Sunday, August 3, 2008

Baking or Therapy?

I decided to face my fears. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, I am making pie crust! I've been irrationally afraid of pie crust for quite some time, but I figured, hey, you only live once. I consulted all my cookbooks (of which there are several) and I almost went with the Gourmet Cookbook but right at the last minute, I switched to the Moosewood Cookbook. It reminded me of my mom and the desserts she used to make when I was younger (the few times that happened....just kidding).

First, I made a pie crust. It was super simple. I mixed 6 Tbs of butter and 1 1/2 cups of flour in a food processor. Then I drizzled in some ice water until it made "coarse crumbs" (or whatever that means). I rolled out the dough and put in in my pie pan. Here it is:


See, I can make pie crust! Suck it, universe. Lena is fearless.

I mixed together some peaches (from my CSA), lemon juice, sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. I decided to stray from the recipe and throw in some blueberries as well.


Then I mixed some rolled oats, flour, salt, cinnamon, brown sugar and melted butter together. I was supposed to add minced almonds, but I didn't have any, so I skipped it.


Then I baked it! It was surprisingly easy. Here's a slice of my pie.


It wasn't the best pie crust I'd ever had - the part on top was pretty good, but the bottom part could have been flakier. Zack liked it though and he's pretty much my target audience. I've got a huge bag of apricots this week, so I'll probably give pie crust another try.....stay tuned.

4 comments:

Tara said...

Way to go Lena!! I too, for some unknown reason, am petrified of pie crust!! You made it look so easy that I just mihgt give it a whirl!!

Moose said...

Yay! We just made that exact same pie crust (but a double batch) for a peach pie!

Meredith said...

All butter pie crust is pretty hard- you should try part butter part shortening.

Anonymous said...

To make a really flakey pie crust you cannot overhandle the dough. Also, use the absolute minimum of ice water. I have found that you must watch someone (who's pie crust you really like) to see how this is done. This is one thing that you cannot really learn from a recipe. (MaryJo was my mentor.) Kudos to you for trying!