Spiker's Pie Pastry

Spiker's Pie Pastry (makes 2 1-crust, or 1 2-crust pie--9")
*click here for printable version*



3-3/4 c. flour
1 T sugar
1 t salt*
1-1/2 c. fats**

Mix together with pastry cutter, fork, or fingers until crumbly.

Whisk together:

1/2 c. cold water***
1 egg white

Pour gradually into crust, mixing as you go. Use only enough to make dough stick together.

On floured surface, roll the crust out to about 1/8 in. thick and transfer to pie pan.

If you need to prebake the crust, poke holes in bottom and sides with a fork, line with foil, and pour in pie weights, making sure they cover bottom all the way to the sides. Bake at 425 for 15 min., then remove foil and weights and bake for another 10 minutes (or until crust has color you prefer). Note: some sources recommend refrigerating the dough in the pan for 20-30 minutes before baking in order to prevent shrinking. I have yet to determine the effectiveness of this.

If making a top crust, cut venting holes (decorative, if you like) before transferring over the filling. Use egg wash (1 egg yolk and 1 T heavy cream whisked together) along edge of bottom crust to help top crust to stick to bottom. For a particularly shiny golden crust, use this same egg wash all over top crust and sprinkle with sanding sugar.

* Re: salt--if you are using this crust for a savory pie or a pie that has any salty ingredients (i.e., using gruyere in the crust), don't use any additional salt.**Re: fats--for a particularly flaky crust (and if you're not vegetarian), use lard for 1/4 c. of your fats. The other 1-1/4 c. of fats can be a combination of salted and unsalted butter. For fruit pies that have no salty ingredients, I use 1 c. salted butter and 1/4 c. unsalted. For savory pies, I use 3/4 c. unsalted butter and 1/2 c. salted. The fats should be somewhere between refrigerator temperature and room temperature. Straight out of the refrigerator and I find it's too difficult to cut them in completely. Too warm and the dough comes together too quickly, but will never get past crumbly. A lot of pastry recipes specify using cold fats and chilling the dough before rolling it out. I find this to be counter-productive to maintaining the flexibility of the dough.

***For an even more flaky crust, substitute ½ of the water with vodka. The alcohol evaporates during baking and doesn’t leave an aftertaste. Unlike water, the vodka will not combine with flour to produce gluten, which can make the crust tough.

Triple G Apple

Now THAT'S an apple pie! So simple, and so perfect. Tart, crispy, flaky, delicious.

I have such vivid childhood memories of The Pie Queen making apple pie. I used to love to watch her peel the apples. I was impressed and amazed when she was able to peel the apple in one piece. The peel was a special treat for those of us watching. (Why was apple peel a treat? I have no idea, but it was.)



The smell of the tart apples and the cinnamon...smells like home. I remember so clearly what the pie looked like before the top crust went on. It looked an awful lot like this:



Pie Rating--Triple G Apple--KEEP AND SHARE

Notes to self for future Triple G ventures:

• Try different liquids. Maybe 1 T lemon juice and 1 T Grand Marnier?

• Make homemade vanilla ice cream as accompaniment instead of whipped cream.
  

• Thin out the edges a little more when you do double crusts in general.

So...Thanksgiving is just around the corner...and I'm in a giving mood. I'm going to post my crust recipe (in it's form after my prodding and experimenting) as well as the recipe for Triple G Apple Pie.


Spiker's Pie Pastry (makes 2 1-crust, or 1 2-crust pie--9")
*click here for printable version*

3-3/4 c. flour
1 T sugar
1 t salt*
1-1/2 c. fats**

Mix together with pastry cutter, fork, or fingers until crumbly.

Whisk together:

1/2 c. cold water
1 egg white

Pour gradually into crust, mixing as you go. Use only enough to make dough stick together.

On floured surface, roll the crust out to about 1/8 in. thick and transfer to pie pan.

If you need to prebake the crust, poke holes in bottom and sides with a fork, line with foil, and pour in pie weights, making sure they cover bottom all the way to the sides. Bake at 425 for 15 min., then remove foil and weights and bake for another 10 minutes (or until crust has color you prefer). Note: some sources recommend refrigerating the dough in the pan for 20-30 minutes before baking in order to prevent shrinking. I have yet to determine the effectiveness of this.

If making a top crust, cut venting holes (decorative, if you like) before transferring over the filling. Use egg wash (1 egg yolk and 1 T heavy cream whisked together) along edge of bottom crust to help top crust to stick to bottom. For a particularly shiny golden crust, use this same egg wash all over top crust and sprinkle with sanding sugar.



* Re: salt--if you are using this crust for a savory pie or a pie that has any salty ingredients (i.e., using gruyere in the crust), don't use any additional salt.

**Re: fats--for a particularly flaky crust (and if you're not vegetarian), use lard for 1/4 c. of your fats. The other 1-1/4 c. of fats can be a combination of salted and unsalted butter. For fruit pies that have no salty ingredients, I use 1 c. salted butter and 1/4 c. unsalted. For savory pies, I use 3/4 c. unsalted butter and 1/2 c. salted. The fats should be somewhere between refrigerator temperature and room temperature. Straight out of the refrigerator and I find it's too difficult to cut them in completely. Too warm and the dough comes together too quickly, but will never get past crumbly. A lot of pastry recipes specify using cold fats and chilling the dough before rolling it out. I find this to be counter-productive to maintaining the flexibility of the dough.



Triple G Apple Pie *click here for printable version*

~4 pounds peeled Granny Smith apples (8 or 9 large apples)
2 T water (or lemon juice for extra tartness)
1/4 c. white sugar
cinnamon
nutmeg
1 T cold butter
9" unbaked pie shell and top crust

Slice apples unevenly (some thin, some thick, will result in filling that is not too mushy and has some bite and texture) directly into unbaked pie crust. Let the apples mound up well over the top of pie pan.

Sprinkle liquid, then sugar over apples.

Sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg.

Cut butter into 8 equal pats and scatter over filling.

Top with vented crust and cook at 350 degrees for 55 min. or until top is golden brown.


Whipped cream topping:

2 c. heavy cream
2 T powdered sugar
1 t. pure vanilla extract

Whip until soft peaks.


Enjoy! And please let me know how these recipes work out for you.

Next up: I think now that I have this basic crust recipe figured out, I'll tweak it by adding ground almonds. And a French Silk filling. Still pondering that one.

Midweek Kitchen Confessions

# 1 You know how a recipe will say something like "4 oz good quality chocolate"? Yeah. I never use "good quality" chocolate. As you can see from the picture below of my ganache ingredients for last weekend's Black Bottom Banana Cream:


I use chocolate chips. In my defense, I don't buy generic--Nestle only. They are so reliable. I don't have to chop chocolate. I don't have to spend a month's paycheck on one 8 oz package. They melt quickly and smoothly. I know, they're full of preservatives and waxes and what-not. Right now, it's worth the trade off. When I'm wealthy (which, another confession, I almost just spelled whelthy--that's how far away I am from it), I'll always use this:



#2 Do you see what that is there waaaay in the back of my fridge?



Uh-huh. That's a bottle of champagne. I keep waiting for something to celebrate. Maybe I should give up and instead find something fabulous to drink it with just for good eats.

Black Bottom Banana Cream

When I think of pie as comfort food, pie that I remember from childhood, pie that I want to try and master, Banana Cream is, honestly, not one of the first that comes to mind. Of course, that may be because I've never had Black Bottom Banana Cream. It's all about the chocolate, my friends.


I used the ganache portion of this recipe for the "Black Bottom". Topped that with sliced bananas.


Then topped that with the pudding portion of this recipe. Warning: this recipe doesn't specify that you should cover the pie with plastic wrap pressed right onto the top of the pudding while it is refrigerated and before piping on the whipped cream. You should. If you don't do this, you'll get a skin that is not delicious.


I think I've got my crust recipe. It tastes buttery. It's tender and flaky. It stands up to cutting and serving, but shatters in your mouth. Another week to confirm, and maybe I'll post it. Or maybe I'll wait until the end of the year.


Mise en place for pudding:


P.S. My right shoulder hurts. Making pudding is a workout. I think I mentioned this before.



As usual, I had to have a second piece to confirm whether this pie was good or not. I ate the first piece during a birthday party for The Pie Queen. There was so much chaos, it was hard to really pay attention to the pie. I enjoyed the second piece by myself. In silence. With extra whipped cream. And with a cold glass of milk. Mmm. Lovely.

Oh, and, that bit of loveliness in the background of the picture on the left? A butterscotch pecan cake my sister made for The Pie Queen's birthday party. Yum.

Pie-Rating--Black Bottom Banana Cream--GOOD--NEEDS TWEAKING

In a couple of ways:

• I want to figure out how to incorporate coconut rum into it. Doesn't that sound delicious?! Do I add it into the pudding? The ganache? Hmm...have to ponder that one more

• The shrinkage is killing me (but that's not a problem specific to this pie--an ongoing thing I need to experiment with more):

• I need a bigger star tip for piping. This really should have had more whipped cream on top.

Next up: I'm giving apple pie another go. This time I'm using my mom's recipe. Which she told me tonight she learned from her mother. Who learned it from her grandmother. So I'll call it Triple G (Great Great Grandmother's) Apple Pie.

Quiche Lorraine

My house smells like bacon. Which isn't inherently a bad thing. For the first 12 hours. After that, I need a little good weather to air things out. But, the smell is worth putting up with.

Here's the recipe I used this week. Good ol' Emeril.

I used crust leftover (and frozen) from last week. I thought I was about to have a problem, that it might be too tough after freezing and thawing, because as I rolled it out it kept sort of springing back. But, I needn't have worried.


Like I said last week, I think I'm almost there. Mom (the pie queen) and Dad (apparently the pie king) were right, it needed a little more time in the prebaking to make it more tender and bring out the buttery flavor. I might have given it a little too much time in the prebaking.


Looks great here, but then had to cook for another 45 minutes with the filling inside. It was slightly burnt around the edges*, but still delicious. Here's the thing: I don't want the crust to be so flaky that it bursts apart like powdered sugar when you cut into it and serve. I want it to hold together until it's hit with the side of a fork, then it can flake apart. Which this one did, perfectly.


The filling couldn't be easier. Or tastier. As mr. said, "Why would a real man not eat quiche? Egg, bacon, onions and cheese in a pie crust? What's not to like?"


It was a delicious brunch. And it was also delicious later when it was cold and I ate it while watching Mythbusters. I prefer it warm, but cold would do in a pinch.

And here is what I sang to myself the whole time I was cooking--

The B-52's Quiche Lorraine Live:

New this week: Pie-Rating--Quiche Lorraine--KEEPER

Next up: Seconda has requested Banana Cream Pie, I think I'll actually do a Black Bottom Banana Cream, combining this recipe and this one (I'd rather not use gelatin if I can avoid it--I don't know why, it just doesn't seem like real food). I think I'll stick to the same ingredient portions for the crust as I used last week, with maybe a little less flour. Still working up my courage to try a nut crust.


*I did purchase a crust shield for 9" pies. It's not actually big enough for 9" pies (?!). So, I have to get the 10" one.

Mid-week Kitchen Musings

To begin with, a question from the cherry pit gallery.

My nephew (Goatgetter) asks: why is April making so many pies? Did she get bitten by the pie bug?

Well, yes and no Goatgetter. I definitely got bitten by something. I'm making so many pies because I'm A) trying to improve my baking skills, B) experimenting with different crust ingredients hoping, in the end, to have created my own crust recipe, and C) discovering how different fillings work with different crusts so that I could possibly even create my own filling recipe.

I'm learning a lot through this process. A lot about baking, certainly. But also a little bit about life. Things have gotten complicated lately. The world at large and also my tiny little corner of it. Pie-making (and baking in general) are such a simple and basic exercise. It helps me to deal with the uncertainty and the chaos when I can stand at the kitchen counter for a couple of hours following very specific instructions. It's even more rewarding when the end result is beautiful to look at, delightful to eat, and gives happiness to other people. It gives me perspective.

Enough philosophy.


Here is another baking venture from this past weekend. Prima's birthday cake.

Fresh Raspberry

When I open my pie shop (HA!), raspberry will definitely be among the more pricey pies. Not that difficult to make, not time consuming at all. But it took six 6 oz. packages of raspberries to fill the pie. And that's only because that's all I had. There's certainly room for more in there.

Those 6 packages cost about $10.00 at Costco. So, yeah. That there's an expensive pie. BUT...worth every penny. Sometimes I make a pie and I think, "Hm. Yes. Delicious." Other times I make a pie and I think, "Damn. I'm good." This time was the latter.

Here's the recipe I used this week. So simple and so delicious.

I made some alterations to my (as yet unrevealed) pie crust recipe. Used less lard, more butter (combined salted and unsalted), less salt, more water, less vinegar, different egg...I guess I pretty much changed up every ingredient except the flour. I was very pleased with the result. In fact, I think the flour is the one ingredient that could still stand to be altered a little bit. I think if I use slightly less flour, it may be that little bit more tender. The taste of this was perfect. Buttery and sweet. Rolled out and moved very nicely.

Tender and flaky but still stayed intact when cutting and serving. I think I'm very close to the perfect crust. I'm also getting very speedy. I timed myself from starting to put the crust ingredients together to putting the crust in the oven: 20 minutes.

And new pie weights for prebaking!


Notes for next time:

• When prebaking, allow the dough to overhang 1/2" to 1" around the sides. It shrunk right up in the oven. Not pretty.

• Not that I actually have to remind myself of this one because it's SO obvious...next time sprinkle dark chocolate in the crust before you pour the raspberry-jammy stuff in. Duh!

Food porn:



P.S. Wet berries are hard to photograph...all those reflective surfaces!

Next up: Quiche Lorraine. Emeril hasn't failed me yet. A perfect Sunday morning breakfast. Maybe I'll make even make mimosas.