pie crazy

what's summer without a peach pie?

My in-laws graciously brought me lots of goodies on their recent visit, including The Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. It's a great read and inspiring. So I've been baking a lot of pies. In the process, I've learned three very helpful techniques:

- To make fruit pies less liquidy and more flavorful, Rose recommends mascerating the fruit in sugar, collecting the juices, boiling the juice down into a syrup, and adding the syrup back to the fruit. I love it and will definitely apply this to other recipes besides Rose's.

- If you add too much liquid to pie dough, too much gluten will form, creating a tough crust. Thus most pie crust recipes only add a tablespoon or two of liquid, making a very dry dough that is difficult to roll out. Cook's Illustrated has a clever technique that uses vodka for some of the liquid. Vodka is 40% alcohol, which doesn't form gluten when mixed with flour. But the additional liquid makes the dough more supple and easier to roll out. The vodka evaporates on baking and adds no flavor. I tried it and the dough was a dream to roll out and tasted great, although some of my tasters slightly preferred Rose's crust. (See the recipe and video here)

- When making the pie crust, you need some of the flour to be coated with butter (to ensure flakiness) and some dry (to ensure tenderness), which is why you have to cut the butter into the flour, not mix. But getting a good ratio every time can be difficult, either having too big of butter chunks with lots of dry flour or most of the butter smoothly blended into the flour. To help get a good ratio every time, Cook's recommends mixing the butter with only half the flour, then stirring the remaining dry flour in before adding the liquid. This means exactly half of the flour is totally coated with fat, while the other half the flour is totally dry. I love it because not only is it so darn clever, but it works!


I wanted to stick to fruit pies in summer, but by popular demand, I made this pecan pie. After the first bite, I was so glad I made it.


apricot/raspberry - pretty, tangy and yummy
I used my own apricot preserves to glaze it - yay for me


I didn't get any good photos of this nectarine/raspberry pie, but I thought it was the best of the bunch

Recipe: Single Pie Crust with Vodka
abbreviated from Cook's Illustrated (see original here)

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (6 1/4 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 tablespoon sugar
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (3/4 stick), cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/4 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening , cut into 2 pieces
2 tablespoons vodka , cold
2 tablespoons cold water

1. In food processor, mix 3/4 cup flour, sugar and salt together. Add butter and process until homogenous dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 10 seconds. Add remaining 1/2 cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl.

2. Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together. Flatten dough into 4-inch disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days.

3. Use as you would regular pie crust dough, rolling into a 12-in circle about 1/8 thick. Before filling, it should be blind-baked at 435F for 20-25 minutes (removing pie weights after 15 minutes). For all the details, see the original recipe.

scallion pancakes: the snake and the snail

scallion pancakes - an easy snack

I love food friends. My friend Lily, from Shanghai, likes to show me how to make asian food. It's usually so simple, just something I wouldn't think to make. I like that for her, it's regular weekday food, not a party trick. Plus we get to eat on all her lovely asian pottery.

Last time she made Chinese spring rolls, of which I ate about 20 (I'm such a pig!). This week she showed me how to make scallion pancakes (and sushi, but that's for another post). It was so easy and so fun. Her son calls it "the snake and the snail" because that's what it looks like when you roll it up. My picky 4yr old loved them and the next day, begged me to make them again - music to my ears. I'm hoping I can include grated veggies in my next batch to make this a healthy snack.

1. Mix 2 cups flour with 1 cup water (or more or less, just keep the ratio 2:1) until it becomes a smooth ball. The recipe I used had me put the flour in the food processor and pour boiling water through the feed tube as it processed. This was effective, but probably not necessary. The recipe also said to let the dough sit covered for an hour but I used my after about 10 mins with good results.



2. Tear off a section of dough, a bit bigger than a golf ball. Roll it into a thin circle. Brush with oil and sprinkle on sliced spring onions and salt (don't skimp!).

3. Roll up the circle into a snake (as shown above).

4. Then roll up the snake on itself like a snail, tucking the end under one flat side of the circle so the onions don't fall out.



5. Smash the circle flat and roll it out thin again. It might tear a little with some oil and onions peaking out. Don't worry. It'll still taste yummy.

6. Heat a pan to med-high and brush with a little oil. Fry up the pancake, a couple minutes on each side. You want it golden brown and cooked long enough that the inside isn't doughy.

7. Slice and serve.

normandie caramels

On our Normandie trip, I saw darling packages of salted caramels everywhere: at tourist sites, at bakeries, at groceries, even at gas stations. I was afraid I might be a sucker for the marketing, but this time the stuff inside was just as good as the outside promised. The caramels were soft, lush, and creamy with a perfect hint of salt. I just wish I had bought more. These are a definite "don't miss" if you happen to be in Normandie.