It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a pie.
Cherry, blueberry, boysenberry, gooseberry, key lime, chocolate, lemon meringue, mince meat, banana cream, blackberry, chicken pot pie, pecan, strawberry, steak and kidney pie...I LIKE THEM ALL. But the best types of pie are clearly apple and pumpkin (because those are the only kinds I know how to make).
On the weekends of Oct 23rd & 30th Madeline and I decided to take on a challenge of epic and dangerous proportions. And by decided I mean to say that I made a whole bunch of promises I couldn't keep without Madeline's help. That is how she became inexplicably linked to my insane plans. Plus she is really the baker in our partnership.
THE CHALLENGE:
-TEN PIES
-TWO WEEKENDS
-ONE OVEN
I promised ten households of friends that we would make them potentially edible pies after my mother taught me how to make homemade crust over Thanksgiving. We were not exactly prepared for how time consuming baking pies would be. It ended up taking two separate weekends and we still aren't done. There are about three more pies to go and then we are briefly retiring from the pie baking business.
The recipe
Crust:-5 cups flour
-1lb of Crisco
-1 tbs salt
{-1 tbs vinagr
-1 egg} ADD WATER TO MAKE 3/4 CUP LIQUID
Measure flour, baking powder + salt into mixing bowl. Mix. Cut in Crisco til pea sized. Mix egg + vinegar + water. Add to flour. Mix well and roll out.
Filling:
Apple
-5 or 6 spartan apples, peeled and cubed
-sprinkle with sugar
-dash of cinnamon
-3 dabs of butter
Pumpkin
(we mostly followed the recipe on the label)
-can of pureed pumpkin
-cinnamon
-nutmeg
-can of evaporated milk
-egg
Bake for 15 min at 430
reduce to 370 until golden
While I was rolling dough like a mad women Madeline was cursing at a tart. We decided to bake a beautiful nectarine tart from Martha Stewart for a friend's birthday. Unfortunately the beautiful rosette shapes were THE MOST DIFFICULT THING IN THE WORLD TO ARRANGE. In all honestly we never did figure out how the rosettes worked and Mad slaved away for hours. In the end she arranged them like a giant rose which still had a lovely effect. It also tasted lovely.
The family recipe for dough tastes f-ing amazing but took me about three tries to finally get right (sorry to the first few houses to receive pies!). I always thought my dough was too wet so I would add more flour and then it would break up when I rolled it out. FRUSTRATION. It was worth the work though; I believe baking to be a very important homemaking skill. We are so very domestic. We even wore aprons.
In the end the pies turned out decent for all the cursing and Provigo trips. I delivered the pies on my bicycle by a (cardboard wine) box I attached to the back (with silver party ribbon). I think our friends were pleased...
PS. Here is a picture of Madeline and a chicken
