Pie Crust, Try Two: Practice Makes Perfect

After a few weeks to mend my wounds after my sort of defeat at the hands of pie crust, I got back in the kitchen to try it all again. This time I went for a classic. Apple Pie. I used the same combination of ingredients for my pie crust, because Pennsylvania is still thwarting my efforts at getting lard (and alcohol, but that's another rant).

This time I learned from my last effort. More water. Just a little bit more. And it really made a big difference. This time I had no problem getting my dough to hold together. However, I also recognized a new flaw in my technique. I don't use my rolling pin well. I noticed it in the first disc I rolled out (I was doing a two crust pie). Rather than starting at the bottom and rolling all the way out, I often start in the middle. Hence, my crusts end up with uneven thickness, and lots of dough on one side. I tried rolling from one edge to the other with my second disc, and that turned out so much better! My pie top was beautifully even, with no tears. Go me!

For the filling, I peeled, cored, and sliced 6 apples. I prefer granny smith, but I tossed in two of the red/green ones (what are they called again?)for some variety, and then covered the apples with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. In a separate, small bowl, I mixed together 3/4 cup sugar, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp salt, and 2 tablespoons flour. Poured that into the apples, and tossed it until the apples were evenly coated. Once I had the filling in my pie crust, I chopped 2 tablespoons of cold butter into small cubes and spread them over the apples, then put the top layer of dough on.

And the result? Mmmmmm delicious! And that wasn't just my opinion. My guinea pig...uh...expert taster Aaron agreed! Yay!

Doesn't it look pretty?!

Cherry Pie...Cobbler...Mush?

Why is a pie crust so freaking difficult when it only involves five ingredients? FIVE INGREDIENTS!

I'm really intimidated by pie crust. To the point where I actively avoid making things I think would be tasty, because I'd have to make a pie crust. But not anymore! I am going to fix that, by practicing with my pie crusts until they are easy peasy.

Unfortunately, based on the way tonight's pie crust went, I will be making many pie crusts in the near future. Sigh.

So, what went wrong? Not exactly sure. First pie crust was definitely too dry. I made the second pie crust in almost the same way, except I added a teeny bit more water. Still a little short on liquid, but even stranger...there were visible chunks of shortening and butter. The first pie crust ended up cracking during the initial baking process. As far as appearances go, that wasn't a big deal, because I filled it with the cherry filling and covered it with another crust. The second pie crust tore in the places where there was a chunk of butter/shortening, so I had to patch it using trimmed dough and a pastry brush with butter.

Since this is a pie, the filling is a big deal, right? Right. So I was going for All American Cherry Pie. Started with about 2lbs of fresh Bing cherries. I took out the pits (it was a very messy business), and cooked the cherries over medium heat, covered, until there was almost enough juice to cover the cherries. I took them off the heat, added 1/3 a cup of sugar, 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, and 1/8th of a teaspoon of vanilla. I mixed it all together, and let the mixture cool completely. Poured it in the cracked pie crust, and covered it. Baked it at 375 for 50 minutes.

So, here's the outcome. It tasted great. And it looked like pie when it came out of the oven. And it looked like pie when I sliced it. And it looked like...a pile of mush once I managed to get it to my plate. Yeah. My crust was apparently too delicate and thin, and so it crumbled into a bajillion little crusty pieces. BUT it was really delicious. So, sort of a victory. Right?



I will be reattempting the pie crust in the near future. Good thing lots of fruits are in season! Apricot next time? Peach? Blueberry?

Sweet Potato Pie

I stopped by a local restaurant just before Thanksgiving, and they had sweet potato pie on the menu. Never having had it, I decided to order it and see what all the fuss was about. I was extremely disappointed. The pie was bland, and not sweet enough. But I could tell that with the right balance of spices, and a few tweaks, that pie would have been delicious. So I decided to make my own for Thanksgiving!

I started with this recipe:
www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/sweet-potato-pie-recipe3/index.html

I fully lazied it up, and used a pre-made pie crust. I was in a surly "not making a crust" mood. Plus there was an insane amount of cooking over two days, and pie crust got ranked as the least important. I think I could have improved the pre-made pie crust by brushing it with melted butter and sprinkling a cinnamon sugar mix on it. I'll try that next time.

I followed the recipe pretty much exactly. I used an 8-inch round pan with high sides. I forced the first half of the sweet potatoes through the fine mesh sieve, and then I decided that wasn't really worth it, and pureed the bejesus out of the rest of the sweet potato in my blender. Save yourself time and arm strength. Seriously.

As a finishing touch, to add a little bit of additional sweetness, and give it that good old southern look, I added a brown sugar crumble on the top. I took it from the following recipe: http://southernfood.about.com/od/applepies/r/bl50808a.htm

Made the topping and sprinkled it on before baking. I might recommend baking the pie for a few minutes and then adding the crumble, so that it doesn't sink into the top of the pie as much as mine did.

The toughest part of this was that I made it on Wednesday night, and wouldn't allow myself to eat any until Thanksgiving. SO HARD! But when I finally did get to eat it, it was AWESOME!

Overall, this was easy-peasy deliciousness. I thought it was much better than pumpkin pie, and this may be my new Thanksgiving contribution!

Back blog 1... Beef! It's what's for dinner!

Okay, these back blogs are going to be short because they're things I've made in the last month and a half. So its really just going to be pictures, recipes, and anything I can remember about the meal.

And what I remember about this meal was that cooking the tenderloin was that it was impossible! I started out with the stove top grill pan. Looked great on the outside. Still moo-ing on the inside. Drat. So then I popped it in the broiler for, oh, a while. Now the narrow portion of the cut was cooked to a lovely medium, but the rest was still moo-ing. So we sliced it into 1.5" thick strips and put it back in the grill pan. FINALLY got it done. But, boy! What an effort.

Here are the recipes:

The entree: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/spicy-grilled-beef-tenderloin-recipe/index.html

The pie: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/key-lime-pie-recipe/index.html

The menu was heirloom tomatoes (difficult to find at stupid Teeter/Kroger) and Buffalo mozzarella.

The entree was the beautiful and delish beef tenderloin with the tomato chutney, with asparagus and couscous sides. And for dessert was a fantastically simple AND totally delish key lime pie. I burnt the first crust I made CRAZY bad. Never burnt anything that bad before. So definitely ignore the crust instructions. When I redid the crust (because it was entirely not salvageable) I baked it for slightly more than half the called for time, and reduced my oven heat a bit. Aside from that little ish, I will make the pie over and over again, because it was so simple and praise worthy.

This was a gorgeously plated meal. Great colors for summer.