Noteworthy Chicken Pot Pie recipe

http://elise.com/recipes/archives/004089chicken_pot_pie.php

Wow.

"Asperatus is a rare, newly recognized cloud formation, that was proposed in 2009 as the first cloud formation added since cirrus intortus in 1951 to the International Cloud Atlas of the World Meteorological Organization. The name translates approximately as roughened or agitated waves."

http://freshpics.blogspot.com/2009/10/asperatus-new-cloud-type-discovered.html

Some beautiful pictures there; so gorgeous and surreal as to seem photoshopped. Nature's amazing, ne?

the perfect pie crust from scratch (for newbies)

modified with my friend Erica with help from my other friend Adrienne

Foolproof Pie Dough
- makes one 9-inch double-crust pie with a ridiculously flaky crust or two pie bottoms (ie. single-crust pie) -

The trick to this pie crust is that the inclusion of eighty-proof vodka (or other similar proof alcohol, which is 40% alcohol), adds moistness to the dough without aiding in gluten formation since gluten doesn't form in ethanol. The alcohol vaporizes during baking, resulting in a tender crust. Because of the extra liquid, the dough will be moister than most standard pie doughs and will require up to 1/4 cup more flour.


Ingredients

1 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons sugar (or 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 tablespoon Splenda)
If you are using tableware to measure this, a True teaspoon is *usually* roughly a heaping spoonful of the smaller spoon, or two spoonfuls if you are measuring liquid. Ditto for tablespoon measurements.

8 tablespoons (1 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch slices
3 tablespoons cold Smart Balance or other oil-based butter substitute (or substitute with butter)
1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces; or 8 tablespoons
1/4 cup cold vodka
1/4ish cup cold water
Cold Matters. ESPECIALLY with the shortening/butter, or it'll start to liquify and you'll have a more thoroughly mixed dough than you want. There is BOTH butter and shortening (and Smart Balance) because the different melting temperatures of the oils will create a flakier crust.

2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose PASTRY flour
Pastry flour has a specific gluten content and will make your pie crust flakier than if you'd used all-purpose. I've gotten better results actually from using two kinds of flour to get the right gluten content.

Alternately, the reason why gluten is important is because it's a binding agent; depending on your non-gluten flour preference, you might or might not get the same results. To compensate for this, try adding some amounts of honey or egg, the amount would depend on the flour being used. (While sugar can bind in certain situations, these situations usually involve heating the sugar first. The pie dough needs to be bound before heating, prior to the pie innards, because otherwise you'd get a soggier/non-existent crust.)

To make pastry flour, mix
2 parts all-purpose flour, with
1 part cake flour.


Procedure

1. Dry Ingredients - This process is designed to properly distribute the oil into the flour; the end result is a rough mixture of some small pockets of oil surrounded by flour.

1a. Process 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until
combined, about 2 one-second pulses. Or mix together thoroughly with a pastry blender.

1b. Add shortening (that has moments before been in the freezer) and mix until shortening is coated in flour and broken up into berry-sized bits.

1c. Add butter (that has been in the fridge) and mix until dough will resemble cottage cheese curds, and there is no uncoated flour. (Repeat step with Smart Balance/oil-based butter substitute if you are using them.)

1c. Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade or at the bottom of your mixing bowl.

1d. Add remaining cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Basically until it looks like cottage cheese again, but with some extra uncoated flour hanging about.

1e. Empty dough into mixing bowl if you are using a food processor.

2. Add Wet Ingredients - the goal of this step is to make the dough moldable while not breaking the tiny oil bubbles you've spent step 1 making.

2a. Sprinkle preferably cold vodka (or other 80 proof alcohol) over mixture while, with rubber SPATULA, use folding motion to mix. The folding motion is so that you don't break up the oils too much, you want to keep the pockets oil/flour that you spent step 1 making.

2b. Sprinkle cold water while folding the dough, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky/sticky and sticks together. Feel free to stop adding water when it gets to this point.

2c. Divide dough into two even parts. Wrap each in plastic wrap and form them into balls, then open the first plastic wrap and gently press down with a second piece of plastic, press any cracks that form on the edges together . The end result is a 4 inch disks of dough with a smooth edge, with sandwiched between two flat pieces of plastic wrap. This will make them easier to form into the crust later.

2d. Refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days, or freeze for a couple minutes. By this time the oils will have started to melt on you so you want to make the dough firmer before you handle it more (thus not breaking the oil bubbles in the dough).

3. Dough, meet Pie Pan - how to get the dough into the pie pan with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of tasty end result

3a. Take your pie pan (roughly 9 inches) and coat it with some sort of oil/butter. Dust the entire surface with flour of choice. This is to prevent stickage when attempting to remove pie from tin.

3b. Stick the pan in the freezer. This is to make sure that the oil is frozen as well as the pan metal.

3b. Take your disk of dough from the fridge/freezer, it should at this time resemble clay you can sculpt with; way firmer than play dough, not liquid at all, holds it shape, and doesn't crack. If it cracks it's too cold, so warm it up a bit. DO NOT REMOVE THE PLASTIC WRAP.

3c. Slap your dough against a hard surface; basically lift the dough and fling it downwards. You should not be holding the dough by the time it hits the surface. This will increase the size of the disk and flatten the dough without messing with more flour. Repeat until the dough is large enough to cover the bottom of the pie pan. Gently squish closed the cracks

Note: sometimes the dough does not want to stick to the plastic wrap, in this case squish it into shape with your fingertips or roll it flat with a pin or a wine bottle.

3d. Take the frozen pie pan out of the freezer. Peel the plastic wraps from the top of the dough and lay the pie pan upside-down over the top and then carefully overturn the whole thing so that the now flat dough covers the bottom with a layer of plastic wrap now on top. Press gently with fingers to have the dough rest on all the pan surfaces evenly.

3f. Stick the pan in the freezer. This step is KEY. Fill the pan with filling only when it seems rock hard. I haven't tested how long the dough is good for after being stuck in there, but I assume at least a day or two.

More tips and tricks for the rest of the pie-making process in Bootleg Pie. Cheers!

Bootleg Pie

created with my friend Erica

Bootleg Pie
- the alcohol without the being drunk -

The trick to this pie is the alcohol, most of which is burned off during baking. Not only does the alcohol make the filling taste richer and more savory, but strangely makes the pie feel lighter as well. Clearly, booze makes everything better.


Ingredients and Equipment
(per 9 inch deep dish pie)

3 to 4 cups of Fruit - fresh or frozen (without syrup)
3 cups if you like a thin pie, 4 cups if you like it a little higher. We used a combination of blueberry, strawberry, and peach. Feel free to experiment!

1/3 cup miniature Tapioca
Binding agent/Thickener, may be replaced with 7 TB Corn Starch

roughly 6 Tablespoons water (or grape juice), may be considerably more depending on the tapioca

roughly 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
For coloring and taste, if you dislike lemons and don't mind discoloring replace with equivalent amount of water

1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon Allspice
Optional, but recommended


Sweetener:
2/3 cup granulated (ordinary table) Sugar
OR
1/3 cup sugar and 1/3 cup Splenda (Splenda works in pie recipes, but not by itself. The pie turns out heavy and with much less flavor).

One 9 inch pie crust (made and ready for filling) in one 9 inch Pie Plate (metal recommended) SITTING IN THE FREEZER; the cold will help prevent soggy pie bottoms.
For my pie crust recipe go here.


1. Oven
Preheat to 400 degrees F, removing stuff from the oven first if you keep things in there.

2. Fruit

Wash fruit of choice and if needed cut so that the width is no larger than a large blueberry.

For blueberries, they're easiest to wash in a large bowl of water and gently run your hands through the berries as they float. With your fingers slightly apart, you will easily feel any soft or mushy berries get caught in your fingers.

Pile the berries into a bowl and add enough brandy (or alcohol of choice) to cover them. Set aside for about half an hour.

3. Make the Pie Topping
You have three options here, pie crust similar to the pie bottom, a modified superflaky crust, or crumb topping.

My recipe for pie crust will make enough dough for the top as well, simply expand the disk of dough similar to how you expanded it for the pie bottom and then stick it back in the fridge until later.

Crumb topping:
1/4 cup sugar (OR 1/8 cup sugar and 1/8 cup Splenda)
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup butter or margarine
Mix until like cottage cheese and then place in the fridge until later.

Modified superflaky crust:
1/2 cup sugar (OR 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup Splenda)
1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter or margarine
~1 teaspoon of a super light syrup made from the fruity brandy

The dough should just barely holds together (ie. not sticky at all) and you can barely mold it because it wants to fall apart, and it should be impossible to handle when thin. The reasoning behind this crust is basically the same as in the pie crust recipe; ie. pockets of butter and very little gluten formation. To get the crust shape, ball up the dough and plop it in the middle of a piece of plastic wrap, and then gently form the pie top with your fingers, gently squishing closed the cracks. (Later, when you're placing this over the pie, simply upend the plastic over the filled pie crust)

The syrup is made by simmering the brandy that's been pickling the fruit on super low heat with 1/3 as much sugar (ie. 3 parts brandy and 1 part sugar) until it's thicker than vinegar but slightly thinner than maple syrup. Goes great on ice cream.

Because the superflaky crust requires the syrup made from the excess berry brandy, I would prep the initial crumbs now and then make/add the syrup in-between step 6 and 7.

4. Mix the dry filling ingredients.

If using corn starch:
Combine the
2/3 cup sweetener
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Allspice
and 7 TB corn starch.

If using tapioca, leave out the cornstarch.

5. Prep tapioca (so that there's no hard tapioca balls but you still get the binding)

In a sauce pan over low heat add half the water to all of the tapioca and gently stir. Add water if it ever looks dry (ie, stops glistening with liquid).

It's done when the tapioca looks almost BUT NOT COMPLETELY clear and has the consistency of jelly; ie. liquidy but kinda wanting to hold it's shape. It should be still mostly opaque.

Add the 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice, and chop up the tapioca with a spoon until it's more liquid.

6. Combine!

Put prepped tapioca in a large bowl.

Add the dry ingredients to the tapioca, mix thoroughly and chop up any tapioca that tries to hold it's shape

Remove the fruit that's been sitting in the brandy from the fridge and add only the fruit to the bowl. Mix well so that everything is covered and keep at room temperature.

Make the syrup from the remaining brandy if you're so inclined. (3 parts brandy to 1 part sugar simmered over low heat until slightly thickened.)

7. Enter the Crust

Prep your pie topping for landing on the pie, keep it close at hand.

The oven should be 400 degrees F

Have ready, close at hand:
- a egg, beaten (makes the crust beautiful, and gives the sugar/spice a place to stick)
- a brush
- sugar (makes crust tasty and shiny)
- allspice/cinnamon (optional)
- a fork
- a knife (optional, you can just use the fork in a pinch)
- the pie filling
- oven mitts

Remove the pie crust from the freezer.

QUICKLY
- Pour the topping into the crust
- Plop on the top of the pie
- Crimp edges with a fork
- Brush egg on the top
- Sprinkle sugar on top, then the cinnamon/allspice
- Cut at least 4 air holes with knife

Stick it in the oven ASAP. The speed is to prevent the pie bottom from being room temperature; this is to prevent seepage of the filling into the crust (Thus, SOGGY PIE BOTTOM) before the alcohol burns off and some of the water has a chance to evaporate and the tapioca to thicken.

8. Oven details

Bake for first 30 minutes at 400 degrees F. Set a timer and keep a knife next to your oven mitts.

Then decrease the temp to 350 for the remaining 30-40 minutes. This will prevent the crust from browning too much. Cut open the air holes again or you'll have pie innards seeping from the edges, then put away the knife.

Set timer for 15 min, and check the pie. If everything looks fine, set another 5 min, and repeat until top is nicely golden brown. If the top of your pie ever starts separating from the crimped edges, your pie is DONE. Otherwise, don't go past 40 min.

9. Eat!

The pie is awesome right out of the oven, or cooled down. Vanilla ice cream with the pie is awesome. =D