Buttermilk Pie

Lemon zest, Jacobsen's Lemon Zest Sea Salt, and Buttermilk provide acidity and tang to the sweetness of this Southern Pie.  You know how a slightly-cooled cherry pie cuddles you in his silky warmth?  Well, this isn't one of those pies. ha!  It is the most heavenly when chilled overnight.  So good!

Blackberry Pie

Happy New Year!  First pie of the year?  A totally inappropriate summer fruit pie.  Uh, huh.  I do what I want, lovely people.

I live in the Midwest and it's about 10 degrees out, so needless to say, I do not have fresh blackberries.  I do, however, have Oregon canned fruit, the best canned fruit in light syrup I have ever found, and which most closely resembles real fruit directly off the branch.  Hmm.  As I type this, I think, I could have used a frozen bag of blackberries.  Oh well. C'est la vie.

I mainly followed the recipe on the inside label of the can below.

Use the reserve juice of 1 can of fruit...it's not much as you can see in the level of the pan.  Add sugar and lemon juice.

Here's my first difference.  I used King Arthur Flour's "Instant Clearjel" instead of cornstarch.  It's the first time I've used it.

This stuff thickened up my juice mixture, but to me it seemed too thick.  Perhaps you need less of the clearjel than you would cornstarch.  See, this is where you just have to experiment as a baker.  Sometimes you can't follow the directions exactly.  Use your eyes, smell doneness with your nose.  Seriously, you get to that point.

I love this whisk.  It's a gravy whisk, and to me it is so much better than a balloon whisk when you're trying to prevent clumps when whisking in a thickener.

The main ingredient.

One of my favorite butters, Kerrygold.  I tried to remove the price tag, but no go.  I also love Plugra, but I didn't have it on hand.  Any super-fatted European butter is the way to go.

Anyway, my second variance of the directions was that I added several tablespoons of butter to my getl mixture to make it smoother.  Than I felt I needed to add the juice from the second can of fruit as well.  That Clearjel is powerful. (-;  Anyway, finally I was happy with the consistency.

Below I dotted the pie with more butter that will eventually give it a luxuriously silky texture.

It's finally to vary up your crust edging.  Here I used the front of a spoon.  

I topped this pie with heavy whipping cream and Demerara Turbinado sugar.

Almost ready for the oven.

Make a few slits for steam to escape.

One more shot in different light.  Sometimes these pies look better before they're baked.

All done!  Yum!  Like a slice of summertime in the midst of winter.

Grapefruit Pie for National Pi Day

Happy National Pi Day--here's a pie straddling winter and spring just for you...and me!

Grapefruit Pie from the cookbook "Four and 20 Blackbirds"

Eggs and sugar whirled together:

Butter Pie Crust--I went a little wild with the fork tines.  This pic was after it had been in the freezer to thoroughly chill.

 Beautiful red grapefruit.  I cup of freshly squeezed juice was needed.

A very expensive bottle of Campari.

 

 Isn't it pretty?  It looks like a liquid ruby jewel.

Couple of dashes of Angostura orange bitters next.

Sorry for the shadows--I couldn't get a good shot.  I just thought it looked pretty--grapefruit juice, Campari, eggs, egg yolks, and heavy whipping cream swirled together.  Looks like I'm able to marbleize some paper.

Whirled up again.

 

 

Pastry brush--I have the authentic wooden one as well--to brush onto partially, blind-baked pie crust.  It helps seal the crust from the liquid about to go in.

Ohhhh, the goodness. It was so delicious!  Let me tell you who else thought so...

 

I'm sitting in my art room at the computer and my husband comes in to tell me goodnight.  All of a sudden we hear slurping, and we both hold each other's gaze in a brief panic of knowing before seeing.  I had brought the pie into this room to cool on a pie rack set on a low bench.  Well, Kman had let Ebert in, and that beagle nose and tongue went straight to this pie.  BEFORE I had one bite. 

 

I cried out, "I just spent 3 hours on that pie!"  My husband says, "Well, just avoid the hole,"  But there wasn't just a little indentation.  Ebert's tongue had cut a swatch through the top of almost 1/2 of the pie.  What you see above is the ONLY piece I was able to selvage, confident that no dog germs had come near it.  Later, while I was still up at 1 a.m., Eberto wakes up and went straight to my room door.  He did the same thing the next morning.  I guess you could say, this was beagle certifiable as delicious.  The next time around, he is NOT getting one piece!