Thursday, November 11, 2010

A Mash Up Pie


A mash up. A bunch of songs or fruits put together "for an even richer explosion." Okay, I've been watching way too much, way to much Glee lately, but regardless, the expression works for pies, too. Remember the movie Waitress? Reminds me of that, too, but I digress.

A while back a friend brought me some cranberries straight from the bogs of Wisconsin. What a splendid and thoughtful gift!


I decided to mash up some of those cranberries, with pears, apples, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.


I like to make my pie crust by hand. Grating really, really chilled butter into the dry ingredients is the key.



Add a bit of ice water and suddenly you have beautiful pie dough, ready to roll. No refrigeration necessary.


See? Here is the crust just like that of the most gorgeous pie I've ever made.


Below is the filling ready to go into said un-photographed beautiful pie crust in that Emile Henri pie plate.


The filling went into that beautiful crust, baked, cooled and there it sat on my counter all afternoon. I then loaded into my car, hauled it to work and served it to a lovely group of moms.

Perfect. No picture. But trust me it was as beautiful as this perfect pie dough is easy to make.

Basic Pie Dough
A Williams-Sonoma recipe with method modifications

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose four
1 T. sugar
1/4 t. salt
8 T. super cold unsalted butter
3 T. ice water

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar and salt. Grate really cold butter through the large holes of a box grater. Using your fingers gently rub the butter into the dry mixture until it is sandy. Add the water and mix gently until the dough comes together. The dough may need a bit more water, add it a teaspoon at a time until it's moist enough to stick.

Be sure to not over work the dough. There should be visible bits of butter throughout the dough. When the dough is turned out onto the board before rolling, it should still be very crumbly. A quick turn or two will bring it together.

Transfer the dough to a work surface, pat into a ball and flatten into a disc. Lightly flour the work surface roll outwards from the center. Turn dough over and repeat. Add as little additional flour as possible. Continue rolling dough into a 12" round, 1/8" thick

makes enough for 1) 9" crust or 1) 10" galette

1 comment:

Georgine said...

I wish I was one of those moms. I love pie, Mike won't eat it, so I rarely have it. Though, truth be told, if I am offered pie or chocolate, I pick chocolate. Maybe I need chocolate pie!

I may need to try the pie crust. I am unnaturally afraid of pie crust. Maybe this recipe is the answer!