The sweet smell of baking pastry wafts through the cottage. The golden sticky syrup bubbles up through the pie’s crust signaling it’s cooked. My family hovers around the stove, like bees to honey, eagerly awaiting the pie’s arrival.

My mom, Dorsi, is the queen of pie pastry. Raised on a farm, and later married to a farmer, she can turn out two to three pies a day, apple, lemon, blueberry and my favourite, rhubarb, are among her specialties. Last week in Saskatchewan, she took up the challenge of producing a pie a day. Monday was blueberry, Tuesday- Banana Cream, Wednesday- Peach, Thursday- Apple, Friday- Lemon Meringue, and Saturday we finished with Pumpkin.

The topic of the day was always what kind of pie we would be having for dinner. Fortunately, my mother took this opportunity to teach us how to make pie pastry, her granddaughters, her daughter and her daughter-in-law. We watched as she cut in white chunks of shortening, working the pastry cutter around the edges, carefully mixing the flour with the Crisco .

When quizzed as to how much water to pour in, Dorsi was evasive. She goes by feel, “If the pastry stays together when you pinch it and it feels greasy to the touch, then you are ready to roll it out,” was her response.

I have tried my best to capture her recipe and technique. Wednesday’s peach pie was the undisputed favourite, listed below is the recipe.

Does your family have a favourite pie? Please send me the recipe and any accompanying stories - they will be posted on this Thursday’s blog.

Peach Pie Pastry:

Heat oven to 400 degrees

• 4 cups of Robin Hood Cake & Pastry Flour

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 1 cup of Crisco All Vegetable Shortning - divided into 1/4 cups

• 2 tbsp white vinegar

• 1 egg - beaten

• 1/4 cup of cold water

Directions

In a deep bowl that tapers in, pour in flour, salt and first 1/4 cup shortening - mix well, add next 1/4 shortening and mix well, add 1/4 cup of shortening and mix well and add last 1/4 cup shortening and mix well. Pastry should be clumped together into small peas and feel greasy.

Mix together liquid ingredients and pour very slowly, mixing well a little bit at a time into the middle of the bowl and fluff with a fork. Be careful not to over mix. If it’s too wet or sticky add a little bit more water. Once pastry is moist, form it into three balls. You only need two for the pie, but you can make a lemon meringue pie with the third crust.

Let the pastry chill for a bit in the fridge. Prepare your surface by sprinkling flour and putting some on your rolling pin.

Roll out one ball of dough until is is thin enough to cover the entire surface of your pie plate. The tricky part is getting the rolled out dough from the counter into the plate. Use a flipper and go around the edges to scrape it off the counter. Fold the pastry in half and move it onto the pie plate.

Preparing the Filling

• Peaches - skinned and sliced thinly (the amount of fruit will depend on the size of the pie plate)

• 1 cup of white sugar (taste the mixture - add more if peaches are a bit sour)

• 2 tbsp of flour

• 1 tbsp almond extract

Directions:

Mix sliced peaches with almond extract and then add sugar and flour. Coat thoroughly and pour into pie plate.

Roll out the second dough ball and lay across the peaches. Trim the edges with a sharp knife and using your fingers, pinch the pie’s edges to seal the dough together. Using a sharp knife - make little pricks on the top of the pie to let the steam escape.

Cook at 400 degrees for 10 minutes and then for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. You will know the pie is finished when it starts to bubble over. Always place a cookie sheet under the pie to catch the drips.

Don’t worry about leftovers - there won’t be any left.

Cheers,

Julie

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 7:19 pm and is filed under Entertaining, Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.