Pie Kick Continues Blueberry Style

So, when trying to figure out a gluten-free pie crust recipe, I made a little too much dough. That is part of the reason I have been on a pie kick recently. The other part is that I love pie and I love making pie. Does anyone else feel like pies are just filled with love? If you bake someone a pie, I feel like it just conveys love. More than any other food. I don't know why but thats what I feel about pie (I just created poetry).

I had one half of a pie crust recipe left, meaning I needed an open-faced pie recipe. When searching through my recipe files on my computer I found a recipe for an open-faced blueberry pie that my mom's friend (and I would say my friend) Myra sent me. Its incredibly simple and requires very few ingredients. I am also anxious to try this same recipe with strawberries or raspberries. I wonder if it would work?

When I told Myra that I made the pie she told me that she has started melting about 4 ounces of almond bark and drizzling it over the crust before filling it. Sadly I didn't do this but it sounds incredible, so I encourage you all to try it.

Alright, down to the point. Here is the recipe:

*Just a warning I filled a deep dish 91/2 inch pie plate. So, its a big pie. If you are using a smaller pie plate you may not need all of the filling.

Open-faced Blueberry Pie

Ingredients

1/2 recipe Basic Gluten and Dairy Free Pie Crust

1 egg white, lightly beaten

8 cups blueberries

1 cup water

4 tablespoons cornstarch

4 tablespoons water

1 cup sugar

4 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

pinch of salt

Roll out the pie crust and place it in the pie plate. Crimp the edges any way you like to make it look pretty. For this pie you pre-bake the crust, so place parchment paper inside the plate on top of the crust, including the edges. Fill the plate with dried rice or beans for weight. Bake the crust with weights at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. Take out of the oven, remove the weights and parchment paper. Prick the crust with a fork all along the bottom and sides. Put back into the oven for 5-10 more minutes, checking after 3 to prick any bubbles that may be forming. When the crust is baked and golden, remove and let cool for a few minutes before filling. After 3 minutes, brush the crust with the egg white.

Isn't that crust just beautiful?

To make the filling...

Take two cups of the blueberries and put them in a medium saucepan with 1 cup of water. Cover the pan and bring it to a boil.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and 4 tablespoons of water and set it to the side.

When the water and blueberries come to a boil, lower the heat and keep the mixture at a simmer, stirring constantly for about 3-4 minutes or until the blueberries start to burst and juices begin to thicken. Continuing to stir constantly, add in the cornstarch mixture, sugar, lemon juice, and salt. Once mixed together, simmer for a minute until the mixture becomes translucent.

Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining 6 cups of blueberries. Spoon this mixture into the baked pie crust then let it sit for at least 2 hours so that the filling can thicken and set. And when its done setting you will have a beautiful pie that will probably turn your lips purple :)

Purple is my favorite color. Just another reason I love this pie.

And this is all that was left at the end of the night...

PS: I don't know if you noticed but its 4:15 AM here. I cannot sleep. This does not bode well for my productivity or attention span tomorrow.

Good Ole American Apple Pie

I have a confession to make. These past few recipes I made a couple weeks ago when I was home. I was cooking so much and wanted to share so many of the recipes but didn't want to throw them all at you at once. So I stockpiled. Don't hate me for it, but trust me you don't want what I have been cooking in my new London home just yet. I have been so preoccupied with getting settled that I've been living off of microwave meals and toast. And jet lag hasn't helped. My eating times are way off. I can't seem to shake it. I know I need to stop napping but with only 3 hours of sleep at night its almost impossible not to. Oh well, I will figure it out soon enough.

Until then, I will give you a really American recipe: Apple Pie. But to make it a little relevant I have researched (via wikipedia like all good college students do) the history of apple pie. It turns out that Americans have been making pie since the 18th century. But do you want to know how long the Brits have been making it? Since about 1381 in which the ingredients listed were "good apples, good spices, figs, raisins and pears"

Somewhere along the way, however, apple pie became an American tradition. Some people claim that in prohibition times, the Apple Marketing Board of New York State was hurting from the lack of cider production so they started slogans such as "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" and "as American as apple pie."

Also, during WWII the stock answer for soldiers as to why they were going into the war was "for mom and apple pie" and Chevrolet used the phrase "baseball, hotdogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet" to appeal to patriotism.

Interesting how a traditional English food was made into a sign of American patriotism huh? But I guess England was our mother country so a lot of our culture has been adapted from them. And it seems that when it comes to apple pie we may have outdone their recipe. A couple of my friends had apple pie at an English cafe and took one bite and scooted it to the side. Here is a pie that follows the American pie tradition and I don't believe would ever be scooted to the side:

Classic American Apple Pie

Ingredients

1 recipe Basic Gluten and Dairy Free Pie Crust

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons vegan butter

1 tablespoon cinnamon

6 tart Granny Smith apples, sliced and peeled

Non-dairy milk and sugar for dusting

First preheat the oven to 450 degrees F as it might take the oven awhile to reach this temperature.

Now roll out the dough. I think I mention all of this in the pie crust recipe post, but there are a few things to keep in mind when rolling out the dough. First, you can do it one of two main ways. (1) the old school way with a large surface and everything floured or (2) between two pieces of parchment paper. I have found that sometimes the dough still sticks to the parchment paper however. So it is not a full-proof method at least for me. I generally use the old-school way. Another thing to keep in mind is that sometimes it is hard to get the crust into the pie plate in all one piece. Don't worry you can patch it together in the pie plate. There is no gluten, so you cannot overwork the dough. I had to patch mine together and in the end it still looked and tasted good. Also, once you have rolled out the bottom pie crust put the other half back into the fridge while you assemble the rest of the pie to keep it cold.

Ok, so now that you have rolled out the bottom crust and it is in the pie plate, mix together the cinnamon and sugar in a large bowl. Add the peeled apple slices and mix well. I do not have a handy apple peeler or anything so I end up spending far too long peeling all of it with a knife and end up making a mess of the kitchen with my peelings, but hey a messy kitchen is a used kitchen.

Once you have mixed everything together, layer the covered apples evenly all around the crust, fitting them together as tightly as you can. Every once in awhile take any clumps of sugar and cinnamon at the bottom of the bowl (if you have some) and sprinkle over the apples. Keep layering until you have used up all of the apples, even if you have to make a mound on top. Actually, a mound makes the pie oh so much better

Now dot the pie with vegan butter, meaning layer small pieces of butter evenly distributed on top of the apple mixture. I just take two tablespoons of a stick of Earth Balance and shave off little pieces all over the top with a knife. Now roll out the top layer of the crust and lay it over the top of the pie. Trim any excess edges and pinch the edges of the two crusts together. Brush the top of the crust with any non-dairy milk of your choosing and sprinkle lightly with sugar. This will give a crisp sweetness and shine to the outside of your pie. Make a few slits in the top of your pie to help with ventilation during baking.

And now its time to bake! Bake for 40-50 minutes at 450 degrees. If you need to you can cover the edges of the crust with aluminum foil if they start to get too brown somewhere along the baking process. When it is done, take it out of the oven and let it cool a bit and then you have a simple and beautiful apple pie that should have you waving an American flag and drinking coke out of a glass bottle while singing the national anthem. Enjoy!

Gluten-free Pie Crust and Classic Pecan Pie

Oh how I love Christmas! I look forward to it all year, I prep for it the entire month of December and I drive everyone crazy making them follow all of my traditions. Pies are one of those traditions- particularly pecan pie. I love making pies. In fact 2 of my all-time favorite recipes are pies: apple and pecan. When I stopped eating gluten, I kind of gave up on pie.

Confession time- I always used pillsbury roll-out pie crusts, partially because I am lazy and partially because I think they taste really good. Since pillsbury has not yet made gluten-free pie crusts, I threw in the towel on pies (well for me at least. I still made pies for family and friends).

Well, I was finally ready for pie again, meaning I had to make my own pie crust. After some research about what flours work well together, butter or shortening, and vinegar or not vinegar, etc. I came up with this recipe. It has both butter and shortening, the best of both worlds, and the mild apple cider vinegar.

This pie crust, came just in time for the holidays too, because christmas is just not christmas in my family without pecan pie. My grandparents have a farm in west Tennessee and they have loads of pecan trees. I grew up on pecan pie. Some say its too sweet but I say bring on the sugar. I hardly ever have it so a sugar coma every once in a while can do a girl some good if you ask me.

The first recipe is for a basic pie crust, then I will share my papaw's pecan pie recipe.

Gluten Free Pie Crust

Ingredients

1 cup almond flour

3/4 cup sorghum flour

3/4 cup potato starch

3 teaspoons xanthum gum

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

3/4 cup butter, cold and cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1/2 cup shortening

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 whole eggs

First combine all of the dry ingredients (the first 7 ingredients) and whisk together in a large bowl. Next cut in the cold butter and sugar with a pastry blender.

Now make a well in the middle of the flour and add in the eggs and vinegar. With a fork work the liquids into the dough, starting in the center and working outwards.

Combine the dough into a large ball and then place in between 2 pieces of parchment or wax paper. Roll out slightly and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight.

When it comes to rolling out the dough, keep in between the parchment or wax paper and roll out with a rolling pin. Then peel off one side an flip over onto a pie plate. Once it is on the pie plate, peel off the other piece of wax or parchment. If this doesn't work, you can do it the old school way with a lot of GF flour and your counter-top. At this point you can either prebake the crust or fill it up!

Th pie crust doesn't look too pretty at this time, but you can either even it out and pinch ridges to make it pretty or leave it like this to pinch with the top crust for fruit pies or other 2 crust pies.

Speaking of fill it up... why not fill it up as a Pecan Pie? And not just any pecan pie, but my Papaw's classic pecan pie. Nothing fancy here...no chocolate, no bourbon, just simple goodness and by far the best pecan pie I have ever had. Last year, I asked for the recipe and have been making it ever since. Even when following the recipe exactly, I have yet to make it as good as my Papaw or Nana but I think I am getting close. They must just have magi hands or add extra love or something.

Papaw's Pecan Pie

Ingredients

1 unbaked pie shell (this is one half of the pie crust recipe listed above rolled out onto a pie plate)

1/4 cup vegan butter

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup (red label Karo)

1 1/2 cup pecan halves

First preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. After you roll out the dough onto an ungreased pie pan, you may want to dust the top of the crust with any gluten free flour lightly. This is because the filling of the pie has such high sugar content. I am not actually sure what this does but I just know that it helps to dust with flour. Maybe I should look up why at some point...

Now in a mixing bowl, cream together vegan butter, eggs, and sugar. Then add in corn syrup and beat with a fork. Once the filling is done, pour it into the pie crust.

Now there are two ways to do the next part. You can either mix the pecans into the filling before you pour it into the pie crust or you can do the more meticulous way, which is what I usually do. For this way you arrange the pecans in a circular pattern on top of the filling after you pour it into the crust. Just one pecan at a time around the edge then moving inwards after you complete each circle. This generally ends up looking more awesome, which is why I do it- well and because there is something therapeutic about placing each pecan by hand. That could just be for a perpetually stressed college student, however.

After you finish (either way), place in the oven and bake for about 80 minutes or until a knife comes out of the center clean and the top has browned.

Now that I have shared with you one of my families food traditions can I share with you some of our other ones? pretty please?

Well, it involves many hours in the car. (This tradition hasn't been every year recently since me and my siblings all started college, but we did it this year.) We travel all over the state of Tennessee and sometimes Alabama. But its all worth it when you get to see things like this:

This is my Papaw and Nana's farm covered in snow on the day after Christmas. Beautiful!

Christmas Eve we all go to my parents church for christmas eve service, then my parents give us our christmas PJs (and no you are never to old to get PJs from your parents!)

Then on Christmas day we open presents at my parents house in the morning with our traditional holiday breakfast then we head out on the road.

We start by visiting my mom's side of the family- this year Christmas lunch in Nashville. Then we head to West Tennessee to see my dad's side of the family at the farm shown above.

Another tradition (intentional or not): The farm is filled with dogs.

Old, like Grady...

And Young, Like Merrill...

Ok that's not really a tradition, but there are always a ton of dogs everywhere and I just really wanted to show you the adorable pictures :)

And for one last time until next year... Merry Christmas!