Food industry trend-spotters declared 2011 the year of the pie. I am not so sure about that. It’s going to be pretty hard to knock cupcakes off their perch in the number one spot of bakery trends. Pies have been around forever, they are retro, they are comfort food….and in North America – they are often underwhelming. Soggy pastry, lack of fruit, and loads of that fruit sorta sludge you often find in pies. What is that stuff anyway?
I am not completely anti-pies.
I’d thank you for a French gallette. The French know that pastry should be baked well – dark brown – so that it’s crispy – not raw, and loaded with real fruit – no sludge, and that a dollop of pastry cream at the bottom of a pie never hurt anyone.
I also have to confess, that I love to make my own pies. I love making pastry by hand, I love handling the fruit, I love sprinkling on the sugar. And, ok, I really like eating the pies I make. Terrible thing to say, but I do. I’m sorry.
For me, pie season is summer. You move from strength to strength throughout the season – June is tart rhubarb with juicy strawberries. July delivers wild blueberries if you’re lucky. August brings ripe Niagara peaches and on the “shoulder” season peach-blueberry combo. Of course September brings the classic apple pie to close off the season. The pies I make are rustic, verging on ugly. I use the same recipe year after year for the pastry – it never lets me down. There’s just enough dough to cover the bottom of a 9” pie plate, and to fold over the filling. There’s no top – no crimping, no cutesy pastry cut outs. Just one piece of dough, lots of fruit, a titch of Malden salt and a good amount of sugar. They are super easy to make – essential at the cottage – when you want to eat well, but do not want to miss out on any fun on the dock.
This year the wild blueberries barely made their presence known – perhaps victims of too much sunshine and warm weather. (Too much sunshine and warm weather. Does that statement even make sense?) Apparently, however, all this sun is perfect for blackberries – as never have I seen such a bumper crop or tasted such sweet treasures. You have to be brave to pick blackberries though – they are usually in a sunny spot deep in the forest, and defend themselves from predators with loads of prickly branches. The other day I was out with a friend and our daughters and after disturbing a covey of feasting wild grouse, picked enough berries to make two pies in pretty short order. Well, two pies, and a hearty snack for all of us brave berry pickers. I tried not to think about how appealing this blackberry patch would have been to say, a bear, while collecting, and encouraged the girls to sing camp songs loudly as they picked.
As soon as we got home we transformed our berries into pies. I usually make a batch of pastry in the morning and keep it on hand in the fridge – you never know when you are going to bump into perfectly prime fruit – so you need to be prepared. Here’s my recipe…..but don’t forget the vanilla ice cream.
Rustic (Ugly) Fruit PiesFor the pastry:
1 stick (8 tbsp.) unsalted butter – cold, cut into cubes
1 cup organic flour
1 tbsp. sugar
Good pinch of sea salt
3-4 tbsp. cold water
- Mix together the flour, sugar and salt
- Sprinkle in the butter, toss to coat each piece with flour
- Pinch the butter through your fingers, gathering up flour as you do, until mixture resembles a coarse meal
- Sprinkle 3 tbsp. of cold water over the flour mixture (only add more water if necessary)
- Mix well by hand until it forms a single mass
Have no fear! I once had a pastry teacher tell me that “Pastry is like a dog, it senses fear”. Be firm, don’t worry. It’s just a pie! If you work your pastry too much, it’ll be tough – you’ll do better the next time……
- Form into a disk approx. 4-5” in diameter.
- Wrap in parchment and chill for at least one hour or up to two days
To assemble pie:
- Prepare 4 cups of desired fruit
- Toss with sugar, several tbsp. When you think you’ve added enough, add one more tbsp. for good measure
- Season with a pinch of sea salt. Peaches also like vanilla and cinnamon. Blueberries like a little lemon zest.
- Roll out pastry on floured surface until it is 1” bigger than the pie plate
- Carefully place pastry into pie plate
- Sprinkle bottom with a little sugar (Stop worrying about all this sugar – it’s dessert! Besides the sugar helps to thicken the cooking fruit)
- Take any excess flour from your rolling surface and add it to the fruit – this will also help thicken
- Pour fruit onto pastry
- Place a few nobs of butter over the fruit
- Fold over the pastry
- Sprinkle pastry and exposed fruit with a little more sugar
- Bake at 375°F for 30 minutes – or until well, well baked and dark brown
- Allow to cool for 1.5 hours. Serve with vanilla ice cream
