PIE!!!!

I was certain that jennredd had started a PIE thread at one point, but after trawling back through at least half the Food Chat pages, alas...

Let's talk about pie!  With inspiration & the idea seed planted by pkessler's intention to also make one, I'm making a blackberry pie today & just mixed up the crust - refrigerating it now until I roll it out.  I fancy making the pie up fresh after we have tea, so it's warm & fresh from the oven when we have it with ice cream later.  Blackberries are one of my very favorite things to have in a pie (or even better, a cobbler).

It's been donkeys years since I did my own crust.  I used to make them using Crisco - it's how I was raised.  But no Crisco here, so I'm trying butter.  We'll see how it comes out.  OMG - all that butter!  (It's a double crust pie.)

My gran always used her fingers to mix the crust.  I opted for using a pastry cutter, but I may eventually cave & use the food processor in the future.  How to get the crust flaky & not tough?!

I would like to try a cobbler next - I have gran's recipe book/file & her signature cobbler was a peach cobbler.  It had a thick crust (square or rectangular dish) that came up over the edge of the fruit & then like a lattice worked across the top.  It was always awesome with cream!  Problem is her recipes are only kind of halfway written down, so there's a fair amount of guessing involved - she always cooked 'by guess & by gosh'.

Mmmmmm, I love PIE!

Did someone say PIE!??!!?!??!!?!? 

I'm drooooling, berry PIE is my favorite PIE of all!!!!!

I was at work a few years ago and the one of the nurses brought a blueberry pie.  It was delicious.  She told everyone there was a secret ingredient and she'd bake another pie for whoever recognized what it was.  We spent the whole darn day trying to figure it out but no one could.  At the end of the day she revealed the secret ingredient was black pepper.  Best damned blueberry I've ever had. She said it came from a book called "Lobster Rolls and Blueberry Pie" which I then proceeded to buy a copy of.  No one makes pie like Sue!  She used to bake me apple pies too (my favorite).  I was in the Navy and living in the barracks so I couldn't bake.  Thanks to her I gained a ton of weight....and to Jan who makes the tastiest cakes ever but I degress!

June

Someone on UK Yankee gave me a great pastry recipe using vegetable oil (I think it was Desert Dreamer).  It's very easy and makes lovely, light pastry:

1 cup flour
1 third cup veg. oil, (put the oil in a measuring cup, then add enough milk to make half a cup liquid. )
half tsp. salt.
Mix all together until it stays together and forms a ball, you can use a spoon to mix it. The mix automatically comes together into a ball. Put between two pieces of wax paper and roll out.

Used to be a restaurant in Kansas City that was very famous for the flakiness of their pies & pastries.  Secret ingredient?  I know it will sound gross to some...rendered chicken fat.  That's right, when you make chicken stock, the thick fatty stuff you skim off the top.  (Not that much different from lard when you think about it.)  But people swore these pies were the best.  I moved away before I had a chance to try.

Another great place in Kansas City for pies was Tippin's Pie Pantry & Restaurant - they sold every kind of pie you could possibly imagine.  Sadly, it appears they closed down for good in 2004.  Probably because I moved away & stopped frequenting them.

Did someone say PIE!??!!?!??!!?!? 

I could have sworn you started a PIE thread before?  Where did it go?

Britwife, doesn't that recipe have any sugar in it?  (Most crust recipes have a small, trace amount of sugar?)

Nope, no sugar. I suppose you could add some if you wanted to though.

Im dying to know why some of you always spell PIE in upper-case letters!

Im dying to know why some of you always spell PIE in upper-case letters!

Why not?  PIE is so wonderful and fabulous it deserves to be in bold upper-case! 

Carolyn, I can't think of a PIE thread I started....might have to look around myself now out of curiosity!

I am going to check the blackberries in the morning and hopefully get enough for a PIE...  maybe around 5 cups??
If I don't get enough, I was thinking of doing this:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/235489
Hand PIE! Makes me think of hostess pies!

Someone on UK Yankee gave me a great pastry recipe using vegetable oil (I think it was Desert Dreamer).  It's very easy and makes lovely, light pastry:

1 cup flour
1 third cup veg. oil, (put the oil in a measuring cup, then add enough milk to make half a cup liquid. )
half tsp. salt.
Mix all together until it stays together and forms a ball, you can use a spoon to mix it. The mix automatically comes together into a ball. Put between two pieces of wax paper and roll out.

I may have to try this.  I usually don't make pie because, well, my pastry sucks.  I've got heavy hands and it always comes out like shoe leather.

here's a secret PIE ingredient:

make a regular, plain, old apple pie, but throw in a handful of red hots (you know, those cinnamon candies that come out around valentine's day in the states).

then make a thin powdered sugar icing & drizzle it all over the top crust.

good eatin' -- know what i mean, vern? 

I was certain that jennredd had started a PIE thread at one point, but after trawling back through at least half the Food Chat pages, alas...

Was it this one?
http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=29236.0

Started by MrsPink, not jennredd ... though jennredd did pipe in early! 

Carolyn, I always use butter for my pastry and no sugar.

I think my mum in law doesn't use sugar either.  Just flour, lard, and water.

I think my mum in law doesn't use sugar either.  Just flour, lard, and water.

My mother (Queen of Pies) always used a combo of butter and lard, and added a small amount of sugar for fruit pies. Unfortunately, I didn't inherit her gift. I definitely do not have "pastry hands."