Pushing Daisies Pie
So, prior to the WGA strike, I would watch one of my new favorite shows, “Pushing Daisies.” The show largely revolved around the Piemaker who, oddly enough, makes pies. For me this meant that every week I’d be watching a wonderfully saturated, high-definition pie carousel go round and round, driving me slowly insane, as I had no pie.
Well, time to change all that. So I took few cues from my food idol, Alton Brown, and made one of the signature pies from the show:
Pear Pie with Gruyere baked into the crust.
The following recipe is a bastardization of Alton’s “No Pan Pear Pie”
Pushing Daisies Pie Filling
1 prepared Pie Dough (see below)
3-4 pears, peeled and thinly sliced
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
4 tablespoons sugar
1 pinch grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup blueberries
1 teaspoon flour
1 1/2 cups pound cake, cubed
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons butter, diced
When I first made this pie, the addition of Balsamic Vinegar to the filling made me a little nervous. But wow, it really adds a nice zing and keeps the whole filling from becoming too sugary sweet. The pound cake was another odd addition that I fell in love with, but we’ll get to that.
Here’s what you do:
1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel, core and slice the pears. I like to keep them thin and fairly small, but it depends on how you like your pie filling.
2) Set a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat and toss in the pears. Let the pears cook until they start to give up some of their liquid (about 3 minutes or so).
3) Add the Balsamic Vinegar and toss to coat. Let sit for another minute or so.
4) Add the sugar and let the pears cook until they’ve softened (about 5-10 minutes, or until done).
By this point you should be enjoying an absolutely fantastic aroma and friends and neighbors should be knocking on your door, salivating.
5) Once the pears are cooked, turn the heat down low and add the cinnamon, nutmeg and butter. Stir until the butter melts then remove from heat. At this point I like to put my filling in a mixing bowl.
6) Fold in the blueberries.
7) Add the flour and stir until well combined. Place in a safe area away from prying hands and mouths and let cool to room temperature.
While the filling cools, make the pie crust [see below]. You can easily use the store bought variety and call it a day, but I’m a nut for homemade pie crust.
8) Now that the filling is cool and the pie crust is made, it’s time to assemble this confectionary masterpiece.
9) Add the pound cake to the pie crust and spread it evenly out.
10) Pour the cooled filling over the top and (again) spread it out over the pie.
11) Sprinkle the diced butter over the filling.
12) Place the top sheet of dough over the filling and crimp the sides together (in any method you know, I prefer the fork style. I know there’s fancier ways to do it, but I have had little success with them)
13) Take a sharp knife and make 3 slits across the center of the pie (or any other decorative shape you might like).
14) Beat egg and water together and brush mixture over the top of the dough.
15) Sprinkle sugar, then the cheese over the now-glistening pie dough.
16) Place pie in middle rack of oven.
17) Bake for about 10-15 minutes then check on it. If the dough is browned already, cover loosely with tinfoil and continue baking for another 15-20 minutes. (This is an average bake time and every pie is different. Just keep and eye on it and don’t let it burn).
18) Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature before serving (hopefully with some homemade ice cream or whipped cream).
19) Post the recipe and pictures of it online (optional).
Pie Dough
Dough can be a little tricky. The two main things I try to keep in mind when working with Pie Dough (or any dough for that matter) are: work with it as little as possible, and let it come to room temperature before rolling. Also, before you get started, place whatever pie tins you’re using in the freezer. I recommend having two tins of the same size in there (you’ll see why in a bit).
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup stone ground cornmeal
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, diced, frozen
3 tablespoons apple juice concentrate
2 tablespoons cold water
1/2 cup Gruyere cheese, grated
1) Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt in a food processor. Pulse a coupla times to combine.
2) Take 1/2 stick of butter and place into food processor with dry ingredients. Pulse until the butter has completely been incorporated.
3) Add the remaining butter in batches and pulse a maximum of 3 times per batch. You want to end up with chunky style flour. After pulsing three times just WALK AWAY. (A pulse for me lasts about 2 seconds).
4) Move mixture to large mixing bowl.
5) Combine apple juice concentrate (adds flavor and sugar) with water and place in spritz bottle. (You don’t have to use a spritz bottle, but it helps).
6) Spritz the whole top of the flour mixture and take a rubber spatula and fold the liquid in. Continue doing this until the dough sticks together and binds, but is still very dry. You want as little liquid as possible in this. You’ll end up using maybe 3 tablespoons or so of the apple juice mixture.
7) Wrap dough tightly in parchment and place in fridge for about 2 hours. This allows the dough to hydrate and really soak in every drop of liquid we just gave it.
8) Remove from fridge and let come to room temparature.
9) Cut dough in half.
10) Roll out dough to a 9″ circle (or whatever size your pie tin is).
11) Remove your pie tins from the freezer and place one on the center of your rolled out dough.
12) Slide spatula (or hand) underneath the dough and your other hand in the pie tin and flip the dough over so it’s resting on the “wrong” side of the pie tin.
13) Take your other pie tin and place it over top the dough and flip right again.
14) Remove first pie tin and discard.
15) Trim up the sides of the dough (and add remnants to your other half if you want) and Voila! A perfectly lined up pie crust!
16) Roll out other half of dough for pie top.