When I was a child my favorite food was cherry pie & to this day it remains a guilty pleasure. Friends of mine know that I love to make pie. During college I made so many pies, I could probably have made one in my sleep if I tried. I'm always on the lookout for new and innovative pie fillings, so when I found this recipe in the Wall Street Journal 2 days ago, I just had to indulge myself.
I did make a few changes to the recipe before I gave it a try, and now that I've tasted the pie, there are some more things I'm going to change for next time.
First, make the filling.
Ingredients:
*5 c concord grapes (I found these at the farmer's market. You can only find them when they're in season.)
**1/4-1/2 c sugar
1/4 c flour
2 t lemon juice
pinch salt
*When I filled the pie crust it was a bit low, so I added some chopped apples to the top. I recommend using 6 cups of grapes.
**I don't like really sweet pies, and usually I add only 1/4 c sugar to my filling. This recipe called for 1 1/4 c & I reduced it to 1/2. I still thought it was too sweet (grapes are sugary), so I'm going to use 1/4 next time.
Wash the grapes & remove the skins, keeping them aside. Place grape pulp in a medium saucepan. Heat the pan on M & bring to a gentle boil, until the grapes become opaque & white. Pour through a food mill to remove the seeds & return to the saucepan. Now, the recipe said to add all of the skins to the pan, but after tasting the pie I found the texture of the skins to be very distracting. Add in 1/2 of the skins, the flour, lemon juice, sugar, & salt, and stir while heating on M. The mixture will thicken and begin to bubble. Remove from heat.
Preheat the oven to 450 F & make the crust. This recipe is enough for a double crust & some leftover for mini pies or small turnovers.
Ingredients:
1 stick of butter--cold
2 cups flour, pastry is best
3/4 t baking powder
pinch salt
water, as needed (~1 cup)
Sift together the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Using a pastry blender, knives, or your hands cut in the butter until it resembles large crumbs. Take a fork & stir while slowly adding water with your non-dominant hand. Do not add too much water! Once the dough has gathered into a clump, dump it onto a floured surface & divide in half.
Take the larger half of the dough & set aside.
With the smaller half, take a rolling pin & place it in the center of the dough. Gently roll from the center to the edge & repeat. Do not roll back & forth as you don't want to overwork the dough. Make sure the dough is floured enough so it doesn't stick. When it is about the size of the pie dish, fold it in half, then in half again, place in the dish, then unfold. If it doesn't match up perfectly that's fine, just cut around the edges with a knife to remove excess, & use those to patch up any spots where the crust is short.
The larger half will become the top. Roll it out the same as the first layer, but a little larger. You can either make this a solid top & cut slits in it, cut shapes out of it and place those on top (we always did this when I was little and I loved it), or make a lattice top. A lattice top is easy & fun but too difficult to explain here, so you can watch this video if you don't know how to do it.
Pour the filling into the pie & dot with butter. Then place the top onto the pie or weave the lattice.
After the top is on the pie, pinch the edges closed using your thumb, index, & middle fingers going all around the pie. With the excess dough you can roll it out again & make mini pies or simple turnovers by filling with fruit you have available. Sometimes if I don't have fruit I fill them with chocolate ;)
The oven should be preheated when you're done making the pie. It bakes for 10 minutes at 450, then lower the oven to 350 and set a timer for 30-35 minutes. This grape pie took the full 35 minutes and was perfectly golden.
I still haven't made up my mind how I feel about concord grape pie. No doubt it was a delicious success. Yet, it was a lot of work preparing the fruit: individually peeling the grapes & removing the seeds, just to then add the peels back in and think later while I was munching that I shouldn't have added in so many skins. Another thing, the aroma from concord grapes is absolutely intoxicating. It was everywhere, in the fridge, on my hands from peeling, released the second I began cooking the pulp, and later when the pie was baking. At night, my mom came home from work and said it smelled like wine! I think I spent so many hours smelling what I though would be the pie, that by the time I tasted it, it was less-than spectacular.
Next time, I think I might just make jam :)
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If you want to make a fruit pie that isn't concord grape here's a recipe for other fruit fillings that can be easily tweaked to compensate for what's in season.
Apple Pie
5 c apples for baking (I like granny smith because they're nice & tart)
1/4-1/2 c sugar
1/4 c flour
cinnamon, to taste
1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 t clove
1/2 t allspice
1 t vanilla
Peel, core, & slice apples into a large bowl. Add sugar, flour, spices & vanilla & stir until apples are evenly coated. I like a lot of cinnamon, but sometimes I add less or none & it brings out flavor of the other spices.
Cherry, Mixed Berry, Apple/Cherry:
5 c fruit
1/4-1/2 c sugar
1/4 c flour
vanilla (optional)
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