Just to get some important things out of the way...
1) I'm engaged! :)
2) I'm attending nursing school.
3) I live in Starkville, MS again!
More on those items in another post, because this post will be devoted solely to pie! I have a dream...a dream that one day, I will update regularly enough not to have to tell you these things in list form!
But enough with the slacking blogger guilt. Let's talk about pie! The above pies are coconut pie and apple pie.
If you have never made a pie from scratch before, it is something you simply must try...even just once! There is nothing quite like homemade pie crust. Although, if you're like me, there is nothing like homemade pie DOUGH, either. It's a pretty amazing snack, but alas.
There are many pie crust recipes out there, but my favorite pie doughs are ones that use both butter and shortening. That way, the pie crust develops richness from the butter AND the light flakiness produced by shortening. If a pie crust recipe calls for butter or shortening only and I still want to use the recipe, I usually substitute a butter/shortening mixture in place of the single fat, unless they do a really great job convincing me to follow the recipe to a T.
After you have selected a recipe, make sure that all of the pie fats and liquids are very cold. Also, I use a food processor to mix my pie dough ingredients. Cutting in the fats by hand seems very time-consuming, and I am consistently able to produce fabulous pie dough using the food processor method.
Finally, make sure your pie dough is quite cold right before rolling it out, and don't be afraid to use generous sprinkles of flour to keep the crust from sticking to your work surface. Also, I prefer a French rolling pin when rolling out pie crusts.
Some pie crust recipes to lead you in the right direction:
This is my apple pie! I made it for a family Labor Day celebration last night, and I was very pleased with the results. I also used my very own recipe...I am not very experienced with recipe creation, so this was pretty exciting for me! One day, I will share it! A tip for now, though...you need to cook those apples before you put them in the pie, or else they will shrink and leave an unsightly gap between the filling and the crust. I cooked mine in a Dutch oven over medium heat for about 15 minutes.
Do you like my pie bird? :) I saw them in Martha Stewart's magazine a while ago and loved them. A coworker eventually bought me a pair as a going-away present when I left Memphis, and I love them! Their purpose is to ensure proper ventilation of the pie and prevent dripping, which makes a huge mess.
Finally, the coconut pie is not my own recipe, but it sure is popular with the coconut lovers in my family! I use the filling recipe for Rachael Ray's Coconut Chess Pie. Also, if you decide to make this filling, it doesn't seem like it will properly fill two pies, but it will.
Another tip: do not put hot filling into a cold pie crust before baking. It will melt the butter in the crust and then your crust will be tough/unflaky!
Although cake baking and decorating usually take up a lot of my baking time, I have found that there is just something special about pie baking. It makes me feel like I'm honoring previous generations...like I'm making my grandmother proud. Oh, and pie is also delicious.
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