Photo: Romulo Yanes
Apple picking season is in full swing and we just can’t wait to bake up a warm, fresh, sweet, buttery, and flaky apple pie.
What’s your favorite thing to cook with apples?
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Image of the Week: Red, White, and Blueberry Ice Cream Pie
Yummy Mummy’s Red, White, and Blueberry Ice Cream Pie is a patriotic sweet that surpasses all other desserts with flying colors this Fourth of July. The lightened up treat is made with frozen yogurt, fresh raspberries and blueberries, and its firework finale: a sweet and crunchy crust made of natural granola (glutten-free if you choose), chopped walnuts, melted coconut oil, and agave syrup.
What We’re Cooking: Summer Fruit Pies
I recently learned how to make incredibly flaky, tender pie crust, prompting me to confirm if practice really does make perfect. Armed with a rolling pin, I’ve been turning out crusts made of butter, lard, or shortening to bake a wide variety of pies just in time for summer’s fresh bounty of fruits.
I’m starting with Rhubarb and Bilberry Pie, where a traditional crust encases tart and refreshing rhubarb and small bilberries, a relative of the blueberry. The acidity of rhubarb is softened when stewed with the deep flavor of the tiny bilberries. Next, I’m tackling Lattice-Top Blackberry Pie that’s overflowing with plump berries and their tangy juices. And finally, I’m turning to the fruit I wait for all year: strawberries. Small, local strawberries will shine best in Fresh Strawberry Pie with Whipped Cream. These plump, fragrant berries shine like bright jewels in a crumbling, buttery shortbread cookie crust.
What’s your favorite fruit pie?
Five Pie Baking Tips
Photo: Gourmet/Romulo Yanes
Work on this week’s issue of Gourmet Live, Pi(e) Eyed, got me bakin’ some pies, and that got me itchin’ to share some tips.
Don’t Knock Convenience:
- Your handmade crust may be the flakiest ever, but your food processor deserves a love hug. It makes a consistently great dough, as long as you pulse and don’t overblend, and it does it all in a matter of seconds. When adding the ice water, stop the machine, remove the lid, and drizzle it evenly over the mixture. Then pulse until the dough begins to come together, but not as far as a solid mass.
- If you don’t have time to make dough, go ahead and use the refrigerated pre-rolled crusts. They cook into a darn good pie.
What’s Old Is New:
- Rediscover what my grandmother swore by for rolling out dough: A pastry cloth and rolling pin sock. Even my local supermarket sells them. By rubbing some flour into the cloth, it holds the flour without forcing it into your dough.
- Ditto with the cotton “sock” that slides over your pin.
- Cleanup is a breeze; just fold up the cloth and sock, and store them in a plastic bag in the freezer.
Choose Your Weapon:
- Ovenproof glass pie plates are preferred by many cooks, because they conduct heat well (some recipes suggest dropping the oven temperature by 25°F. when using glass). Plus, you can see if your bottom crust is golden.
- Metal pie pans are standard and inexpensive. They allow you to take your chilled unbaked crust directly from the fridge and put it right onto a hot baking sheet that you’ve preheated at the same time as the oven, which helps the bottom crust cook through. Don’t try this with ovenproof glass pie plates.
- Ceramic plates bake evenly, but they may take a bit longer.
Chill, Chill, Chill:
- The dough, that is, at every stage. It’s your mantra for tender flaky pastry. For a double-crust pie, chill the bottom crust while rolling out the top crust, and keep both cold while assembling the filling. Then slap that pie together, crimp the edge, and don’t forget the slits in the top.
- If your crust warms up too much during assembly, freeze the pie just long enough to firm up the dough.
Cool It!
- Pies, like tempers, need time to cool off. If your apple pie took an hour to bake, it’ll take at least 3 hours to properly cool. Set it on a rack and walk away. The thickeners in fruit pies—flour, cornstarch, or tapioca—need plenty of time to do their job.
Posted in Kemp's Kitchen
Tagged baking tips, double-crust pie, Kemp's Kitchen, pie, pie tips
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What We’re Cooking: Savory Pies
I’m calling a post-holiday resurgence of pies to order. Just because Thanksgiving is long gone and fall has left us with little more than a 40ºF day, doesn’t mean we need neglect the beloved, all-encompassing glory of shareable filled pastry. And you thought you could give your rolling pins and pie hands a rest! The only twist: Rather than a stewed fruit filling, why not invite savory ingredients to participate in the tradition too?
Pies are the perfect blank canvas for showcasing your favorite ingredients. The subtle perfection of classic pastry dough in a Cheddar Cheese and Onion Pie gives ample room for the flavors of sharp, good quality white cheddar and fresh thyme. Try incorporating thyme in your next pie, whether savory or sweet.
Make the most of your CSA basket or a run to the farmers market by using kale, a favorite of mine, in Kale, Butternut Squash and Pancetta Pie. The green’s heartiness stand up to high heat in the oven, while layers of sweet butternut squash balance out pancetta’s salty smokiness. A phyllo dough crust holds it all together.
Another creative crust varietal is biscuit dough, used in Tomato and Corn Pie. The thin biscuit topping is crucial (akin to the wholesome pot pies from your childhood). Lemon mayonnaise tops off tomato, chive, and corn filling, promising each forkful is packed with flavor.
What are some of your favorite savory twists on pies?
Image of the Day: Peach Blueberry Pie
You know how the saying goes: “As American as Apple pie.” Well, Honey & Jam’s Peach Blueberry Pie may not be Apple, but it, like many other pies that were made on the Fourth of July, was created to honor America … and boy how it does. Tart blueberries pairs with sweet peaches to provide a balance of flavor, while the pie crust is buttery, flaky and perfectly golden brown. Celebrate like it’s Independence Day all over again, and serve it at your next summer soiree!
Posted in Image of the Week
Tagged Blueberry Pie, image of the day, Peach Blueberry Pie, Peach Pie, pie
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Now in the Store: Pie Perfection
Download the free Gourmet Live app for recipes, feature stories, special collections and more.
It’s no secret that pies are the new cupcakes, and now you can bake up seven different sweet and savory pie recipes with a special Pie Perfection collection now available in the Gourmet Live Store. From hand-held Beef and Curry Pies to a campfire classic Chocolate S’More Pie, you’ll be packing big flavor into simple, sliceable bites.
Download the free Gourmet Live app then head to the Library to access the Store for our Pie Perfection collection and more.
