Come for the recipe; stay for the story!
Video Tutorial: here
11.5 oz flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
3.3 oz shortening and 4 oz cold butter, cubed (1/2 cu of each)
3 oz cold water
1. Cream all the fat and dry ingredients together until the fat has disappeared
2. Add the water a little at a time and mix only until a dough comes together
3. Place on tabletop and form into a disc for easier rolling later
4. Refrigerate for at least an hour
5. Use as desired.
Bake at 375 until golden brown and cooked through.
This recipe makes enough for two pie shells or a top crust and bottom crust
Pie, such an American classic, right? Wrong! Apparently, like most things, pie migrated to America with settlers hundreds of years ago. So, then, where did pie come from? Well, it appears that for almost as long as man has been around, cooking things inside of dough has been a thing. But really, who can blame people for wanting to add a nice flaky, buttery layer to their food? I'm always up for adding carbs to my plate!
Because the definition of pie was vague initially, and because they have evolved slightly over the years are hard to pin down as a culinary invention. One source said that "pie-like dishes" have been around since 9500 B.C. in Ancient Egypt. But that the idea of pie that is more similar to what we understand it as, originated in Rome. The first "published" recipe consisted of a rye crust with a goat cheese and honey filling, which I'd venture to say would be a combo that would be eaten by many still today!
The pie obviously made its way to America via the English settlers, and as much as we'd like to think that traditional pies like apple and pumpkin were created after the pie moved to America, that is also not true! The first instance of apple pie was seen in England in the 1300s. The pumpkin pie also hails from England, unless you count the version seen a few years earlier in a French cookbook where they put pumpkin in the crust instead of using it as the filling.
You may love pie more than the history of pie, but it took me until pretty recently to be able to appreciate it. The only time I ever had pie as a kid was at Thanksgiving. My mom would make pumpkin pie and pecan pie from scratch. I would, every year, eat the tiniest slice of pumpkin pie (as a picky kid, the pecans were a definite NO in my book, so pumpkin was my only choice). My pumpkin slice was not only the tiniest slice possible, but it was also COVERED in whipped cream. I didn't really like the pie, and I was told I had to eat the pie in order to eat the whipped cream, so naturally there wasn't anything else I could do besides hiding every last visible part of the pie with the fluffy stuff that I really wanted.
Even as an adult, I ate pumpkin pie like this. I really did want to like pie, but I just didn't. So, my second Thanksgiving married to my husband I changed it up a bit. My husband was a security guard at a hospital and he was working on Thanksgiving so I made a small dinner and met him in the hospital cafeteria. We were relatively poor (we made a combined $25k that year) but I was determined we were having Thanksgiving together. The problem was, neither of us liked pumpkin pie, but is it really Thanksgiving without it? I needed some pumpkin in my life and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies were the ticket! We were both hooked and as soon as everyone starts getting crazed about the PSL at Starbucks my husband starts the, "When do I get my pumpkin chocolate chip cookies?" question.
For several more years, I forewent the pumpkin pie, until pastry school. I learned something that changed my life. Pumpkin pie is so much more delicious if you bake the crust before you bake the pie. It ensures that it gets crispy and flaky without overbaking the pumpkin. I have a texture problem. I didn't eat mashed potatoes until I was an adult because the texture made me gag. So until I had this prebaked crust pumpkin pie, I just couldn't palette it. I looked at four different pumpkin pie recipes and only one of them said to bake the crust before you add the pie filling and bake it again, so apparently my family is not alone in not knowing this "trick."
I had a new appreciation for pies at this point, and slowly over the last 5 years or so they grew on me. I don't know when, or why, but at some point the thought of a nice warm pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side became comforting. Now my brain is brainstorming pie flavor as I type this, and my mouth is watering! I'm excited about this next pie we are going to make because it's not something I had ever heard of, much less tried! And the tart for the following week I'm even more excited about because it is a recipe I've made before and will be tweaking to make it EVEN BETTER! For now though, I'll leave you one last random pie fact I ran across just because it made me laugh, "More than 1/3 of Americans say they have eaten pie in bed." However you enjoy your pie, you'll get no judgement from me!
Sources:
Комментарии