Classic Peach

Those of you who know me know that I loathe summer. Oh how I detest the long, muggy days and blinding sunlight; how I dream of cooler climates (I even stop Blaming Canada and fantasize about retreating up there). Many times I have said that the only good thing about summer in St. Louis is the peaches. Save the rare cool day that gives you a whiff of fall and reminds you that there is an end in sight, peaches are the best thing about the long, hot Midwestern summer.  

So last week I got half a peck of peaches at the farmers' market. That is entirely too many peaches for one person, so I had to make two different kinds of peach treats in one week. This is the first - classic peach pie.

You will notice in the picture below that there are few ingredients in my peach pie - just white sugar, salt, tapioca (or cornstarch or flour), butter and a touch of lemon juice. The flavor of the peaches is so bright, so delicious that it should not be muddied by any spices. In fact, I wouldn't even use brown sugar in this pie. Cinnamon and nutmeg certainly have no business being in a peach pie. Not even a hint of either is appropriate, despite what the smittenkitchen writer says. Not only do they not enhance the peach flavor, but they are classic fall spices that are out of place in a summer pie. (Don't get me wrong, cinnamon has its place. I tried an apple pie in Scotland that contained no spices, and it screamed for a dash of cinnamon). 

Anyway, I turned on Matthew Sweet's 'Girlfriend' and got to work. By the way, thanks, Ryan, for recommending a bittersweet album. You really know what's right for someone feeling a bit down. Jerk.

Not pictured: one small lemon

 First, I peeled 12 small peaches (equivalent to 9-10 large peaches) in the manner seen here.

Then I mixed the peaches with 1/2 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons tapioca, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon lemon juice. In this instance, I used tapioca, which I have not used much in the past, having instead opted for cornstarch. While I disagree with the smittenkitchen writer about cinnamon, she is correct about tapioca. She suggests you grind it in a coffee grinder before adding it to the filling. This will allow for a somewhat runnier filling than if you leave the beads intact. I agree that the filling in this pie was too gelatinous; peach pie should have a slightly runnier quality because peaches are so delightfully juicy. I want my classic pies like this one to seem as if they could have been made by my great-great-grandmother. They do not have to form perfect slices. So I recommend cornstarch in lieu of tapioca or, as I said, grinding the tapioca.

Besides, the tapioca beads don't exactly look appetizing, especially if I'm going for blog-worthy pictures.

Next I rolled out my pie crust.

Once the filling had been sitting for 15 minutes, I poured it (along with all the juice) in the dough-lined pie dish and dotted it with 2 tablespoons of butter.

 Then I made a lattice crust, brushed it with egg whites, and sprinkled it with a few teaspoons of sugar.

I always cover the edges of a pie with this type of crust because it tends to burn

I baked it at 425 degrees for 30 minutes, reduced the heat to 350 and baked for an additional 30 minutes.

So the crust developed a delightful crunch on top, and the filling was nice 'n bubbly.

See how this is not runny at all?

Notice the gelatinous quality of the filling.

Peach Pie

The day before, make the crust seen here.

Filling:

9-10 or about 2 lbs of peaches
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons minute tapioca, cornstarch or flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Peel the peaches and slice them into 1/2-inch thick slices. Mix in sugar, tapioca or cornstarch, salt, and lemon juice. Set aside for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile roll out pie dough. Line the bottom of the pie dish with the dough and pour in the peach filling. Dot with 2 tablespoons of butter. Roll out the remaining dough and cover the pie with either a pricked top or lattice crust.

Bake at 425 for 30 minutes (this will bake the crust; it should be lightly brown after 30 minutes). Reduce temperature to 350 (to finish cooking the filling) and continue baking 30-45 minutes or until filling is bubbly.

Set aside for at least three hours or overnight before serving.

Share and enjoy!

Tried-and-true Pie Crust

This post is for you, Kelsey. The recipe is simple and always garners compliments. Consequently, I haven't tried many variations on it. Why mess with vinegar or cold butter when I know this one's a winner?

There are very few ingredients: 1 cup vegetable shortening, 2 cups flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon baking powder, 1 egg, and a touch of water.  (I noticed the store now carries butter-flavored vegetable shortening. I'm tempted to try it, but I loathe any artificial flavoring. Has anyone tried it before?).  

Add 1/4 teaspoon of salt to 2 cups of flour.

And add 1/4 teaspoon baking powder. The baking powder gives the crust a flakier quality and makes the dough a little more forgiving of being overworked.

Stir the flour mixture with a fork, then drop in the shortening.

Now comes the fun part! Set aside your pastry blender and mix the shortening and flour with your hands. By rubbing the mixture between your thumb and fingers, it will start to develop a cornmeal-like texture.

The mixture doesn't have to be perfectly uniform as long as the shortening is broken into small pieces.

Next, break an egg into a measuring cup and add cold water until it reaches 1/2 a cup.

And beat the egg mixture with a fork.

Then pour it over the flour mixture.

And mix it gently with your hands until all of the flour is wet and it forms into a ball. It's important not to overmix the dough here. You want the small beads of shortening to remain intact because they create the flaky layers when you roll it out.

Then wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. It really needs to be refrigerated overnight. Despite what cookbooks say, three hours is not enough.

Pie Crust

This is my mom's recipe. The recipe says it makes three single crusts, but I think it's more like two and a half or enough for one deep-dish pie.

2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup shortening
1 egg

Add salt and baking powder to flour, mix
Cut in shortening until the mixture resembles cornmeal or a coarse meal, set aside
Break egg into measure cup
Add cold water until it reaches 1/2 a cup, mix
Add egg/water mixture to flour mixture and mix gently until it all holds together
Form into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight

When you roll it out, use lots of flour on the rolling pin and surface.

Banana Cream Pie

This is my I'm-about-to-start-a-new-job banana cream pie. I also made this to allay my post-vacation depression. And because I have the new iPod, which happily contains a Bananarama record (really, how could I resist?). "Cruel Summer" perfectly captures my mood at the moment because it is so miserably hot here and I'm sadly missing someone far away. And did I mention Bananarama is super British? 

I'm not sure why I always double recipes - I don't need one pie, let alone two. However, this week, having an extra pie in my refrigerator was fortuitous (who has made-from-scratch pies just lying around with no one to eat them? Seriously.) I gave it to the x-ray techs who gave me a free x-ray on my foot, which I suspected I broke hiking in Scotland. Turns out it's just a stress fracture, and I'm a giant wuss. Whoops. Pie in exchange for the pointless use of medical resources seems like a fair trade, right? I think they got the better end of the deal because this pie was delicious.  

I bought two different pie crusts, but only got to try the graham cracker.

First, I separated ten eggs (for 2 pies).

I really tried to keep them all intact. But I'm a failure at food blogging.

Then I whisked together in a saucepan 1 1/3 cups of sugar, 1/2 cup cornstarch, and 1/2 a teaspoon of salt, and gradually whisked in 5 cups of whole milk.  

Then vigorously whisked in 10 large egg yolks until no yellow streaks remained. And brought it to a simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly with a heatproof rubber spatula until it got thick. This took about 40 minutes, in part because I doubled the recipe and in part because I was overly cautious about burning the custard.  

Then I removed it from the heat, scraped the sides of the saucepan, and whisked vigorously 
with my noodle arms until smooth (I count this as a workout). 

Then returned it to the heat until it simmered and whisked it for one minute. I removed it from the heat and whisked in 3 teaspoons of vanilla and 5 tablespoons of unsalted butter, cut into small pieces. There was a lot of whisking involved in the making of this pie.  

Next, I sliced six bananas into about 1/4 inch thick slices.

Then I layered 1/3 of the filling into the pie tins and artfully arranged a layer of banana slices atop it. 

And added another layer of filling and another Martha Stewart layer of banana slices.

And another…

So that 1/3 of the filling was reserved for a top layer.

Then I covered it with plastic wrap and refrigerated it overnight. (Don't worry - the plastic wrap doesn't stick.)  

The next day, I turned on some Kylie Minogue, because I just spent two weeks listening to Nick Drake and 10,000 Maniacs while staring out of train windows at the rainy coasts of Scotland. Some days you just need some throwback slutty pop.  

And I made some stabilized whipped cream, which was a first. It's just whipped cream with gelatin in it that prevents it from going flat.

I poured 2 tablespoons of cold water over 1 teaspoon of unflavored gelatin in a heat-proof glass and let it sit for 5 minutes. 

Then I placed the cup in simmering water until the gelatin melted.

Once it melted, I set it aside to cool.

Meanwhile...

I put 2 cups of heavy cream into the wonderful KitchenAid mixer and turned it on medium-high speed. And while it mixed added 4 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. As the cream began to thicken, I added the cooled gelatin.

Which actually gave the whipped cream a weird consistency visually; although, it tasted smooth.

And grated some dark chocolate over the top to make it look fancy without the additional work and fuss of piping the whipped cream on.

Banana Cream Pie (makes 1 pie - adapted from The Joy of Cooking)

1 premade graham cracker crust (or Nilla Wafer crust, which I imagine is delicious)

Filling:

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups whole milk

5 large egg yolks

2-3 tablespoons of butter, cut into small pieces

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla 

3 almost ripe bananas, sliced 1/4 inch thick

Whisk in a medium-heavy saucepan until well blended the sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Gradually whisk in the milk. Vigorously whisk in the egg yolks until no yellow streaks remain. Stirring constantly with a heatproof rubber spatula, bring to a simmer over medium heat until it thickens. Remove from heat, scrape the pan, and whisk until smooth. Return to heat, whisking constantly, bring to a simmer, and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat and whisk in butter and vanilla.  

Layer 1/3 of the filling into the crust, top with a layer of banana slices, top with another 1/3 of the filling, and repeat. 

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.  

Whipped Cream:

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon cold water

1/2 teaspoon unflavored gelatin

Pour the cold water over the gelatin in a heatproof glass and set aside for 5 minutes. Bring water to a simmer in a saucepan and place the glass in the saucepan until the gelatin melts. Set aside to cool. Mix heavy cream on medium-high heat, adding sugar and vanilla as you go. As it thickens, add the gelatin. 

Spread the whipped cream over the pies and top with grated dark chocolate if you're so inclined.

Share & enjoy!

A Scottish Pie (that won't be going on my list)

Thank you, Ryan

A few months ago, I texted my brother to suggest that he buy me a new iPod "to support the blog." The request was in jest (sort of), and it almost revealed this blog for what it is - an elaborate ruse to get people to buy me the things I want. (See my prior post entitled "Goodies.")

I needed new music to play when I'm baking. Really, how many pies can I make while weeping into the filling over Emmylou Harris' 'Wrecking Ball'? Ryan was sympathetic to the temporary lack of income that prevents me from buying myself luxury items. So he got me a 160GB iPod and put all of his music on it. There is so much to explore! I am very excited and utterly spoiled by my big brother. Now that I have a job and can't use unemployment as an excuse for free stuff, I feel far too spoiled. But I'll consider it a generous early birthday gift and make sure Ryan gets a pie every time he visits. Ryan even put a thoughtful inscription on it: "Pie-making Music." Aw.

I should also take this moment to thank my friend Jon for donating to the blog. He gave me an apple peeler and a strawberry huller (I didn't even know that was a thing). I can't wait to try them out!

Black and Gold Pie (Fail) and Good News!

I'm having a great week, even though it was 108 degrees the other day, which made me feel a tinge murderous. The blog reached 1,000 pageviews (thank you, Ryan, for viewing my blog 1,000 times - you must be very sad not to be here to try my pies). More importantly, I got a job! And I don't start until the end of July, so I have time to dash off to Scotland for a couple of weeks to beat the heat, have an adventure, and maybe try some meat pies.  

When I was waiting anxiously to hear whether I got the job, I decided to try a new recipe in order to take my mind off the worry. The idea was a black and gold pie - blackberry and peach - as a nod to my alma mater, Mizzou. This was an ill-conceived idea from the get-go because the filling turned out magenta. Color problem aside, the filling didn't taste as good as I had hoped. I don't think the blackberries complemented the peaches very well. A plain old peach pie would have been much better (peach is my favorite pie - mmmmmm). Compounding the problem, I tried a butter crust for the first time, and it was an utter failure. 

I used the same recipe that I normally use for crust but simply replaced the shortening with butter. I cut in cold butter using the pastry blender, and the texture turned out very promising.

Things were looking good, but I got to talking to my brother on the phone and let this sit out for too long, so the butter was no longer cold when I added the egg. Consequently, the crust wasn't flaky enough. Butter is finicky; it is much easier to blend shortening, which does not have to be kept cold. 

I tried rolling it out in wax paper, which didn't actually make things any easier. Rolling butter dough is difficult because it becomes sticky as it gets warmer. I overworked the dough, so it ended up being chewy when I baked it. Pie dough fail!

I peeled nine peaches using the method seen here, then sliced them into one-inch wedges. 

Then I mixed the peaches with a pint of blackberries, 4 tablespoons of cornstarch, 3/4 cup of sugar, the juice from 1 small lemon, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. The filling ended up with a cornstarchy (yep, that's a word) texture. Four tablespoons of cornstarch was too much; it made for a weird texture and yet the filling didn't set up properly. The filling was extremely juicy after letting it stand for 15 minutes, and I added all the liquid. My mom made a peach pie the same day, using two tablespoons of cornstarch but did not add all the juice. Instead she used a slotted spoon to add the filling to the pan. Her filling set up properly; mine was too soupy.  

Then I dotted it with two tablespoons of butter and made this lovely lattice crust.

I brushed it with egg whites and sprinkled the top with sugar. It turned out quite beautiful. But this pie was like a vapid, pretty girl - all looks and no substance. 

In keeping with my theme, I shared the pie with my favorite Mizzou girls. But I felt bad giving them pie that wasn't as tasty as I'd hoped. 

Lovely college besties - Jenny (left) and Erin (right)

It was probably a C- outcome, but I'm a perfectionist, so I consider it a pie fail. But the idea of this blog is to keep track of the successes and failures. Trial and error!