It’s Gonna Be A Thing

For one reason or another, I decided to make a Cherry Pie, a strange idea to me because I’ve never before tasted a cherry pie that I’ve liked. I deduced, however, that the reason I didn’t like any of these cherry pies was because of the cherry skin. So I went into this project - project? - project with high expectations for myself: I was going to peel and pit each and every cherry.

It did not take long for me to find out that this is impossible. So I quickly gave up on that and just pit them. That in and of itself took quite a while. Anyway, despite the cherry skins, this one turned out better than I anticipated.

Ingredients for Filling:

• 2/3 cup plus 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons OJ
• 1 tablespoon grated orange peel
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 5 cups pitted fresh cherries
• 1 egg, beaten to blend with 2 teaspoons water (for glaze)

Ingredients for Crust:

• 1/3 cup whole milk
• 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening

Directions are pretty similar to the rest, so I won’t bother with writing them down. I didn’t use any almond extract, and instead of vinegar in the crust, I used fresh lemon juice. I didn’t have enough cherries, also, so the pie was a bit short. Literally. And I ran out of white sugar, so for the coating, I used brown sugar, which is why it’s so dark.

Anyway, I was reasonably pleased with this one. A proper brush for the glaze would have made it cleaner looking, but the orange peel worked nicely, I think, to counteract the super sweetness of the cherries, by giving it a little zest.

The third pie I made was a little break for myself, a return to a classic that I have been perfecting since the very first time I made it. I will call it the Leek Pie, for lack of a better permanent name, because sometimes I add things like potatoes or tofu. This time, it was potatoes. So here’s what I used for the making of this pie:

Ingredients:

• 2 leeks finely cut
• 1 red potato
• a wee bit of rice milk
• a liberal amount of shredded cheese mix
• honey, used to your discretion
• 1 9-inch pie crust
• some olive oil

Directions:

1. In a large pan, add the cut leeks gradually to cook in oil until soft, and add potatoes. Add honey and stir in.
2. Stir in milk and cheese, and stir to blend.
3. Pour mixture into pie crust and cook at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.

The directions here aren’t as firm as they should be, partly because I’ve made this pie so much that I don’t really follow firm instructions anymore, it’s more intuitive. (How cool!) In any case, I also added some cheese on top of the pie for this one, and once it had finished baking, I decorated it with some fried leek rings to make it look pretty.

This one was definitely the best one that’s come out so far. I think the honey makes all the difference.

My second pie was unfortunately not as successful (to my taste) as the first. Slightly more complicated, I attempted a Crunchy-Top Peach Pie. This one required more improvisation, and it did not pay off as well. But it looked rather nice!…

Ingredients for filling:

• 6 cups sliced ripe peaches
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar
• 3 tbs fresh lemon juice
• 3 tbs flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• a few dashes of nutmeg
• 1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust

Ingredients for topping:

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup minced almonds
• 3 tbs brown sugar
• 5 tbs melted butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Place peaches in a medium-sized bowl and sprinkle with sugar and lemon juice.
3. Combine the 3 tbs flour and spices, and sprinkle this into peaches. Mix gently but thoroughly. Spread this filling into the unbaked crust.
4. Combing topping ingredients in the same bowl and mix well. Apply the topping evenly over the top, patting it firmly into place.
5. Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees, then turn the oven down to 375 degrees and bake for about 30 minutes more.

For this, I had no rolled oats, so I had to use a pumpkin seed granola, which worked alright, and I used OJ instead of lemon juice. The problem with this as a recipe, I think, is that the topping overpowers the peaches. It would be much better to reduce the topping by half, and let the peaches do more of their work. But maybe it would have been different with rolled oats instead of granola.

Unemployment and long distances relationships can often cause people to revert to uncharacteristic and unusual new hobbies. For example, I have resorted to pie making to keep my mind occupied this summer, and I thought I would start with something easy and classic: the Apple Pie.

Since that first pie, I have made three more, with plans of making a fourth looming very near on the horizon, and the summer is about a month in. So I figured that a useful way of watching my pie making skills grow would be to catalog the pies I make and how they change.

The recipe I used for this pie was as follows:

Ingredients:

• 1 recipe pastry for a 9-inch double crust
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tbs all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 425 degrees F. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.
2. Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work of crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.
3. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees. Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.

Improvising slightly, due to my lack of supplies, I did not cover the top with a lattice work, which ended up being a mistake. The pie tasted good all the same, but it was runny and maintained its shape only when refrigerated.