piesinthepines

[piesinthepines]

Ginger Pear Pie

Pie crust adapted from Smitten Kitchen; ginger pear filling adapted from Lauren Conrad, hilariously. Photos here. 

INGREDIENTS

Pie Crust 2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 ounces) AP Flour 1 teaspoon Salt 2 tablespoons Sugar 2 1/2 sticks cold unsalted Butter, cut into 1/4-inch slices 1/4 cup cold vodka 1/4 cup cold water 

Filling 6 Pears, peeled, cored, and sliced (whatever kind you have on hand) 1 tablespoon minced fresh Ginger 1/2 cup Sugar 2 teaspoons ground Cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground Ginger 1/2 teaspoon ground Nutmeg 3 tablespoons Tapioca Pearls 1 egg, for egg wash Sugar for sprinkling

FANCY TOOLS Pastry blender Silicon mat with diameter measurements Rolling pin 

WHAT I DID

Make the crust:

Follow the same directions as before.

I did better this time with the crust – my focus was really on rolling it out into an actual circle, rather than an oddly shaped mess that looked kind of like a map of Scotland. I don’t know that I was quite as successful as I’d like, but at least this time we got closer to a map of France. Which I think is heading in the right direction.

Make the filling:

Co-opt your wife into doing all the chopping.

Combine the pear, ginger, sugar, spices, and tapioca in a large bowl; stir until the pears are thoroughly covered, then let rest for 20 minutes or so.

Assemble the pie:

Preheat the oven to 350°.  

Take one disc of dough out of the fridge and prepare to roll it out on the silicon mat.

Check the directions re: rolling out the dough for the one-hundredth time.

Start rolling. This will take a while.

Realize that you don’t know how thick, exactly, 1/8” is. :shrug:

Cut off the edges so that it now approximates a 12” circle.

Gently fold the dough in half, then in half again (so it’s now like a triangle), then lay it in the pie plate and unfold it carefully.

Remember to refrigerate the dough without the filling this time. Let it rest in the fridge for about 20 minutes.

Roll out the second disc of dough. Cut out a pattern of circles in the dough and get annoyed that they’re not exactly lined up because you’re not that good at art.

Spoon in the pears, taking care not to get too much of the liquid in the bottom of the bowl.

Lay the top crust with the circle cutouts on top of the pie, then just sort of…flop the edges together. Give yourself permission to leave them messy because your focus this week was getting the dough rolled out in something more like a circle.

Apply the egg wash to the top of the pie, then sprinkle with some sugar.

Cover the pie plate loosely with aluminum foil, then bake for 30 minutes.

Remove the foil, then bake another 30-35 minutes.

NOTES Second time making pie crust from scratch. Better this time. I have a lot to learn about dough. I did think about using the food processor but it’s too small so I decided against it and blended by hand again. The bottom crust was just a smidge undercooked – probably could have gone another 5 minutes, although maybe a very brief blind bake might help. Overall, the crust is coming out flaky and delicious and I will never go back to using store bought crust. The filling was great, and reinforced how much I love ginger.

[piesinthepines]

Apple Pie with Turkish Coffee Spice

Pie crust adapted from Smitten Kitchen; apple filling adapted from seeing the apples in my kitchen going off and Donna’s suggestion to use her Turkish Coffee Spice. Photos below.

INGREDIENTS

Pie Crust 2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 ounces) AP Flour 1 teaspoon Salt 2 tablespoons Sugar 2 1/2 sticks cold unsalted Butter, cut into 1/4-inch slices 1/4 cup cold vodka 1/4 cup cold water

Filling 4-5 Apples, peeled, cored, and sliced (whatever kind you have on hand) 1/2 cup Sugar 1/2 cup Brown Sugar 2 teaspoons Turkish Coffee Spice 2 tablespoons Lemon Juice 3 tablespoons Tapioca Pearls

1 egg, for egg wash Sugar for sprinkling

FANCY TOOLS Pastry blender Rotary pastry cutter Silicon mat with diameter measurements Rolling pin

WHAT I DID

Make the crust:

Combine flour, salt, and sugar in large bowl.

Add the butter and blend together with a pastry blender until the dough hangs together like a shaggy mess.

Add vodka and water.

With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together.

Get frustrated because it’s not happening fast enough and use your hands, even though you remember reading something about your hands melting the butter in the crust.

Divide dough into two even balls and flatten each into 4-inch disk.

Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate for two hours.

Take a shower and feel pleased with yourself for making your first real dough.

Make the filling:

Combine the apples, sugar, spice, tapioca, and lemon juice in a large bowl; stir until the apples are thoroughly covered, then let rest for 20 minutes or so.

Assemble the pie:

Preheat the oven to 375°.  

Take one disc out of the fridge and roll it out on the silicon mat.

Realize that you don’t know how to roll it out in a circle but your hands are covered in pie dough and flour, so this is where we are now.

Realize that you also don’t know how thin the dough should be. Guess at it.

Cut off the edges that look super awful so that it now approximates a 12” circle.

Realize that the shower was pointless, as you are now covered in flour.

Gently fold the dough in half, then in half again (so it’s now like a triangle), then lay it in the pie plate and unfold it carefully.

Feel pleased with yourself that it doesn’t really look that bad in the pie plate.

Spoon in the apples, taking care not to get too much of the liquid in the bottom of the bowl.

Realize that you should have refrigerated the dough again before adding the filling. Stick the whole pie plate, filling and all, back in the fridge.

Roll out the second disc of dough.

Realize you didn’t look up how to roll it out into a circle. Go with it anyway.

Once the dough is rolled out to a reasonable thinness, cut a series of not quite straight strips to make a sort of messy lattice.

Use a couple of small cookie cutters to cut a few cute fluted circles.

Make the messy lattice, then add the circles to the top of the pie.

Apply the egg wash to the top of the pie, then sprinkle with some sugar.

Cover the pie plate loosely with aluminum foil, then bake for 25 minutes.

Remove the foil, then bake another 20-25 minutes.

NOTES

First time making pie crust from scratch; it wasn’t a terribly difficult process, though hand-blending the butter with the pastry blender is tiring. Next time I’ll probably use the food processor. I probably could have baked another 5 minutes or so, but I was nervous about burning the crust. Overall it was delicious – the Turkish spice has a subtle flavor that adds a nice dimension of warmth to the pie.

[piesinthepines]

Lemon Chess Pie

Adapted from King Arthur Baking

INGREDIENTS 1 tablespoon Polenta (called for cornmeal, but I substituted) 1 1/2 tablespoons Cornstarch 1 2/3 cups Sugar 1/2 teaspoon Salt 6 tablespoons Butter, melted 3/4 cup fresh Lemon Juice 1 tablespoon Lemon Zest 1 slice Lemon, dredged in sugar 5 large Eggs, whisked briefly to combine 1 store bought pie crust

WHAT I DID

Preheat the oven to 375°.

Whisk together the polenta, cornstarch, sugar, and salt.

Stir in the melted butter, then the lemon juice and zest.

Add the whisked eggs, stirring until everything is well combined.

Pour the filling into the chilled pie shell.

Bake the pie on the bottom shelf of a preheated 375°F oven for 35 minutes, then add the lemon slice to the center

Bake another 10-15 minutes, or until the center is set. The top should be golden brown.

Remove the pie from the oven and allow it to cool before cutting and serving.

NOTES

Not my best pie. It was super lemon-y. I would likely reduce the lemon juice by 1/4 cup, and probably not add the zest (or less zest) next time. Also, the crust was way overdone - I need a crust shield. But I’m also not sure I would make this pie again.

[piesinthepines]

Cranberry Apple with Streusel

Adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction

INGREDIENTS

Filling: 1.5 cups Cranberries 4 large Apples, cored, peeled, and diced 1/4 cup Brown Sugar 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar 1 tablespoon Orange Zest 4 tablespoons Tapioca Pearls 2 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon Ground Cloves 1/4 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg Streusel Topping: 1/2 cup Brown Sugar 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar 1/2 cup AP Flour 1 1/2 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon 1/4 cup Unsalted Butter, cold and cut into small pieces

WHAT I DID

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Stir all the filling ingredients together in a large bowl; rest for 20 minutes.

Line the pie plate with the store-bought dough and crimp the edges; chill the dough in the fridge.

Make the streusel topping by combining the ingredients in a bowl and massaging the butter into the dry ingredients; the streusel should be crumbly, not a cohesive dough.

Spoon the filling mixture into the pie plate, leaving as much liquid as possible in the bowl (and not in the pie plate).

Top with the streusel.

Bake for 20 minutes at 400°, then reduce the temperature to 350° and bake another 30 minutes.

Remove and let cool for at least one hour.

NOTES I wouldn’t change anything here. This pie was awesome and I was super happy. I also happened to have a bottle of Lower Forge Brewery’s Winter Wassailing, which is a delightful mulled apple beer. Amazing pairing.

[piesinthepines]

The First Piece

I like pie a lot. I’m pretty good at pie filling. I’m not good at pie crust at all.

I’ve never been a person who has hobbies. Instead, I tend to throw myself head first into Things, make Those Things My Thing, take Those Things really seriously and spend an exorbitant amount of time doing Those Things. Writing, martial arts, volunteering - these have all, at some point, been My Thing.

Baking, though, is not really my thing. It’s just a fun thing I do sometimes. I use it as a way to cope with stress: it’s a meditation to focus on the ingredients. And since 2020 was such a weird year, I baked a lot.

But I still don’t know how to make pie crust. So this year I’ll be learning.

(The first couple of recipes here will still rely on store-bought crust, because I had extra from the Christmas baking and I had to get through it.)