- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
- 1/4 cup milk
Cream the butter, sugar, and salt in the bowl of your mixer until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolk and blend well. Using a food processor, crush the graham crackers into very fine crumbs. Mix crackers with wheat flour.
Add 1 cup of the graham flour to the sugar mixture and blend until the dough smooths out. It will have a grainy or sandy appearance, but will stick together after about 2 minutes. Add the milk and the remaining cup of flour. Beat until the mixture forms a moist, firm dough. Divide the dough into two equal portions and wrap each in plastic wrap. Chill for at least 2 hours, or up to overnight. If you chill longer than 12 hours the dough will begin to dry out.
Remove one piece of the chilled dough and roll on parchment paper to fit a 9 inch pie plate. Place the dough in the plate and bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 8 to 10 minutes, until browned and fragrant. Cool completely before adding the filling.
You will have enough dough left to make a second 9 inch pie.
Peanut Butter Fluff Pie
- 2 cups heavy cream, chilled
- 1/2 cup fat free half and half
- 1 scant tablespoon instant clear gel
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 cup Marshmallow Fluff
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1/2 bag milk chocolate chips
- 1/8 - 1/4 cup milk
Melt chocolate chips and milk in a double boiler until smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Pour cooled chocolate into prepared crust. Chill until chocolate has hardened.
Whisk the cream and fat free half and half in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat until the whisk leaves a trail in the cream.
Blend together the sugar and clear gel in a small bowl. Add the sugar/clear gel mixture, one cup of peanut butter, and the fluff to the cream. Beat until well combined, thick, and fluffy. Pour filling into cooled pie crust. Cover the pie with plastic wrap and chill for at least 4 hours.
Butter Flaky Crust
Ingredients
Whisk together flour and salt. Cut in butter, using a pastry blender or two butter knives, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add water, 1-2 tablespoons at a time, until mixture forms a ball. Divide the dough in half. Wrap each half in plastic wrap and flatten into a 3/4 inch disk. Refrigerate for a minimum of four hours.
Roll dough out to 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick rough circle for a 9" pie plate. Press the dough into pie plate using your fingers.
Peach Raspberry Pie
Ingredients
10 cups of peaches, peeled and sliced (about 3 3/4 pounds)
3 cups raspberries
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons clear gel
pinch of salt
crust glaze: 1 egg and 1/4 cup half-and-half, whisk together
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
On a sheet of parchment paper, roll out half of double-crust pastry dough to 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick. Place pie pan over crust, upside-down. Invert pan and crust together. Remove paper. Press crust into pan. Whisk together sugar, salt, and clear gel and set aside. Slice, pit, and peel the peaches. Add raspberries to peaches and gently mix them together. Stir in the sugar mixture until the fruit is completely coated. Pour into pie crust.
Roll out dough for the top crust on a sheet of parchment paper. Using cookie or biscuit cutters, cut shapes out of the dough to allow heat to vent. Set the dough, paper side up, on top of the pie. The dough will stick to the paper. Gently fold back the parchment paper, being careful not to rip the dough around the vents. Crimp the together together at the edge of the pie plate, sealing the bottom and top crusts, with your fingers. Set pie plate on a baking sheet to catch any spills. Brush the top of the pie with the crust glaze. Cover the edge of the pie with a pie shield or aluminum foil.
Bake 2 to 2 1/4 hours, until the filling is bubbling and the crust is golden brown. Check the pie after 1 1/2 hours, if the crust is browning too quickly, cover the entire pie with aluminum foil.
Let the pie cool completely before serving.
Secret Ingredient Crust
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter (keep in the refrigerator until ready to use)
1/2 cup plus 1 to 2 tablespoons ice water
*Secret Ingredient: substitute 4 tablespoons of water for vodka
Whisk together the flour and salt. Cut in the shortening until it's in lumps the size of small peas. You can use a pastry blender or two butter knives. Take the butter out of the refrigerator. Dice the butter into 1/2-inch pieces, and cut into the mixture until you have flakes of butter the size of your fingernail.
Add the water and vodka, two tablespoons or less at a time, mixing with a fork as you sprinkle the water into the dough. When the dough is moist enough to hold together when you squeeze it, divide it in half transfer it to two pieces of wax or parchment paper. If you have a few dry spots that won't stick together, you can lightly spray them with water or sprinkle a few drops of water onto the dough.
Use the parchment paper to fold the dough over on itself three or four times. Pat it into two disks 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Roll the disk on its edge, like a wheel, to smooth out the edges. Wrap the dough in the parchment paper and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before rolling.
Triple Cherry Pie
Ingredients
5-6 cups of cherries (dried; thawed frozen; and/or pitted, halved fresh cherries)
3/4 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons clear gel
1 recipe double-crust pie pastry
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
On a sheet of parchment paper, roll out half of double-crust pastry dough to 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick. Place pie pan over crust, upside-down. Invert pan and crust together. Remove paper. Press crust into pan. Whisk together flour, clear gel, and sugar. Stir in cherries. Pour into pie crust.
On another sheet of parchment paper, roll out remaining double-crust pastry dough to 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick. Cut dough into strips of varying width from 3/4 inch to 1/3 inch. Lay strips in one direction across pie approximately 3/4 inch apart. Fold up every even strip half way. Lay another strip perpendicular across pie. Fold down even strips. Fold up every odd strip half way. Lay another strip perpendicular across pie approximately 3/4 inch from last strip. Repeat until half of pie is covered in lattice. Turn pie and repeat process.
Crimp edges of pastry dough into a ridge along the rim of the pie. Place pie on baking sheet. Cover edge of pie in aluminum foil or pie shield. Bake for 30 minutes.
Remove pie shield and reduce heat to 350 degrees. Bake for an additional 25 minutes. If filling is not bubbling, recover pie and bake an additional 15-20 minutes or until filling bubbles.
Remove pie from oven and allow to cool, approximately 2 hours, before serving.
No comments:
Post a Comment