Giving Thanks and Making Pie

So my pie obsession continues. Undocumented on this site is the Apple Crumb Pie with the extra crispy crumbs. I realize now it’s time to take my oven thermometer out of the plastic shell and put it to use. My top oven seems to be baking a bit higher than said degrees.

So Thanksgiving was right around the corner and I decided this would be the perfect time to expand my pie repertoire. The tv in my family room/kitchen area serves as the DVR source for all my favorite cooking and craft shows and at the top of my list is The Martha Stewart Show. I scrolled through my show list and saw that Martha was having Rachael Ray on to teach her (a self proclaimed non-baker) how to bake a pie. The pie is Martha’s Apple Blackberry Pie with Fall Leaves .

I watched the show through (even the not so interesting craft segment at the end) and went to the show’s website to put together my shopping list of ingredients. My store had the Jonagold and Granny Smith. 3 of each made the 2 1/2 pounds.

Thanksgiving morning I gathered all of my ingredients, tools and food processor while the turkey cooked and queued up the DVR. With Martha ready to roll sat down at the table for a bit and peeled my apples while watching her extol the virtues of never over mixing pie crust and “Make it cold, bake it hot. ” .

The setting and mood were just perfect. Thanksgiving morning, cool morning in the desert a richly brewed cup of my favorite “Starbucks Breakfast Blend” and just the right angle of sunlight to make my apples look like they had been sent from heaven.

With apples peeled it was time to move on to lesser known and intimidating turf. The crust.

What I didn’t take the time to do was thoroughly read through the recipe to realize how long the pie crust would need to be refrigerated and rest before it became home to my apples and blackberries. Had I done this, I wouldn’t have peeled my apples for at least another two hours but…had I not done this I would have missed the perfectly angled sunlight hence no heavenly apples. So…it happened this way for a reason and no apples were harmed in the process.

So with remote in hand I followed Martha’s directions ~ watch here . I watched, rewound, watched, rewound. Family entered room asked questions, lost my train of thought. Rewound again.I pulsed my food processor and added water along the outside of the bowl just as Martha told Rachael/me to do.

Thank you Martha for going to the basics in this episode and getting into the nitty gritty of Pie 101. Without watching this I surely would have over processed and taken it to the stage of becoming a dough ball coming out of the food processor. Incorrect. It needs to be crumbly and the brought together by hand on a floured surface which is just what I did.

I made my dough recipe here (actually called “Fall Leaves Pate Brisee”), divided it in two and formed them into flattened disks (to make them easier to roll out when it was time to).

I refrigerated them as Martha told me to and got back to my apples.

Apples peeled, cored and sliced. I mixed together the ingredients for the filling and preheated my oven as Martha said to at 450 (to be turned down to 400 when pie was put in the oven), saying Martha’s pie mantra “Make it cold, bake it hot!”.

Mix mix. Stir stir.

Dough out of the fridge. Roll out one disk to create bottom crust of the pie.

Martha calls the top crust “Fall Leaves Pate Brisee” and recommends getting the perfect leaf cutters from Sugarcraft.com. Without enough time to order them I went with my Wilton pumpkin, leaf and turkey set of cutters bought from the clearance bin at WalMart. I thought the pumpkins and turkeys would be a nice touch. So next I rolled out the second dough disk and cut out a bunch of leaves, pumpkins and a few turkeys that I figured I’d put near the top as the crowning glory. These were placed in the freezer a bit to firm up. Next I added my delectable fruity filling to the bottom crust and dotted in some butter as my tv instructor told me to.

With the leaves, pumpkins and turkeys out of the freezer, I covered the mound of fruit a la Martha and it was a beautiful sight!

Next I brushed on the egg wash, sprinkled it with sanding sugar and lowered the oven.

Martha said to bake it for the first 30 minutes at 400 and then to lower the temp to 350 and continue baking for about an hour and 45 minutes. While my dough had been refrigerating I read the readers’ comments about the recipe on her website and found most cut the baking time closer to an hour or hour and ten minutes after the initial 30. That’s what I did. Took it out after the post 30 hour and let it cool while we all ooed, ahhed and enjoyed the thrill of my newborn pie.

Sadly my camera was lost in the chaos and mix of my Thanksgiving kitchen (I found it later behind the can of fried onions) and only had my phone to capture the final beauty of it all so kindly excuse the crummy photo. The top crust was a bit overcooked and next time I will surely have my oven thermometer to get an exact temperature. The pumpkins and turkeys weren’t exactly recognizable but the leaves kept their shape beautifully. Next time just the leaves. The crust was crispy and the filling was a gorgeous jammy blend of wonderful fruit. My family and guests enjoyed it and so did I. Mine was served with a heaping portion of pride on the side.