First Pie of the Season

A couple of weeks ago, while Mom was at Grandma's, she called looking for a raspberry pie recipe from the cookbook that Rachel got from Aunt Fay (a really cool old cookbook that Rachel found another copy of and copied all of Aunt Fay's notes into and gave to me as a gift, one of the most thoughtful and creative gifts I have ever been given). There weren't any that really fit what she was looking for. But we picked a blueberry pie recipe to substitute with raspberries. I forgot to ask how it turned out, it sounded good though.

This made me start thinking about pie, my favorite dessert to both bake and eat. Last weekend, Frank invited some friends over to play dominoes and promised dessert. With fall in the air and pie on the mind, I found a Cranberry Apricot Surprise Pie recipe to make. The pie crust recipe included with the pie required resting in the fridge overnight so I decided to make my current favorite All American Pie crust.

The pie was delicious. Cait said it tasted like thanksgiving. Every last piece of the pie was eaten before the evening was over. I loved the hint of almond extract in the cranberry filling, but I think I cut the apricots too small, because they weren't detectible in the strong cranberry flavor. Next time, I will only cut them in half, so that they are in larger more discernable pieces. This is the first time that I have made a crumb with vanilla in it, but it was really good, you couldn't even tell it was made with whole wheat flour. I can see this becoming my new favorite crumb recipe. Also I meant to take a picture of a slice before serving but I forgot. This is a shame, because it was really pretty with three distinct layers.

Cran-Apricot Surprise Pie
From King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking

Your favorite pie crust recipe

Cream Cheese Filling:
8 ounces cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 pinches of salt
1 large egg

Fruit Filling:
Heaping 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
1 cup coarsely chopped dried apricots
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup water
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Crumb topping:
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons cold butter

• Prepare your favorite pie crust recipe. Roll out and place in 9-inch pie pan. Trim and crimp the edges. Chill crust in the fridge while you prepare the filling.



• Cheesecake filling: Combine the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla salt an egg in a mixing bowl and beat slowly until the mixture is nearly smooth.



• Fruit filling: Combine the cranberries, dried apricots, sugar, water and lemon juice in a large saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is syrupy and nearly all absorbed, 18 - 25 minutes. Remove from the heat, and stir in the extracts salt and butter.



• Crumb topping: Whisk together the flour, oats, nuts, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl. Stir in the vanilla. Cut the butter into small cubes, and work into the dry ingredients (I used my fingers), till the mixture is evenly crumbly.



• Assemble and bake: Preheat the oven to 375. Remove the crust from the fridge. Spoon the cream cheese filling into the bottom. Gently dollop the fruit filling on top. Sprinkle with the crumb topping, spreading it evenly over the fruit. Bake the pie until it's bubbly and the streusel and crust are golden brown, about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and wait at least an hour before cutting.

All American Double Crust

I hate it when you watch cooking shows that talk about how easy it is to make pie and then make an all butter crust and act like it is the simplest thing. Pie crust isn’t that difficult to do once you understand the technique. If you are just learning or have struggled with pie crust in the past, do yourself a favor and make a shortening crust. It is more forgiving to work with because the shortening doesn’t melt as easily as butter. I like the Crisco recipe, I think it tastes great and use it all the time when I want something easy to work with. Even though it won’t have the flavor of butter, I guarantee it will taste better than those store bought crusts.

The crust recipe below is my current favorite crust. It is sort of in between the Criso crust and an all butter crust. It has the flavor of a butter crust, but is a little bit easier to work with. It definitely needs to chill about an hour before trying to roll out. When I know I am going to make pie, I like to make the crust a day or two ahead and let it rest in the fridge overnight. Also, even if I only need a single crust, I like to make the full recipe and freeze one of the disks. It freezes well and makes for quick baking the next time I want to make pie. I just let it defrost in the fridge overnight or on the counter for about an hour. I think it is actually easier to roll after being frozen.

All American Double Crust
Adapted from Apple Pie by Ken Haedrich

3 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup cold butter, cut into ¼ inch pieces
½ cup cold shortening, cut into pieces
½ cup ice cold water

• Put flour, sugar and salt in a food processor; pulse several times to mix.
• Scatter shortening pieces over flour and pulse 5 to 6 times to cut in the shortening.
  
• Fluff the mixture with the fork. Scatter the butter pieces over the flour and pulse another 5-6 times. Fluff the mixture again.
• Drizzle half of the water over the mixture and pulse 5 to 6 times. Fluff and sprinkle on the rest of the water. Pulse 5-6 times until pastry starts to form clumps. It will look like coarse crumbs.
• Dump mixture onto counter and squeeze some between your fingertips. If it is dry and not packable, drizzle a teaspoon or so of water and work it in with your fingertips. Divide the pastry into two balls and flatten into a disk. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and chill in fridge for at least 1 hour.

If whatever pie filling I am using has baking directions, I follow those when baking the pie. But if not, I usually bake this pie crust once filled at 375 for about an hour. Pie will be done when fruit fillings get bubbly around the edges and the crust is golden.