…because we listen to the requests and needs of our valued cus… ah, readers here at Obsidian Wings. Because we care.
And because it’s fall, which has always been the time of year in my family when pies are baked. As a loyal member of the Pax Gibletsia I say, let us have recipes for pie! Tasty, tasty pie.
Curiously enough, I have been thinking about apple pie for some weeks now. I haven’t made one, because it somehow seems wrong to make one for just me, and right now there’s no one else around to make one for.
It’s not so much a recipe as a habit, though. I can make this kind of pie in my sleep.
Take 6 ounces of soft white flour, add a pinch of salt, and quickly rub in 3 ounces of butter until you have fine crumbs. Add cold water, just enough, till you have a coherent ball of pastry. Wrap it up and put it in the fridge for half an hour or so. (Resting time. Essential. Well-rested pastry makes the best pies.)
Take two or three large cookers. Quarter them, peel them, chop them into thick slices. Sprinkle lemon juice over them to keep them from going brown.
Take a deep-dish pie pan. Cut the pastry lump into two unequal portions. Roll out the larger portion into a disk wide enough to line the pie pan with a good quarter-inch or so over the side. You can blind-bake it now, but I generally don’t bother: more trouble than it’s worth. Fill the pastry shell with apple slices: pile it high and deep. Sprinkle with brown sugar, not too much.
Now for the artistic bit! You can add cinnamon, whole cloves (my personal favorite), or a little ginger. Not too much of anything – the spice should complement the apple, not overwhelm it.
Roll out the second portion of pastry and cover the apples. Pinch the edges, below and above, firmly together. Push breathing holes in the lid with a fork – gently, don’t go through the pastry lining!
Bake in a hot oven until the pastry’s done (well browned and crispy). The apples will be cooked through but just holding together, and a spicy syrup will have escaped through some of the fork holes and caramelized on top of the pastry crust.
Eat hot with cream.
*sighs*
Okay, I just talked myself into it. I guess I can freeze the rest.
Recipe for Disaster
Ingredients
Ill-informed and ideologically inflexible president, insufficient forces, an unrealistic and pollyannish postwar plan, overly ambitious social engineering ideas, worsening relationships with neighboring states, bad intelligence.
MC was sucked into the vortex last night and stayed up till 2:00 AM reading the post-debate spin, so he has to blearily dash off to class now, but he will be back with a killer derby pie recipe at some point later in the day.
PS: praktike = shrill
Ah, pie. I know this was intended for fruit pies of some sort, but I’m soon to make a childhood favorite, a Melton Mowbray pie. Being a Brit, my mum used to make these, and there was much rejoicing and huzzahs.
The Melton Mowbray is a deep crusty pork pie intended to be eaten cold, in thick slices, preferrably with a large beer to wash it down. It’s the kind of thing you can imagine Robin Hood and his merry men eating on a warm summer afternoon in Sherwood Forest under a spreading oak tree, quaffing flagons of fine Linconshire ale. The high point of an otherwise blank national cuisine (oh, other than Yorkshire pudding. And trifle. Oh, and Christmas plum pudding. And haggis).
Rather than post the recipe here, here’s a good one. Don’t be put off by the pig feet, they aren’t eaten, just used for flavourful jelly (although the instructions to wash between the toes leaves one a bit woozy, I admit). If the feet are too much, here’s one that doesn’t use them.
Ok, it’s derby pie time! Enough of this debate nonsense, it’s time to get our priorities straight and slam some pie recipes. I was shocked to learn last fall while visiting with my girlfriend at the time’s family that this is apparently not the universal Thanksgiving staple I had always assumed it to be.. as may be, that’s other folks’ loss; it’s part of my dad’s regular pie repertoire and actually goes great pretty much any holiday or season. The following is my dad’s recipe as he sent it to me:
Flaky pie crust
Intro – You need to do two things to make your pie crust really flaky. First is to sift the flour; much more important is to put the crust back in the refrigerator and let it get very cold, then put it into the preheated oven. What makes crust flaky is for the very cold shortening to hit the very hot heat. If possible, make the crust the night before and leave it in the fridge overnight. If not, try to let it fridge out for 45 minutes to an hour at a minimum.
Pie crust recipe for a nine-inch pie plate (try to use the Pyrex glass plate instead of aluminum) –
1 1/3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup Crisco or other vegetable shortening
3 – 4 tablespoons very cold water
1. Sift together the first three ingredients, then stir with a fork to mix them thoroughly.
2. Cut the shortening into the dry ingredients. You can use a fork or a pastry cutter to get things started. After a while, I shift to my fingers. Try to mix the ingredients until the whole thing has the consistency of corn meal.
3. Add the water a tablespoon or two at a time, mixing well. It may take a little more or less water. Again, at first use the fork, but eventually shift to your hands to gather the dough into a ball. What you want is a ball that holds together. You don’t have to knead it like bread dough, but work it until it is consistent throughout.
4. Flour a working surface and the rolling pin
5. With your hands, work the ball of dough into a thick round
6. Roll it out on the work surface so its larger than the pie plate, trying to keep it an even thickness all the way across
7. Fold it in half; when you lift one half, slide both hands under the far edge and support it as much as possible so the dough doesn’t tear
8. Lift it gently, and slide it into the plate, then unfold it
9. Push it down into the plate and press together to close any gaps
Fluting (MC notes: this is key for all derby pie aesthetic traditionalists – no derby pie is truly complete without it) –
1. After step 9, with a sharp knife, trim the pie crust close to the plate.
2. Gather the all the excess dough and roll it out flat again.
3. Use a melon ball cutter to cut it into small rounds. Dip the cutter into flour regularly.
4. With the tines of a fork work press into the dough all around the edge of the pie plate, then dampen this ridged area with water
5. Place the rounds over the dampened edges of the dough
At this point, cover the pie shell with a sheet of waxed paper and return to the fridge to chill, as discussed above.
Derby Pie filling
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
l stick (1/4 pound) unsalted butter
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup semisweet chopped pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon Bourbon whiskey (or about 1 1/2 tablespoons for good measure)
1. Turn the oven on to 350 degrees to preheat
2. Break the eggs into a large mixing bowl and let them come to room temperature
3. Melt the butter in a small saucepan and let it cool
4. Lightly toast the pecans: 5 – 8 minutes in the 350-degree oven.
5. With an electric mixer, beat the eggs on high speed until they are light and lemon colored
6. Gradually beat in the sugar
7. Reduce the mixer speed to its low setting and mix in the flour and butter until thoroughly combined
8. Mix in the chocolate chips, pecans, vanilla and Bourbon
9. Scrape the filling into the chilled pie crust and pop immediately into the preheated oven
10. Cook for 45 minutes
11. To test for doneness, stick a toothpick or a piece of uncooked spaghetti into the top. If it comes out without any of the ingredients sticking to it, then it’s done. If not, give it another five minutes and test again.
The pie is best if eaten while still hot or warm. If you like, serve with whipped cream. Beat the cream with the mixer on high speed. When it starts to thicken gradually beat in several teaspoons of sugar — about 6 – 8, depending on your taste for a pint of whipped cream. Powdered sugar is best for consistency, but granulated will serve fine. At the end, add a teaspoon of vanilla.
Bon appetit!
P.S. — I really, really would like to see these become a semi-regular OW feature, and not just because I got my name on the front page for it either.
Slightly related
via Steve gilliard’s blog http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/
this absolute gem
Cooking for Engineers
http://www.cookingforengineers.com/
I love the set up of the recipes.
Sour cream dried cherry pie
and The Rule for Pie Crust I sincerely wish I could give you a rule that would allow you to make perfect pie crusts every time. But perfect pie crusts are largely a matter of taste and seem to be…