Yet MORE Pie

I can’t stop. I just keep posting pie. I am on a crust quest. Both for the perfect basic crust and the perfect frito crust.

It is very important to have ambitions.

Some of my acting goals are getting met at the moment-I start on a web series this week (playing a heroin addict!) and a short I wrote and am acting in is getting produced. So I feel as the metaphorical dessert for my acting repast, I can give pie a sliver of brain space.

They say it is important to not make grand sweeping goals without the accompanying actions you must take to achieve them. So, “win kcrw pie contest” is not a good goal. “Have intercourse with Trent Reznor” is not a good goal either, but for other reasons.

“Get together with pie fanatics to taste-test new crust recipes” is a good goal. It is achievable and gives a concrete course of action. I did that recently. I now have a new base recipe and a couple ideas of tweaks for the next round of crust. That taste-test get-together was just that: a small get-together. What was NOT small was the last pie event I held with my co-hosts Alice and Joel.

Indulge me as I regale you with tales of the last pie party. Joel HAS achieved the “win kcrw pie contest” goal. He won for best savory pie. Of course now he wants to win both the savory and crust categories so he can have a shot at the coveted “Best in Show”. He offered to help host, since he has a whole dang house with ample parking. Alice and I gladly took him up on that. So as not to step on my pie glory he contributed an apple tart. Then he decided to make a tortilla español. And to use his grill to make paella too. Alice made a cherry-ginger sangria, and one involving bell peppers that was bloody delicious.

I made another version of my southwest purple potato pie, and the first stab at a dual-crusted upscale frito pie. And then just cause I’m nutty decided I really wanted to make the this recipe I had been ogling for some time.

I was quite scared of how things would pan out for the frito pie. It was really only the second time I have concocted a pie all on my own. This monstrosity has a regular bottom crust, a spicy black bean and mushroom filling, and a top crust with involving Fritos that have been ground up, as well as regular and corn flour and butter. In an ideal world I would have gotten my hands on some huitlacoche but I’ve yet to locate any. If anyone has a source for corn smut, I want to know! So I’m still working on the frito pie. It’s a dang tasty thing though. And a lot of folks cited it as their favorite of the night.

And a lot of folks there were! Our pie parties have grown from tiny, to a group of five learning about crust, to having more teaching plus a matching cocktail, to having two matching cocktails, to having a dark side and a large group, to this July’s MASSIVE pie, paella, and sangria FEAST, with around 30 guests.

It was an epic night. It was a beautiful night. It was a filling night.

When I finally perfect the frito pie I will tell you more about it. Same with the purple potato pie. In the meantime, the cherry streusel one was already perfection, compliments of those wacky people at Bon Appetit.

And in case all this is not enough pie for you, check out what I am proud to say is my most popular Hello Giggles column yet. I am particularly happy because I was writing about Greg‘s amazing Savory Pies cookbook and the potato-crusted macaroni and cheese pie.

But first, dessert!

Cherry Streusel Pie adapted from July 2005 Bon Appetit
Crust: I made a butter rendition, but as I mentioned I am still tweaking it. Here is a very basic, reliable, and (I think) tasty crust recipe I frequently use. You can also read there why I sometimes think a shortening crust is preferred.
Filling:
1 scant cup sugar
3 1/2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
pinch of salt
2 14.5 oz. cans sour cherries. Most of the liquid strained.
dash almond extract (my addition)

Streusel:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
6 Tbsp. packed golden brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

Heat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Put the rack in the middle. Place a baking sheet lined with foil below this rack, if you fear spills. As you should.

Line your pie pan with your crust and put it in the freezer. Mix the first four filling ingredients. Add cherries and almond extract and stir. Allow to sit ten minutes.

Mix all dry ingredients for the streusel. Add the butter and vanilla and use your fingers to get a nice pebble-like consistence.

Pour the filling into the crust. Top with the streusel. Put it on the middle oven rack and bake about 20 minutes then tent foil over the top to keep the streusel from burning. Bake until the streusel is golden and and the filling bubbly, around 10 more minutes. Cool on a rack.

cherry pie. that is all.

Growing up I often made my dad a cherry pie for his late August birthday. He liked that over cake. Birthday pie? Getting edgy there, papa.
Since moving from the midwest to LA I’ve missed this excuse for summer pie making.
As luck would have it both for me and the recipient, I had a request here in LA for cherry pie for an early September birthday. Nice coincidence. Well done, universe.
I decided to get equally daring. You wager birthday pie? I’ll take that and add trying a new recipe to the pot. Read it and weep. Actually hopefully we eat it and both win.
But then again, cooking from Baking Illustrated, by those perfectionist freaks at Cook’s Illustrated is hardly taking a risk.
All the same I was nervous.
Normally I am a shortening pie crust girl. All the way. But the Baking Illustrated crust called for a mix of butter and shortening, salt and…sugar? I put in 1 1/2 tablespoons instead of their 2. One thing I love about baking is that it is part chemistry and part instinct. Normally I ignore instinct and follow Cook’s Illustrated recipes to a T because they are so well tested but I just don’t think pie crust should be sweet.

Don’t get me wrong-if you are a butter pie crust lover this crust is the penultimate. It is balanced, buttery, understated-ly sweet, and A DREAM to roll out. Plus it is lithe, supple, easy-going, not sticky. I’d date this crust.

I think I simply prefer the slightly salty taste of my shortening crusts better. Which is shocking considering butter is like my best friend. Except for being fattier and less talkative.
I want to give butter another chance in crust. In the future I think I’ll try this recipe leaving out the sugar and adding a tad more salt than the teaspoon Cook’s Illustrated calls for.
As for the filling, the one thing they are exacting on, and right about, was going the extra mile to get jarred Morello cherries. Not only are they more beautiful than the canned ones I normally use, they also taste better. This meant having to brave the Silver Lake Trader Joe’s. I want to like TJ’s. Really I do. But their parking, produce, and aisle traffic suck. And I can never find everything I want there. I think I am the only person I know who just can’t get with that store. I am so not hip.
Normally I’ve made cherry pies with tapioca as the thickener but Cook’s Illustrated uses cornstarch. Cornstarch made the pie awfully thick. Maybe it is nostalgia but I think its nice to have a bit of ooze to a fruit pie.
They do use the almond extract in the filling. Gotta have that. But they also use some cinnamon. The plot thickens! I tasted once I mixed it all up and added a dash of the secret ingredient I add to my Thanksgiving pies. You either have to be awesome or named Eleanor for me to give up that secret.
The verdict is that this pie was not bad, but not the best. I’m gonna have to redeem myself as master pie maker…
Questions for you:
What sort of pie crust do you prefer?
Do you like(love?) Trader Joes?
Do you have secret, or trademark ingredients you use?