Pie Skills

I was commissioned to make pies for a gentleman's 75th birthday. He is a pie guy and didn't want a cake, just mini pies and one large one. The person who made the request and I tossed ideas around. There are some beautiful examples of over the top crust designs out there. The birthday boy is a surfer so we wanted palm trees and surfboards. 

I think he was pleased with it. Noone had ever seen the like. 

Leading up to the party I felt like I needed some serious pie R &D having only occasionally made a pie or two and never the berry pie he requested.

PANS:

I had a pretty ceramic pan I planned on using. Turns out it is subject to the dreaded soggy bottom. I baked my a pie for 2 hours on the bottom rack (at 7500 ft mind you) and the  bottom crust was barely done. One writer said "you cannot overcook a berry pie." Lots of people use glass pans. I have a couple of my mom's. The advantage to them is that you can check the the bottom crust through the glass. Most experts agree that an aluminum pan is the best heat conductor and is recommended. I ordered one to use and nested it inside the pretty ceramic one for the party. 

CRUST:

I did have a commission last fall for a bunch of mini mason jar size pies so I did some experiments then with crust.

My most successful  recipe uses Crisco and butter along with cake and all purpose flour with a bit of vinegar. My auntie swore by all Crisco for her pies but it turns out they changed the formula a few years back to eliminate trans fats and it is not the same anymore. I saw a tip to add some vanilla to the water so I did that. One thing that really helps with the flaky factor is once the crust is loosely formed, fold it like a letter and let it rest for 30 minutes. Do the letter fold another time and let it rest again before rolling out the dough. Puff pastry is done this way and the layers really add flakiness. Another tip I saw was to take your finished dough ad roll it along its sides. This keeps the dough from splitting when you roll it out.While researching I went down a deep rabbit hole when I found the  King Arthur Flour site.

It breaks everything down and gives you a CIA level class in pie.

Also a chef for them has a blog that goes into even more detail. 

For the designs on top, other than the Lei around the edge, I didn't want the puffiness to obscure the design so I used good ol' Trader Joe's frozen crust. I am not even seeing frozen Pillsbury crust except in already formed pans. 

I see a variety of things used to put a glaze on the top: egg yolk, egg white, cream, milk. For the trees I used egg yolk because it browns up nicely. The Lei was egg whites and the waves were cream. I baked the little surfboards separately and since my plan of painting the stripes with cinnamon and egg didn't work I cheated with a red edible marker.

I partially blind baked the crust with ceramic pie weightsand  used egg white on the bottom.

FILLING:

The King Arthur site details how to use Clear Jel and they have a product called Pie Filling Enhancer. I really didn't want a soupy end product so I ordered some Clear Jel from Amazon and it arrived at my mountaintop research kitchen in time for experimentation. This is a screenshot from the King Arthur section on Thickeners:

I used the recommended amount for 8 cups of berries. Since I cooked it for two(!) hours that may have affected things. It was pretty firm. I didn't cook the berries beforehand. I would like it a bit looser. The next time I cooked the berries until the sauce was thickened using 3 TB of Clear Jel. It was firm but next time I might reduce the Clear Jel.

Wymans Berries were recommended and I used one cup of frozen Oxnard strawberries and one cup blueberries.

RECIPE:

JAMES BEARD'S PIE DOUGH

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cake flour
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, diced, chilled
• 1/4 cup lard or vegetable shortening, chilled
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1/2 cup very cold water

Method

In the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal chopping blade, combine the flours and salt. Pulse once or twice to blend. Add the butter and lard and pulse five or six times to cut the fat into the flour. The mixture should resemble coarse crumbs. Combine the vinegar with the cold water (if using shortening, use just the water alone). With the processor running continuously, pour the liquid down the feed tube all at once. As soon as the dough begins to form a ball around the blade, stop the machine. Lay a piece of plastic wrap on a work surface and dump out the dough onto the plastic, scraping the bowl and the blade with a rubber spatula. Divide in two. Pat the dough into a ball, flatten and fold like a letter. wrap tightly, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Flatten and fold again. Form into a thick disk and roll aling the edges. Refrigerate for another 30 minutes before rolling out. 

Pre heat oven to 350. Roll out one disk and place in pan. Prick sides and bottom. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Cover crust with parchment and fill with pie weights. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove pie weights and brush bottom with egg white. Bake an additional 15 minutes for a partially baked crust.

FILLING:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Clear Jel
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1 cup strawberries
• 6 cups frozen raspberries, blueberries and blackberries 
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces

Mix sugar, clear jel and cinnamon in large bowl. Add berries and lemon juice and zest, toss gently. Spoon mixture into pastry-lined pie plate. Dot with butter. Top with pie crust designs. Seal and flute edge. 

Bake 50 to 60 minutes until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool on wire rack.

Vintage Cherry Pecan Cake





My BFF's husband grew up in Texas and remembers his mother making a cherry pecan cake for every birthday. Pecans are a thing in the south so they show up in lots of dishes. When I looked further I found a vintage recipe that suggests ways of saving sugar. It was probably a WWII era recipe. 



I thought I would add pecans to my already tested cherry cake I made a while back. I used this recipe as a basis. https://www.mycakeschool.com/cherry-cake-a-scratch-recipe/#mv-creation-36  My Cake School

This version got good reviews from all concerned.

Ingredients.

Normally I brush the cakes with a sugar syrup and add some mayo. This is so moist neither is needed.

3 cups (342g) cake flour plus 2 Tablespoons for dusting cherries

1Tablespoon (15g) baking powder

1/2 teaspoon (2g) salt

6 egg whites (180g)

2/3 cup (146g) cherry juice from a 10 ounce bottle of maraschino cherries, if there is not enough juice to reach 2/3's cup add water or milk

3/8 cup (172g) milk

3/8 cup heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon (4g) cherry extract

1/4 cup (54g) vegetable oil

2 cups (400g) granulated sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) (226g) unsalted butter, slightly softened but still cold to the touch

Fold in:

maraschino cherries from a 10 ounce jar (use all) chopped and dusted with 2 Tablespoons flour (I dried them on a paper towel after chopping before dusting with flour)

1/2 cup chopped pecans

 

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour 3 (8 inch) round pans

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt for at least 30 seconds

In another bowl, cherry juice, milk, vanilla and cherry extract, and vegetable oil. Blend together with a fork.

In the bowl of your mixer add the butter and beat at medium speed to soften. Add the sugar and continue to beat until lightened in color and fluffy, approximately 

Add approximately 1/2 of the flour mixture to the bowl, mixing on low speed until just blended. Add half of the wet ingredients and blend. Continue alternating the dry and wet ingredients (ending with dry) until blended. Do not over beat.

Reserve approximately 2 Tablespoons chopped cherries. Gently stir the remaining chopped cherries into the batter.

Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold into batter.

Once the batter is in the cake pans, sprinkle the reserved cherries over the top of the batter, and using a toothpick push them just slightly below the surface of the cake batter. Even though the flour is supposed to keep the cherries from sinking to the bottom of the pan, I find that most will, so this is my reason for adding a few to the top.

Bake for 30 - 35 minutes, when the cake springs back to the touch or a toothpick pulls out clean or with only a few crumbs attached, the cake is done.

Makes 7 1/2 cups cake batter

Everyone Really Liked the Strawberry Cake

In 2019 I got a request from my nephew's bride-to-be to make their wedding cake. It was an honor, also a bit of a challenge. She requested chocolate, check, vanilla, check and strawberry...not so check. I moved into research mode. 

I made some not so successful attempts and finally wound up modifying this recipe from sugargeekshow.com. Her post is very complete with lots of tips. Also, her photos are way better than mine.

sugargeekshow's strawberry cake

Sugargeekshow's Fresh Strawberry Cake With My Tweaks and My Strawberry Buttercream Recipe

I found it makes two 8"x 1 1/2" cake layers.

 Strawberry Cake Ingredients

• 14 ounces all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 ounces unsalted butter room temperature
• 10 ounces granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoon strawberry emulsion or extract, I use LorAnn oils bakery emulsion
• zest one lemon
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice fresh
• 6 ounces egg whites room temperature
• 4 ounces strawberry reduction room temperature
• 6 ounces buttermilk 
• 4 ounces water
• 1/2 teaspoon Pink food color I use Americolor electric pink gel

Strawberry Reduction

• 32 ounces fresh or frozen strawberries thawed
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 pinch salt

My Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

• 8 ounces butter
• 8 ounces crisco
• 6 cups powdered sugar
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
• 6 Tablespoons powdered freeze dried strawberries
• 4 ounces strawberry reduction room temperature

Instructions

Strawberry Reduction Instructions

Make this reduction the day before you're ready to make your cake.

Place frozen strawberries into a medium saucepan. Blend strawberries with an emersion blender if you prefer a smoother texture of strawberry reduction.

Heat on medium-high and add in, lemon zest, lemon juice and salt. Stir often to prevent burning.

Once bubbling, reduce heat to medium-low and slowly reduce until berries begin to break up and the mixture has reduced by about half. This will take about 20 minutes. If your mixture has reduced by half and is still watery, continue to cook until all of the liquid is out. I wound up over cooking one batch, so am very careful towards the end of this process. I put the reduction in a glass bowl in the microwave and reduced minute by minute until it looked right.  You should end up with about 2 cups of thick strawberry reduction that looks like tomato sauce. Transfer to another container and let cool before use. I also compared making the reduction with frozen vs our fabulous local Oxnard strawberries and could not find much difference. Save the fresh ones to adorn the cake.

You will use some of the reduction for the cake batter, some for the frosting and the rest for filling between the cake layers for extra moisture. Leftover reduction can be stored in the fridge for up to one week or frozen for 6 months.

Strawberry Cake Instructions

All ingredients should be at room temperature.

Make sure to take your strawberry reduction out of the refrigerator 1 hour before making your cake so that it comes to room temperature.

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat to 350ºF/176ºC.

Grease two 8" cake pans with butter and flour and put parchment in bottom. I also use one cake nail for an 8 inch pan and wrap each pan with cake strips to prevent doming.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, water, strawberry reduction, strawberry emulsion, vanilla extract, lemon extract, lemon zest, lemon juice, and pink food coloring.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add room temperature butter to your stand mixer with the paddle attachment and beat at medium speed until smooth and shiny, about 30 seconds.

Gradually sprinkle in the sugar, beat until mixture is fluffy and almost white, about 3-5 minutes

Mix on low speed and add about a third of the dry ingredients to the batter, followed immediately by about a third of the buttermilk mixture, mix until ingredients are almost incorporated into the batter. Repeat the process 2 more times. When the batter appears just blended, stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

In a separate bowl whip the egg whites just until they form stiff peaks. Fold into batter incorporating until streaks are gone.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.

Bake cakes at 350ºF/176ºC until they feel firm in the center and a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs on it, about 30-35 minutes.

Place pans on top of a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes. Then flip your cakes onto the racks remove parchment and cool completely. 

Once cooled, wrap each layer in plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze before assembling your cake.

This is the cake with the crumb coat done. The recipe made two 1 1/2 inch layers. The filling was strawberry frosting but since the whole wedding cake was done with fluted ivory buttercream I crumbcoated with that.

Pretty Little Raspberry Filled Cake

We are still celebrating birthdays in a small way this month. That calls for another small cake for a small gathering of people in your bubble. This cake came as a request of a birthday girl who loves raspberries.

I used my white cake recipe and added what amounts to a raspberry coulis filling along with some halved raspberries. The frosting is my standard buttercream and for a little extra something I added raspberry powder to some of the buttercream for the pink frosting. 

For the powder I crushed up a bag of Trader Joe's freeze dried raspberries and put them through a fine mesh strainer. Or you can buy raspberry powder

From Chelsweets

For the coulis:

12 ounce bag of frozen raspberries

1/2 cup water divided in half

1/2 cup sugar

1TB orange zest

1/4 cup corn starch

Add the raspberries and 1/4 cup water to a medium saucepan along with the sugar. Stir the mixture until it begins to boil. Lower the heat to medium-low, and allow the filling to simmer for 10-15 minutes. Turn off heat and remove the pot from the stove. 

Pour the filling into a metal strainer suspended over a medium sized bowl, and push through using a rubber stapula. It is best to use a medium size mesh strainer instead of the finest strainer around. It is hard to get all the pulp though otherwise. 

In a separate small bowl, make a slurry by combine the remaining 1/4 cup of water with the cornstarch. Stir until the cornstarch has fully dissolved into the water 

Add this cornstarch mixture into the strained raspberry filling, and stir until it is incorporated.

Heat at a medium high heat, and be sure to stir constantly during this stage to prevent the filling from burning. 

Cook until the mixture begins to boil, then reduce the heat to medium low. Continue to stir, and cook for a few additional minutes. 

Turn off heat and pour the raspberry filling into a separate bowl to cool. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 1 hour, or preferably overnight.

Assembly:

For each layer spread a thin layer of buttercream and a ring around the outer rim as a dam. 

Spoon a layer of coulis over the layer and cover with halved raspberries.

Repeat with second layer.

Frost and decorate.

My "The Best Carrot Cake I Ever Ate" Recipe

A while back someone requested a carrot cake for her mother's 90th birthday. I found a recipe from  Adora's Box which added some orange peel and an orange brown butter glaze. I usually drench my layers so this was a nice touch that fit right in with my methods. In my digging around I ran across a few recipes that had you macerate the grated carrots to release their juices before adding them to the batter. Brilliant!

It was to have a crown and a quilted pattern. Because of the quilting I needed a firm cream cheese frosting. I wound up with a frosting that worked OK but was still a bit wetter than perfect. 

Just recently another carrot cake request came in and I really wanted a smooth surface. About that time I found what was called a "Not too sweet Cream Cheese Frosting" and it was supposed to be pipable. By itself was a bit grainy for my taste. 

The reviews came in for the cake and my customer said that she was told over and over that "This was the best carrot cake I ever ate!" She added that everyone was in their 80s so they should know.  Here is a tidbit of history from "The Carrot Cake Lady" 

The popularity of carrot cake was likely revived in Britain because of rationing during the Second World War. Carrot cakes first became commonly available in restaurants and cafeterias in the United States in the early 1960s. They were at first a novelty item, but people liked them so much that carrot cake became standard dessert fare. In 2005, the American-based Food Network listed carrot cake, with it's cream-cheese icing, as number five of the top five fad foods of the 1970s.

Ingredients

Makes enough for one 9-inch, three-layer cake. It made two 10” layers for me

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon coarse salt

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (fresh is best)

1/4 tsp allspice

1 stick butter, room temperature, plus more for pans

1 cup oil

1 cup packed light-brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3 large eggs (room temperature)

1 TB Vanilla extract

¼ cup orange Juice

¼ cup buttermilk

1 pound carrots (8 to 10 medium carrots), peeled and shredded on a box grater or in a food processor (about 3 cups) finely shredded is best. I used a microplane.

1 TB grated orange peel

2 cups pecans These can be eliminated if you want to go nutless. (1 cup finely chopped for batter, 1 cup coarsely chopped for decorating sides of cake)

Directions 

One thing to keep in mind is to make sure your spices are fresh. If you are like me I only use allspice once in a great while. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter three 9-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with

parchment paper. Dust with flour, tapping out excess. Whisk together flour, baking powder,

baking soda, cinnamon, salt, ginger, allspice and nutmeg.

 

Grate carrots and add ¼ cup of the white sugar. Let it macerate for on half hour. You should

see liquid in the bowl.

 

Beat butter and sugars with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at

time, beating well after each addition. Beat 3 minutes. Add oil, vanilla, and orange 

juice, zest, buttermilk, and carrots with the liquid. Beat until well combined, about 2 minutes. 

Reduce speed to low, and add flour mixture, then the finely chopped pecans.

 

Scrape batter into prepared pans, dividing evenly. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until

golden brown and a toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean, about 30 minutes. 

Let cool in pans on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife around edges of cakes to loosen

and turn out cakes onto rack. Turn right side up, and let cool completely. 

Brush each layer with Brown Butter and Orange Glaze

Place one trimmed cake, cut side up, on a serving platter. Spread 1 cup frosting over cake

Top with second trimmed cake, cut side down. Spread 1 cup frosting over cake. Top with

remaining cake. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides. 

Gently press coarsely chopped pecans onto sides of cake. 

Refrigerate 1 hour before serving.

Ingredients for the brown butter and orange glaze:

·       1/2 c. butter

·       1/4 c. dark brown sugar

·       1/4 c. orange juice (Wouldn’t a splash of Gran Marinier be good too?)

Directions:

Heat up small saucepan. Add the butter and let melt on medium heat until it bubbles up

and brown flecks rise to the surface. The melted butter should be brown. 

Add in the brown sugar and orang juice and stir until the sugar melts. 

 

Easy Cream Cheese Frosting for Carrot Cake

·       16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

·       2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

·       2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and brought to room   temperature

·       1 tsp orange zest

·       2 pounds confectioners' sugar, sifted

Directions

Beat cream cheese and vanilla with a mixer on medium speed until creamy. Gradually add butter, beating until incorporated after each addition. Add in orange zest.

     Reduce speed to low. Gradually add confectioners' sugar, and beat until fluffy and smooth.

A year later the recipient of the cake said all he wanted for his birthday was another one of those carrot Cakes! Nice to be remembered.

I did not use this but thought it might come in handy if I tweaked the graininess.

Not Too Sweet Cream Cheese Frosting from The Scran Line

Ingredients

Makes 1 batch frosting / Enough for 20 cupcakes

I frosted the outside of a 10" cake with enough for dams around each of three layers.

 

·       250g (1 cup) full-fat cream cheese blocks (not spreadable), chilled

·       250g (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened

·       350g (12.3 oz) icing (confectioners’) sugar sifted

·       150g (5.3 oz) powdered milk (skim or full-fat)

·       2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

·       2 TB heavy whipping cream

·       1 TB Gran Marnier (Optional)

 

Method

Place the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Alternatively, you can use a hand mixer. Mix on low speed to begin with, to help break up the cream cheese a little, then increase the speed to high for a couple of minutes to help combine the cream cheese and butter.

After a couple of minutes, stop your mixer and scrape down the side of the bowl with a spatula. Add the icing sugar, powdered milk and vanilla. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are fully incorporated, then bring the speed back up to high. Continue beating on high speed until your frosting is fluffy and turns pale in color.

 

·       NOTES: It’s important to always mix this frosting on high speed. The only time you mix it on low speed is after you’ve added the dry ingredients. Mixing on high speed helps to aerate the frosting, giving it volume and making it easier to pipe.  This was also grainy without the additional cream (and Gran Marnier!) After it sat for an hour it was much better. Possibly the graininess would have gone away after sitting without the cream. I never tried to pipe since the cake’s design didn’t call for it but it was stiff enough to make a smooth surface for the cake. I found the frosting to be much less sweet than traditional recipes so I mixed half of the sweeter recipe with it.