For Christmas, Kate R gave me a copy of Bubby's Homemade Pies by Ron Silver and Jan Bervin - thank you very much, Kate! To be honest, when I opened the package, I thought "Pies?" Kitchen-wise I never really have thought of myself as a baker or pastry guy. I've heard of Bubby's in New York, and have even had their fried chicken, which is Fan-Frikkin-Tastic even when it has been out of the oven for an hour and transported several blocks (that's New York for ya!). Mark, Jon, and Mary have had their pie and extolled it's virtues as well.
So when I received this great gift from a wonderful and insightful friend, I thought "Hey-hey My-my, Mark is gonna make some pie" (apologies to Neil Young). And so I have.
A couple of words on the book itself. Very very good indeed. There is a profound love of piedom herein, and it is lovingly expressed. That is balanced with no nonsense instruction: baking is chemical engineering and the margins for error are slimmer than in some other culinary arenas. They give you plenty of technical background and back-up. The scope of the book is quite broad all things considered, and includes savory pies as well as ice creams and all sorts of trimmings. Repeat: VVGI.
My key concern regarding pie is getting the crust right. The first pie I tackled was their Mile-High Apple Pie, using their All Butter Pastry Pie Dough recipe, which is a classic cold-fat recipe wherein you keep lumps of the fat suspended in flour with juuuuuust enough water to hold it together. I used Granny Smith's. It turned out quite nice and I was pleased that the crust maintained a nice flakiness. Excellent with a Borough Market Cheddar. Sorry, no pictures of that one. We ate it at Montara over New Year's celebrations, and Kate got the first slice, as is only right.
Pie the second was in honor of KKatie before her return to school. Her favorite is peach, so that's what we did. Another first here: I used a whole vanilla bean! Another successful All Butter crust for the Vanilla Peach Pie. Wholesomely awesome and awesomely wholesome. I managed to snap a photo before the last of it disappeared...
Then today happened - a day we had not planned. KKatie and I got up at 4:00 am to get her to her plane, and as it turned out, her flight was canceled. So I went to pick her up at the airport at 7:30 am after an hour and a half text messages and phone conversations. With the up-and-down and weird scheduling, today has not felt at all like a normal day, especially since we have to get up tomorrow at 4:00 am to do it all over again. Mary and I decided this was to be a true vacation day.
So, I made Pie. Actually, Pies. Actually, two Pecan Pies.
How did this happen, you ask? Quite simple, really. We had a large unopened package of pecans from Costco, and we love Pecan Pie. And I had The Book, after all. And it looked like rain...
But why two? Why, to try new crusts, of course! These called for either their Sour Cream Pastry Pie Dough or a Nut Pastry Pie Dough, as well as the regular cold fat pastry pie doughs. Both those named above seemed much easier to assemble than the All Butter. Can't decide: make both and take one to work! The recipe also called for par-baking the crusts, which I've never done, and that added to the fun.
The crusts were easy to make - I had an easier time than with the All Butter dough. My challenges there are (1) getting the water right, and (2) my lack of established rolling skills. The Sour Cream dough recipe cautioned that it was much more delicate than the All Butter, but I found it pliable and really easy to work with. For the first time I'd rolled out a kinda rough circle! The Nut dough gets pressed into the pie pan - yet another first for yours truly. I took the opportunity to get some dedicated par-baking beans, so we are now loaded for bear! Bear pie, that is.
We will sample one of them tonight and I will take the other to work. I'll let you know how they turn out!
Love Is The Drug, Roxy Music.
