Piemaking Season

I've been making soooo many pies lately. Like. A pie a week. Fruit pies are my favorite - even though pumpkin and pecan pie are also fabulous - so summer is piemaking season in our house. Plus, I've been getting lots and lots of fruit in my weekly produce box. More than we could simply eat out of hand in a week so what's a girl to do but make it into pie? 

Also, I got a haircut. 

Kevin got me this cool pie book for Christmas (Or was it my birthday? Being ten days apart they tend to run together...) and I've been working my way through several of the recipes. I tend to be of the mindset that a summer picnic isn't complete without a fresh pie, either, and thus in recent weeks there has been apple pie, peach pie, cherry pie, raspberry-blackberry, and most recently this quite adventurous Skillet Stone Fruit Streusel pie. 

Here's the think about stone fruit. I do like it. I think. Sometimes. But...in my opinion it's just got this really short window of deliciousness and if you miss that window it's either way too tart or too soggy to eat out of hand. And even then I'd rather eat citrus, or mangos, or plain 'ole apples. 

So, when I opened my produce box this week to find a slew of apriums and plums I immediately thought of this pie from my Four and Twenty Blackbirds book. This recipe was a first for me in many ways. First pie made in a cast iron skillet (what's not to love about that!), first cornmeal crust, and first streusel top. Oh yeah, and first aprium/plum pie. Actually, first experience with apriums at all. You weird fruit mutant you. 

The result? A+. As usual I cut the sugar in half because we like our pie nice 'n tart. Plus less sugar makes it just perfect for breakfast with a cuppa of course. The filling was lovely and spot on in terms of flavor and consistency. I did have a bit of trouble with the crust, though. One reason could be that I only had medium ground cornmeal and should have used finely ground. I also got lazy with the butter and didn't take it out of the freezer with enough time to partially thaw so I cheated and used the microwave. This was a bit of a fail since it only semi-melted the outside and left the inside completely frozen. Thus, my dough was harder to roll out than normal and turned out a bit more rustic. No matter. I'm fine with a "rustic, raw edge crust" as they say. 

Pie Crust How-To

I like making pie. If you invite me to any sort of gathering, I will probably bring a pie. Fair warning. I've also noticed that whenever I bring a pie to something or talk about pie making I'm met with a certain amount of "wow-factor". Now, it's not that I don't like being impressive (wink), but I think that sentiment is misplaced in this instance. Pie making....it is sort of a bit of work but it's also totally doable. On the baking spectrum I'd say it's harder than cookies but easier than...okay those are the only two types of baked good I'm familiar with. Let's say it's less work than dinner. Especially depending on the type of filling you choose. However, it seems to be the crust rather than the filling that inspires awe, and one of the first questions I always get is if I made the crust from scratch. Why yes. Yes I did.

This is my go-to recipe and method, fine tuned and modified from several different recipes and techniques that I've tried over the years. It's a very basic recipe, centered around butter. I'm not too particular about the flour. Most often I use all-purpose but have also done half all-purpose, half whole wheat, too. My two "special" techniques are to use frozen butter, grated using a cheese grater, and to add vodka to help moisten the dough at the very end if needed

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups flour - divided into 1 1/2 cups and 1 cup
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter - frozen
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1/4 cup cold vodka

Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Whisk with a fork to combine.

Use a cheese grater to coarsely grate the butter into the bowl. It's important that the butter be frozen but sort of beginning to thaw so that it can be both easily grated and able to be worked into the flour (I usually let mine sit out of the freezer for 10 minutes or so while I assemble the rest of the ingredients).



Use a pastry blender (you can see mine to the top right in these pictures or see here) to break up the butter and begin to work it into the flour. I use sort of a rocking and twisting motion. It should look something like this.

Add the remaining one cup of flour and use the pasty blender to work it in. It will still look pretty questionable at this point and you'll start to wonder if this is going to work out all right. Trust me, it's fine. The mixture will be pretty dry and crumbly still and won't really be sticking together yet. The main thing is that it should be relatively homogeneous - with same sized butter chunks (something that's helped by the grating process) and no un-butter touched flour. Next, sprinkle the water over the dough. You want to truly sprinkle it over the whole surface instead of just dumping it in the middle. This will help the water work into the dough. At this point I usually set the pastry blender aside and use my hands. Use a folding and pressing motion to work the water into the flour mixture. Take from the bottom, lift, and press into the top. It should start to stick together and feel like it has the potential to form a ball. How ball-like it becomes depends mostly on how cold the butter is and how warm your hands are. Sometimes you'll be able to form a really nice ball at this point and won't need any extra moisture. For my last batch, the dough looked like this:



Not very ball-like. So...this is where the vodka trick comes in. Vodka works well for pie dough because it moistens it so that it's manageable and sticky, but doesn't add flavor and burns off in the oven. This means your crust will be easy to roll out but remain flaky and light in the end.

Sprinkle the vodka over the dough and use the folding and pressing motion to work it in with your hands. At this point you should be able to easily form your dough into a ball.



Divide the ball in half and form into two equal smaller balls (one for the top and one for the bottom...or one to save in the freezer if you're making a single crust pie). Flatten the balls into roughly five inch disks. The disks don't have to be precise and it's fine if they have cracks around the edges. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour or up to two-ish days. If you want to save on in the freezer for later you can add a layer of aluminum foil and keep for up to three months(for sure, or even up to six if you're feeling crazy).



When you're ready to roll out, take the dough out of the fridge and let it warm up a bit. Maybe 15 minutes or so. If you've taken it from the freezer, let it thaw to room temperature. Place on a floured surface. My preferred method is a floured flour sack on the kitchen table. I like using the kitchen table because it's easier to roll out on an arms-length surface instead of a high counter top. Sprinkle the top with more flour.



Roll out in a clockwise motion with a floured rolling pin. The rolling pin will follow the path of the clock hand. Continue going around in a circle until the dough is the desired size. There might be cracks around the edges, which is fine. If you've got a particularly large crack you can break off pieces of dough from the other edges to patch them.



When you're ready, carefully roll the dough around the rolling pin and use the rolling pin to transfer it to the pie plate, then unroll.

For two crust pies, unfold the second crust over the filling using the same method. For the edges, I use the method my Mom taught me of folding the excess edges under and crimping between two fingers, like so.



From here, you can finish and bake according to whatever recipe you're working from. Well folks, that's it! Hope you give it a try!

Los Angeles Weekender

A few weeks back we took a quick little weekend trip to Los Angeles. We went with our friend and neighbor Scott, who lived there for some years. The trip started well with a plane ride full of beers all around and good conversation. Hurray for traveling with friends!

For our first day, we split up with Scott and spent the day primarily at the beach in Santa Monica. Needless to say, my hot-weather-loving husband was in heaven with all of the sunshine. The beach is his happy place for sure. Since our time was limited he decided not to make it a surfing trip, though, so we contented ourselves by just soaking up the sun and watching the other surfers. We also did my favorite beach activity: beach cruisers! We rode all the way up and down the coast line from beyond Santa Monica beach to Venice beach. There were stops for ice cream, swimsuit shopping, and ogling at Muscle Beach along the way. Lovely.

Later that night we went back to the Santa Monica Pier for a funnel cake and the photo booth. Unfortunately, I ended up accidentally throwing away our photo strip a few days later. It wasn't a super great one, though, so I'm not heart broken. The funnel cake was of course delicious and we of course ended up covered in powdered sugar (okay, it was mostly me) before meeting up with a super hold friend from Wisconsin Rapids who now lives in LA.

We spend the next day we left Santa Monica and headed for the Fashion District. On the way, we stopped in Koreatown for lunch. On the recommendation of Anthony Bourdain we chose Ham Ji Park and ordered the pork rib BBQ special. Delish. Then it was on to fabric shopping where I picked up a few cool deadstock fabrics for Winslow.

That night we met up with Scott and he took us around his old neighborhood, Los Feliz. We loved getting the Scott tour, which consisted mostly of hilarious "this used to be a this" anecdotes and the best diners and old hangouts, not to mention kicking the night off right with some very fruity, very rum-y drinks at Tiki Ti. There was little time for frivolous picture taking, but I did manage to snap this photo of the infamous (to us via Scott) House of Pies, where we very fittingly had pie and coffee. Apple a la mode with a slice of cheddar for me and pecan for the fellas.


Oh! Scott also humored our touristy ways with a quick trip down the Hollywood walk of fame and this recreated-from-my-childhood pose at the Chinese Theatre. Love to you all!

The next day all three of us set out for the Hollywood sign via a hike through Griffith Park. It was super sunny and hot, but totally worth if for the views and bit of exercise. Urban hiking is the best.

Kevin and I stayed at two super-duper hotels (we like to hop around to stay in different parts of a city when we travel) which I'll list briefly as a recommendation in case anyone else is thinking of planning a trip. The Seaview Hotel in Santa Monica was just the best of all worlds in terms of location, decor, and price. Then there was the Sportsman's Lodge, which we booked through Groupon. Great updated-vintage vibe with a super cool pool area that we unfortunately didn't get to try out this time.

What else? We drove Mulholland Drive on our last night with the windows down, ate our fair share of breakfast burritos, and did some high quality people watching at the Universal CityWalk. Overall, a great sun-filled, friend-filled trip.

52 Tuesdays: Favorite Thrifts #4

What: Descoware Pie Carrier
Where: Antique store somewhere in Washington
Level of Love: 7 of 10

This may technically be a cake carrier. However, I like to make pie more than cake. Therefore, it is a pie carrier. I had been looking for a pie carrier for a bit when I found this one. Pies are sort of a hard thing to transport. I had been taking them places in our picnic basket, which was fitting since pies and picnics are best friends, but one pie would pretty much take up most of the useful space in the basket. Didn't leave much room for the potato salad if you know what I mean. Now, the pies have their very own vehicle and the picnic basket is free for all those other picnic-y things. Being a cake carrier (yes, I admit it) it's pretty tall, so when I use it in conjunction with an upside down tart pan it can carry two whole pies. Magic. The reason I gave it a seven is because it has one big downside. The little metal clasp things that hold the top onto the bottom are not very powerful. And the handle is attached to the top. Meaning you would carry it by the top. Do you see where this is going? Luckily I discovered this hazard while carrying it out of the shop, still pie-less. As the bottom detached itself from the top by the sheer force of gravity and went crashing onto the concrete, I made a mental note to always carry it by holding it from the bottom instead of using the handle on the top. Or to secure it with some sort of other contraption. Either way, pie-on-sidewalk crisis averted. However, I'm still keeping an eye out for other potential pie carriers that might not have this hazard. I'd probably part with this one if I found that sort of thing.