Autumn Pear Pie & California Cutie Pie

Happy Friday all! I'm off to Borough Market this morning to take in the foodie sights (and then eat them!). Afterward, I'm going on a bakery prowl and then on to the Natural History Museum since the little humble loves those 'saurs (dinosaurs) so much.

Last night we enjoyed some whitebait, ale battered fish and chips, welsh rarebit and sticky toffee pudding at the Trafalgar Tavern. I've seen the pretty regency style building with its balconies and columns sitting picturesquely on the Thames as I pass via Clipper.

Welsh Rarebit

Whitebait

According to the Trafalgar Tavern's not so humble website:

In Victorian London there was one pub that represented the best of Britain’s naval might and cultural standing. A place where William Gladstone and Charles Dickens could be seen dining side-by-side. An oasis away from the industrial sprawl, but yet at the centre of an Empire. Exactly 170 years later the Trafalgar Tavern still stands in the Greenwich Maritime World Heritage Site, and it remains one of London’s most essential public houses.

Charles Dickens and HUGE pieces of beer batter slathered fish! Literary Nom.

Sticky Toffee Pudding with Vanilla Ice Cream

Okay, with the foodie-tourism out of the way, it is pie contest time!

Today's pies come from 'The Cilantropist' of cilantropist.blogspot.com. She is another scientist/foodie and I am fiercely jealous of her ridiculously clever blog name. She also makes incredibly gorgeous food.

Serious, go look at that lemoncello honey yogurt thing she has on her blog today. Gorgeous! I have yet to have breakfast yet and it makes me want to abandon this post to go cook.

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Here in California we have an abundance of huge, beautiful, ripe strawberries and I have been buying them like crazy. I feel like I am powerless to resist their sweet pull! I have made a few different recipes with them so far, but this is one of the most good-looking and delicious.

I am not really sure how popular Strawberry Pie is out on the west coast, but growing up in the Midwest we had strawberry pie all the time, and it is quite popular in a lot of diners. It is always heaping with strawberries, and served with a big dollop of whipped cream. I wanted to replicate that here, but with more of a California feel to it. :) As I mentioned strawberries are in season here, and I always get mine from the local farmers market. The strawberries they sell are outstanding, and they are picked up in Carlsbad, which is just about 15 minutes north of where I live.



Also around this time of year, you can buy bags of these adorable little California clementines. They are so tiny, that they would just fit in the center of your cupped hand (maybe a little bigger than a golf ball). On the bag they always call them "California Cuties" and they are definitely cute. So to make this a California strawberry pie, I used the local strawberries and I also included some clementine segments in the filling. To make the glaze, I juiced additional clementines and extracted juice from the strawberries, although in my recipe you could really use any fruit juice. I also included some lemon zest in my butter crust to compliment the fruit filling. This pie was so delicious and was just stunning to look at too, I almost didn't want to cut it! Perfect for summer!

It was also a good chance for me to try my hand at "blind baking" a crust. I have made loads of pies before, but it occurred to me that all of them were filled and then baked. I have to be honest, it took me two tries until I got this crust right! Now I will be a pro at crust-baking.


California Cutie Pie, or California Strawberry Pie
from the cilanthropist.blogspot.com
All-butter pastry dough:
1¼ c all-purpose flour
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
¼ tsp salt
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel (optional)
5 tablespoons ice water (or less)


Filling and Glaze:
At least 4 cups strawberries, hulled (one large flat, I think it has 3 pints)
5 clementine oranges (or 6 if you want to use one for topping)
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup water
1 cup total fruit juice (juice from clementines, plus additional juice from concentrate or other source)

For pastry dough, blend together flour, butter, and salt in a bowl with your fingertips or pulse in a food processor (easiest) until most of mixture resembles coarse sand with some roughly pea-size butter lumps. Add lemon peel and pulse a few more times. Drizzle 3 tablespoons ice water evenly over mixture and or pulse until incorporated. Squeeze a small handful: If it doesn’t hold together, add more ice water, ½ tablespoon at a time, pulsing until incorporated, then test again. Dough will eventually be pliable but not too sticky. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and work with hands for a minute or two to evenly distribute butter. Press dough into a ball, then flatten into a 5-inch disk. Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap at least 1 hour or overnight.

When ready to bake the crust, preheat oven to 425°F. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface into a roughly 13-inch round. Fit into a 9-inch pie plate. Fold edge overhangs for top of crust, and pierce crust all over with a fork. Cover entire crust and sides with large piece of aluminum foil, pressing down into curvature of pie center and sides; fill with dried beans or pie weights. Bake pie crust 20 minutes, then remove foil and pie weights; crust will be lightly golden. Bake for an additional 5-8 minutes until crust is browned and fully baked. Remove from oven, immediately brush with a thin layer of egg white, and cool on a rack.




Meanwhile, make glaze and prepare the filling. For about 3/4 of the strawberries, cut into 1/4 inch slices and place in a medium bowl. For the other 1/4 (try to choose berries that are roughly the same size), slice in half lengthwise, and set aside. Segment the five clementines, cutting over a small bowl to catch all the juices, and put the segments in the medium bowl with the strawberries. To make the glaze, combine sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan and mix, then add water, juice from clementines, and juice concentrate (or fruit juice). Warm over medium heat until mixture starts to boil and thicken, and then boil for one additional minute; remove from heat and allow to cool completely.

Assemble pie. Spread strawberry-clementine mixture evenly in pie crust. Pour 3/4 of the glaze over the filling and smooth. For halved strawberries, dip in remaining glaze and arrange decoratively in a circular pattern on the top. If desired, arrange halved clementines in a border.

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I found the recipe in the September 2009 issue of Gourmet, which was a beautiful A to Z issue with gorgeous photos. It was also the second to last issue before they closed their doors, which was incredibly sad. There were so many recipes that I wanted to make from that issue, but I settled on this pie first because I was intrigued by a pear pie. I am extremely glad that I tried it because it is phenomenal. So similar in concept to an apple pie, but with a distinct flavor that really sets it apart and makes it unique. The original recipe called it a 'butterscotch' pear pie, but in my opinion that isn't the overwhelming flavor. After making it once, I ended up making it about 3-4 more times in the fall/winter season because it was so good and always turned out so beautifully, with a gorgeous golden crust hiding perfectly tender baked pears. I also used the Tastebook website to create a cookbook for my family for Christmas and this was one of the recipes I included.




Autumn Pear Pie
from cilantropist.blogspot.com

Double recipe of all-butter pastry dough
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp grated nutmeg
⅛ tsp salt
½ cup packed brown sugar
2½ pounds firm-ripe Bartlett and Anjou pears (about 3 ea.), peeled, cored and each cut into 6 wedges
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 large egg beaten with 1 tbsp warm water
1 tbsp granulated sugar

All-butter pastry dough
1¼ c all-purpose flour
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
¼ tsp salt
5 tablespoons ice water (or less)

For pastry dough, blend together flour, butter, and salt in a bowl with your fingertips or pulse in a food processor (easiest) until most of mixture resembles coarse sand with some roughly pea-size butter lumps. Drizzle 3 tablespoons ice water evenly over mixture and or pulse until incorporated.

Squeeze a small handful: If it doesn’t hold together, add more ice water, ½ tablespoon at a time, stirring (or pulsing) until incorporated, then test again.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and work the dough with hands for a minute or two to evenly distribute butter. Press dough into a ball, then flatten into a 5-inch disk. Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 1 hour. Repeat for second portion of dough.

Preheat oven to 425°F. Whisk together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt, then whisk in brown sugar, breaking up any lumps. Gently toss pears with brown sugar mixture, lemon juice, and vanilla and let stand 5 to 15 minutes to macerate fruit.

Roll out 1 piece of dough (keep remaining disk chilled) on a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin into a roughly 13-inch round. Fit into a 9-inch pie plate. Roll out remaining piece of dough into a 13-inch round. Reserve scraps.

Transfer filling to shell. Dot with butter, then cover with pastry round. Trim edges, leaving a ½-inch overhang (reserve scraps). Press edges together to seal, then fold under. Lightly brush top crust with some of egg wash, then cut 3 (1-inch-long) vents.

Roll out dough scraps about ⅛ inch thick and cut out leaf shapes with cutters (or a knife). Arrange decoratively on top of pie, pressing gently to help them adhere.

Lightly brush top crust and cutouts with some of egg wash and sprinkle with granulated sugar.

Bake pie on hot baking sheet 20 minutes. Reduce oven to 375°F and bake until crust is golden and filling is bubbling, 40 to 45 minutes more. Cool to warm or room temperature, 2 to 3 hours.

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Tomorrow I'll be in Scotland and I'm bringing my laptop this time. I'll probably be posting tomorrows pies from the train!

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