This is my first entry to the blogging event,
You Want Pies With That? At least, the first to its new "official" blog site. It's being hosted this month by last month's winner,
Branny of Branny Boils Over. She chose a personalized theme--what does your blog say about you? We were instructed to sum up our blogs with a pie--sweet, nutty, fruity, silly, classy?
I have a lot of things I can say about my blog--at least I hope. I try to be funny, sure, I try to bake beautiful desserts that are delicious, all-natural, and sophisticated. I like to branch out occasionally and make complicated, fussy deserts that challenge me. I also like to teach my readers about why things work the way they do (although I couldn't think of a pie that represented "nerdy".)
In the end, I decided to go with a couple of things that are really important to me--seasonal, and simple. My usual dessert is not a fussy croquembouche or 5 layer torte. No, my favorite pie remains a rustic, simple galette, not even baked in a pan. I love these for many many reasons. First, I can use my favorite pie dough of all time,
Rose Levy Beranbaum's cream cheese pie dough, which you can find right here. I don't have to prepare a mountain of apples or pears or peaches, which makes it a much more accessible pie for everyday or after dinner. It also makes a smaller amount, if you just use one crust recipe and a few piece of fruit--perfect for a light dessert for our small family, and it won't hang around for a week and be wasted. It's also very beautiful, in a rustic sort of way, and I like the crust-to-filling ratio. Baking it on a pan on a hot stone ensures a crisp crust, and the lesser amount of juicy fruit prevents it from becoming soggy. You can even eat it on-the-go, if that's how you roll. (This is how I roll.)
I will also throw in my baking-science tips, because this one actually didn't turn out as great as some of my others! I was a bit rushed at the time, and I didn't roll it properly--I had some thick spots on the outer edges, and didn't work hard enough to keep it a circle. Perfection isn't required, but it does help the pie bake up evenly it it's more or less the same thickness.
Also, I only rested this half an hour in the fridge, didn't give it my customary half hour-fridge plus half hour freezer, to really firm up the crust, and I got some slippage and cracks. This was not helped by the fact that I didn't turn the oven up high enough. I have been getting some scorches lately when I bake on the stone--ruined a batch of bread recently--so I tried a lower temp, but that didn't work. Frozen pie crust + surface of hell oven temperature = set pie crust edges. That way, the fat melts very quickly, and doesn't have time to slip and slide around, melting your crust and making it droop. It's like the figures frozen in time when Pompeii exploded--instantly hot, scorching heat will set whatever it's baking with a minimum of movement. I should have started high and turned down immediately, then moved it to a higher shelf halfway through. Live and learn--still working the kinks out of my new oven.
But this is why I love this recipe--even with the mistakes, the casual nature makes for a pie that tasted just as good, anyway.
Rustic Peach and Blueberry GaletteOne recipe
Cream Cheese Dough for 9" pie *use all-purpose flour
3 peaches
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar (or less is peaches are very sweet, adjust this to your taste)
juice of one lemon
pinch kosher salt
handful fresh blueberries
heaping teaspoon or so of cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp tapioca flour (or cornstarch)
1 tbsp butter
Peel peaches with good peeler, or blanch and then peel. Slice into 1/4 inch slices. Toss with lemon juice, sugars, salt, cinnamon and blueberries. Place in a strainer over a bowl. Let rest 30 mins to1 hour. Preheat oven to 475. If you have a stone, place it on the oven floor. If you don't lower a rack to the bottom-most setting. In both cases, leave a rack in the upper-middle as well.
Prepare pie crust as directed, roll out to a little less than 1/4 inch thickness, about a 12" circle. Try to be round, but imperfect edges are fine. Transfer to a large baking sheet lined with parchment--if the edges overlap the pan at this point, that's fine, they're getting folded later.
When crust is ready and fruit has given its juices, place the juice in a saucepan and reduce to just a few tablespoons, or by half if you don't have much. Pour back over fruit, and stir in tapioca flour. Pile fruit in center of dough.
Working form the outside, fold edges over onto themselves so that they mostly cover the fruit, but not all the way, and continue folding dough over until you've gone all the way around. (See
this tutorial if you need a visual--skip to 3:20 for the assembly, minus the frangiapane.)
Brush with 1 egg mixed with water, and then sprinkle with sugar (coarse sugar is better, and crunchier). Place in oven, and immediately turn heat down to 450. Bake for 15 minutes on the stone, then move to upper rack and lower heat again to 400. Bake another 20-30 minutes, til pie is bubble and golden brown. If if starts to overbrown before it's done, tent with foil for the last 10 minutes or so. Remove on pan and set on rack to cool--this is the hard part! You must wait 2 hours at a minimum to cut it. 4 hours is better. Then, top with ice cream and enjoy!
* Be sure to use all-purpose flour here, or at least 50& all-purpose to 50% pastry. If you have a pie crust or tart dough recipe you prefer, go ahead and use it, just be sure you are using one that is sturdy enough to handle not being in a pan. Really delicate pie doughs made with all pastry flour and tons of butter don't have enough gluten to hold this up, and will crack and just not work. Try substituting all-purpose flour in your favorite pastry dough recipe, if you have one you really like.