour in pie filling, dot with butter, and freeze. Once filling is frozen solid, remove from pie-plate and wrap completely with plastic and then foil. Store in freezer for 1-2 months.

I pre-made my filling two weeks early when they had a special on peaches and blackberries at the market. If you are not going to freeze your filling, feel free to reduce the amount of cornstarch by a tablespoon or two and use immediately.

Crumble Topping
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, frozen and grated
A few grates of nutmeg
Pinch of salt

1) Freeze and grate butter as with crust.
2) Add all ingredients and mix thoroughly with fingertips until crumbly, pebble sized pieces form.
3) Stick in the fridge or freezer to keep cool until ready to use.

Assemble the Pie
1) Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Roll out the pie dough into a 12-13 inch circle and place in pie plate. Crimp edges and place in the freezer while you remove pie filling and let thaw 20-30 minutes on the counter.
2) Unwrap pie filling, it should still be solid but will be slightly softened edges, and place into the crust.
3) Sprinkle crumble topping evenly over the filled pie.
4) Bake at 375 degrees for approximately one hour. If edges start to get too dark wrap in foil. Make sure that the filling has heated all the way through.

Let cool completely and enjoy.

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The Theory of Pie

Pie=pi, theory - math, get it? Gosh, I crack myself up.

No really, when it comes to baking, the theory of pie is pretty simple - make a crust, put something in it, cover it, or not, and bake (or not if you are looking at icebox pies filled with like pudding, or fresh fruit, but that's kind of a tangent - tangent, more math, man I'm good!)

The thing is, not all pies are created equal and what sounds good in theory can miss the mark in execution. Like this spinach and feta pie I made.



See, I told you I was on a pie kick.

The spinach and feta pie was something I had bumping around my brain since thinking up applications for the whole wheat and olive oil pie dough I made for the surprise birthday pie. Then there was a Swiss chard pie with olive oil pie dough in Everday Food (curse you Martha). Then I knew what I had to do. I took her basic recipe for the filling, added the Chocolate and Zucchini recipe for the dough (using the original recipe and not the sweet variation) added a little feta and wham! instant pie.

Well, it was pie. But it really wasn't ...mmm... pie... Here are some things that I think could be improved:

The Crust:
1) Use some all purpose flour, I think the texture came out a little too grainy. It wasn't noticable in a traditional usage, but when the folds double up in this galette style pie, it really becomes a prominent textural feature.
2) Roll the crust thinner. See the reasoning behind number 1.
3) Use less salt and better olive oil. The amount of salt called for in the recipe seemed to be a bit too much in practice, and my olive oil could have been fresher. When olive oil is one of the main flavor profiles of a recipe, it should probably be pretty decent olive oil.

The Filling:
1) Cook ingredients separately, and don't cook the lemon juice. The EDF filling recipe called for cooking the greens, pepper flakes, onions and garlic, taking off the heat, and THEN mixing in the lemon and Parmesan cheese but I didn't read the directions carefully enough or thought I could take a shortcut and the result was too acidic without really being recognizably lemony. I also added mushrooms. The combination of flavors just became muddy and nothing stood out, they all just tasted green and sharp. Valuable lesson: follow directions.
2) More garlic. When is this not a good idea?
3) More pepper flakes. See number 2.
4) Use full fat feta. I don't know what on earth possessed me to purchase low-fat feta. It is grainy and unpleasant. It doesn't fare well when baked either. Next time I will just suck it up and use the full-fat version. Its not that bad for you and it tastes SO much better.
5) I may play around with adding a bit of sweetener. The acid really needed a counterpoint. Maybe caramelizing the onions a bit more, or making them with balsamic vinegar and omitting the lemon would work. This fix is to be determined.

Baking:
1) Bake longer. I got gun shy and bits of my crust were a bit soft still. Wait till the whole thing is golden brown (which I have to say is hard to do when your dough is pretty brown to begin with.
2) Use a wash. This is really just for aesthetic reasons. The plain crust was really just a little sad. It would have benefited from a little shine.

There you go, not a perfect winner, but perfectly edible (I did end up eating the whole thing over the next two days) and a learning experience to boot. I think this one can be worked out, but we'll save the recipe till later then.

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A Post that IS About Pie

As of Saturday, Spring has sprung. It seems like the start of the season has geared me up for some serious baking. Winter was all about braises, chiles, and soup, but so far Spring is all about butter and flour.



It started innocently enough with pie for a friend's birthday. I'll call this the mystery caramel apple pie, mostly because I never actually had any and therefore it is a mystery to me as to how this pie turned out. I decided to fill that sweet void by baking some cookies, then a few microwave cupcakes, a pie for pi-day, and suddenly last weekend I was on my third pie (and third pound of butter) this month.



This latest pie actually brings us right back to where we started, a birthday pie! This pie was not a mystery caramel apple pie, but it was a blackberry Asian pear surprise pie. This pie was a surprise in that it was a surprise as to whether it would actually taste good. Prior to making this pie, I had actually never eaten an Asian pear.



It started as a Strawberry Rhubarb pie, with an olive oil crust and an oat crumble to make it more "healthy." Unfortunately I could find nary a stalk of rhubarb, and when I went to the store the were sold out of strawberries (seriously, who sells out of strawberries?!). So I grabbed what was on sale/in-season which happened to be Asian pears and blackberries. If the 14 diners who inhaled it on Saturday night are any indication, I think it it worked out.




Blackberry Asian Pear (Surprise) Pie
Crust
1 cup AP Flour
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup Olive Oil
1/2 cup COLD water

Filling
2 Asian Pears, Aprox 3 cups of fruit, 1/2 inch dice
12 oz of Blackberries
1/4 tsp ginger powder
2 tbs sugar
zest of one tangerine
juice of 1/2 lemon
4 heaping tbs of flour

Crumble Topping
1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
6 tbs butter

Prepare the Crust
1) Prepare a 9" pie pan by lightly greasing it with olive oil. Or if you are me and are missing your pie pan, line a 9" cake pan with parchment and hope for the best.
2) Combine the flours, salt, and sugar in a medium sized mixing bowl.
3) Add the oil and mix it in with a fork.
4) Add the water, mix with the fork until it is absorbed, then knead lightly (I do this with just one hand, in the bowl) until the dough comes together into a ball.
5) Turn the dough out on a lightly floured work surface. Sprinkle a little flour on the ball of dough and on the rolling pin, and roll the dough out into a circle large enough to fit your tart pan. Turn the dough by 45 degrees (8 turns to a circle) every time you roll the pin forward and back, adding a little more flour underneath and on the dough if it seems on the verge of becoming sticky. Be quick and sure of yourself, try not to overwork the dough.
6) Transfer the dough carefully into the prepared pan and line it neatly. Trim the excess dough (delicious baked with a little cinnamon and sugar), and place the pan in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.

While the crust is resting...

Prepare the filling
7) Place all of the ingredients except the flour in a large bowl. Carefully mix the ingredients mix ingredients together with a folding motion and either a large spoon or spatula. Mix just enough to distribute the spices and citrus.
8) Sprinkle the flour over the mixed fruit and mix gently to combine. Try to keep the blackberries whole.

and...
Prepare the Topping
9) Use a fork to combine the crumble ingredients, if you are having difficulty incorporating the butter, melt until softened but not liquefied (aprox 15-30 seconds)

then...
Put it All Together
10) Blind bake the crust - take the crust out of the fridge, prick it repeatedly with a fork, and bake at 400 degrees for 7-10 minutes. Just to dry the surface to the touch.
11) Gently fill the crust with the pie filling, and evenly top with crumble topping.
12) Bake at 400 degrees for an additional 15-18 minutes (until lightly golden brown), then lower the temp to 350 and bake until the crust is cooked and the topping is a deep golden brown, about 15 minutes depending on the oven and how long you cooked prior to the final bake.

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Happy Pi Day!

Just a quick check-in folks. Its been a bit busy over here at Casa de Rosa between work, school, life, and my troubling need to sleep, but I wanted to show you all this lovely picture of my pi day pie (March 14th - 3.14...). It was the traveling pie show today as I packed up my crusts, my filling ingredients, and my baking accoutrements and headed over to my friend Lyssette's. The pie turned out great, even if I do think the flavor profile it slightly resembled a McFastFood's apple pie (in a good way). After a great dinner with friends, there was just enough left for both Lyssette and I to be able to have a slice for breakfast tomorrow. And pie for breakfast is in fact one of life's great pleasures.



I used this pie-crust recipe. I usually use the Pioneer Woman's pie crust, but wanted to branch out. I used all butter though instead of the small amount of shortening and mostly butter called for in the recipe. I think in the future I would keep the small bit of shortening to loosen up the dough a little. It was pretty tight when I rolled it out and was very difficult to get to the proper thickness. The filling was just diced apples, white and brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, lemon juice, vanilla, and cornstarch to thicken. Put it all together and bake 15-20 minutes at 425 and then 35-45 at 350 until golden brown.

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