Author Archives: David Gürçay-Morris

New year, new Life of Pie

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keep calm and eat more pieAnd here we go, off again on another month of pie-making in a bucolic, wintry New England town. Well, somewhat less wintry this year, what with having been in the mid-60s on Christmas, with freshly-churned mud on the ground instead of new-fallen snow. But nothing cures the Lame Winter Blues like making, baking, and eating 10 pies a week for four weeks running! Not to mention the new video additions this year: excerpts from the BBC’s most excellent show, The Great British Bake Off, which I binge-watched all 6 seasons of this past summer.

For my own part, I’ll be starting us off tomorrow by making an oldie but goodie: a classic lattice-topped blueberry pie with a basic flaky crust of butter and shortening. Still to this day one of my Top 10 Favorite Pies of All Time—and maybe even in the Top 3.

Week 1: Sweet pies — complete!

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6 sweet pies for sampling on Thursday noon.

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That would be, from bottom to top: Apple-Pear in Cheddar Crust Pastry (served with melted sharp cheddar on top); Mixed Berry; Very Cranberry Pear; Cider-Infused Apple; Sour Cream Blackberry; and Cranberry Apple Crumb-top pie.

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We seriously questioned whether we would be able to make it through sampling 6 pies—and that was even with half-size slices (1/16 of the whole pie, rather than 1/8). We need to strategize about this for upcoming weeks, when we’ll have 10 pies to sample (or more if people make more than one!)

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Next week: savory pies!

Red pepper and goat cheese tart

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That’s goat cheese mixed with a egg and layered at the bottom of the crust after it’ been placed in the tart pan. Then a layer of fresh basil leaves on top of the chèvre.

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Then many layers of red pepper rings (about 3 peppers’ worth) with some additional crumbled goat cheese interspersed for variety. Drizzle with honey, sprinkle with salt and black pepper, and bake.

20131226-red-pepper-tart-3Happy Boxing Day!

Pear mincemeat pie, in progress…

Never made a mincemeat pie before. In fact, I don’t think I’ve had mincemeat pie in probably 30 years or more, not since some childhood Christmas vaguely remembered. But as soon as I smelled the mince as it began stewing, a flood of childhood memories came back and I knew that this was precisely what Christmas was supposed to smell like!

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That’s homemade mince there: pears, dried Turkish apricots, dried currants, golden raisins, sliced almonds, orange and lemon peel, brown sugar, spices (nutmeg cloves ginger cinnamon) and brandy. No suet in this one, will try that another time.

20131225-mincemeat-pie-2…and a little autumnal decoration (yes fine it’s winter, I know. Stupid rain melted all the snow right before Christmas anyway…)

Apple butter pumpkin pie, Thanksgiving edition

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So the apple butter pumpkin pie was a big hit—love the flavor from the apple butter, and using the heavy whipping cream instead of evaporated milk gave it a fluffiness I never got from the traditional Libby’s recipe.

Decided to ditch the walnut streusel topping (I really am allergic to nuts, had it confirmed by the allergist) in favor of an improvised sunburst pattern of strips of pastry. Thought it turned out very well, though were I to do this again I would leave the extra perimeter of the bottom crust hanging over the edge while doing the strips of dough, then fold it over the edges and crimp to make a cleaner finish on the outside.

I think this is our new official family pumpkin pie recipe, however!

Sunny spinach pie

This just looked too good to pass up. Best part was, it tasted amazing too! Win-win.

So basically you make a double crust, opening it up to a bit wider than one would for a pie in a pie plate. On the bottom crust you put your spinach-ricotta-spices mixture in a pattern like this:

20131117-sunny-spinach-pie-1Then lay the top crust over it, tucking it in around the central mound of filling, and making sure the outer edges line up with one another. Use a bowl to shape the dough over the central mound (it’ll give it a nice dome shape). Moisten the edges of the two layers and use a fork to crimp them together. Poke the fork tines down through both layers in a circle around the bowl to help bind them together around the center dome.

Then you do a magical slice-and-twist thing around the outer ring of filled pastry to get this:

20131117-sunny-spinach-pie-2It’s pretty amazing!

 

 

Apple butter pumpkin pie, test run

I wanted to try something different for the holiday pumpkin pies this year, beyond the tried and true Libby’s recipe. Found this one that uses apple butter, which sounded pretty brilliant. I love apple butter.

The original recipe called for a nut crust (which I skipped, opting for Purdy’s basic flaky pastry instead) and a walnut streusel topping (which I kept—that’s called compromising with one’s food allergies.)

Baked the pies 2/3 of the way, then took out of the oven to add a walnut streusel topping

Baked the pies 2/3 of the way, then took out of the oven to add a walnut streusel topping

After another bit of baking, the final product

After another bit of baking, the final product

Peach, crème fraîche, & honey pie

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So this is basically a mashup of my end-of-season peach pie with the apricot & crème fraîche tart. It was a lovely lovely thing except that the peaches weren’t as ripe as I would’ve liked.

I had fun with the angled lattice variation (instead of perpendicular) and the scalloped crimping of the crust.

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David’s medieval-style pork, onion & apple pie

…a.k.a. pork chops and applesauce in a double coffin.

20131014-pork-onion-apple-pie-1 20131014-pork-onion-apple-pie-2So I totally just made this one up, based on reading and thinking about the medieval predilection for mixing sweet and savory. I thought of how much I love homemade applesauce with my pork chops, and decided that would be a brilliant pie—with the addition of onions, because I’ve always thought onions and apples went well together.

I checked out some very British recipes for pork pies because I wanted (again, in the medieval vein) where to cook the pork IN the pie not BEFOREHAND. The answer for that turned out to be lower temps (like 250° or 275°) for longer times (2-3 hours). Tin foil to prevent over browning of the crust. Also, a full egg (yolk and white) glaze gave the lid the characteristic golden, glossy look. Rosemary, sage, pepper and salt for spicing. I should check what else I used.

Basically, this pie was absolute heaven—so much so that I was unwilling to share it with anyone! Best lunches ever.

One change for next time: try it with a lard crust instead of the basic flaky, butter-and-shortening crust. I mean really, this is what a lard crust was born to surround.