Prettiest Pies on the Web
Monday, November 23rd, 2009 by Trendspotter   

After spending hours scouring the magazines at Borders and every food blog I could think of trying to find something to top those awesome lollipop pies I showed you this summer, it hit me… we need a food writer here at INPT.

Why? Because when it comes to food, most people care more about taste than the look, which might not make me the best source of info.

My goal for this post was to provide you with an awesome Thanksgiving dessert recipe (preferably a pie) that would just knock the socks of those in-laws who think you don’t know your way around a kitchen.

Problem is I kept getting distracted by all these pictures of really gorgeous pies that I forgot about recipes. I mean look at some of these…

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I found this one on flickr.     

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These three are from Gemma Comas, the Baking Obsession and I Heart Cakes.

Canadian Butter Tarts

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I think I’ve lived in Canada long enough to get an idea what is considered to be a truly Canadian dessert. I won’t be exploring this subject now. It’s all covered here, if you are interested. There are no doubts regarding the butter tarts heritage. But I chose them as my entry for Sugar High Friday-Mmm…Canada not because they are qualified by their origin. I picked them because they are delicious.

The recipe below is my version of the traditional butter tarts. Don’t get me wrong, not that they are needed any improvements (they are good as they are), I made some changes to suit my own taste preferences. And you will see they’ve become even more Canadian after these adjustments. I added maple syrup to the filling and soaked the raisins in Canadian Whisky. Another thing I changed was the crust. I replaced the pie dough crust with the buttery tart crust. And since I love my crust “well-done”, nicely browned and flavorful, I prebaked the crusts before filling them. I hope I’m not going to be blamed for ruining the authentic character of those. They’ve turned out better than store-bought variety.

Makes 6 3-inch tarts and plenty of cookies from the leftover dough

For the crust:

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup confectioners’ sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 stick plus 1 tbsp (9 tbsp) cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces and frozen for 20 minutes.
• 2 large egg yolks

For the filling:

• ½ cup dark, unsulphured raisins
• ¼ cup whisky
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• ½ cup light brown sugar
• ¼ cup maple syrup
• ¼ cup corn syrup
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• ½ tsp vinegar
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

Prepare the crust:

Sift the flour, icing sugar and salt, put them in a food processor. Scatter the pieces of butter over the flour mixture and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in. Stir the egg yolks and add them a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the yolks are in, process in long pulses until the dough forms clumps. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead very lightly just to incorporate any dry ingredients that have escaped mixing. Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour.

Butter 6 3-inch tart pans with removable bottom. On lightly floured surface or on parchment paper, roll the dough into 1/8-inch thickness. Cut the dough into circles a couple inches larger than the tart pans. Carefully transfer the rolled dough into the prepared pans and press the dough onto the bottoms and up the sides of the pans. Cut the excess of the dough. Dock the bottoms of the crusts with a fork and freeze for at least 30 minutes. If you are not planning to bake right away, wrap the crusts tightly and keep in the freezer until needed. Do not defrost before baking!

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter the shiny side of foil and fit it, buttered side down, tightly against the crusts. Fill with dry beans or pie weights and bake for about 15 minutes, until set. Carefully remove the foil and bake the crusts for another 8-10 minutes until light golden. Transfer the crusts in its pans to a cooling rack and cool to room temperature. Maintain the oven temperature.

Make the filling, bake the tarts:

A day before baking, put the raisins in a small saucepan, cover with water and bring just to a boiling point. Drain the raisins, place them in a small bowl, add the whisky, cover and refrigerate overnight. When ready to bake, drain and pat dry the raisins. Divide them among the prebaked tart crusts.

In a small bowl, using a wooden spoon, mix the butter and sugar together until combined. Add the remaining ingredients and mix to incorporate. Don’t whip the mixture, just stir. Divide the filling between the tart shells and bake at 350F on the center rack for about 18-20 minutes, until the filling is puffed and bubbly, and golden brown.

Cool the tarts on the rack for 5 minutes, then unmold. Cool completely on the rack.

If desired, before serving, top each tart with a cookie baked from the leftover dough.

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Vanilla cardamom pear pie

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I’v never made a pear pie before. Actually, have I ever made anything of pears before? Didn’t think so. How strange is that? I mean, how many apple pies and cakes haven’t I made throughout the years? Not once did I think of doing that to pears. That’s unfair. I’ve totally neglected them, it didn’t even occur to me to involve pears in baking until now. And why now, you might ask? Well, I normally don’t eat pears either, because they soften too easily and I like them real hard and crunchy. But a few weeks ago, I was given a really good pear, and I remembered how tasteful it can be. Since then I’ve bought more and more, as they seem to be in season somewhere in the world. But I don’t have practice in storing them, (in the fridge, maybe?) so some of them turned soft and mellow, and that seemed like an invitation for me to finally let the pears enter baking. So after some surfing on the net I came across a cute blog called milkeggsandchocolate with a nice pear pie recipe I wanted to try. It was even sugar free!

Ingredients: (serves 4 pie lovers)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
100 g butter
8 tablespoons (or more) ice water
1 1/2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar – or plain apple juice

3 pears
1/3 cup of agave nectar (or apple/pear juice)
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp cardamom
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Blend the flour, salt and butter until coarse meal forms. Add the water and vinegar/juice, until the dough moistens and you can shape it. Add more if it seems too dry. Gather it together and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. When the dough has chilled, roll out the crust on lightly floured surface and transfer to 25 cm/9-inch-diameter pie dish. Combine 1 soft pear, cardamom, agave nectar/apple juice, vanilla seeds, vanilla extract and flour in large bowl. Blend well in a food processor, and pour into the pie crust. Slice the rest of the pears thinly and lay them prettily onto the vanilla-cardamom filling. And if you feel the urge – sprinkle with just a little sugar… Bake at 200 degrees C, for 40 minutes. And it turns out something like this.

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I made some adjustments to the original recipe: I tried to make the recipe smaller, since there are only two of us, and without the top crust. I also substituted the vinegar with apple juice, the same with agave nectar. I don’t even know what that is! And I mashed one of the pears into the filling, and sliced the rest thinly and laid them on top. And ok. I added sugar. What can I say, I have a sweet tooth! But only a couple of teaspoons. So I still consider this to be quite healthy. And quite yummy too, it turned out! The flavours of cardamom, vanilla and pear blended together so wonderfully, nothing else was needed. I was a little afraid it wasn’t going to be sweet enough, but it was plenty sweet. I could easily have left out the sugar, but it looks cute with a drizzle of sugar on top anyway. I’ll definetely start experimenting more with pears. Let this be a lesson kids! Don’t forget the pears!

These three are from Gemma Comas, the Baking Obsession and I Heart Cakes.

Then I got caught up in some of the more creative ones, like these cherry pocket pies, so cute, almost too adorable to eat.

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And look at this “I love you” one. How cute is this? I love her little label too. It reminds me of me and my sister.

Cherry Pocket Pies

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I have to admit, this is probably my only successful "pie" out of the millions (ok, maybe half a million) I have attempted to make.  My pies are legendary for their soupy innards and hard as a rock crusts.  Hey, it takes talent to bake such masterpieces!  My husband LOVES pie so I try hard to get it right each time and we both end up holding our breath as he tastes them, which we both know will turn out horribly wrong.  But I think I may have kicked the string of failures mainly because these little pocket pies are not your normal pie shape.  They don't require that evil pie pan that ruins my crusts (I'm fully blaming the pan) and they are made on a much smaller scale.  Faulty as it probably is, this is my reasoning and I am sticking to it.   I recently purchased this adorable pocket pie mold at Williams-Sonoma so that I could give this recipe a try and it made life so much easier, and of course, a little sweeter in the end.

 

The butter golden crust is unbelievably mouth-wateringly flaky and the sweet cherry filling puts it right over the edge with a perfect balance of sweet and slightly tart.  As my husband said:  "Perfection".

 

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Adapted from Williams-Sonoma.com

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt, plus a pinch

2 Tbs. plus 1/2 cup granulated sugar

16 Tbs. (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch dice

6 to 8 Tbs. ice water

1 1/2 Tbs. cornstarch

2 cups fresh or frozen pitted sour cherries, thawed and drained if frozen

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 tsp. water

Coarse sugar for sprinkling

 

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat together the flour, the 1 tsp. salt and the 2 Tbs. granulated sugar on low speed for 10 seconds. Add the butter and beat until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 30 seconds. Increase the speed to medium-low and beat for 1 1/2 minutes more. Add the 6 Tbs. ice water, reduce the speed to low and beat for 20 seconds. The dough should hold together when squeezed with your fingers but should not be sticky. If it is crumbly, add more water, 1 tsp. at a time, and beat for 5 seconds after each addition. Divide the dough in half, wrap with plastic wrap and shape each into a disk. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight. 

 

In a saucepan, whisk together the 1/2 cup granulated sugar, the cornstarch and pinch of salt, then add the cherries and vanilla. Set over medium-high heat and cook until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes. Let the filling cool. 

 

Let the dough stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. On a floured surface, roll out 1 dough disk into a round 1/16 to 1/8 inch thick. Brush off the excess flour. Using a pocket pie mold, cut out 8 of each shape (4 solid and 4 with the decorative cutout). Reroll the dough scraps, if necessary, and cut out more shapes. Repeat with the remaining dough disk. 

 

Place a solid dough shape in the bottom half of the cutter and gently press the dough into the mold. Fill the center with 1 to 2 Tbs. cherry filling and brush the edges of the dough with some of the egg wash. Top with a shape with a decorative cutout. Press the top half of the cutter down to seal and crimp the edges of the pie. Remove the pie from the mold and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling. Freeze the pies for 30 minutes. 

 

Preheat an oven to 400°F. 

 

Brush the top of the pies with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake until the crust is golden brown and the filling is gently bubbling, about 20 minutes. Transfer the pies to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream. Makes about 8 pocket pies.

 

 

And look at this “I love you” one. How cute is this? I love her little label too. It reminds me of me and my sister.

 

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Oh pie!

Taking a bit of a break from stressful things this weekend and making a lovely pie...

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... that is a little bit, well, - look away now if you would rather not view overtly love-y things.

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I used my lovely I love you cookie cutters to make the letters. And of course Tom was very impressed and loved it, although he wasn't so impressed that I made pie. He thinks I am trying to fatten him up to make myself look better for the wedding!
As if?!
But I have to say, it did taste pretty good - I think it was the cinnamon.

And I remembered that I haven't shown anyone the poster I was working on a couple of weeks ago...

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Then, of course I had to find out how one creates such gorgeous crusts, and before I knew it, Thanksgiving week was here and I have yet to test any recipes. I figure the least I can do is point you in the direction of some directions.  Here goes:

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For detailed directions on how to create lattice and spiral tops, click here.

Decorative Tops

Decorative Tops Double crust pies offer an opportunity to decorate more than the edge trim of the pie. Decorating options include anything from simply decorative slits for venting to elaborate sculptured additions made from additional crust cut outs. Pies can also be made to look more attractive by coating the top crust using one of the following effects: Brush lightly with milk or cream to give the pie a richer color. Brush with egg whites to glaze the crust. Sprinkle lightly with sugar to give the crust a sparkle and add crispness. Some common decorative pie toppings that are used are lattice tops, diamond tops, and spiral tops. Shown below are instructions on how to accomplish the decorative tops. Lattice Top [288x221]   Prepare the bottom crust as shown above in the double pie crust instructions. Roll out the top crust and cut into ½ inch strips. [288x226]   Place the filing in the bottom crust and then place approximately 6 strips across the top of the filling.   To weave the cross strips into the first 6 strips, fold every other one about half ways back on the pie. Place a strip across the pieces that are not folded back and then unfold the folded strips. [288x235]   Fold back the strips that were left unfolded before and place another strip across the strips that are not folded back.   Unfold the strips and continue on in this manner, alternating the folded strips. [288x213]   Repeat the same procedure on the other half of the pie. Lift each strip and moisten the edge of the crust in that area with water and then press the strip back down to seal it at the edge.   [288x217]   When the strips are all placed across the filling, trim the ends 1/8 inch shorter than the overhang of the bottom crust.   [288x216]   Moisten the entire edge of the crust and then turn the overhang from the bottom crust up over the ends of the strips so the edge of the crust is flush with the edge of the pie plate.   [288x215]   Seal the bottom crust and strips by fluting the edges in a desired manner.   Bake as instructed by the recipe.   [288x220] Diamond Top Prepare the top in the same manner as the lattice top, only instead of placing the second set of strips perpendicular to the first strips, place them diagonally to the first strips. Placing the strips diagonally instead of perpendicular will form a diamond pattern rather than the squares. Seal the edges as shown above on the lattice top. Spiral Top Prepare the bottom crust as shown above in the double pie crust instructions and trim edges flush with the rim of the pie plate. Roll out the top crust in a long narrow strip. Cut the crust into long strips that are 3/8 to 1/2 inch wide. [288x205]   Place the filling in the bottom crust. Starting with one strip in the center of the pie, begin to twist the strip and coil it around the center of the pie. Continue to twist the strip as you coil it around or it will begin to untwist. Work out towards the edge of the pie. Continue adding strips in one continuous length by moistening the ends of each strip and pressing together to attach to the previous strip. [288x220]   Continue adding strips and coiling out towards the edge until the entire pie is covered. Work carefully so that you do not let the strips touch the filling until you are putting them into place. This will prevent getting filling on the strips in locations you do not want. Moisten the edge of the pie with water and then place a slightly wider strip tightly twisted around the edge. Press to seal. [288x242]   Sprinkle the crust lightly with sugar to give it sparkle and to add crispness.   Bake as instructed by the recipe. Meringue Top Meringue is an alternative to crust for topping a pie. It covers the pie filling in the same manner as the top crust of a pie and it adds it's own flavor to the pie. Separate 3 eggs whites from the yolks when the eggs are still cold. Then allow the egg whites to become room temperature before starting to beat them.   When eggs whites are room temperature, begin by whipping the whites to a soft peak.   [288x267]   Add a pinch of salt and 6 tablespoons of powdered sugar. Add sugar gradually, 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time while beating continuously.   [288x219]   Beat until sugar is dissolved and meringue appears glossy and forms stiff peaks.   [288x265]   Add ¼ tsp. of cream of tartar and beat just enough to mix thoroughly. Do not over beat.   [288x221]   To check to see if the sugar is completely dissolved, rub a little of the meringue between your fingers. If sugar is dissolved it will feel smooth and not be gritty. [288x225]   Spread the meringue over the top of hot pie filling, making sure it is spread so that it is touching the crust around all the edges. [288x216]   With the back of the spoon, swirl the meringue and pull up to form decorative peaks in the meringue. [288x210] Bake the meringue at 350° F for approximately 15 minutes or until it is lightly browned. Watch carefully so that it does not brown too quickly.

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Deb's pie, pre-baking.

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For using pie dough cut-outs to top pies (pictured above), head here.

For extra special occasions, make the top crust of your double-crust pie really spectacular with pretty pie crust cutouts.

1. Cut out decorative designs in the top crust with a sharp paring knife, reserving the scraps. Re-roll dough scraps and cut out decorative elements such as flowers and leaves.
   

    

   Cut out decorative designs with a paring knife.

2. Brush top crust with milk. Place shapes on pie and bake according to recipe directions for a truly beautiful dessert.

    

   Place shapes on pie.

Meringue pie is a favorite of many. Find tips for making meringue in the next section.

Not what you're looking for? Try these:

• Pie Recipes: From fruit to cream, the variety of pie recipes in our collection is sure to make your mouth water. Find the one (or several) you're looking for here.
• How to Make Pastries: Pastry dough can be temperamental to work with, to say the least. Find tips on how to work with it and make delicious pastries only at HowStuffWorks.
• How to Bake a Cake: Find basic instructions and definitions that will help you bake a cake in this article. You'll learn about everything from selecting the proper baking pan to cooling and frosting a finished cake.
• Cooking: Learn the ins and outs of some basic cooking techniques in this helpful article.

For detailed instructions on how to make pie crust cutouts (with a pairing knife), go here.

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For more general pie crust instruction and inspiration, head over to marthastewart.com

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At the very least, I hope I’ve inspired you. Good Luck and if you do have a great tried and true pie recipe share below.

Until next time,
Trendspotter

http://www.ineedprettythings.com/prettiest-pies-on-the-web/