Sunday, January 11, 2015

Black and Blueberry Pie


You know how I carried on a few weeks ago about how crazy and practically un-American it was not to like cookies?  Well, here's your chance to throw that all back at me because I will confess that I don't like fruit pies.  Yes, no fruit pies for me, even though they're as American as you-know-what.  When I first got the cookbook, I looked at the number of fruit pies in it, and told myself that it wouldn't be so bad spread out over two years.


Why don't I like fruit pie?  Well, first there's the crust.  I'll never get the hang of the rolling pin.  My dough will never stay in even an approximate circle.  When my friend Erika came over to help, she had to spend her first minutes in my kitchen cheering me up.  She was very impressed with my new pastry wands, which she liked much better than the stretchy pieces of colored plastic I used for the Ischlers.


Soon she took over the rolling out of the dough.  (Hers are the pretty hands without age spots).  She said, "Hey, this is fun.  I don't know why you're complaining so much."  It appears that Erika is a natural at baking.  Not that I'm jealous.


It's the fruit in a fruit pie that I object to.  It's always a little bit of tasteless fruit in a gloppy, slimy sauce.  What a waste of a perfectly good fruit.  I'll admit there is plenty of fruit in this pie, so at least it doesn't appear likely that I'll only get three shriveled up little berries in a piece of pie.  I used frozen blueberries and blackberries because at this time of the year, I figured frozen fruit would be better than fruit that's been shipped to Minnesota from Chile.


Erika said, "If you're taking pictures, don't you think it would be more photogenic to use your yellow spatula instead of the red one?  It would stand out better against the berries."  Did Jim sound a little testy when he asked Erika if she wanted to take the pictures?


The truth is, I've never made a double-crust pie before.  I usually cry or curse with just the bottom piecrust, and I've always been afraid that I wouldn't come out alive if I tried a full-fledged, double-crust pie.  The dough was handling beautifully, though, and we got the pie together without incident.  We couldn't visualize how to do the berry decorations, so we settled on the five slashes in the top crust.  "Marie," Erika said, "those really aren't evenly spaced."

"Oops," I said.  "I forgot that we're now supposed to refrigerate for an hour.  Let's just have a cup of coffee and we'll refrigerate it until we're done."  "You don't really follow the directions very well, do you?"  Erika pointed out.  She's very helpful that way.





OK, so they're not perfectly even, but not so uneven that they'd cause you to gasp in horror.  That's my beauty standard, and I don't care if it's a little low.


Erika had to leave, and I wanted to give her half the pie, so I cut into it well before the two hours cooling time was up.  It was still very juicy, but I could see that each piece of pie was going to have plenty of fruit.  The sauce was neither gloppy nor slimey; it just gently covered the fruit.  And the crust actually looked ... well, it looked pretty passable.


You've probably already guessed that this pie story has a very happy ending.  I loved this pie.  After the pie was gone, I longed for another piece.  I wished I hadn't given half of it to Erika.  The fruit was noticeably fruit and there was plenty of it; sweet, but perked up with the spark of fresh lemon.  And the crust!  If they gave Nobel prizes for pie crust, Rose would be a sure winner.  (And there are worse ideas out there than giving a Nobel prize for pie crust).  If I were a poet, I'd write an ode to "Perfect Flaky and Tender Cream Cheese Pie Crust."

Erika called me and said her 17-year-old daughter loved the pie, especially the crust.  "I didn't know she even knew there was such a thing as pie crust."  Everybody loved the pie but JJ, although he liked the ice cream with berry juice.  He wouldn't try the crust.  Just as well; then he'd be wanting pie every time he came over here.  I'm already looking ahead in the schedule to see when the next fruit pie is.  I love fruit pie!


20 comments:

  1. For the record, I think your pie slits are perfectly spaced.... or perhaps Jim was able to compensate with the angle of his camera. Either way, your pie looks fabulous!

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  2. looks lovely Marie and your space on the top is great ,love your write up and also the pictures to.

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  3. ב''ה

    In this case I share your trepidation of pie. This is certainly the first double crust I've done as well.

    Yours turned out great. Mine is in the oven. We shall see what happens...

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  4. Look at your gorgeous (non soupy) pie! Tom loved the crust too. And I'm sorry Jim, but Erika was on to something about using the YELLOW spatula and not the RED one for picture taking - that one has a photographer eye. LOL

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  5. Your friend sounds hilarious! How did your berries have juice when you put them in the crust? Did you thaw them? I wished my pie looked as good as your's but no matter, it tastes good. You are so right; the lemon with the berries is one spectacular combination.

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  6. Your pie is gorgeous - non-existent unevenly-spaced steam slashes included :) Your crust is so pretty too, so golden brown all over!

    I'm with Vicki - I'm dying to know how you started off with so much juice but ended with none?! I also used frozen berries, but my baked filling was super liquidy. I didn't thaw my berries first...was that your trick? http://bakedtoorder.blogspot.com/2015/01/roses-alpha-bakers-black-blueberry-pie.html

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  7. I thawed my berries overnight in the refrigerator. That was before Rose said not to thaw them, so I didn't admit to it.

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  8. Pretty pie Marie. Glad to hear that you are a pie fan now. Your reaction to the number of pies in the book is exactly my reaction to the cheesecakes. So glad we only have a handful of them.

    Your pie slits are even - I don't know what Erica was talking about. I just bought the colored plastic thingy for the rolling pin, haven't tried it yet but after reading your post I may have to return it and get the pastry wand instead.

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  9. Your pie looks perfect! I noticed that you thawed the berries first? I saw there were juices when you put the berries into the pie. Maybe that's the way to go!

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  10. Marie, i have a big smile which started even before i saw the Nobel Prize bit! and your crust looks absolutely great as does the filling. today was pumpkin pie for us. we have four more pies to go for the special pie project but it's not testing, it's to make them look great for photographs. none-the-less, there is always something new learned and some tweak to add. so glad you now like fruit pies. i love making them in winter when it's cool in the kitchen and crusts never get sticky.

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  11. Beautiful pie, Marie, and welcome to the fruit pie bakers' club. :)

    For another entry in the "to thaw or not to thaw", I didn't thaw my frozen berries, and my pie came out great with only a little leaking of berry juice. Seems it will work either way, but it sure was easy to just mix the frozen berries and dump the results in the crust!

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  12. Your pie looks gorgeous. I'm envious, but what is left of mine is waiting for me to eat it for breakfast. Congratulations!

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  13. I like Erika! Your pie turned out really nice too. So are you a fruit pie convert now?

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  14. Erika is funny! I hope she comes over often to help you out. For being a pie novice, your pie looks picture perfect.

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  15. I've added pastry wands to my list of kitchen equipment I'd like. Your pastry looks great - it really held its shape, even when cut.

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  16. And will that be erika's last bake along?! Your pie looked amazing - just perfect.

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  17. Nicola,
    Erika will be a recurring sous chef. She even has her own apron now!

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