Blueberry Pie made to order...

Happy Monday my fellow foodies!

Mr. Sweet and I were invited to a birthday dinner this evening and a blueberry pie was requested. At first I was a little trepidatious about making a pie because my experience with pastry is nil. The last pie I made was when I was seventeen, a bittersweet 14 years ago. A cherry pie incident that never really faded from memory. But I digress. I thought it is now or never, if I really want to call myself a baker (and I do, I really do) than I must take on...the pastry.

So, remembering a conversation with my mom about lard and shortening (shortening makes a great crust for those that are experienced crust makers)I bought a pound of Tenderflake (lard) and two bags of frozen wild Canadian blueberries.

The crust was so easy I thought I must have screwed it up. Seriously, I think I had the crust for both pies rolled out in a matter of tennish minutes? Maybe fifteen. The filling was equally easy since it was just sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, cornstarch and...blueberries. Four cups per pie!

The crust recipe is from the box of Tenderflake, I made the three double crusts and froze one of them.

Ingredients........
5 and 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
2 teaspoons of salt
1 lb of Tenderflake Lard
1 tablespoon of vinegar
1 egg, lightly beaten
Water

Mix together the flour and salt

Cut in Tenderflake Lard with a pastry blender or 2 knives until the mixture resembles coarse oatmeal or peas.

In a 1 cup measure, combine the vinegar and egg. Add water to make the 1 cup measure full. Gradually stir liquid into the flour/lard. Add only enough liquid to make dough cling together. I used my hands, and had no remaining liquid but I like to keep my surfaces floured.

Gather this into a ball and divide it into 4 portions. Be sure to cover whatever you are not using at the moment with saran wrap to keep from drying out.

Roll out each portion as you need it on a lightly floured surface.

For the Pie Filling I used the recipe from Joy of Baking.

4 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch (corn flour)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest

Egg Wash:

1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon cream

In a small bowl mix together the sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and zest. Place the blueberries in a large bowl. Add the sugar mixture to the blueberries and gently toss to combine. Pour the mixture into the prepared pie shell. Then, in a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolk and cream. Lightly brush the rim of the pastry shell with the egg wash. Starting at the outside edge of the pie, place the cut out pastry stars in a circular pattern on top of the blueberries, making sure the tips of the stars are touching. Once the top of the pie is completely covered with the pastry stars, brush the entire surface with the egg wash, making sure that it does not pool. Place the assembled pie back in the refrigerator to chill for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) and place the oven rack in the lower third of the oven. Remove the chilled pie from the fridge and place on a larger baking pan, lined with parchment paper, to catch any spills. Bake the pie for about 20 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). Continue to bake the pie for about 35 - 45 minutes or until the crust is a deep golden brown color and the juices are bubbling and thick. If the edges of the pie are browning too much during baking, cover with a foil ring.

Place the baked pie on a wire rack to cool for several hours. The pie needs time for the cornstarch to thicken and leaving it be (or putting it in the fridge) for a couple to three hours is recommended. We tried to eat it warm and it was good but the juiced leaked out where we sliced into it. We then put the second pie in the fridge to cool completely and just warmed it in the oven at the party and it was perfect. We also chilled the pie we sliced into and waited till evening to eat it and it turned out great as well.



This pie is super simple and super tasty. I am so happy with it that I intend on making tarts with the renmaining frozen dough. I am really happy though because now all those recipes that call for crust (quiche for example) can now be added to the to-do list. Also, with Thanksgiving next week I am now adding pie to my roster of treats to bake! For serious I think Mr. Sweet fell in love with me all over again today. ♥

When Life Gives you Zucchini, you make cake!

The single zucchini from our garden. Looks ginormous next to a mini muffin yes?



Wednesday kept calling it a "Keemy" and asking to hold on to it.



This was probably the most moist, the most tasty, the most delicious cake bread I have had in ages. I wish I could take credit for the recipe but alas I cannot. I just baked it to perfection. The recipe came via someone on my friends list on Livejournal. It is here at Virtual Cities. I will paste the text out for you too though.

Lemon/Blueberry Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup canola oil

3-1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

4 teaspoons baking powder

Juice of 1 lemon

Chopped zest of 1 lemon

2 cups grated zucchini

1 cup frozen Maine wild blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour two 5 x 9-inch loaf pans. Beat eggs; add sugar and beat until well mixed. Add canola oil and beat well. Add lemon juice, zest, and zucchini and mix well with a wooden spoon.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt, soda, and baking powder together. Add to the zucchini mixture; mix well. Fold in the blueberries. Pour mixture into the loaf pans and bake approximately 55 minutes until done (test with a cake tester). Remove from oven and cool 10 minutes prior to removing from pans.

Totally worth the effort it takes to grow, pick, shave and shred the zucchini!

The Joy of baking mini-muffins.

I had been craving blueberry muffins like mad a couple weeks ago so I finely buckled down and baked some. Ron had been insisting I make bread so I haven't baked anything to avoid the nagging lol. But when I went to finally make bread I discovered we had no yeast. So, blueberry muffins it was!

My best friend gave me the 75th Anniversary Edition of The Joy of Cooking for my birthday and it is quickly becoming my go to book. With 4500 recipes how could it not? But, on a more related note, I made their basic muffin mix, adding the blueberries and a 1/2 cup sour cream + 1/2 cup plain yogurt in lieu of the cream.

Here is a pic....



Mmmm just look at that cinnamon sugar sprinkle!

I could not find a link to the recipe sorry, you'll just have to read the text.

Basic muffin recipe (mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients)

Preheat oven to 400

Whisk in one bowl.
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Whisk in second bowl.
2 eggs
1 cup milk or cream (I used 1/2 sour cream + 1/2 plain yogurt)
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter softened
1 tsp vanilla (which I totally forgot)

Add the wet to the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Add 1 1/2 cups blueberries and again stir until just combined. Do not over mix. batter should NOT be smooth.

Divide batter among muffin cups. (I used mini muffin cups and got 36)

Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes. (I did my first 24 for 14 minutes because I used frozen blueberries which chilled the batter significantly and the second batch of 12 for 12 minutes.)

If you are doing regular muffins bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes.
If you are baking jumbo muffins bake at 400 22-25 minutes.



WARNING: If you make mini muffins like I did, you may end up eating a dozen before the cool. Just sayin'.