Victory! Double crust, shortcrust raspberry pie

Remember I mentioned I was having trouble uploading photos in my last post? Well, what happened was I had used up my available memory so I had to buy more memory space. This and the fact that it coincided with my facing one of my biggest fears (along with baking bread, de-boning a bird and... well, a million other things), baking a pie, made me think. I started this blog in the summer and in no way realized I had already uploaded more than 750 photos until blogger notified me. That is 4 months of recipes, photographs, thoughts, followers and new friends. And a pie.
 

 

I am still new to this blogging world, but I have already gotten so much out of this experience. My photographs have gone from bad to better to worse again (thank you autumn light and evening cooking!) but I still learned much more about photography and food styling than I ever thought I would.  I have "met" blogging companions from all over the world and been graced by their encouraging comments, their daily support in this endeavour and their creative ideas. I have found an outlet for my creativity, a space that is all my own, a place were I am plain old me and not an employee or a mother. Last but not least, this blog has pushed me out of my comfort zone, making me try things I probably never would have attempted before, even in the privacy of my own kitchen...and here I am reporting and photographing my disasters and failures for all to see! Life is funny that way...

Thank you for being there with me step after step.

So here I am, four months in,  posting about a double crust raspberry pie. It was neither professional, nor neat in the making. It was a last minute decision and I baked it in a pretty clueless state (without the help of almighty Internet) in the two hours between when we decided to reinvite our guests and when they arrived. I realized this morning, as I was researching pie baking, that I skipped some steps and did other things my own way. Nonetheless, it worked and the result was fantastic: flaky, buttery and tart. But I guess with that much butter, you just can't go wrong.



With cream

For the pie crust I used my recipe for pasta frolla, x2. It uses an egg instead of water to bind together the ingredients, it is easy and out of the 4 times I have made it up to now, it has never disappointed me.

For the filling I checked out the recipe in the Joy of Cooking.

Filling

5 cups fresh raspberries (I used 4 but my pie dish is a little smaller than the standard American size)

1/4 cup all purpose flour ( I used 00)

2/3 to 1 cup sugar (I used 2/3)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

While you are letting your pie dough cool in the fridge, combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon. If the fruit is very juicy and ripe, add 2 teaspoons quick-cooking tapioca. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the berries and stir gently until well blended. Let stand. Preheat oven to 450°F (230°C) and start rolling out your dough and lining your pie dish after greasing it with butter. 

Turn the fruit into the pie shell. Dot with 1 to 2 tablespoons butter (I omitted this step, or rather I forgot it!). Cover the pie with a well-pricked top (oops, forgot this part too; the prickling I mean). Bake the pie at 450°F (230°C) for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350°F (175°C) and bake 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown. I baked at 180°C the whole time and covered the top of my pie for the last ten minutes with aluminum foil so it wouldn't burn while the bottom was browning.

There are endless tutorials on line on how to trim the overhang and fold the bottom and top pie crust neatly. Too bad I looked at them after baking my pie. I used my intuition for the decorating part (I hadn't set out to decorate but I didn't want to waste the leftover dough). It may not look as fancy as it could have, but it worked for an amateur baker like me, so fear not!