Berry Pie

One of the food blogs I follow is Feast for the Eyes. She recently posted a recipe for a berry pie.  It has probably been over 20 years since I have made a pie crust from scratch.  Marie Callenders' frozen crusts have been used a lot.

But I decided to try this crust and it came out pretty well,

although I would like to have rolled it thinner, but I didn't have the patience.  It was still a very tasty crust, and the pie was delicious!  I used a combination of blueberries, cranberries, raspberries, and frozen olallieberries*.

          For the crust:

     12 tablespoons very cold unsalted butter

     ⅓ cup very cold Crisco

     3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon sugar

6-8 tablespoons ice water (about 1/2 cup)

           For the berries:

8 cups of fresh or frozen berries

1 cup sugar (less, if the berries aren't tart

5 Tbsp. cornstarch

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 pinch kosher salt

pats of butter under the crust

OPTIONAL

1 egg and splash water (for egg wash)

For the pie crust:

Dice the butter and Crisco. Return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the flour mixture.  Make your ice water now, too.

Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl. (Or use these directions to make your pie crust.**  )

Add the butter and shortening.  Cut in with a pastry cutter until the butter and Crisco are the size of small peas.

Pour the ice water in, starting with the smaller amount, until the dough begins to form a ball.

Dump out on a floured board and roll into a ball.  Divide into two parts and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Roll each piece on a well-floured board into a circle.

Fold the dough in half, place in a 10-inch pie plate, and unfold to fit the pan.  Place back in refrigerator.  Roll out the top crust.  Wrap back in plastic and return to refrigerator until needed.  

(I've found the crust to be very thick because it uses 1/2 C more flour than most for a 2-crust pie.  I tried rolling it thinner, and it wasn't as good.)

For the berry filling:

Pick any stems and debris from the fresh berries.  Rinse and drain.

Combine cornstarch with the sugar and whisk to combine.

Add the sugar to the berries and allow to sit for a few minutes.

Taste to check for tartness.

Once you have the bottom layer of the pie crust in the pie plate, poke the bottom with a fork a few times.

Add the berries.

If desired, you can add a few pats of butter.

Cover with the top pie crust.

Cut slits for steam to escape.

Crimp to seal both pie crusts.

Whisk egg and water and brush the egg wash over the pie crust, before baking, if desired. This gives a nice golden color to the pie. If you have coarse sugar, it’s a nice tough to sprinkle some on top, if desired.

On a baking sheet, place the pie into a 375F oven and bake for about 50 minutes, or until golden.

Allow to cool for at least 4 hours before serving for the juices to set.

* Olallieberry: a blackish berry that is a hybrid of a loganberry and youngberry, resembles an elongated blackberry,

**King Arthur Pie Crust

Challah from the Artisan Bread Book

Challah bread, eggy, buttery, and delicious!

Traditional challah braid

An artisan bread recipe was introduced to me by a friend, who was given the recipe by a Pampered Chef representative.  I tried that recipe, but I also found one in the America’s Test Kitchen Baking Book.  (I liked this recipe because of the slightly sourdough flavor.)   And further research also lead me to this website (http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/) and their cookbook (Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day  by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois).

The recipes in the book are different from the other two mentioned above in that they make dough that makes several loaves of bread, rather than just one loaf.  (The rest of the dough is stored in the refrigerator or frozen for later use.)  The recipe below is for half the normal recipe, and I baked the whole batch in an 8” x 4” loaf pan.  

 

Recipe can be doubled or quadrupled

1 packet of yeast (2 ¼ teaspoon)

2 ¼ teaspoon kosher salt

2 eggs, lightly beaten

¼ C honey

¼ C melted unsalted butter or vegetable oil

7/8 C lukewarm water________________

3 ½ C unbleached all-purpose flour

Egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 Tbsp water)

Sesame or poppy seeds for top

In a large bowl mix together the ingredients above the line.  Mix in the flour without kneading, using a spoon, large-capacity food processor or heavy-duty stand mixer.  If you’re not using a machine, you may need to use wet hands to incorporate the last bit of flour.

Cover (not airtight), and allow to rest at room temperature until the dough rises and collapses (or flattens on top), approximately 2-3 hours.

The dough can be used immediately after the initial rise, though it is easier to handle when cold.  Refrigerate in a lidded (not airtight) container and use over the next 5 days.  

(Beyond 5 days, freeze in 1-pound portions in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks.  Defrost frozen dough overnight in the refrigerator before using.  Then allow the usual rest and rise time.)

On baking day, butter or grease a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper.  Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-size) piece.  Dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go.

You can then braid it as is traditional.  (See book, pp. 181-2 for further instructions or click how-to-six-strand-braided-challah  using all the bread dough for a 6-strand braid.)

(I formed 2 dough balls using all the dough, and placed them into a greased 8” x 4” loaf pan, separated by a greased piece of foil, so I would have 2 smaller loaves.)

Allow the bread to rest and rise for 80 minutes (or 40 minutes if you are using fresh, unrefrigerated dough). 

Preheat the oven to 350.  Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with seeds, if desired. (I forgot to do this.)

 

Bake near the center of the over for about 25-35 minutes.  Smaller or larger loaves will require adjustments in baking time.  The challah is done when golden brown, and the braids near the center of the loaf offer resistance to pressure.  Due to the fat in the dough, challah will not for a hard, crackling crust. 

Allow to cool before slicing or eating.