Tag Archives: pie

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Sour Cherry Lattice Pie

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Classics should have a place in every repetoire–like a little black dress, red nail polish, a sharp suit for the dudes–and the same goes for the baking. I like to think of pies as classic, edible, nostalgia and aside from the iconic apple, Sour Cherry is right up there with the standards. Regardless of the filling though, pie needs a place in all our our recipe boxes.

There is nothing fancy happening in this pie. It’s a lattice-topped classic–sans the goopy filling from a can. There are sour cherries, sugar, a little cornstarch to thicken, and the teensiest pinch of cinnamon to take those cherries to another level. The crust is all butter, flaky and just salty enough. Even though it may not be fancy-pants, it is still classic and perfect.

That’s the thing with pie, it’s perfectly imperfect.  A lot of people seem to be afraid of pie baking…but, I’m here to tell you, don’t be. If there’s a tear in the crust, patch it up. So what if you overwork the dough a bit–dial it back on the next try, practice makes perfect…or at least good enough to eat. If you’re filling bubbles over or doesn’t set up, who cares–you made a pie and maybe you’re even going to share it with other people…and trust me, they sure don’t care that the crust is patched, torn, or fruit juices are leaking because you made them something from your own kitchen! The rustic, handmade nature of pie is part of the appeal–it just means that this pie is the real deal, made by a human being. So, make a some pie, top it with ice cream, and share it with other human beings. I’m sure they’ll thank you for it, pie-flaws and all.

For more Sour Cherry goodness, check out this post.

Sour Cherry Lattice Pie

Makes 1 double crusted 8-9 inch pie.

Pie Dough

recipe from Martha Stewart 

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into cubes and chilled well

2 1/2 cups all-purpose or soft wheat flour (like White Lilly brand)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4-1/2 cup ice water

Using fingers, a pastry blender, or a food processor work the butter into the flour, salt, and sugar until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some larger (pea-sized) chunks of butter throughout. Add ice water a tablespoon or two at a time, mixing lightly or pulsing with a food processor just until the mixture comes together to form a dough when compressed. Gather the dough together, kneading once or twice just to combine. Divide the dough in half and press into two discs, wrap well with plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour before rolling out.

Filling and Assembly

I used frozen sour cherries…one day I’ll snag some elusive fresh ones, but for now frozen works beautifully here.

When assembling a pie, I like to fold the overlapping crust back onto the edge of the pie instead of trimming it. It reinforces the pie edge and makes it a bit easier to remove the first slice when you are ready to cut it. 

2 pounds unsweetened sour cherries

1/2-3/4 cup sugar, to taste

tiny pinch of salt

tiny pinch of cinnamon

1 Tablespoon cornstarch

chilled pie dough

cream and sugar for brushing and sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 375*F.

In a mixing bowl combine cherries, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and cornstarch. Stir to coat the cherries.

Roll out your bottom crust to about 1/8 inch thick, making sure the crust is larger than the pie pan. Roll the bottom crust onto your rolling pin and unroll it over the pie pan. Fit the crust into the pan and fold any overlapping crust back over–reinforcing the pie edge. Fill the crust with the cherry mixture.

Roll out the remaining disc of pie dough and cut into 1/2 inch strips. Weave the strips in a lattice fashion over the filling and bottom crust. Once completed, crimp the edges of the pie and brush the top with cream and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in the center of the oven on a baking sheet for 40-60 minutes, until the crust is golden and juices are bubbling. If the crust edge begins to darken too much before the pie is done, fashion a collar out of aluminum foil to cover the edge of the pie and return to the hot oven until done baking.

 

 

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Recipe: Blueberry Hand Pies

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It’s been a fickle few days in my kitchen. I just can’t decide what to make/bake and when I finally land on something, I get too crazy with it. There were exploding pies, bits of yolk in custard, and tough crust. Le sigh. But! It ended well, my brain stopped being crazy and I went with a classic, in a smaller, hand-hold-able package.

These pies have a flaky, tender, buttery crust, and a syrupy, lightly spiced, blueberry filling. I opted to make these into little hand pies since I never seem to be able to slice a whole pie with any luck…and, individual pies are fun. You get yours, I get mine, and maybe we split another? Instead of the standard whipped cream, I softened a few ounces of goat cheese, mixed with a little honey, and folded it into unsweetened whipped cream. The goat cheese cream has a delicate flavor–slight tang, lush creaminess, sweet honey–it’s really good and pairs so nicely with the jammy pies.

Blueberry Hand Pies

Makes about 16 round, double crust, hand pies. 

Crust from Martha Stewart

for the crust I used White Lily brand, a soft wheat flour, if you don’t have it in your area All-Purpose is totally fine. I have made many crusts using All-Purpose flour with excellent results. 

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

2 sticks (8ounces) unsalted butter

1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

egg wash and cinnamon sugar for sprinkling

Filling:

1 pint blueberries, rinsed

juice of 1/2 lemon

4-6 tablespoons vanilla sugar OR plain sugar plus 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 scant tablespoon cornstarch

a tiny pinch of cinnamon

Goat Cheese Cream:

2 ounces very soft goat cheese

2 teaspoons honey

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

for the crust:

Cut butter into cubes and freeze while you gather the remaining ingredients.

Fill a glass measurer with a few ice cubes and 1/2 cup water.

In a large bowl whisk together flour, sugar, and salt. Using your fngers or pastry blender, blend cold butter into flour until mixture resembles coarse crumbs–leaving some pea-sized chunks of butter in the mix. A few tablespoons at a time, begin incorporating the ice water–how much depends on how humid it is where you live–just until the crumbs begin to come together when pressed. Turn out dough, knead 1 or 2 times just to combine, divide dough, press into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate and allow to rest for at least 30 minutes.

for filling and baking:

Preheat oven to 400*F. Line two baking sheets with parchment and set aside.

Make an egg wash with 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon milk. Make cinnamon sugar, combining 2 tablespoons sugar with 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Set both aside.

In a large bowl, combine blueberries, lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon, and cornstarch. Toss to combine.

On a clean, smooth surface dusted with flour, roll out 1 disc of dough at a time, keeping the other in the refrigerator, to about 1/8 inch thickness. Cut rounds of dough using a biscuit cutter–try to get an even number as each pie will require a top and bottom crust. Spoon a small amount of filling into the center of a crust round, brush the edges with egg wash, top with another round, crimp the edges with a fork, brush the top with more wash, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and cut a vent in the top–repeat with remaining dough and filling and place on baking sheet with about 1 inch of space between each pie. Bake for 20 minutes until the bottoms and tops are golden brown, cool on a wire rack.

**Note: I like to keep one baking sheet of pies in the freezer while the other bakes. This ensures maximum crust-flaking.

for goat cheese cream:

In large bowl, whip cream to medium peaks. In another bowl, mix goat cheese with honey until combined. Mix in about 1/4 of the whipped cream, to lighten the consistency of the cheese. Fold in the remaining cream. Refrigerate until ready to use. Serve with warm or room temperature pies.

 

 

 

 

 

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Recipe: Little Banana Cream Pies

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I don’t know about you, but Banana Cream Pie speaks diner fare to me. The kind of diner fare that you share with a milk-shake or that cocoa that comes out of a machine, best enjoyed after consuming a monster of a cheeseburger or something smothered in gravy…or chili and cheese.

Diner heaven.

Anyway, my house isn’t a diner (dang!), I didn’t enjoy these post burger eating, but I did share one with my husband every night for the last 4 nights.

And every night, it was pretty much diner heaven, sans greasy spoons and gut-busting gravy lakes. It was more of a couch-eating, Project Runway-followed-by-The-Daily-Show, hot-tea, then a nap (also known as bedtime), kind of deal. All of which is almost as good as diner heaven…if not even better.

Better how? Better, because there’s salted caramel all up on top of this and, get ready for this, browned butter in that vanilla pudding.

Yeah, man.

Browned butter + vanilla bean + bananas + salty caramel + pie = better than diner heaven.

Believe it.

Little Banana Cream Pies

You could make this in a regular ol’ 9inch pie tin instead of little tart pans. If you go the tart pan route, this makes enough pudding for 4 little pies plus an extra cup for you to eat…which you will totally want to do.

For the shells:

1/2 recipe of Martha Stewart’s pate brisee (I always make this dough for my pies, you can use whatever recipe you like).

Preheat oven to 375F.

Roll out chilled pie dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out rounds of dough about 1inch larger than tart pans (I used an inverted cereal bowl) and place dough rounds into pans. Place squares of parchment larger than tart pans onto top of dough and fill with pie weights (I use dried beans or rice). Blind bake shells in center of the oven for about 15 minutes until shells are completely baked and golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely on a cooling rack.

For the pudding:

adapted from an earlier banana cream tart recipe, which was adapted from Baking from My Home to Yours. If you have an immersion blender, use it for this. I love my immersion blender…LOVE IT. Otherwise, you can pulse the finished pudding in a food processor or regular blender at the end.

2 cups whole milk

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeded

6 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 large egg yolks

2 tablespoons of butter

In a small skillet heat butter over medium-low until milk solids turn golden brown and fragrant. Be sure to watch this so it doesn’t go from browned to burned. Scrape browned butter into a small ramekin and set aside.

In a medium, heavy bottomed saucepan heat milk with vanilla bean seeds and pod, until it just begins to bubble around the edges. Cover and turn of the heat. Allow vanilla to steep in the milk for 15 minutes.

Remove vanilla pod (I rinse mine well and add it to my jar of homemade vanilla extract {vanilla beans + vodka + time}) and bring the vanilla milk to a low boil.

In a small bowl whisk together cornstarch, half of the sugar, and the salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl beat egg yolks with remaining sugar until thick and it gains some volume. Beat in the heavy cream. Beat in the cornstarch mixture until completely combined. Slowly begin to beat in the hot vanilla milk, to temper. Once all of the milk it incorporated scrape the custard back into the saucepan and heat over medium-low, whisking constantly until the custard thickens to coat the back of a spoon. Remove pan from heat (at this point you can press the mixture through a sieve if you’d like) and using your immersion blender, blend in the browned butter. Continue to blend for another 30-60 seconds, this makes the pudding have a lighter texture. Either use/eat immediately or chill, covered with plastic touching the surface.

To assemble:

1-2 bananas, sliced

3/4 cup whipped cream

1/4 cup salted caramel sauce (at the end of the link)

Spoon a thin layer of pudding on the bottom of each tart shell, arrange sliced bananas in a single layer and top with more pudding, spreading the pudding to the edges of the shells. Spoon whipped cream over the top, all the way to the edges of the shells. Drizzle with caramel sauce. Serve immediately or cover with plastic and chill.

 

 

 

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Recipe: Nectarine + Raspberry Hand Pies

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Hey! It’s Pie Party Day!

Through the magics of Twitter, a few bloggers decided we all need not fear pie, that we should all make pies and collectively post them on the internets on July 5th.

Which is today.

Glorious.

Honestly, I L-O-V-E pie. Especially in the summer with all the juicy, fruity, bounty that is available.

I made some hand pies because I love the individual portions and the fact that you can freeze half of the batch for emergency pie needs.

Sometimes a girl has a pie emergency and nothing but a homemade pie will do. Fact.

I like an all butter crust, but I’m certain I’d be okay with a mixture of butter + shortening, or even lard. Some people swear by lard pie crusts and I don’t doubt that they’re probably on to something. It should be said that I almost NEVER feel like my crust is perfect, but in the end it’s always delicious. I have never made an inedible pie crust. Honest. They may come out a little dry, too wet, crumbly, a little overworked, but never inedible. I think you’d be hard pressed to make one that was a complete and utter disaster.

What I am trying to say is that perfect is overrated and you should just get over any pie-fear you may have and make one.

The effort is well worth the reward.

All-Butter Pie Dough

Adapted from Martha Stewart

This recipe makes 1-double crust, 2-single crust, or 10 hand pies.

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) COLD butter, cut into cubes

1/2-1/2 cup ice water

Using your food processor, clean fingers, or a pastry blender, cut butter into dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl (if you aren’t using a processor), until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Begin to add icy water  a few tablespoons at a time just until a dough forms. Divide the dough in half, pat out into a disc and cover well with plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Remove from refrigerator about 15 minutes before rolling out.

Nectarine + Raspberry Filling

2 ripe nectarines, pitted and sliced

1 1/2 cups raspberries

1/4-1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch or desired thickener

Toss together fruit, sugar, and thickener to coat in a medium bowl. Set aside.

To Assemble:

1 egg

1 tablespoon whole milk

In a small bowl whisk together egg and milk. This will be your egg wash for sealing the pies and brushing the tops.

Roll out your dough to about an 1/8 inch thick. Using a round cutter, cut circles of pie dough (or use a knife and make rectangle hand pies), spoon some of the filling into the center of the circle —don’t get too crazy, you still have to fold and crimp here–brush some egg wash around one half of the dough to seal, crimp with the tines of a fork. Repeat with remaining dough/filling. Brush tops with remaining egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Cut a fe vent into the top of each pie. Place pies on a baking sheet and chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes while your oven preheats.

In a 375F oven bake pies for about 30 minutes, until golden and juices are bubbling. You may have some leakage from the vent or even the sealed edges. This is okay, it will still be DELICIOUS. Allow pies to cool at least 10 minutes so the bubbling, molten juices don’t burn you and your friends. Devour.

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Heal the Heartland, a Recipe, and a Birthday: American Pie

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The official start of summer is almost here, and I don’t know about you, but I’m  thinking the Northern Hemisphere couldn’t be more ready for that quintessential season of carefree living. This spring the entire world seemed to rock with disaster after disaster. From the earthquake that spurred the devastating tsunami in Japan, to the relentless tornadoes that ripped through the heartland and rising floodwaters that displaced so many.

I recently moved to Michigan and pretty much upon arrival, as I was moving a mattress from our moving van into our new room, tornado sirens sounded. This was my first tornado warning experience and for this West Coast girl, it was a little more than nerve racking. I grew up in California and Nevada, arguably two of the most seismically active states in our nation. Feeling the earth move has been something I am (sort of) accustomed to. A few springs ago in Reno, we had rolling earthquakes, sometimes 10+ a day, every day for the good part of a month. Though it was scary, I knew what to do. It wasn’t new. Watching the sky grow dark and the wind whip into a frenzy, however, was new. It was eerie and I was scared, but the storm ended up passing and aside from some fallen tree limbs in the neighborhood, all was well. Unfortunately, the people in Missouri, Alabama, and all across the heartland could not say the same.

Recently I was contacted by the fine folks at Jedidiah Clothing, a US apparel company with heart. They wanted me to share their mission with you. I said, of course! because really,  their goals are sound:

Jedidiah’s mission is to use apparel sales as a vehicle to provide care, support and financial resources to those in need. Through seasonal partnerships with non-profits, the clothing artistically connects fashion to social causes so everyone can make a measurable difference in the world.

Neat, right? They designed a series of T’s for relief efforts in Japan and have a spring/summer campaign to help the children of Cambodia. When disaster after disaster struck right in our own backyard, they partnered with design firm Bulldog Drummond and the retailer the Buckle, to come up with their “Heal the Heartland” T’s. Each t-shirt costs $20 in their online store with $15 of those dollars going to the American Red Cross. That, I think, is a pretty great contribution.

All this talk of the heartland fills me with nostalgia and a deep sense of Americana. There are few things other than food that really give us a sense of place and home. That being said, there are many foods that strike me as quintessentially American, but I think that pie has got to be my number 1. Pies make me think of summer, small town 4th of July’s, and my family. I remember many a summer day spent picking blackberries so my grandmother would make us a pie. My grandfather adored pie in any incarnation, but didn’t care much for cake or other confections. He found it perfectly acceptable to have pie for any meal of the day, with a heaping scoop of melting vanilla ice cream.

Yesterday I celebrated my 27th birthday. It was quiet and simple. It was the first one without a phone call from my grandfather, the guy who called me “Punkin”, who I adored, and who passed away in December. It was weird and difficult and more than a little devastating. I cried and thought of him. Then, I made a pie and it helped. Cutting butter into flour with my fingertips, adding just enough water, and rolling out a perfectly imperfect disc, cutting fruit, tossing it with sugar and the insides of a vanilla bean, it all helped.

And, later, I had my birthday pie and despite the twinges of sadness, I was happy because I knew he would totally approve…although I think he would tell me to add more sugar :)

Rustic Apricot Pie

This pie is all free form. I didn’t want to bother with a pie plate, so it is what it is. I guess you could call it a galette, or maybe even a crostada, but I’m calling it “rustic.” Whatever you call it, it’s delicious and, well, easy as pie.

I make an all butter crust, a la Martha. Makes 1, generously sized “rustic” pie.

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into cubes, chilled

1/4 – 1/2 cup ice water

In a large bowl toss flour, salt, and sugar with cold butter. Using a pastry blender, a food processor, or your clean fingers, cut the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse crumbs.

Slowly add water and blend until the dough just comes together. Pat dough into a disc, wrap with plastic, and chill for at least 1 hour.

4-5 cups apricots, pitted and sliced

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 cup of sugar (or more to taste)

1 vanilla bean, seeded

To make the filling, rub the vanilla bean seeds into the sugar, whisk in starch. You may need more or less sugar depending on the sweetness of your fruit. Toss vanilla sugar with sliced apricots in a large bowl. Allow to sit while the dough continues to chill.

Preheat oven to 375F and line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat.

On a flat surface, roll out dough into a large circle. Mound fruit filling in the center and fold up the edges and crimp. At this point, if you’d like, brush the pastry with some heavy cream and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake pie in the oven for 45-60 minutes. Allow pie to cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting, topping with ice cream, and devouring.

 


 

 

 

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coconut ice cream pie!

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So, this pie. This pie will rock your socks off. I loved it. The lucky friends I shared it with loved it. Four of us ate the whole thing in under 2o minutes. We’re wild like that.

I made this amazing pie for the 4th of July. Sean and I made plans with our friends Jackie and Danny to have a Independence-Day-Grill-Fest! We figured BBQ chicken, corn, cornbread, and potato salad were all quintessentially Americana, and as per usual, I made dessert. Jackie told me it had to be something that screamed “USA!” So, I instantly began thinking about pies…peach pie, cherry, berry, and cream. Each pie was rejected because, well, it’s like hell in my kitchen in the summertime and pastry dough and the oven on for extended periods of time sounded nightmarish. Then, i started thinking about cold pies, with cookie crusts and custardy fillings. Which led me to think of my mom’s ice cream pie, which in turn led me to thoughts of an ice cream-cream pie hybrid!

So, here’s the breakdown: cinnamon toast crumb crust + toasted coconut ice cream + whipped cream + coconut shavings = delicious!

Can i just say, cinnamon toast crumbs…where have you been all my life?! Best crumbs ever…EVER!

listening to: january wedding: the avett brothers

(thanks to Hannah from Honey & Jam for introducing me to this song!! Makes my heart swoon!)

Since the pie was such a delicious success and since it was fairly easy to assemble (you could totally cheat and use a store-bought crust and ice cream), I have many more ice cream pie concoctions and ideas rolling around in my head…like mini mud pies, strawberry ice cream pie, grasshopper ice cream pie…it’s endless :)

Cinnamon Toast Crumb Crust

Adapted from Momofuku for 2

I used leftover challah buns from Trader Joes. I think you could use any bread that you want. I did have to use the oven for the crust, but not for too long and since this recipe is largely assembly, I was able to do all my baking after the sun went down.

4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, divided

2 Tablespoons sugar

Large-ish pinch of cinnamon

Small pinch of salt

1 cup cubed bread

Preheat oven to 350F.

Melt butter in a small saucepan or in the microwave. Toss bread cubes with 2 tablespoons of the butter, cinnamon, sugar, and salt. Spread onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for about 15-20 minutes, stirring halfway through, or until golden brown and toasty.

Remove toast cubes from the oven and allow to cool completely.

Once cooled, place cubes into a food processor and process until you have fine crumbs. Add remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and pulse until combined. Press crust into the bottom of a 9-inch pie plate or spring form pan.

Place back into a 350F oven and bake for 7-10 minutes. Cool completely before filling (if filling with ice cream, freeze the crust for about 15 minutes after cooling and before filling).

Toasted Coconut Ice Cream

Adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

I think it is important to seek out unsweetened coconut for this, the sweetened kind would make the recipe far too sugary. I found desiccated, unsweetened coconut in the bulk bins at Whole Foods. I have seen it in the bulk sections of other well-stocked grocers as well. Also, I used evaporated cane sugar with great results.

1 ½ cups desiccated coconut, unsweetened

1 cup whole milk

2 cups heavy cream

¾ cup sugar

pinch of salt

1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise

5 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon bourbon

Preheat oven to 350F. Spread coconut on a baking sheet and bake for 5-8 minutes, stir frequently to toast evenly, until golden-brown and fragrant.

In a medium saucepan warm milk, 1 cup of the cream, sugar, salt, and toasted coconut. Scrape the seeds of the vanilla bean into the saucepan and throw in the pod as well. Cover, remove from heat, and steep 30-60 minutes.

Re-warm coconut mixture on the stove. Set a fine mesh strainer over another medium saucepan and strain the coconut infused liquid into the saucepan. Press down on coconut firmly to extract all the goodness. Discard coconut solids.

Pour the remaining cup of cream into a large bowl and set the mesh strainer over the bowl. In a separate bowl whisk the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm coconut mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the custard back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom and sides as you stir until the mixture is thick and coats the back of the spoon. Pour the custard into the strainer and mix with the cream. Stir in the bourbon and stir over and ice bath until cool. Chill the custard in the refrigerator until completely chilled. Process in ice cream maker according to manufactures instructions.

Assembling your ice cream pie!

Spread freshly churned ice cream (because it’s already like soft -serve at this point, smooth and spreadable!) into prepared pie shell, cover with plastic and freeze until solid. Before serving remove from the freezer for 10 minutes or so to defrost slightly for easy serving. This is a good time to whip up some heavy cream and toast up some large flakes of coconut for garnish.  Top with the whipped cream and a healthy sprinkling of coconut and serve! yumyum!