Savory pies are entirely underrated. I’ve never baked a savory pie before so I was incredibly excited this week to explore a new side of what I’ve considered pie. Upon pouring through internet blogs and recipe books, I found I was consistently attracted to pies that centered around cheese. In the end I chose a pie and a galette for some variety. I’ve made fruit galette before, but the idea of a savory one was novel and exciting. The galette contained tri-color potato, caramelized onion, goat cheese, and fresh rosemary while the pie was a brie, apple, prosciutto sweet and savory mix.

The galette was taken from a blog called Nothing From the House which was entirely dedicated to making pies. It was incredibly straightforward and simple to make. First I made the dough using the vodka trick where I substituted half of the water with vodka in order to make the pastry extra fluffy and light when the vodka evaporated. Then I cut the potatoes, caramelized the onions, and layered them on the rolled out dough adding dollops of cheese and pieces of rosemary on top. The only addition I made was that I used herbed goat cheese with thyme. I was pleasantly surprised by how colorful the miniature potatoes were and if I had made the galette again, I might have added a bit more potato. As it was, I found the galette to be delicious. The vodka trick made a noticeable improvement and although there was a large crust to filling ratio, the rosemary flavored the crust well. I liked this recipe because the pie felt light and airy with little filling which is not the case for many pies.

The brie and apple pie was also taken from Nothing From the House which I found to be filled with incredibly innovative recipes. This pie was intriguing because I haven’t heard of many pies that combine the sweet and savory elements so completely.  First, I made a standard double crust then cooked the apples in cinnamon, sugar, and spices. The most strenuous portion of the entire pie process was peeling and coring the seven miniature granny smith apples that were used.  To put the pie together, I layered prosciutto on the bottom near the crust and poured the apple filling inside. Then on top, I spread slices of brie and covered the entire pie with a lattice. The overall effect was a sweet, smoky taste. It was certainly an incredibly different and exotic flavor set, and I felt pretty ambivalent about it. I loved the flavor complexity, but I was torn as to whether it was just a little too weird.

<3 Steph