Happy Thanksgiving to all. Is there any better holiday for foodies, cooks, food lovers, etc? This year I did some pie experiments for two family dinners.
The first was pumpkin pie. Growing up we always had an apple pie and a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, and I always ate the apple. I don't know where I got it in my head that I didn't like pumpkin pie, but I have learned the error of my ways, and although I would still choose apple more often (at least MY apple pie ;)), I now greatly appreciate the pumpkin pie for it's sweet, custardy goodness.
First step to the pie was making the dough for the crust. I use a recipe from Martha Stewart (go to her site and search pate brisee or pie dough) that is butter, flour, sugar, salt and ice water. I love her method of mixing the dough in a food processor. It is super fast and once you've done it a couple times, you know exactly when to stop drizzling in the ice water. I split the dough, putting half in the freezer (since it's only a one-crust pie) and half in the fridge to chill for a half hour to an hour before rolling. After the rest time in the fridge, I got out the dough and checked my pumpkin pie recipe. I would like to take a moment to remind all cooks out there to READ THROUGH a recipe from start to finish before deciding you are ready to embark on the process. I had only read the ingredients for the pie and knew I had them all, but then when I wanted to put it together (about an hour before bedtime the night before the dinner) I read "press dough into pie dish and chill dough in the freezer for 1 hour before baking." Sigh. I went to bed.
The next morning I rolled out the crust. Having rested overnight instead of just an hour, it was a bit tougher to begin with, but soon warmed up just enough. I pressed it into the pie plate and put it in the freezer for an hour. Then I read "place aluminum foil on the dough and pie weights on to to cover the bottom." Argh! Pie weights?!?! (Once again, friends, READ THROUGH recipes.) I didn't have pie weights and remembered you could use dried beans instead... which I also didn't have. I called Papa for help and asked what do I do? For those unfamiliar- pie weights are used in the process of "blind baking" the crust, that is, baking the crust before adding the filling. If you don't weight the crust it can bubble up.
Papa had a great idea to use some gravel from our landscaping, so off I went in search of bean-size gravel in my yard. I washed the gravel and placed it inside the pie in an aluminum foil pouch. The recipe said to bake with the pie weights for 10 minutes, then pull the weights out and bake another 10 minutes. After the first 10 minutes I went to take the weights out and the crust immediately started to shrink up, and it was still very soft, not starting to harden at all yet. I shoved the weight pouch back in and baked it for another few minutes until it looked firmer and when I pulled the weights, it didn't shrink in. Then I put it back in the oven alone, and to my horror, a huge bubble formed after a couple minutes. I pulled the crust and poked the bubble with a fork- but was careful just to break the top layer of the bubble because if the holes when all the way through the crust, the filling would ooze out the bottom. I wasn't sure if I had achieved the right level of crispness, but I was done with these blind baking shenanigans and poured in the filling.
I poured the filling into the pie, but due to the shrinkage of my pie crust, there was more filling that I could use. I did not want to waste this glorious custard-to-be, so I grabbed a couple ramekins, filled them up and baked them off. If only I had a torch, I could have had pumpkin brulee.
The filling is a Paula Dean recipe (look on Food Network's website) that is quite different from the traditional pumpkin pie recipe that is on the back of the pumpkin can. I hadn't even realized this until I compared it after Papa noticed that my pie was lighter in color (no molasses) and has cream cheese in it. Really, it's more like a pumpkin cheese cake pie, but whatever you want to call it, it was really yummy. I did add some nutmeg to it, which Paula didn't call for, but I just can't have a Fall pie without nutmeg.
Pie #2 was another apple pie. This time, I harkened back to a recipe from 1953 that my grandmother used for her apple pie crust. It's called a "stir and roll" crust because there is no chilling of the dough, you literally stir the ingredients and roll it out. This recipe came from an Wesson oil advertisement and uses, you guessed it, oil as the fat. Apparently, my grandmother developed a tweak to this recipe to make it roll better and I did not channel her thoughts well enough because I had a terrible time getting this crust to roll. First off, I just don't think there is enough of it for my pie plate. The pie plate I use is a big of a "deep dish" version, and I'm guessing what Wesson oil had in mind was a shorter sided dish. That aside, this dough had nearly no elasticity to it. It didn't feel to dry, but it cracked terribly, it was very fragile. I was getting frustrated, but knew I had a store-bought pie crust in the freezer in case of emergency, so I was able to maintain my cool, but Erik, seeing my near-quitting attitude said "pretend like failure is not an option." And damnit, I rolled out that dough! Except, it didn't quite roll big enough and so it barely met itself all the way around, and forget having enough to crimp together. I figured I could have a mess in my oven with this situation, so I put the pie plate on a sheet pan lined with aluminum foil. I usually put a pan on the bottom rack in the oven because bubble overs are always possible, but never directly on the sheet pan. When I took a bite of this pie I was shocked at hour crispy the bottom crust was. I couldn't put my finger on why until I remembered my change in procedure. You know how sometimes with a two-crust pie the top is all browned and fully cooked, and the filling is done, but the bottom crust is a bit mushy? Well, if that happens to you, try putting the pie plate on a sheet pan in the oven. I love these types of discoveries! I will probably try this crust again and see if I can discover my grandmother's secret, but I have to say, I missed the butter flavor of my Martha crust.
