Monday, July 12, 2010

A Pie a Week - Bumble-berry pie

I was pretty discouraged about the crust I made for the peach pie on the fourth of July weekend. The peaches were great - but the crust, not so much. Too dry, too crumbly. But I thought I should give the recipe another try. After all, it was the one Ken Haedrich in his book "Pie: 300 Tried-and-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie" says he uses most of all. Perhaps it was crumbly the last time because I overprocessed it in the Cuisinart. I decided to try again, and make it by hand.

I finally got out to the store and bought a pyrex pie-plate, and on the way back home stopped at a market where berries were on sale for a great price. So I leafed through the book and came up with his recipe for "Dundee Arms Inn Bumble Berry Pie." It's a mixed fruit pie in a traditional crust - except it has an interesting twist.

You make a batch of pie dough large enough for a double-crust pie. I started by hand, and already I knew that the dough would handle better than it had before with the bits of fat less pulverized. As the recipe said, I divided the dough into two discs, and put one in the refrigerator to chill for an hour, and the other in the freezer.

The dough rolled out was still fragile and a bit crumbly - although where it cracked apart it was easy enough to pull off a little bit from the edge and patch it, before rolling over it again. I lined my pyrex dish with the dough and put it in the freezer, too.

I had blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. The recipe also called for rhubarb, which I didn't have. It called for a total of four cups of berries, but I ended up putting in at least five cups of fruit - I had lots of strawberries and blue berries. I mixed the berries with a cup and a quarter of sugar, and a half cup of flour as the recipe said.

Then I put the fruit into the shell. Looks good, doesn't it?

Next came the interesting part. For a top crust, the recipe instructs you to take the frozen disc of pie dough set aside for the top crust, and, using a box grater, grate it onto the top of the pie as if grating a block of cheese!

Some of the dough flaked and broke off, since my dough was crumbly. But when I thought about it, I realized I'd rather be grating it than trying to roll it. When I was all done, the pie looked like this:

It's kind of like a streusel topping, actually, only a streusel topping includes flour, butter and brown sugar. I put it into the oven and baked it for an hour.

Here's what it looked like when it came out.

Was it good?


Oh, yes.


You bet. It was so good that Our Son ate three slices. With ice cream.

13 comments:

  1. Wow! What a neat idea. Your pie looks delish. Those berries are to die for.

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  2. Ooooohhhh, I'll have to get my pie boy working on this one!

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  3. OMG...that pie looks so delicious. I'm sitting here with my cup of tea on a chilly sort of Seattle afternoon longing for a piece of this perfection. Alas....

    Yum! Glad you all could enjoy the "fruits" (so to speak) of your labors. Gag.

    I know.

    Really lovely photos.

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  4. This REALLY looks good. I have Haedrich's book Simple Desserts. They are FAR from simple...but all sound great! Thanks for sharing your pics!

    xoxo
    Jane

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  5. What an interesting technique! I tend to stick to my tried-and-true pastry, but this looks fun enough -- and delicious enough! -- to try soon.

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  6. Wow! That looks SO delicious! I must try that different pie topping - I have never seen that suggested. We have crumble topping, which is flour and fat rubbed in, and sugar added. Bit like your streusel topping only maybe we put a bit more on!

    And those berries look absolutely lovely!

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  7. .
    The idea for the top crust is genius. I have never fooled myself into thinking that my love for pie had to do with the fruit inside. Oh no. It's all about the crust.
    Vallen

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  8. If I jumped on a plane right now, would there be a piece left by the time I got there?

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  9. All of your pies looks so delicious!!! This one especially strikes my yum nerve because of the berries!!

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  10. Oh my goodness. That looks so delicious! YUM!

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