My chronicle of making pies

One of the frequent complaints on that other chow board was that there was no place to go and get a nice piece pie and coffee in this town. Even premade, commercial pies are relatively rare at diners and coffeeshops, and there's no restaurant particularly reknowned for great pie (as there is for almost anything else in town). Yet go a few dozen miles outside the urban area, of course, and it's pie country in every direction, classic American pie. There are fine pies to be had from bakeries-- I posted once at that other chow board about a terrific one from a place in Hinsdale-- but still, Chicago is surprisingly pie-impaired.

About a year ago Saveur ran an article on a quest to find the secret of great pie crust-- leaf lard. This is the lard found around the kidneys of the pig, and it's very difficult to find at retail as it's usually bought up in bulk by the commercial pie industry. The author had to find it at a tiny shop in San Francisco's Chinatown, where they slaughtered their own pigs. Me? I just looked in the freezer case at Paulina Market and there it was. That simple.

Of course, having bought 3 lbs. of it I promptly... left in the freezer for some months. But today I decided to give rendering it a try. The instructions in Saveur were fairly simple-- cut it into cubes, and cook it over low heat for a couple of hours with a little water (1/4 cup per lb.). It was very silky-feeling as I cut it up-- clearly this was the good stuff. After about 3 hours I had a pot full of golden cracklings and about 2-3 cups of pale yellow oil (as well as a house that smelled like a taqueria). Strain it into a jar and freeze, and it's good for a year.

Next: what to bake with it.



[image relinked 6/3/09]

Mr. G,

I'd like to know what you did with the cracklings? Me, I'd sprinkle with a little kosher salt or BBQ rub and munch 'till I dropped, damn the cholesterol. Or, on a more reasonable note, how about salad lyonnaise? We could combine the fresh farmers market eggs I bought at Evenston Farmers Market with your cracklings. Those cracklings really look good!

Speaking of pie, here's a picture of a pie Cathy2 recently made. It's a bad picture, but was a great pie.

Enjoy,
Gary

Bad picture, great pie. Apple Pie by Cathy2
Broken image link

I tasted one crackling, just for the record, but otherwise felt that this was a snack habit I did not need to develop. (As opposed to pie, apparently.)

Well. dang, you're going to make me resize any photos that I want to share here, and I like that big 800x600 size so well on my own photo site. (Oh wait, is it okay to mention other sites here? I guess this is going to get deleted now.)

Mr. G,

You're telling me you tossed the cracklings? Oh man...........

I have a 19-inch monitor and with 800x600 had to scroll side to side. No scroll with 640x480

Enjoy,
Gary

Here's what I wrote about the pie place in Hinsdale, by the way. There's a long thread on pie that follows.

"The greatest pie of my life"

Perhaps I exaggerate. But can you afford to take that chance and go on believing that transcendence eludes the pie category when I, yes I, say I have tasted it this very night?

Let me back up. There are some foods that seem to offer limitless opportunity for subtle gradations of goodness and greatness-- and some that don't. I always find it hard to answer "where is the best breakfast"-- how much better can one set of scrambled eggs or pancakes get than another? It's more like, ask me for the name of a reliably competent breakfast place near you, and the ones you absolutely should stay away from.

That's basically how I think of pie. There's generic pie, like you'd buy at Jewel. It's fine. There's a class of pie above that, like the Achatz ones you find at Whole Foods. You know you're eating real crust and not a styrofoam-based crust substitute, as may be the case with Jewel's pie. But I did not believe in transcendent pie experiences... until tonight, when I had a sliver of apple-raspberry pie from a place called Toni Marie's in Hinsdale.

I know nothing about this place or what else they make or what they're most famous for; it was simply a pie that someone brought to a Christmas party (in Hinsdale). Not until I did about five Google searches did I find the correct spelling (see below). But the sliver, the thin dietarily correct holiday season sliver I had, was magical. The combination of apple and raspberry-- brassy, immature raspberry mellowed out by the relaxed, grownup bass of baked apple-- was inspired; but there was more, a concentration of flavors, subtle spices existing just beyond my tongue's ability to identify them, that moved it into the realm of the sublime. All of that between the covers of an honest, styrofoam free, flaky crust.

(I have to admit something now. I have held my tongue when people like RST have talked about the lack of support for the surviving Viennese model bakeries and whatnot. But the fact is, I've tried a lot of these old places and never been that thrilled. I get my kids' birthday cakes exclusively at Dinkel's out of neighborhood loyalty, and they're very good, as are their chocolate bismarcks. I hit Swedish Bakery this time every year for cookies and weird peppery coffeecakes to take home for Christmas. I buy a six-pack of Ann Sather cinnamon rolls on occasion. But I have to admit, I am rarely delighted with the results when I pick up the usual coffee cake or danish or a loaf of storemade bread in a randomly selected old school bakery. The newer ones, the yuppie ones you might say like Red Hen, beat them hands down for imagination, flavor, texture, everything. Maybe there are ones that are truly transcendent, or at least as intermittently excellent as Dinkel's is-- Reuter's? Roeser's? I don't know. If you do, tell me. In the meantime, check out the pie at Toni Marie's.)

Toni Marie's
51 S Washington St
Hinsdale IL 60521
(630)789-2020

http://www.chowhound.com/midwest/boards/chicago3/messages/18756.html

Okay, so I made my first leaf lard pie crusts the next morning. Here's a shortened version of the recipe:

This is two crusts, or two halves of a double crust pie.

2 tbsp white vinegar
1-1/2 C all-purpose flour
3/4 C pastry flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking powder
12 tbsp unsalted butter, chilled
6 tbsp leaf lard, chilled

Mix the vinegar and 1/4 C water in a bowl, mix the dry ingredients in another bowl, mix each well (but separately) and chill both in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Cut the butter and leaf lard into the dry ingredients in a food processor until you have a coarse meal with pea-sized chunks in it. Add the water/vinegar mix and stir it by hand with a fork until it holds together, then place on a lightly floured surface and knead half a dozen times. You should be able to see small white chunks visible in it, do not blend so thoroughly that it's a consistent paste.

Divide into two balls, flatten, wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes. Proceed with whatever recipe you're using...

The one deviation I made to the above is that I bought a whole wheat pastry flour, supposedly from "young tender wheatberries," at Whole Foods. Actual pure white pastry flour was nowhere to be found at Jewel, my first stop-- more sign of how dead the art of classic piemaking is here in Chicago. When I saw this whole wheat one I decided a little of that might be okay for a slightly toothier, more substantial pie, even if it kind of alters the baseline for my experiments here.



Blueberries were cheap at Costco, relatively for the season at least, so I bought a couple of big boxes of them and chose to make blueberry pie from a recipe in the Fannie Farmer cookbook (after checking several books and seeing they were all basically the same-- some lemon juice and a lot of sugar). I cut down the sugar from 1 cup to 3/4 cup, figuring it would probably be eaten with ice cream anyway and I like a slightly tarter pie.



The pictures tell most of the story though I will say that this crust came out a little greasier seeming than I would have liked. Two possible reasons. One is, it has a hell of a lot of butter in it, you have to admit. I'm going to try cutting that by 2 tbsp next time, and 2 more if that's still reasonably flaky. The other is, I probably processed it too far (and Liam, my 2-1/2 year old, did it further than that, since he insisted on being allowed to operate the pulse control. It was smoother than the "pea-sized" chunks of visible fat and butter that the recipe called for by the time I was rolling it out-- though even then I had clear white lumps here and there in the dough with no flour attached to them. Surely those would just melt straight through and leave a hole?

I also felt my crimping technique was not very good, as the crimps basically vanished by the end. All the same... damn good pie for a first effort. I say that the next night as it's almost all gone. The crust was flaky and light, not a chore to eat even the thick browned edge. (The greasiness went away a little as it cooled completely by the next day.) So, a good start, and on to more and better next time...

[images relinked 6/3/09]

Hi Mike,

I may someday try the rendered leaf lard. I take a simple approach to the pie crust issue. My standard 9-inch double crust pie:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup Crisco or lard
5 Tablespoons chilled water (I drop some ice cubes in)

I mix the flour and salt together with my pastry cutter. I add the shortening to the flour, then use my pastry cutter to cut the shortening into the flour-salt mixture until it has the consistency of cornmeal. I used to use my food processor for this job but I have found it was just as convenient to do it by hand.

I add 3 tablespoons of water initially and begin to gently stir the water into the flour-salt-shortening mixture until it begins to ball up. I add 1-2 tablespoons more water to until it all pulls together into a ball. I do not overmix to avoid activating the gluten. We are making pie crust, not bread, not cake, it needs a very light touch.

Many people will then chill the dough, I do not. I proceed to rolling it out. My preference is for a thin crust because its function is to hold the contents together. I will use maybe 2/3 of the dough for the bottom crust and the remaining 1/3 for the top.

I use two sheets of wax paper longer than I need, lightly flour one side, then press the two together to transfer flour to the 2nd sheet. I use my hands to form a disk with the pie crust, then put it between the sheets of wax paper. I use my heaviest ball bearing rolling to roll out the dough, going in a different direction each time, until the crust is 1-2 inches beyond the pie plate inverted on the dough. Sometimes the wax paper wrinkles up, so I straighten it and flip the crust over. I realize many roll crusts out without the wax paper, however they usually end up using too much flour which gets into the crust and dries it out. I have more flexibility with wax paper and the dough remains more pliable without the extra flour.

To insert the pie crust into the pan, I begin by removing one layer of wax paper. I lie the crust, wax paper up, on the pie pan. Make any necessary adjustments, then peal off the other layed of wax paper. IF there are any accidental tears of the dough, I gently overlap them and press it together. I press the crust gently to the edges of the pan and let the edges overhang.

I will add my filling now, dot with filling with butter, then proceed to roll out the upper crust. I again use the double wax paper method, this time I will roll out a thinner crust than the bottom. I prefer the crust to be so thin I can see ever so slightly the color of the contents inside. This disk will be rolled out to be slightly smaller than the dough rolled out for the bottom crust. ONce you are satisfied, then remove one layer of wax paper. Just before applying the top crust to the pie, dip your finger in the ice water and dab water onto the rim of the filled pie crust, then arrange your top pie crust on top and remove the 2nd layer of crust. Press gently the top crust onto the moistened rim.

There are many methods of crimping a pie shell closed. My preference is to use my thumb on my left hand and thumb-index finger on my right to create a zig-zag (VVVVV) edge. It not only looks very nice, but it acts like a dam to keep juices from flowing over ... hopefully!

I make a number of steam hole cuts into the top layer as decoratively as possible. I will then apply a thin layer of milk to the crust, then sprinkle sugar. It not only gives the crust a nice color, but it improves the flavor as well.

And aside, I recently saw a pie where someone had a fleur-de-lis mini cookie cutter cut-outs on the top crust. It looked simply elegant!

Double crusted pie is certainly the classic. Though I really love a soft Swiss meringue or a crumb crust top as well. I don't like the stiff as foam block meringue often seen on Lemon or Key Lime pies.

Years ago when Baker's Square was still Poppin' Fresh, they offered heavy cream as a side with your pie. I haven't had a side of heavy cream with pie in years but it is certainly a memory worth revisiting.

Hot dogs, Apple Pie and all that's missing is Chevrolet!

Regards,
Cathy2

MMMMM.....Pie!!! I can't make 'em, but I sure appreciate a good one.

So I tried again, this time finding reasonably priced cherries sooner than I expected at Costco. I cut the butter by 2 tbsp, tried to leave at least pebble-sized pieces of lard and butter after using the food processor, and was less serious about chilling everything per Cathy's comments. I also aimed to make a thinner top crust but it didn't really seem to come out that way. (Oh, I also followed Cathy's crimping suggestions, but still ended up with something more like a roll than a zigzag.)

I didn't actually look at the recipe until I was well into making it, assuming that cherries would be treated about the same as blueberries. Wrongo-- most of the recipes I found wanted instant tapioca. I've never made tapioca of any sort and certainly didn't have that sitting around and didn't feel like going to Jewel for it at 8 pm, so I decided I'd see if I could find a recipe that would validate the idea of using starch as a thickener instead. Sure enough, no less than Sheila Lukins used it in a recipe I found at Epicurious, so I copied her 2 tbsp of corn starch. Is that heresy? I have no idea, but it seems to have thickened things up without making it as gloppy as canned pie filling.

Final result: flakiness much improved, probably due to less processing. Seemed pretty near perfect to me, perhaps a pie expert could detect flaws but it was damn fine. Butter reduction unnoticeable, unless it's why I did occasionally pick up more porky flavor in the crust once in a while. Would I notice if I weren't aware of it already? Not sure; all I know is I've probably had leaf lard in commercial pies and not noticed it before.

I'm pretty happy with these pies, I must say; or in the words of Humbert to Lolita in the 1962 movie version (which contains a memorable slipped-past-the-censors reference to "cherry pie"): "If you were in my class I would give you an A plus."

[image relinked 6/3/09]

beautiful. sadly, baking escapes me as I cannot stop myself from improvising. If I have really good fruit can we would out an arrangement? Anyone want some rhubarb from my back yard (no, this does not qualify as really good fruit).

Rhubarb is one of my ambitions this summer, I love a good rhubarb pie and (with my tendency toward making things tarter) find the commercial ones too sweet. So if you have the rhubarb, I've got the lard for two pies...

Mike,

I pulled and boiled a batch of rhubarb (with too little sugar) two weeks ago (to make room for my tomato patch). Theoretically, I should like this raw green/red pie filling thing, but so far, I can't prepare it. I will bring you many sheaves of it the next time we meet, because I have no hand for it,

David

Mike, et al.,

The pies look fantastic. Like Cathy2, I use wax paper when rolling out my dough. It saves on flower and has prevented some unnecessary crust tearing when moving the finished product from the counter to the pie pan (some tearing still occurs, but it is definitely less frequent and less severe than I used to have).

Where is the Paulina Market that you speak of where you obtained the precious leaf lard? I'm guessing it's on Paulina, but that's a heck of a long street.

Thanks for sharing everything.

Keep eating,
J. Ro

J. Ro wrote:Where is the Paulina Market that you speak of where you obtained the precious leaf lard? I'm guessing it's on Paulina, but that's a heck of a long street.

This should itself be a FAQ, especially because it isn't on Paulina. It's at the corner of Lincoln and Cornelia, 3501 N. Lincoln Ave. That is, however, one block north on Lincoln from the Paulina Brown Line stop. Open until 6 M-W & F; until 7 Th; until 5 Sa.

Actually, it's been just OFF Paulina for about 15 or 20 years. It's at Cornelia and Lincoln, one of the few of the old German businesses in this neighborhood to expand beyond being typed as an old German business and thus survive into the new yuppie era, though they still sell lots of rheinfleischmurzengruberleber type things. Excellent meat department in, uh, all departments (except fish), and apparently does enough of their butchering in house that they offer a lot of cuts that are hard to find elsewhere-- at Easter I got a lamb saddle there for a recipe in the Balthasar cookbook. They didn't really have lamb saddles for sale as such, but they knew what it was and made me one out of lamb they had not yet cut up into individual cuts. I'm pretty sure that would not have happened at Jewel.

Paulina Market
3501 N. Lincoln
773-248-6272

Paulina Market
3501 N. Lincoln
773-248-6272

I would have been wandering Paulina for years looking like this ! Thanks.

J. Ro

Mike,

Nice work there, and the photography also. I've been experimenting with various pies this last year, both sweet and savory. Using The Pie and Pastry Bible, I've made various doughs, including all butter, all lard, combination of the above, cream cheese and cookie doughs. I was craving "pasties" the other day and for a beef, potato, and rutabaga filling, tried an all lard dough. Extremely tender and flaky, but a really strong pork flavor and aroma. (Could that be because I used slightly toasted lard from a Mexican market?) Did half butter and half lard a few days later, and this was more to my liking.

Try the cream cheese formula next time. Even more tender, and richer to boot.

I'm about to try a peach pie again. I've had problems with soupiness. Would you believe that my apple and peach tart tatin are fine, but those damn pies?!

My favorite treat from last summer was a nectarine upside down cake, done with an almond batter.

Keep up the good work.

Evil

I just bought an electronic scale, and weighing rather than measuring has improved my doughs. I'm like Cathy2 and have a hard time waiting for the dough to chill.

FYI, the Jewels and Dominicks here in the south loop carry Swansdown and Softassilk pastry flours, but they are in boxes rather than bags. Could this be why you didn't see any?

Hi,

A few weeks ago on another website, I was involved in a discussion on pie crusts. We had a brief discussion of using soft flour (White Lily, Cake Flour) instead of hard flour (all purpose flour) for making pie crusts. The other party felt there was no difference. I think this can be true if you handle the dough lightly and not overhandle it.

When I have chilled the dough, note I rarely use butter in my pie dough, I always have to wait for it to soften to be able to effectively roll it. AFter a while, I lost interest in chilling because all I ever did was wait for the chilled dough to warm up later. It was just too circular!

For my homemade pies, I understand your reluctance to use corn starch when you are avoiding that commercial pie filling texture. However, in homemade pies we use substantially more fruit than commercial. Our pies consequently are heavier and more potently fruity per slice. So I try to underuse thickners rather than overuse. I want some life and moistness in my pies.

I like tapioca and always have some at home. When I use it in pies, I grind them to powders in my coffee grinder as I don't want the tapioca texture (sometimes called fish eyes and glue) in my pies. Instant tapioca isn't fine enough from my point of view. I use tapioca in peach pie fillings, which I make when they are in season and freeze in quart quantities for future use.

By the way, how did you pit the cherries? I have a pitter which pushes the pit through tearing up the cherry, which I used only once. I prefer to use a small paper clip which has been unfolded at the center. I use the loops at each end to dip into the cherry and pull up the stone, it is much neater appearance and the structure remains sound.

I have used cream cheese crusts but it was on a artichoke-ricotta torte. It was very supple dough to work with.

Your pie crusts ability to hold the zig-zag may be related to the high quantity of lard and butter. I would expect the high proportion of fat melts collapsing the structure. It's just a guess.

Sometime we will need to have a live taste comparison.

Regards,
CAthy2

I think you're right, Cathy, about the pastry just having too much fat to hold its shape. That said, at least it sort of had a shape this time, so thanks for the tip.

I bought a cherry pitter at Williams-Sonoma which punches a neat hole through the cherry and expels the pit, but doesn't usually tear the cherry up. It also makes a rather gruesome red splatter each time which calls up Hollywood effects. Well worth it in time saved.

I am going to up the amount of fruit from the Fanny Farmer-style recipes by about 1/4 to 1/3; I would like them to be bigger and these recipes seem set for a more economical, rather flat pie. (Heck, when you buy fruit at Costco you're more likely to run the risk of it going bad before you use it all.)

Evil, I saw The Pie and Pastry Bible on Amazon, I take it you recommend it?

Mike,

It's awful good reading, and it will improve your baking skills also. Cathy, I picked up some tapioca the other day and plan to give it a try soon.

Evil

Per Evil's suggestion, I ordered a copy of The Pie and Pastry Bible and decided to see what I'd been doing wrong.

While she does speak highly of leaf lard, her take on it lacks the evangelical aspect of the Saveur piece-- no doubt because she knows that lard pies simply aren't going to cut it with 90% of her readership. Nevertheless, she takes it seriously and so I decided to try taking her leaf lard approach to the letter-- except that I did allow myself to follow her option of doing half lard, half butter. I just didn't see myself liking an all-lard pie, too porky-tasting for me no matter how divinely flaky the crust.

For many of the crust recipes she offers a food processor variation-- but of course this one she doesn't. Instead there's a rather interesting method where you scoop the lard out in chunks and drop it into a plastic bag filled with your flour mix, then roll and knead it inside the bag until you have flat flakes of lard and butter in the dough. She's also very serious about keeping cold-- you mix it in a bowl that's been chilled in the freezer, and are urged to pop it back in whenever it seems to be getting warm.

The other interesting variation is that she has you roll it out on a board that's been dusted with whole wheat-- the little amount of whole wheat that it picks up is just there for a slight addition of flavor, I guess. It seemed a little odd to produce a crust that had a rough, whole wheat-looking exterior but was actually smooth inside.



For a filling I decided to try a rhubarb pie. I had frankly never thought of anything besides strawberry-rhubarb, except the pure rhubarb pies that my mom used to make, but she had a cherry rhubarb recipe that seemed instantly appealing, and certainly perfect for the season, so I went ahead with that. The cherries required a lattice top, which seemed a little daunting but was, in fact, incredibly easy. I'm all for tricks designed to make your work look much fancier than it really is, and this is one.



One last suggestion she had, for keeping the bottom crust from breaking, was to bake it on a baking stone.

The result? Very good pie. But to break it down into its components:

1) Too much lard, I think. Definitely the porkiest-tasting pie yet, not surprising since I've gone from about 40-leaf lard 60-butter to 60-lard 40-butter. I like the original proportions better; modern tastebuds would not want this with a mild flavor like apple or even peach, I think.

2) Yes, the flakiest crust yet, but not really that perceptibly different from the ones done in the food processor, which were perceptibly less work.

3) Cherries not only balance the rhubarb, they damn near hide it completely. I guess the reason strawberry-rhubarb works so well is because you still can taste the rhubarb.

So: an interesting experiment, worth it for learning, but I'm not sure I'd make this again in precisely the same way.

[images relinked 6/3/09]

Mike,

I admire your lattice work. I use the same technique on the rare occasions I do lattice pies. When I finish constructing a double-crust pie, I will spread a thin layer of milk on the top crust and sprinkle some sugar. It provides good color as well as extra taste to the crust.

The Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. I appreciate her methods and preciseness with ingrediant measurements. I tend to go metric when executing with her recipes.

I actually do not find it inconvenient to make pie crusts with a pastry cutter. It works fast as well as a pleasant activity. Where I used to use my food processor daily for many years. I bought one of the first around 1975. I now have it stored and pulled out for use on special occasions where it indeed acts as a second set of hands. I really find it pleasant to do things manually or use a sharpened knife to replicate a dice. It demonstrates a certain amount of kitchen craftsmanship. Yet, I would never dream of making a cake by hand, I have my KitchenAid to do that, which I bought when I was 19.

When you check out fruit pies and pot pies at Costco, or any place else, you likely see clumsy facsimiles to what you have achieved so quickly in your kitchen. Just the lattice work they offer is too wide, it is not woven and frankly the crust is often too thick (for easy handling). Goodness knows the fillings cannot compare to what you have made. Even if the cherries overwhelmed the rhubard, a good thing to know, it still had more fruit content than any comparable commercial pie.

Good job!
Regards,
Cathy2

Whole Lemon Tart

Just before Mario's Italian Lemonade closed for the season, I hung out at the stand eating my peach lemonade and chatting up the night manager. I was inquiring if it was really true they use the entire lemon making their base, he indicated the lemons were thrown into a blender with some peel reserved for the mixing in later. I have to admit to being rather dubious on this whole lemon claim until yesterday.

Culinary Historians this month featured Dorie Greenspan who co-wrote Baking with Julia (Child). Dorie has written a new book, Paris Sweets, Great Recipes from the City's Best Pastry Shops. Dorie's talk had been presented at the Smithsonian, which featured her careful narrative using visual images of bakeries and cakes to support her ideas. (I am very dismayed by public talks where the power point visuals guide a talk -- or worse yet, images with lots of words which the presenter READS to you.) Near the close, she had a 3-minute video clip of Master Baker Poulaine making cookie dough by hand just weeks before his unfortunate death.

Every Culinary Historians meeting concludes with a tasting of recipes from either the author's books or foods which compliment the talk's theme. This month was a series of desserts from Dorie's book. For the first time, I made one of the desserts: four whole lemon tarts for the simple reason I am comfortable making pies.

The lemon tart's base is Pate Sucree (Sweet Tart Dough), which there are many variations. For this recipe, you will need a partially baked 9 inch tart shell, then you add the filling:

Whole Lemon Tarte
adapted from Paris Sweets by Dorie Greenspan

1 average-sized lemon (about 4.5 ounces), rinsed and dried
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1-1/2 tablespoons corn starch
1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

To remove the seeds, slice lemon thinly and extract any seeds. Drop lemon slices into the blender with the sugar. Process for 1-2 minutes.

In a small bowl, add the egg yolk and whole egg and lightly whisk. Add the lemon puree and blend gently. In a small custard cup, add 3 tablespoons of this lemon mixture, then add the cornstarch and mix until well blended. Return cornstarch-lemon puree to the lemon-egg mixture along with the cooled melted butter, then whisk lightly to blend. Pour lemon mixture into the tart shell.

Bake tart for 20 minutes, then increase temperature to 350 degree Fahrenheit to bake for another 15-20 minutes or until the filling is bubbly and lightly browned. Cool at least 20 minutes before removing. Tart is ready to be served at room temperature.

Tart is best served on the day it is made.

&&&

I don't usually like lemon flavored cheesecake, lemon bars or lemon meringue pie or just about any lemon in desserts. Yet, I like lemonade, lemon ices, lemon in my tea, lemon chicken and so on. I did like this lemon tart beyond my expectations. The use of a full lemon, which includes the skin's essential oils, really brings out a full range of flavor which the juice alone does not provide. The slight carmelization of the sugar on the upper crust also intensified flavors.

All this effort, or lack of really, got me thinking more about Mario's claim to use the whole lemon in their base. Or how simply pureeing lemon with sugar could make an excellent lemonade either frozen or beverage with some dilution by water required naturally.

From making this tart this weekend, I have found a new culinary tool: whole lemon puree. Just now I flipped over to google to find a recipe for lemon curd which uses 1/3 cup lemon juice. I'm inclined to try it two ways: juice and whole lemon puree. From the sparkling flavors in the lemon tart, I predict the whole lemon variant will be a likely improvement over juice.

For your consideration with my compliments.

Cathy,

Thanks for the ideas and recipe. But I do want to check: an *entire* lemon -- that is, pith included? Ever since childhood I've been warned to avoid the pith when prepping citric fruits. Does this method of preparation subdue its astringency, or did I read this wrong and of course the pith is eliminated?

Thanks!

Bob,

I indeed used the whole lemon. If the lemon was more than 4.5 ounces, I removed the tip ends which has a higher pith to skin ratio. Though blenders do such a fine job of pureeing, if the lemon was only 4.5 ounce then I would have used the entire lemon.

Thanks Bob for your tips on selecting lemons: Reminding Cook's Illustrated advised softer squeezing lemons had more juice where those which felt solid to the touch had less juice. I had selected the firmer lemons thinking the squeezable ones were maybe overripe. I'm sure this timely information was an asset to these tarts outcome.

Hi,

Guess what kind of pie this is?



This is a Ritz Cracker Mock Apple Pie. It tastes pretty apple pie-ish, also.

I am doing a talk on the history of pies this weekend. I always thought the Ritz Cracker Mock Apple Pie was some sort of April Fool's Joke or something like someone using orange pop to make Paella look that attractive color without silly ol'saffron.

However, when the settlers were running low on provisions, they scrapped the cracker barrel to make a pie to allow them to live another day. One thing I have learned, for our fore fathers pie was survival food.

I misread the instructions and accidentally made mock applesauce before I read them again with clarity and did it correctly.

My curiosity is satisfied.

P.S. My Mom just tried it: "It's good. It's that fake pie, right? Pretty for fake apples." Out of the mouth of babes...

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,


This is a Ritz Cracker Mock Apple Pie. It tastes pretty apple pie-ish, also.

I am doing a talk on the history of pies this weekend. I always thought the Ritz Cracker Mock Apple Pie was some sort of April Fool's Joke or something like someone using orange pop to make Paella look that attractive color without silly ol'saffron.

Jeffrey Steingarten was also really impressed with the mock apple pie when he made it in his "Back of the Box" article in Vogue. Of course, his feeling was that it was a "do it once" kind of thing, since it took as much time as real apple pie and Ritz crackers are, perhaps, more expensive now.

-ed

Hi Ed,

It took one cylinder of crackers to do the deed; bought bulk at Costco. I am pretty fast with peeling, coring and slicing apples, but breaking up crackers with my fingers was a snap. The time consuming part was the syrup but I was doing ten other things at the same time, so it was just something to keep an eye on. (Of course, making Mock Applesauce was a relative waste of time).

Apples are not exactly cheap, and I will probably make a few more cracker pies, one for silent auction this weekend, another when I do this talk for a community group and one to amuse my relatives at Thanksgiving. After that, it will be retired from the repetoire.

Otherwise, it is a once in a lifetime recipe to try out so you can say, "Wow, it really works!"

Cathy2 wrote:Hi Ed,


Apples are not exactly cheap, and I will probably make a few more cracker pies, one for silent auction this weekend, another when I do this talk for a community group and one to amuse my relatives at Thanksgiving. After that, it will be retired from the repetoire.

Indeed. Although my mom bought a dozen apples at Caputo's on Harlem recently for $0.82.

-ed

On Sunday, I made 9 pies to accompany a talk I did, I thought you might enjoy this picture:



From left to right: Top Tier: Pecan Pie and Sweet Potato Pie, Second tier: Sweet Potato Pie and Rhubarb Pier; Third tier: Mock Apple Pie made with Ritz Crackers, Key Lime Pie and Pecan Pie; Bottom tier: Molasses Pie and Chess Pie.

The pecan pies are made with brown sugar with one pie having more brown sugar than the other.

The sweet potato pies are identical, though one cracked from staying in the oven slightly too long.

The Chess Pie is a variant with buttermilk and vanilla. There are many, many variations on this pie, not easy to identify a mother-pie. This pie tastes like cheesecake.

Molasses pie was something I thought I wouldn't like. I was wrong, it is one I will make occasionally into the future.

I won't likely make this variety of pies in a single day again. Many of my Dad's friends were present, so I wanted to make him proud.

Regards,