{"id":517,"date":"2015-12-30T21:29:14","date_gmt":"2015-12-31T04:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/?p=517"},"modified":"2016-01-01T17:06:05","modified_gmt":"2016-01-02T00:06:05","slug":"pie-one-52pieproject","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/?p=517","title":{"rendered":"Pie One: #52PieProject"},"content":{"rendered":"

All year I’ve been thinking that I am 57 years old, so it came as a bit of a jolt\u00a0to realize that I am\u00a0actually 58, and my pies still look like a child made them. \u00a0I am an adult woman, well into the second half. \u00a0I need to step up my pie game.<\/p>\n

So this is\u00a0the first in a series of pies I will bake on my\u00a0way to casual competence. This was a gift pie I baked for my sister, VLC — Vicki Lee Coleman. I baked it on the day after Christmas, and somehow, we got into a fight that was triggered by a small thing (“please don’t take my picture\u00a0when I’m eating dinner”) but ended up being about every thoughtless moment and every stupid thing I’ve done over the last four or five\u00a0decades. \u00a0(She said\u00a0she had a long list.) \u00a0My sister may not know\u00a0where she put her car keys, but she does know\u00a0that I did not call her that one time in 1999, and she may fling\u00a0that oversight at me at any time.<\/p>\n

This pie was created in peace and as it cooled, we raged. \u00a0We were too upset to eat dinner together, but over the course of the next\u00a0hour or two, we eased\u00a0ourselves to detente, and then\u00a0sat down and had pie.
\n\"PieOne\"<\/a>My mind and emotions were whirling\u00a0from the argument, but that first bite of pie\u00a0with vanilla ice cream settled me\u00a0into a sweet and lovely moment. \u00a0The warm berries\u00a0and flaky crust called\u00a0me back to my body, and it felt good.<\/p>\n

I screwed around with this\u00a0recipe, which\u00a0calls for 9 tablespoons of fat — 4 butter and 5 shortening, and\u00a0the other way around works also. \u00a0Higher butter content yields one thing; more\u00a0shortening, another. I have read this; I do not have direct experience or knowledge.<\/p>\n

I doubled\u00a0the recipe to make top and bottom crusts, and because butter comes in 8 tablespoon sticks, I said to myself, OK, I need 16 tablespoons: \u00a01 stick of butter and 8 tablespoons of shortening\u00a0—\u00a0I may have mathematically\u00a0shorted the pastry\u00a02 TBSPs of fat, I don’t think I did in actuality. \u00a0Cold shortening in a measuring spoon is mountainous. \u00a0The flavor and texture of the pie crust was delicious (I love a\u00a0dry, flaky crust), but the dough did tear during rolling, and I had to patch it in several places. \u00a0About 15 minutes into baking, I applied a simple egg wash to try and shine up the top. I was envisioning\u00a0a browner, glossier pie.<\/p>\n

So:\u00a0Would a little more fat make the crust more elastic (and therefore less likely to tear)? Is there something wrong with my rolling technique? \u00a0Why is the color uneven? Why isn’t the pie\u00a0a bit more shiny?<\/p>\n

Preparing the\u00a0filling was a snap, and the pie\u00a0held its shape after cutting. \u00a0The filling didn’t run out all over the pie pan. \u00a0I consulted\u00a0a basic\u00a0Food Network recipe for Cherry Pie<\/a>, and\u00a0here’s what I actually did: 2 cups frozen organic cherries, 1 cup frozen blackberries, 1 cup tart cherries, soaked in warm water and drained, all in the saucepan. \u00a0Whisked 1.5 cups of sugar and 4 TBSP cornstarch together, and added this dry mixture to the fruit in the saucepan, little by little. I ladled the filling into the pie crust with a slotted spoon, and ended up with about 6 ounces of leftover cherry-berry syrup, which I am saving for oatmeal or ice cream. \u00a0I did not overfill the bottom crust — there was still a bit of headspace when it was all said and done, and\u00a0the top crust settled down nicely over the warm fruit.<\/p>\n

As it was going into the oven, Maddy asked, “Did you put any herbs in there?” \u00a0That is an interesting question, isn’t it? \u00a0What would go well? Minced fresh basil? Mint? \u00a0Something lemony?<\/p>\n

Next, I am going savory: \u00a0Pie Two: \u00a0Kale and Spinach Hand Pies for New Year’s Eve\u00a0dinner. \u00a0And for New Year’s Day, Maddy’s favorite and a fitting way to begin the\u00a0new year: \u00a0Chicken Pot Pie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All year I’ve been thinking that I am 57 years old, so it came as a bit of a jolt\u00a0to realize that I am\u00a0actually 58, and my pies still look like a child made them. \u00a0I am an adult woman, well into the second half. \u00a0I need to step up my pie game. So this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=517"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":544,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions\/544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}