Definitely long time no blogging. My thesis is slowly consuming me and I'm sitting here wondering whether I'll have the time to finish everything before I move to Virginia to start my PhD program. I'll finish though, because I have to (and want to, and kinda really need to...haha). So this post is actually the first of a two part post. It's the beginning of something crazy--like chocolate croissants... those are pretty crazy...good. *Disclaimer* No I don't just sit here stuffing my face with pastries, and you shouldn't either. Definitely not good for you. Although if something ever came out that made eating pastries all day a no problem kind of thing, I may in fact move in that direction. Hah.
So the first part of this *insane* endeavor is a pie. Any pie really. I made a white peach, blueberry, blackberry pie and you should too. Mind you this pie would be awesome serving it's purpose as just a pie, but it CAN be something greater. You'll just have to wait and see. I got the recipe for the pie crust and the initial pie idea from Joy the Baker. Joy is a fabulous baker (and seemingly wonderful cook), and her writing style is AMAZING. Her posts are super fun to read. I followed the crust recipe exactly, but changed up the filling a little bit. Making a pie crust may seem like a daunting task, but it's seriously the simplest bready-like thing I've ever made. You could also just get a store bought pie crust but I'm telling you, this crust is something else.
White Peach, Blueberry, Blackberry Pie
Crust Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter COLD and cut into cubes
- 5 Tbsp + 2 tsp ice cold water
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar (white vinegar should work as well)
Crust Directions:
- Sift together flour, sugar and salt
- Add cold butter to the dry mixture and incorporate butter into flour with your hands. You should end up with peas and oatmeal sized bits when you're done. (See Joy's page for a picture of this). Do this as quickly as possible.
- Mix water and vinegar in a cup
- Make a well in the center of the flour/butter mixture and pour the water and vinegar into the well.
- Bring dough together with a fork. When slightly combined and kind of moistened, turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead LIGHTLY with your hands until all combined.
- Separate dough into two pieces and form two disks.
- Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour
While your crust is chillin' in the fridge (literally), get started on the filling!
Pie Filling Ingredients:
- 4 medium white peaches (I'm guessing you can substitute any type of peach here)
- 3/4 cup (6 oz) fresh blueberries
- 3/4 cup (6 oz) fresh blackberries
- 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp ground ginger
- 1/8 tsp ground coriander (you COULD eliminate this if you wanted)
- 3 Tbsp all purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp corn starch
- 1 egg beaten to be used as egg wash for the top of the pie
- 2 Tbsp sugar + 1/2 tsp cinnamon for the top of the pie (you will use less than this more than likely)
Pie Filling Directions:
- Pit and slice peaches (leave skin on)
- In a large bowl, throw in peaches, blueberries and blackberries
- Add lemon juice to fruit
- In a separate smaller bowl, whisk together the sugar, spices, flour, and corn starch
- Add spice mixture to the fruit and mix to combine. Make sure fruit is covered pretty evenly.
- Set aside
Putting the Pie Together:
- Set your oven to 400 F
- Take one disk of dough and place it on a lightly floured surface.
- Flour your rolling pin and roll out the dough into a circle about 13-14 inches round. ( this will take some effort; rolling, folding edges, turning dough clock-wise or counter-clockwise with every few rolls). Don't OVERWORK the dough. The butter will warm and you don't want that. Also, remember, the circle will not be perfect--baking is not perfect haha.
- After you're done rolling the dough out, spray a 9 inch pie dish with nonstick spray and place the dough circle on the bottom.
- Add the filling into the dough.
- Repeat the dough rolling process with the second disk and place the second dough circle on top of the filling
- Pinch edges together with your fingers or a fork (I used a fork)
- Cut any dough that is hanging off the edge of the pie pan and set this dough aside.*
- Brush beaten egg on top of the pie, making sure to cover all of the surface.
- Sprinkle Cinnamon sugar mixture on top.
- Cut a few slits LIGHTLY going around the center of the pie.
- Place pie pan onto a cookie sheet, also place another cookie sheet under the rack you will be putting your pie on in the oven. (This is to prevent the filling from bubbling over, burning in your oven, and suffocating you--not to mention that ANNOYING SMOKE DETECTOR).
- Place pie in oven and bake at 400 F for 15 minutes. Then turn down the heat to 375 F and bake for another 40-50 minutes. If you find the top getting too dark towards the end, just move the pie down the the bottom rack.The pie is done when the top is golden brown and the filling is bubbling :).
- Cool for 2 hours at room temperature before serving. Store, covered, in the fridge. Should last up to a week.
* Roll out the excess dough that you cut off, and if you have a cookie cutter, or are pretty confident in your knife skills, cut the dough into shapes. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top, bake for like 15-20 minutues or until golden brown. You can eat these just by themselves (they're awesome), or you can set them aside and use the for part two.
The white peaches add a really nice flowery sweetness to the pie--love em! Share with friends! Don't be greedy. :) Thanks all for reading!
