martha mondays: peach, apricot, and cherry pie

sorry about that political diatribe. it should be an interesting week. but regardless, even if you don't agree with me, hopefully you still keep reading this blog! because food knows no political bounds :)

this lovely martha monday pie was made about a month ago. i rushed to get it done by the date i picked out and then didn't have any time to get it posted, but better late than never (i think?!)



despite the fact that i just bought a bunch of grapes, i do normally like to stay within season for my fruits and vegetables. i'm not so much a fruit pie person (you either are or you aren't) but it would seem heresy to let summer pass by without at least one fruit pie baked. i tend to like the pies in the old standby book, but wanted to give martha a try.



this was easy enough to assemble (although i did not have time to do the lattice) and pretty much your standard pie filling technique. i wasn't exactly fond of the flavors - i think it was the cherries that bothered me - but mr. mimi loved it. and of course, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and almost anything turns into delish!



the next martha monday will be on september 8th. keeping with the summer theme, the recipe will be the tomato tart on p. 268 - pretty simple but a great addition to any one's labor day picnic! if you want to join me, simply make the tart and post about it on september 8th. if you email me a link, i will make sure to include you on my post.



peach, apricot, and cherry pie
from martha's baking handbook (2005, p. 236)

i'm omitting the recipe part for the dough, so just use whatever one that's handy!
1 lb fresh peaches, pitted and sliced into 1/4 inch wedges
1 lb fresh aprictos, pitted and sliced into sixths
1 lb fresh sweet cherries, pitted and halved
2/3 cup sugar (increase to 3/4 if you like a more sweet pie)
3 tb cornstarch
1/4 coarse salt
juice of 1 lemon
2 tb butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk
1 tb heavy cream
sanding sugar for sprinkling (optional)

1. in large bowl, toss together peaches, apricots, and cherries. add sugar, cornstarch, salt, and lemon juice; toss to combine.

2. spoon mixture into chilled pie shell, mounding fruit in the middle (to make sure it doesn't get soggy, fill the pie shell right before you're ready to cover). dot with butter. brush rim of pie shell with water and cover with lattice, or entirely. if you cover entirely, make sure to cut some steam slits. in small bowl, whisk egg yolk and cream and brush on top. generously sprinkle with some sanding sugar. freeze or refrigerate pie for 30 minutes until firm.

3. meanwhile preheat oven to 400F with rack in lower third. place pie on parchment lined baking sheet. bake until crust begins to turn golden, about 20 minutes. reduce oven temp to 350F. continue baking, rotating halfway through, until crust is deep golden brown and juices are bubbling and thickened, about 40-50 minutes more. let cool completely and enjoy!

please check out lil miz lynn over at bites and pieces who made an awesome looking pie!

twd: florida lime pie

for this week's tuesdays with dorie, dianne of dianne's dishes choose the lovely dorie variation on the classic key lime pie. after all the more rich peanut butter tortes out there last week, i was really looking forward to everyone's light, refreshing lime pies.



the variation here is the coconut cream layer on the bottom, plus the coconut meringue. i like coconut, but i'm not a fan, i really wouldn't go out of my way for it. so i chose to only do the cream layer. and because i'm even less of a fan of meringue, i also chose to do a simple whipped cream for garnish (although i have to admit i walked away while the lovely KA was whipping, and i came back to almost butter, woops!) i also added a little bit of zest to the filling because i am a firm believer that limey things should be puckery tart!





even though graham cracker crusts are easy enough to make, dorie says that she usually just buys a store crust. well, if it's good enough for dorie, it's darn good enough for moi! especially when i find myself at 22:30 on monday night just starting to make this thing! to make myself feel a little better, i opted for an organic crust. it was 9" but maybe a little shallow because with the cream layer and lime filling, it went right up to the top.

coconut cream layer


i wasn't terribly fond of the coconut cream layer, but mr. mimi liked this pie lot. then again, you'd be hard put to find a sweet treat that mr. mimi doesn't like! just kiddin' hunny!! but i prefer the full tartness of a classic key lime pie. if i were to make this one over again, i probably would at least toast the coconut first.

i really wanted to make candied lime slices and rim around the crust, but again, the 22:30 on a monday night kind of made that a no-go. i hope someone else did, because i'd love to see how it looks! to catch up with all the other TWD bakers, check out here.



florida lime pie: serves 8
adapted from dorie's baking (2006, p. 340)

1 9" graham cracker crust
1 1/3 cups heavy cream
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
4 large eggs yolks
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup fresh key (or regular) lime juice (from about 5 regular limes)
1 tb of fresh lime zest

1. preheat oven to 350F. put pie plate on baking sheet lined with parchment.

2. on medium low, heat the cream and coconut in small saucepan. bring to boil, stir almost constantly. continue to cook and stir until the cream is reduced by half and mixture is slightly thickened. set aside.

3. with mixer and paddle attachment, beat egg yolks at high speed until thick and pale. reduce to low and beat in condensed milk. add half of the lime juice and mix. add the remaining juice and zest and mix until well incorporated.

4. spread coconut cream layer in bottom of pie pan. pour lime filling on top.

5. bake pie for 14-16 minutes (should look set but still a little quivery; this time is longer because i didn't use the meringue). transfer to cooling rack, let cool completely, and then refrigerate until cold or next day. serve with dollop of fresh cream!

mini veggie pot pie for the revolution!

when it was announced that pot pies were the theme for this month's revolution, i was psyched. i love me some yummy pot pies. the only problem is that i kind of stopped eating them when i became vegetarian again. sure, there are veggie pot pies, but what i really loved and craved were steaming hot chicken pot pies of wonder years gone by. so since then (seven years ago?) i have been deprived of the singular pleasure of the deliciousness of creaminess covered in pie dough. then last winter i said, enough of this denial, i need a pot pie! we made one from deborah madison and it was like a dream. so creamy, so full of vegetables. but i just couldn't help but feel like it was missing ... chicken :(

so for a chance at a redux, i couldn't wait! especially tonight when it's so windy cold on the first day of spring! this time we went with the mr. mimi SOP (standard operating procedure) recipe. and because i didn't want to be bothered with cooking an entire chicken from the farmer's market in advance, i decided to use fake chicken. haha. i know! what was i thinking?


because a bit of time management issues, i had to make the pie dough this afternoon. typically i like to make the dough at least a day in advance so it gets a real good chill before rolling and baking, but it is what it was. i had been wanting to try out the flaky pie dough recipe given by julia. remember the old adage to trust your eyes (and nose and fingers) when baking and not the recipe? you know, if it says brown in 30 minutes and yours is brown in 20 minutes, take it out of the oven! yes, i do know this. and yet, as i was streaming in the cup of ice water i could hear myself: "self, look how it's all balling together moist, i think this is enough water, despite the fact that i still have a good 1/3 cup left." and then you know what i did?? i foolishly continued: "self, but julia says 1 cup, so there goes 1 cup!" of course you know the rest of the story. it was a wet, gluteny, ball of dough. sure it would be edible. but it wouldn't be flaky.

faced with either: (a) buying some puff pastry or (b) using that wet ball anyway i decided on (c) let's try another round. this time i used the old recipe from joy of cooking that i've done before. and this time i trusted myself. came together crumbly but slightly moist. it looked and felt like the beginning of the perfect measure of flakiness!



so here are two little mini veggie pot pies with faux chicken. aesthetically, i wished the top browned a little more but they were absolutely delish (even if i did run out of top crust because i mistook how big my so-called "single serving size" le creuset dishes are!) i can't wait to see what our next revolutionary tactic will be!

oh yeah, and next time ... i think i'll get a real chicken from the farmer's market :)

daring baker's challenge: lemon meringue pie

pucker up!

this was my first daring baker's challenge. even in this short month, i have learned so much, read many a cool blog, and "met" some very awesome fellow bakers. lemon meringue pie was chosen by jen at the canadian baker. i was excited because this recipe was quite different than others that i am used to. there were a couple of things that made me pause ... like the cornstarch thickening method, the lack of mentioning the fork prick for blind baking (although that could have been somewhere else in the book, and assumed throughout for the recipes), the long heating time, and adding the juice at the end of the thickening process. but one baker's worries are another baker's quirks so i was looking forward to seeing whether this would all come together.

unfortunately it did not!

nice crust
first, the good ... i would have preferred a pâte brisée crust, but i was super excited that for my the first time i was really patient, and trusting, about the crust. typically i overwet my dough, because it seems incredulous that something so dry and crumbly can come together for a dough. it tastes okay, but is never as flaky as i hope. this time, i really put faith in the process. when i balled it up to refrigerate i was like this is never going to work. but when i rolled it out, it was perfect, or at least as close to perfect as it has ever been!! so score one for the crust.

lemon soup?
but now the bad ... my lemon curd was coming along beautifully, thick and smooth. then i added the lemon juice and it became a watery disaster. now, this could be a case of bad recipe method, or my worries willed it to happen, or just plain bad luck. but in any case, it wasn't salvageable. i did fill the pie, and topped with meringue, but the filling just never came to set.

all in all, i'm so happy i tried this out. it's not ending up as one of my favorite recipes for lemon meringue pie, but it's been such fun trying it out with the other daring bakers! i look forward to what next's month challenge brings!!
because there was such inconsistent results by my fellow daring bakers, i can't whole heartedly encourage others to use this recipe. but because some people did have success, if you want to try it yourself, go to jen's blog here.

and to read everyone else's lemon meringue challenge, visit the daring baker's blogroll!

well, it did look pretty on the outside!

pie for breakfast?

two years ago i bought the joy of cooking, all about pies and tarts. i am not even a sweets person, but i love baking, especially in the colder months. i easily made some very delicious key lime pie, banana cream pie, and pear streusel. easily because the crust was either pat in the pan butter crust or graham cracker. last summer i tried making peach pie with the standard flaky pastry dough, and although tasty, the crust left much to be desired. it certainly didn't look like the cover!

at our last grocery shop we bought a bagful of organic braeburn apples. they were unbelievably tart, like sour patch kids but without the benefit of being a sticky chewy candy. you couldn't eat them. left with 6 or 7 apples, we decided to bake my first apple pie last night.

as you can see, a year of not baking did nothing to improve my flaky pastry dough methods! i do the cutting part well, but i am so unsure about the moisture part. i'm always afraid i'm adding too much water, but it never seems to be the right consistency. i know that baking is a lot about how it feels, but since i've never felt it "right," i don't know what i should be striving for. at the same time, i know i am doing something wrong, as the dough is difficult to roll out and it bakes up definitely flaky, but not amazingly flaky. if any one is reading this and has any suggestions, please write a comment!

apple pie: one 9-inch pie, serves 6-8

from joy of cooking, all about pies and tarts (2002, p. 38)

flaky pastry dough

2 1/2 lb apples (about 5-6 medium)

3/4 cup sugar

2-3 tb all-purpose flour

1 tb lemon juice

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp salt

2 tb unsalted butter, small pieces

1. pre-heat oven to 425f with rack in lower third. peel, core, and slice apples 1/4 inch thick (for 6 cups). combine with sugar, flour, lemon juice, cinnamon, and salt. let stand for 15 minutes, gently stirring several times.

2. pour mixture into bottom crust and level. dot the top with butter. brush the edge of the bottom crust with cold water and cover with the top crust. seal the edge, trim, and cut steam vents. sprinkle top with sugar and cinnamon.

ready to put cover on

3. bake pie for 30 minutes. slip a baking sheet underneath, reduce heat to 350f, and bake until the fruit feels just tender when knife pokes through steam vent. juices should just begin to bubble out. it should take about 30-45 minutes.

4. cool on rack for 3-4 hours. eat to your heart's delight! we made it late last night, so it became breakfast this morning :)

sunday breakfast