Pear galette and most amazingly flaky crust ever

See that photo? Know what those are? Those are victory hands. Because I did it-finally! I made a super-flaky crust (for a gallette-but i think it could be used for a pie or tart crust too).

Ever since I started making pies, 3 or so years ago, I've wanted to make a super flaky crust. And generally my crusts are okay, but they could be better. Usually they're just a little on the soggy side, or they're just not flaky enough.

Well I was looking through the Tartine Bakery Cookbook (the original not the new one) and I noticed their Fruit Galette recipe. They describe the crust for this galette as similar to a "rough puff pastry"-same ingredients as those in their flaky pie crust dough, but different method: more complicated. FOr quite some time, I was intimidated by this concept of a "more difficult/complicated" method. Finally, though, after one too many trips to Durham NC's Scratch Bakery--where one can find what are perhaps some of the best pies/tarts/pastries in the world--  I decided it was time I aimed for "more" in my pastry crusts; thus I broke down and tried this recipe.

And turns out the method was really not so bad. It involves rolling, layer by layer, cold hunks of butter into flour. The process was a bit messy but really not too bad and actually quite a lot of fun. And the result was just so rewarding.

And so I won't delay this any longer. Here and now, I give you the recipe for pastry crust that will change your life-or at least boost your self-esteem.

Adapted from the Tartine Bakery cookbook (the original), by Elisabeth M. Pruett and Chad Robertson (page 71).

For the dough:  (this makes enough dough for 2 large galettes, or 12 small galettes)

INGREDIENTS:
Very cold unsalted butter,-2 cups or 1 pound/455 g
Water -1 cup or 8 oz/250 ml
Salt - 1.5 tsp or 7 ml
*All purpose flour- 2 1/3 cups or 12 oz/340 g
*Pastry flour - 2 2/3 cups or 12 oz/340 g
(I suggest adding a tablespoon or so of sugar to this-not what the authors suggest but I thought a bit of sweetness in the dough might be nice) 

SPECIAL EQUIPMENT:
Rolling pin
Bench scraper
Cookie sheet

 *(NOTE: the authors say that a mix of all purpose and pastry flour is ideal. I didn't have pastry at the time and did without. The recipe came out just fine,a lthough next time I'll probably aim to go with the all purpose/pastry mix).

1. Cut the butter into 1-inch cubes and put into freezer.
2. Mix water with salt, and place in freezer.
3. Chill butter and water/salt mixtures for about 10 minutes.

4. Measure flour onto your work surface It's not necessary to mix the flours at this point, because they will get mixed as the dough is made.

5. Spread flour into a rectangle about 1/3 inch deep.
6. Scatter butter cubes on top of the flour. Toss some flour on the butter so that your rolling pin doesn't stick.

7. Start to roll butter into flour. When the butter begins to flatten into long and thin pieces, use a bench scraper to scoop up sides of the rectangle so that it's the size that you started with.

8. Repeat rolling and scraping 3-4 times .

9. Make a well in the center of the flour/butter mixture and pour all of your water/salt mixture into the center (this was a bit messy-next time I will incorporate the water slightly more gradually).
Using the bench scraper, scoop the sides of the dough onto the center, cutting the water into the dough.

10. Keep scraping and cutting until the dough is a shaggy mass, and then shape it into a rectangle that measures about 10 x 14 inches. Now, lightly dust the top of the rectangle with flour

11. Roll out the rectangle until it's twice as wide again and then scrape the top, bottom, and sides together until it is back to the original size.  Reroll, and repeat 3 or 4 times until you have smooth and cohesive dough (I think I ended up rerolling quite a few more times-I didn't get a "smooth" and "cohesive" dough after 4 rerolls).

You should now have a nice neat rectangle that measures about 10 x 14 inches.

12. Transfer the dough to a large baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and chill well, about 1 hr (I actually extended the chilling to about...um...7 days. Turned out just fine).

13. When you're ready to roll out the dough, divide it into 2 equal portions if you're making large galettes or into 12 equal portions if you're making small galettes. Roll out into circles and transfer to a baking sheet (the authors have amazing instructions for rolling out into a circle. im not going to type all of that out, but you should buy the book. it's an awesome book anyways).

Chill the circles until they are firm.

**************************


I made a pear galette with this dough.

For the filling:
4 bosch pears,
1/4 spiced rum
sugar to taste
2 tablespoons ginger

PREHEAT OVEN to 375 degrees.

Peel and cut pears, length wise.
Place in a sauce pan over medium heat, add the spice rum, sugar and ginger, stir and cook down the pears, for about 10 minutes.

1. Place the pear filling in the center of the dough circle: leave about a 2 inch border for a large galette and about a 1 inch border for the smaller galettes.

2. Fold in sides of circles to cover the fruit-make sure not to leave any spaces from which fruit might leak out.
3. Chill until firm (I managed to skip this chilling step).

4. Brush sides of the galette with milk (or an egg wash as the authors recommend). Sprinkle with granulated sugar, and then bake!

5. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

6. Throw up your triumphant hands to celebrate your success baking a flaky dough!

A very belated happy pie day

I am kicking myself for having recently been such a bad food blogger. My excuse, sad as it might be, is that I recently purchased Lightroom (Adobe's photo editing software). This was supposed to be the amazing software that is also user-friendly. Well, perhaps it is wonderful and does transform and restore one's otherwise mediocre photos into halfway decent pieces, but it's also a hell of a lot more challenging to use that I had hoped or anticipated. Meanwhile, I have tons of food photos on my camera that I now feel are un-blog-worthy in their unedited state. And so they've been sitting untouched,  unblogged, unviewed, and utterly unloved. Until now.

Finally, I am breaking down; I haven't had the time to go through the lightroom tutorials, and the program is far from being point and clicky easy, and so I'm posting the raw photos in all their unedited glory--dark, overexposed, blurry, uncropped, etc. Forgive me.

And forgive me again-I can't even begin to recount everything that we've cooked in the past month and a half or so.

However, one of the highlights-no question-was Pie Day.

Oh yes indeed, the American Pie Council declared January 23 National Pie Day:

"National Pie Day? Well, why not? Pies have always been a sweet treat to warm the cold winter days and with the holiday celebrations a fading memory, this is a great way to warm up a January cold snap"

See here for more information: http://www.chiff.com/a/american-pie-day.htm

On the website the pie council offers many suggestions for ways to celebrate this holiday. For example:
1.) Eat pie
2.) Bake pie
3.) Share pie
4.) Teach pie making
5.) Hold a pie night...

...

Hmmm hold a pie night. What a good idea. 


You may or may not be aware of my minor obsession with pie baking. Given this, I of course had to celebrate the holiday in some way or another. I invited a few friends from my graduate program over for a pie potluck (after all there is no better way by which to drown one's graduate school misery than by baking and subsequently eating one-- or several --pies). I made a pie-music play list to go with the pie eating. Among the tunes on the list were: Custard Pie (Led Zeppelin), Pumpkin Pie (Joe Thompson), Country Pie (Bob Dylan), Bake That Chicken Pie (Uncle Dave Macon), Honey Pie (the Beatles), and everyone's favorite, Making Pies (Pattie Griffin). We baked, and then we listened to the pie inspired music while we ate. Oh yeah, and we drank lots of coffee (goes well with pie + we're sleep-deprived). We also drank some yummy ginger liquor-to counteract the coffee effects.

 

And oh, it was wonderful. We ended up with five pies at the event:  Key lime, lemon custard, pumpkin, apple cream with meringue topping, and tomato and cheese. I prepared the latter two pies, and so these are the ones for which I can provide recipes. I give the recipe for the tomato corn pie below; I am saving the recipe for the apple cream pie for another post!

In the meantime I just can't wait until the next pie day. I've heard of people celebrating pie on March 14 (3.14=pi, get it?) Ohhh the possibilities.

 I have previously referred to the tomato and cheese pie recipe. However, last time I made this pie, I tried to make the recipe "healthier" (always a bad idea) by creating a butterless, whole wheat crust and using ricotta cheese instead of cheddar cheese and mayonnaise. Well this time I did not hold back. And good lord was result a good one.

I found the recipe for tomato and corn pie here, on the smitten kitchen blog--the recipe she adapted came from Gourmet Magazine.

Basically, first you make a biscuit-type crust, using 2 cups of flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, and 3/4 tablespoon of salt-whisk those together, then blend in 3/4 cup of cold butter using a food processor/pastry blender/your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse corn meal. Then you add in some milk (3/4 cup, whole milk preferred but use what you have on hand) until you get a nice dough that you can form into a ball. Divide the dough into 2 parts, then roll out one part and place as the bottom crust into a pie dish. Place the second part of dough into the fridge until you're ready to use it.

Even though this is not recommended in the recipe, I prebaked the pie crust for about 15 minutes (place a sheet of buttered aluminum foil on the bottom crust, place some pie weights or dry beans on top of that, and bake for about 15 minutes at 400 degrees).

Then, construct the pie: layer tomatoes (I used one and a half 28 oz. cans of whole plum tomatoes, which I drained very well), grated cheese (7 oz.), herbs (1 tablespoon of chives and 1 tablespoon of basil, chopped), pepper, corn (1.5 cups-i used frozen corn), and a mayonaise (1/3 cup) and lemon juice (2 tablespoons) mixture, then roll our your second half of dough and place on top of your layered pie. Brush the crust with milk to create a nice brown color after baking.

Bake the pie for 30-35 minutes in the oven, at 400 degrees.

Again, you can find the recipe on the smitten kitchen blog. I honestly think that this pie is probably hard to mess up. I substituted canned tomatoes for fresh ones, and frozen corn for fresh corn. The pie was still delicious. I recommend straining the tomatoes in order to avoid a puddle at the bottom of your pie.

Crack pie

Photo by Benji Shirley

We had some friends over for a pre-thanksgiving dinner (we had to stretch our stomachs in preparation for the real day after all).  I was excited to bake the pie to complete the meal and had planned to make a salted chocolate ganache tart, the recipe for which I'd seen in Real Simple. 

I had gone so far as to buy all the ingredients for the tart and was literally about to begin to prepare it when I found myself skimming the archives of Bon Appetit Magazine online. I stopped skimming and started reading when I saw the words "Crack pie." This pie recipe was created by the pastry chef from Momofuku's Milk Bar in NYC.  The reviews were complete raves and let's just say that that apparently, this "Crack" pie was granted its name for a reason.  Anyways, long story short, I just couldn't resist trying out the recipe.

The filling for the pie is essentially a chess pie (which means that it contains every bad-for-you ingredient imaginable...heavy cream, egg yolks, butter, sugar...) And the crust--I love this--is made from crumbled oatmeal cookie that you pre-bake.

The pie was amazing and rich. It has that wonderful buttery sweet flavor of a sugar cookie, while maintaining a delicious soft, almost custard-like texture in the filling. The oatmeal crust has an almost nutty butter flavor and provides a nice textural contrast for the filling.

Overall the recipe was simple, although I had a little bit of trouble getting the crust to smush together into the pie dish. It worked out eventually, although as you can see from the picture it didn't necessarily fill my deep pie dish.

I'm definitely going to keep this recipe filed away although it is so decadent that I will reserve it for the most special of occasions.

Crack Pie
Recipe from Momofuku, published by Bon Appetit. This recipe can also be found here, at the LA Times, but it's important to note that the LA times recipe makes 2 pies. The recipe I've listed below is based on the one published by Bon Appetit and makes one 9 inch pie.


Ingredients:

For the oat cookie crust:
-9 tablespoons of unsalted butter at room temperature
-5 1/2 tablespoons of brown sugar
-2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
-1 large egg
-3/4 plus 2 tablespoons of old-fashioned oats
-1/2 cup all purpose flour
-1/8 teaspoon baking powder
-1/8 teaspoon baking soda
-1/4 teaspoon of salt

For the filling:
-3/4 cup sugar
-1/2 cup packed brown sugar
-1 tablespoon of nonfat dry milk powder
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
-6 1/2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
-4 large egg yolks
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-Powdered sugar for dusting pie before serving (I skipped this because I forgot!)

Preparation:

First prepare the oat cookie crust:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 13x9x2-inch metal baking pan with parchment paper or a sil pad. If not using sil pad, then oil the baking pan.

Combine 6 tablespoons butter, 4 tablespoons brown sugar, and 2 tablespoons sugar in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat mixture until light and fluffy, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl, about 2 minutes.

Add egg; beat until pale and fluffy.

Add oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and beat until well blended.

Turn oat mixture out onto prepared baking pan; press out evenly to edges of pan.

Bake until light golden on top, 17 to 18 minutes. Transfer baking pan to rack and cool cookie completely.

In a food processor, pulse to crumble the oat cookie; add 3 tablespoons butter and 1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar. Pulse further until butter and sugar are well distributed.

The mixture should be moist enough to stick together.

Transfer cookie crust mixture to 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Using fingers, press mixture evenly onto bottom and up sides of pie dish. Place pie dish with crust on rimmed baking sheet.

Now prepare the filling: 

Position the rack in the center of your oven and preheat the oven to 350 F.

Whisk together both sugars, milk powder, and salt in medium bowl.

Add the melted butter and whisk until it is blended.

Add the cream, then egg yolks, and vanilla and whisk until well blended.

Pour filling into crust.

Bake pie 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 F. Continue to bake pie until filling is brown in spots and set around edges but center still moves a bit when the dish is shaken, about 20 minutes.

Cool pie 2 hours in pie dish on rack. Chill uncovered overnight.

Note: I made this a day in advance and it was nicely set and chilled. If you think of it, sprinkle powdered sugar on the pie before serving although its certainly not required!

Plum & pear pie without a soggy bottom

This was another winner and believe me the photo does not do the pie justice in terms of its deliciousness. Plus it doesn't reveal the relative simplicity of this pie recipe--but that's where I come in. The recipe for the crust (which goes only on top of the fruit-this is a bottomless pie!) calls for an egg, room temperature butter, and a great deal more sugar than that which you would typically use. As a result it doesn't boast the flakey texture of most pie crusts, but I really didn't miss it. I don't think anyone who tried this pie did either because it disappeared quickly! AND, the fact that I didn't have to worry about keeping the butter cold made it a dream to whip together (this one really is 'easy as pie' to make). My only regret was not having had ice or whipped cream to go along with the pie, but hey there's always next time.

I found this recipe on the smitten kitchen blog but the recipe was originally written by Nigel Slater. He explains that his idea for this pie was born out of the perpetual problem of juicy fruit in pies creating a soggy bottom. Here, the recipe avoids soggy bottoms by  eliminating the base pastry completely. He compensates for the lack of pastry down below by creating an extra thick pastry on top.

One final note: I substituted pears for apples in my pie. My sister in law suggested this, having tried the recipe herself and I have to say that I loved the texture of the pears along side the plums. Plus, I'm a total sucker for pears in pies in general. Having said that I do imagine that apples would taste really good in here too.

Plum and pear pie without a soggy bottom
Adapted from recipe by Nigel Slater

For the top of the pie (the crust):


100 g of butter
100 g of sugar
one egg 
175 g of  flour (I used pastry flour), 
1/2 tsp of baking powder
a pinch of salt for flavor
milk for brushing the crust before baking


For the filling:
about 8-10 plums 
2 pears (or apples)
2-3 tbsp  of sugar
ground cinnamon,

Use a standing mixer to combine the butter and sugar until they become creamy in texture.

Beat the egg then mix in with butter and sugar. Now add the flour, salt, and baking powder. Roll dough into a ball and then place on a floured work surface. Knead for a minute or two until smooth and soft. Wrap in plastic wrap or stick in an air-tight container and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes.

Set the oven at 180C. Cut the plums in half and remove pits.

Cut the fruit into large pieces, toss with the sugar and cinnamon and put into a lightly buttered 9 inch pie dish.

Roll out the pastry on a floured board, not paying too much attention to the shape, and then place on top of the fruit filling. It doesn't matter if the crust breaks as you place it on top of the fruit. Also you may want to cut a slit into the pastry to allow release of air during baking. Also, there will likely be an eruption of the juices onto the pastry which is a good thing, not a bad, and just contributes to the overall deliciousness.

Brush the pastry lightly with milk and bake for 40 minutes Dust with  sugar and serve warm with ice or whipped cream and don't count of leftovers.

First apple pie of the season! and Joyce Maynard

I hadn't made a pie in ages but got a sudden urge on Friday evening after a long and tiring week. And so I ran to the grocery store and bought a pound of apples before my pie baking energy escaped.

In addition to being inspired to bake by the crispness of fall and my need to do something that doesn't involve staring at a computer screen, I had recently stumbled upon Joyce Maynard's website, where I discovered an entry on pie making. Apparently, Joyce Maynard is not only a writer and story teller, but also a pie maker. She teaches her late mother's pie making style and boasts, "I'm guessing the number of my pie students has probably reached the quadruple digits now, and I'm not about to stop. I have been known to travel with a rolling pin." I love Joyce Maynard's pie making spirit, the fact that her teaching of the craft serves a sort of homage to her mother, and that she uses the process of pie making as a metaphor for life. (For example, in her pie making video, Joyce Maynard says that she cuts that apples into uneven pieces since this is the way life is; uneven and unpredictable.)

Apparently, in her recently published book, Labor Day, one of the main characters teachers another to make a pie:

" We were his ticket across state lines. That was the story. I’d watched enough episodes of Magnum P.I.. to get it. Only then Frank turned around to face us, and he was holding a knife.These peaches, he said, looking even more serious than before. If we don’t put them to use soon, they’re goners. What did you have in mind? my mother said. There was a sound to her voice I could not remember ever hearing. She was laughing, not the way a person does if you tell them a joke, but more how it is when they’re just in a good mood and feeling happy. I’m going to make us a peach pie, like my grandmother did it, he said. First thing, he needed a couple of bowls. One to make the crust. One for the filling. Frank peeled the peaches. I cut them up. Filling is easy, Frank said. What I want to talk about is crust.You could tell, the way he reached for his bowl, that this man had made more than a few pies in his life."

The passage continues and provides detailed instructions for making a pie crust. The recipe calls for 3 cups of flour (for a double crust pie), 1 stick of butter, about an equivalent amount of shortening, salt and sugar.

After reading this I was inspired to try Joyce's recipe for pie crust making myself. While I have experimented with using butter, and shortening, separately in pie crusts, I hadn't ever before tried to use both in roughly equivalent amounts.

All in all I was pleased with the pie that I made. However, I had some trouble rolling out the dough. My theory is that this problem results from the fact that I took the oft-cited rule of pie crust making that one should never add too much water to an extreme. As a result, the raw pie crust dough was dry and therefore crumbly and difficult to roll. When baked the pie crust was tasty but remained a bit soggy. After this experiment using shortening + butter I decided that I prefer an all-butter crust, to a butter/shortening one, because of the far superior flavor that the butter provides. The apple filling that I made was quite delicious and consisted of ~ 1 pound of apples, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, sugar, lemon juice, rum, and corn starch.

After this pie making experience I was left with renewed energy for pie making, and with ideas for future pies. Stay tuned for more!

Funny cake pie

Happy national pie day, a bit belated. The true date for the holiday was this Saturday January 23rd but it's never too late to celebrate or discuss pies.

In honor of the day I prepared a pie recipe that I've had bookmarked for quite some time. This seemed a very exciting and mysterious recipe because of the supposed party trick that it involves. Please, allow me tell you all about it.


You see, I am a proud member of the of the pie of the month club.

In addition to the fabulous pie of the month club t-shirt and buttons that I received, my membership entitles me to a monthly postcard that features lovely pie art, as well as a fun recipe along with a brief description of the pie.


Truth be told I have not baked many of the recipes from the postcards thus far. Sometimes the pies just sound too weird (For example: watermelon rind pie? I dunno, maybe I'll save that for a summer day on which I'm feeling particularly adventurous).


For now though it was the funny cake pie that caught my attention. The pie features two layers, chocolate and vanilla, with the vanilla layer being especially cake-y in consistency and the chocolate one being more of a cocoa powder goo (which is very tasty and not gross the way the word "goo" sounds).

The recipe boasts that this cake-pie is funny because of a " funny " thing that happens to the two layers: In the pie preparations, you layer the chocolate under the vanilla and then, during the baking process, the two layers flip such that the chocolate layer ends up above the vanilla.

Yes, you read that right. A pie crust with chocolate + vanilla layers that do back flips in the oven. After reading that I was intrigued and just had to try the recipe out.


Let me say that this pie turned out being delicious. Honestly I was surprised by how tasty the end product was because in the end I was a bit tentative about the idea of putting a cake batter in a pie crust. However, I regret that I must also note that I was utterly disappointed by the fact that there was no switcharoo magic that occurred between the two layers in the pie. I had excitedly put the vanilla atop the chocolate and yet the pie came out of the oven with the layers...drum roll...in the same order.

Now, after having performed a google search for other recipes for funny cake pie, I am suspicious that there was a mistake in the pie of the month club recipe. In fact, I think that the chocolate layer should have gone over the vanilla layer and then ended up on the bottom following baking. If anyone reading this has any thoughts about this, or experience baking this particular pie, I'd love to hear them! For now I will say that the next time I bake this pie I plan to layer the chocolate on top of the vanilla and hope for the best in terms of cartwheeling magic between the layers.

In any case, I have reproduced the Pie of the Month Club recipe for Funny Cake Pie below, as it was written on my postcard, but I noted the place in the recipe that I believe to be erroneous. Happy baking and let me know if you manage to get your layers to flip!



Funny Cake Pie
For the Pie of the Month Club

• Top Part:
  
  
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. vanilla
•  I added a dash of salt here

 Cream together sugar and shortening. Add the combined milk and egg alternately with flour and baking powder. Add flavoring and set aside until lower part is mixed.

• Lower Part:
  
  
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 6 Tbsp. water
  • 4 Tbsp. cocoa
  • 1/4 tsp. vanilla
  • NOTE: I added a dash of salt here
    
  
  Mix together the cocoa, sugar, water, and vanilla. **Pour into an unbaked pie shell. Over this pour the "top part". **The chocolate will come up around the outside edge which gives a nice crusty edge on the finished product. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 minutes or until firm (toothpick test).

**OR, perhaps you should try to pour the vanilla cake layer on the bottom of the crust, and then on top of this pour the chocolate top part. I believe that this will create the funny switcharoo effect that I was anxiously awaiting.

Move over Elmo's: My Peanut Butter Pie

This is an all time favorite and one of the first pies that I tried baking. My first attempt was inspired by a request from a picky eater who said that, of the few desserts that he liked, the Elmo's peanut butter pie was at the top of his list. I love a challenge, and so I made it my personal goal to appeal to said picky-eater's sweet tooth, and to make him rave about my peanut butter pie with even greater enthusiasm than that with which he spoke about Elmo's.

At the time, I had not tried Elmo's peanut butter pie. However, I'd eaten on many occasions the peanut butter pie at our local food coop, Weaver Street Market. The creamy chocolatey goodness of their pie appealed to my chocolate sweet tooth. This was the period in my life when I was still sadly and utterly ignorant of the wonders of heavy cream and butter. Therefore, I had no idea how I might bake the pie myself. So one day I worked up the nerve to ask the woman who was working behind the Weaver Street pastry counter if they might give me their recipe. I was expecting her to respond with a scornful nod, "sorry dear, but no..." I was wrong though; the kind woman immediately walked to the back of the kitchen and retrieved the recipe for me! The black box of the chocolate peanut butter pie had been opened, and oh what a revelation this was.

But what, you ask, ever happened to the picky eater? Ah, yes, I must conclude my story of the picky eater and his peanut butter pie. The story has a bit of a sad ending, because it turns out, we lost touch, the picky eater and I. Consequently, he never tried my version of chocolate peanut butter pie, although in my heart I believe that he would have preferred mine to Elmo's. The happy part of this story's end is that his request caused me to discover this recipe, which I now get to share with you.



Finally, I should say that the Weaver Street Market recipe that the woman gave me was written for bulk pie preparation (with ingredient measurements for either 2, 4, or 6 pies). It was also rather cryptic (For example, for 2 pies the recipe calls for 1 unit of cream cheese at room temperature. What does that mean?? 1 cup? 1 tablespoon?). As a result, I had to finagle the ingredient measurements but I finally have a recipe that I feel comfortable sharing.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie, or Peanut Butter Silk Pie,

adapted from the Weaver Street Market recipe (which, I've noticed, might be adapted from the Joy of Cooking recipe )

Ingredients:

1 single pie crust, pre-baked

For the ganache:
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream

For the filling:
1/2 cup cream cheese at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter (use creamy for a smooth consistency, chunky for more texture)
1 tablespoon vanilla or almond extract
1 cup heavy cream

To prepare:

1.) Allow the prebaked pie crust to cool to room temperature.

2.) Now, prepare the ganache. Place your chocolate in a sauce pan on medium-low temperature. Stir the chocolate with a wooden spoon, and slowly add the 1/2 cup of heavy cream. The mixture will become smooth and thick.

3.) Once your ganache has become a nice, thick consistency, pour it into the bottom of your pie shell and place in the fridge until it is solid.


4.) While your ganache is chillin' in the fridge (haha) prepare your filling. Beat together the cream cheese, sugar, peanut butter, and extract until it is well combined and creamy.


Place that mixture in a bowl and set aside for later.

5.) Now whip the 3/4 cup heavy cream until stiff peaks are formed. Then, gently fold the whipped cream into the peanut butter/cream cheese mixture.


6.) Place your peanut butter/whipped cream mixture in your pie dish on top of the chilled chocolate ganache. Top with chocolate shavings if you wish, and then chill in the fridge.

Enjoy and share with friends. This is a rich and filling pie but so good that people still come back for seconds!

Peanut butter pie at Elmo's Diner

For several years now, people have been telling me about the peanut butter pie at Elmo's Diner (downtown Carrboro, NC), saying things like, "You have to try it!," or "It's the best pie ever," or "It's the only pie that I like."

Despite these rave reviews, I had yet to try a slice until last night. After a long walk through town we were itching for something sweet. We were about to step into the grocery store to buy a pint of ice cream when the Elmo's Diner sign caught my eye: "Let's get some peanut butter pie instead!" I said... and that we did.

To be perfectly honest, most slices of pie that I try in restaurants are true disappointments. The crust is rarely worth eating and the filling generally tastes as if it has been sitting, neglected, for several too many hours (or days in some cases). Considering those two factors alone, the Elmo's peanut butter pie was a treat. The crust was made of graham crackers, and while nothing too unusual, it was actually tasty and managed to avoid the usual fateful problem of a flaky-crust-gone-wrong. The graham cracker crust also served to offer a nice textural contrast to the smooth peanut butter filling. The Elmo's diner folk are smart, too: they avoided the problem of having their pie waste away to a mediocre near-expiration quality by sticking the whole thing in the freezer. Our slice was served frozen, dominated by a creamy cold peanut butter filling, drizzled with also frozen chocolate, and topped with a dollop of light whip cream that serves as a lovely counterbalance to the cold and sweet peanut butter filling.

My review is not without criticism, however, First and foremost, the filling was entirely too sweet. Such sweetness nearly overwhelmed the peanut butter flavor on which we should have been focused. Secondly, the quality of the chocolate drizzles could have been superior, perhaps more rich and, again, less sweet.

All in all though, this is a pie that is worth trying. Not as good as homemade pie but in a pinch and when faced with a sugar craving, a slice is well worth the relatively low $3.50 price-tag and the trip out to Elmo's.

Corn, tomato, and cheese pie

A friend recently sent me a link to a terrific blog, titled "nothing-in-the-house," which is fully devoted to (and dare I say 'inspired by??') the art of pie baking. Well, reading the blog has completely reignited my somewhat expired love/passion/obsession with pie baking. It's been really fun, actually, rediscovering my interest and getting excited about making pies again!

So I've been dreaming all week of making a pie...meanwhile the weather has begun to feel like fall, making it an even more perfect time for baking (and eating) pie. I'd seen the recipe for a tomato corn pie on the smitten kitchen blog earlier in the year and been intrigued. And so with my new found inspiration I looked up that recipe, adapted it a bit, and made my own version.




Well, the pie turned out so well! We shared it with our 2 sisters and there is not a crumb left of the pie.

The original recipe that peaked my interest can be found here. However, I altered the recipe quite a bit and so I've written my version of the pie recipe below. I hope that you will be inspired and try baking this, or perhaps another type of pie.




Ingredients:

For the crust:
1 cup whole wheat flour (I used bread flour b/c that's what I had but I'll bet pastry would be better)
1 cup white pastry flour
sea salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup buttermilk
A little over 1/4 cup olive oil
Water as needed

For the filling:
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
Corn from 2 cobs, coursely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped
3 tablespoons fresh basil
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup goat cheese
1/4 cup mild cheddar cheese, grated
salt to taste
paper to taste

For the crust:

Prebake oven to 375 degrees.

Mix together the flours, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add the olive oil, followed by the buttermilk, and mix into flour. Slowly add water while stirring, until the mixture forms a nice ball that is not too sticky. If you add too much water, just add a little extra flour to the mix. Divide the dough into 2 equally sized balls. Wrap one ball of dough in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for later. Roll out the other ball on a lightly floured surface until it measures a 12 inch circle. Carefully drape the rolled out dough over your rolling pin and transfer it to a 12 inch pie dish. Place lightly oiled aluminum foil over the crust, and pie weights or dried beans on top of the foil. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes. Remove the weights and foil, lower the heat to 350 degrees, and then bake the dough for another 10 minutes. Remove the dish with the bottom crust from the oven and allow to cool. Raise the oven temperature to 400 degrees.

Layer the filling ingredients in the your bottom crust:

First, empty the contents of the can of tomatoes in the dish. Next, sprinkle the chives and basil on top of the tomatoes and sprinkle salt and pepper on top of the herbs. Follow this with the coarsely chopped corn, and then spread the ricotta and goat cheeses on top of the corn. Finally, sprinkle on the grated cheddar cheese. Roll your second ball of dough into a 12 inch circle and pinch into place as the top crust. Cut 3 or 4 slits in the top dough layer for ventilation. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the dough is brown, the filling is bubbling, and the smells emanating from your kitchen are causing your tummy to growl and your mouth to water.

Strawberry rhubarb pie

I don't have any pictures to post, nor will I be writing a specific recipe here. However, I am very excited to share some recent discoveries in the world of pie baking!



First, a bit of history: A little over a year ago I developed a pie-baking obsession. The spree began after I watched the movie Waitress. Admittedly, the movie isn't anything amazing (though still worth watching for a light and relaxing evening). In it, though, the main character prepares these beautiful and creative (in terms of name and ingredient) pies! I was completely inspired. Pies provide a basic template with which I can experience and represent the seasons, as well as my mood. And thus it began.



Fast forward to today. I'm still working on perfecting my pie crust, and my pies in general. I've made some amazing discoveries with regard to pie shells, but I'll leave notes on those for another day. What I want to share with you today are my exciting strawberry rhubarb pie filling discoveries.



I have made 2 strawberry rhubarb pies thus far this season. The first one, while delicious, was a soppy mess. I'd estimate that the filling was 1 part fruit to 2 parts liquid and after slicing it resembled more of a wet cobbler than a pie. The second one was beautifully solid! I attribute the success of the second to the following steps:

1.) I prebaked the crust. Specifically, I preheated the oven to 375, placed the crust dough in the pan, placed foil and pie weights on top of the dough, and then baked for 15 minutes. After, I removed the weights, glazed the bottom and sides of the crust with a beaten egg, and sprinkled 2 tablespoons of oats on top of the glaze. I then baked for another 20 minutes.

2.) For the filling, I strained the strawberries, after slicing them, very well. Then, I mixed my filling spices, strawberries, and rhubarb with 4 tablespoons of tapioca plus 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and allowed this to sit for about 20 minutes. Then--and this I think is the most important step I think--I cooked the mixture on the stove top (medium high heat) for about 5 minutes. This allowed the mixture to thicken up. I removed the mixture from the stove after it resembled a loose jam.

3.) Finally, I assembled the pie (topped with streusal this time!) and baked at 350 for another 30 minutes or so, until the crust was beautifully browned.

I wish I'd taken a picture of the final product to share. We gobbled it up though, and believe me, it was tasty and, importantly, not runny!