Sorry for the [...]]]> To mark the first official day of summer on Tuesday, I made a blueberry-strawberry pie. Actually, I baked a blueberry-strawberry pie because I had fresh blueberries and strawberries on hand, but we’re going to stick with the solstice story for now. In either case, it turned out pretty well. Right, roommies?

Sorry for the mediocre photo - my camera is still in a moving box somewhere.

The Crust:

I use Julia Child’s recipe for Pâte Brisée, as I’ve found it to consistently deliver terrific results. For this pie, I used the sweeter variation of the recipe. If you don’t want to invest in her two-volume set Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the recipe can also be found in Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom, which you can purchase on Amazon for under $9. PBS has some great tips on mastering pie pastry dough, too.

1 ½ Cups all-purpose flour
½ Cup cake flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
¼ tsp. salt
1 ½ sticks chilled unsalted butter, diced
4 Tbsp. chilled vegetable shortening
½ Cup ice water

1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the dry ingredients and pulse a few times to mix.
2. Drop in the diced butter and pulse a few times until the pieces of butter are covered in the dry mixture.
3. Add in the shortening and pulse, once again, until the pieces are covered in the dry mixture. The pieces of butter and shortening should be roughly marble-sized at this point.
4. While pulsing the mixture, slowly add in the ice water. Continue pulsing until the mixture just barely begins to hold together. There should still be small pea-sized pieces of butter and shortening within the dough. These are necessary for a flaky crust.
5. Divide the dough into two roughly equal parts, flattening each into a 6″ disc and wrapping in parchment paper. Chill the discs in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
6. Lightly grease a 9″ pie dish. (That reads dish, not tin or pan, by the way. That means glass, ceramic, stone, or porcelain.)
7. After the dough has chilled, remove one of the discs and roll it out on a floured surface. It should be about ⅛″ thick and leave about 1″ of overhang around the edge when transferred to the dish.
8. Carefully transfer the rolled dough to the pie dish, trimming as necessary, and place it in the refrigerator to chill while you assemble the pie filling.

The Filling and Assembly:

3 ½ Cups fresh blueberries, rinsed, cleaneds and de-stemmed
3 ½ Cups fresh strawberries, rinsed and roughly diced
⅞ Cup sugar
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. tapioca flour
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. ground ginger
Zest of one lemon
Raw sugar for dusting (any large-granule variety will work)

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
2. In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients, gently folding until the dry ingredients are completely incorporated.
3. Remove the pie dish from the refrigerator and pour the filling into the pie shell, mounding the filling slightly toward the center. Set aside.
4. Remove the second disc of pie dough from the refrigerator and roll out into an 11″ circle. Use a slightly damp pastry brush to remove the excess flour from the surface of the dough.
5. In a similar manner, remove the excess flour from the edges of the pie shell. This will permit the top crust and the pie shell to crimp together more tightly and prevent leakage.
6. Place the 11″ circle on top of the filling, de-floured sides together. Trim as necessary to leave about 1″ of overhang around the edge.
7. Crimp the bottom shell and top crust together, tucking the excess under the crust. Re-crimp as necessary.
8. Brush the top of the pie with egg yolk and sprinkle with raw sugar.
9. Cut slits in the top crust, taking care to expand them enough that they don’t re-seal. (A ⅛″–¼″ gap at the widest point is normally sufficient.)

Baking:

1. Bake for 20 minutes at 425°F.
2. Remove the pie from the oven and lower the temperature to 375°F. Cover the edges of the pie with aluminum foil, or a pie shield if you have one.
3. Return the pie to the oven and cook for 35–45 minutes, until the top crust is golden brown and you hear the filling bubbling when you open the oven door.
4. Cool to near-room-temperature and enjoy! (FYI: If it hasn’t cooled, you may end up with a bowl of berry soup instead of a slice of pie.)

Delicious stuff. I added some orange zest and flaked coconut to vary it up a bit. Recipe from King Arthur Flour.

This weekend I had the opportunity to host my second gingerbread bake, which was surprisingly well attended. Fitting 18 people into our tiny front room and kitchen was a bit of a challenge, but I’m glad that everyone who was able to come was willing to crowd around our little kitchen table. It definitely [...]]]>

This weekend I had the opportunity to host my second gingerbread bake, which was surprisingly well attended. Fitting 18 people into our tiny front room and kitchen was a bit of a challenge, but I’m glad that everyone who was able to come was willing to crowd around our little kitchen table. It definitely made for some very lively conversations.

Some conclusions I reached this weekend:

1. Wherever I live, I will need a huge kitchen.
2. I could easily justify owning a 10-quart vertical mixer despite the fact that I was able to mix a quadrupled batch of gingerbread dough in my 6-quart KitchenAid.
3. Tapered rolling pins are truly amazing and I honestly don’t know why I didn’t purchase one sooner.
4. I’ve never gone through so much flour, butter, powdered sugar, and molasses so quickly in my life.
5. Meringue powder is incredibly difficult to find. (Luckily, Williams-Sonoma carries it.)

We used a standard buttercream frosting for the base, and royal icing for the piped colors. I’d picked up some gel food coloring from a restaurant supply store as well as some gold powdered food coloring, which unfortunately resembled orange much more than anything even approaching a metallic gold.

Rather than type out my exact recipes, I’m just going to link to the ones I started with. If anyone has any specific questions about adjustments I made, etc., I will be more than happy to answer them in the comments.

Gingerbread dough: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/gingerbread-cookies-recipe

Buttercream frosting: http://www.pastrychefonline.com/American_Buttercream.html

Royal icing: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/royal-icing-recipe

This was, quite possibly, one of the best pecan pies I’ve ever had. Not that I eat pecan pie very often (I don’t), but it is simply just that decadent. Enough so to make me end my 4-month period of blogging absenteeism. Enjoy!

For the pie crust:

1½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour ½ tbsp. [...]]]>

This was, quite possibly, one of the best pecan pies I’ve ever had. Not that I eat pecan pie very often (I don’t), but it is simply just that decadent. Enough so to make me end my 4-month period of blogging absenteeism. Enjoy!

For the pie crust:

1½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
½ tbsp. sugar
½ tsp. salt
½ cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cubed
⅜ cup ice-cold water

1. In a medium bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt.
2. Fold the butter cubes into the dry mixture until they are coated.
3. Place the mixture in the bowl of a food processor and pulse in 5-second intervals until the butter cubes are reduced to the size of small marbles.
4. While pulsing in quick bursts, drizzle the cold water through the feed tube and continue to pulse until the dough has formed a ball. Tip: The plunger for my food processor’s feed tube actually has a couple of tiny holes at the bottom, so I was able to just pour all of the water into the plunger and let it take care of the rest.
5. Flatten the ball into a 5- to 8-inch disc and then wrap in parchment paper and plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm. (If making the crust in advance, it can be kept in the refrigerator for a few days or frozen for up to 3 months.)
6. Grease and flour a glass pie dish.
7. Once the dough is firm, roll it into a 12-inch circle and transfer it to the pie dish. Fold any overhang under and crimp the edges as you go.
8. Cover the crust in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for at 2 hours.

For the filling:

2 cups pecan halves
3 large eggs
¾ cup light corn syrup
3 tbsp. granulated sugar
4 tbsp. packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 tbsp. bourbon (optional)
3 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
⅛ tsp. salt
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

1. Toast the pecans. Spread them out on a lined baking sheet and place in the oven @ 250°F until dry and crisp, checking frequently to make sure that they do not burn.
2. Preheat the oven to 325°F
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, then add in the corn syrup, sugars, vanilla extract, bourbon (if using), melted butter, and salt. Continue to whisk until combined.
4. Coarsely chop ¾ cup of the toasted pecans and fold them into the mixture.
5. Remove the pie crust from the freezer, unwrap it, and scatter the semisweet chocolate evenly over the bottom.
6. Gently pour the mixture over the chocolate.
7. Place the remaining pecans on top of the mixture and press down until they are incorporated into the mixture.
8. Bake the pie for 30 minutes at 325°F. After 30 minutes, cover the edge of the crust with aluminum foil to prevent excess browning and bake for an additional 30 minutes or until set.
9. Cool the pie on a wire rack and eat warm or at room temperature.