#72 Try 100 new recipes (58-61): PIES!

A year ago I got together with the famous pie sisters, Catie and Sarah, to learn the secrets of pie.

With the pie sisters themselves

Lutz pie crust

Lemon rind garnish

Lemon Raspberry Ribbon Pie

Sour Cream Lemon Pie

No Fail Pie Crust
(from the Lutz Kitchen)

4 cups flour                             ½ cup water
1 tsp. baking powder              1 egg
1 TBSP. sugar                         1 TBSP white vinegar
1 tsp. salt
1 ¾ cup Butter-flavored Crisco

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Add Crisco and cut ingredients together with pastry blender until crumbly. In liquid measuring cup, combine water, egg and vinegar. Whisk or mix wet ingredients together and pour into dry ingredients and blend well. Spread a thin layer of flour on counter top and roll out dough 1/4” to 1/8” thick. Recipe makes 2 double crusts or 4 baked shells.

For baked shell (used for cream pies): Pie Rice is used here as a weight to avoid the crust from shrinking while it bakes (you can also buy “pie weights” at the store, but the foil and rice provide more of an equal distribution of weight). Roll out dough, place in pie pan. Trim edges or make the crust of your choice. Use a fork to lightly poke the dough around the middle and sides of the pan to minimize air bubbles. Take an approx. 14x12 piece of aluminum foil and gently center it in the pan on top of the dough. The crust sides and top should at least be covered so the rice won’t touch the dough. Fill pie pan with rice until mostly full. Don’t be shy with the rice.

Bake pie with foiled at 425 degrees for 15 minutes total. Cook with the rice for the first 10 minutes. Pull out the pie and take out the foil with rice in it. Warning: It will be hot. Let it cool a bit then store Rice in Ziploc bag for future use as “Pie Rice”. Cook crust alone for remaining 5 minutes. Set aside to cool and then put in your desired filling. ENJOY! 

Leftover dough can also be used for chicken pot pies or as a “cinnamon pie crispy” rolled out flat, cut into strips and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.

Dough life: refrigerate it for up to 2 weeks or freeze it for up to 3 months. 

Lemon Raspberry Ribbon Pie- Lutz House

Raspberry Layer
1- 12 oz. package of frozen raspberries (pull out about 4-6 berries for garnish)
¼ cup cornstarch
1 cup sugar
Lemon juice to taste

Thaw/Heat the bag of frozen berries in the microwave for 1-2 minutes. Mix cornstarch and sugar together in a little bowl. Dump the thawed raspberries and accompanying juice in a large saucepan on the stove, and whisk in the sugar and cornstarch over medium heat. Once well blended add lemon juice to taste and cancel out any cornstarch-y aftertaste. If you like your raspberry filling a little tangier add more lemon juice. If not, add just enough to get the taste you want. Let it cook over a medium low temp constantly stirring to prevent scorching. The berries will be broken up. You want it about the consistency of a slightly thicker jam- not jelly. Once you get to that consistency, take it off the heat and let it cool down to at least room temp (any hotter and it will melt the layer beneath it).

Lemon Mousse Filling (You’ll need two mixing bowls.)
Bowl #1
1 can sweetened condensed milk
½ cup fresh lemon juice
Bowl #2
2 ½ cups whipped heavy whipping cream (1 ½ cup for the filling and ½ cup for the topping.)

In a medium sized bowl, whisk the sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice together and mix it up until well blended. Set aside in the fridge. This should set up fairly quickly in the bowl but don’t worry about it.
Filling: Whip up the 1 ½ cups of heavy whipping cream to fairly stiff consistency. You want it to be stiff, but manageable because you’re going to be mixing it into the lemon mixture. Take the whipping cream and gently fold it into the pudding. Blend well and you’ll get this really nice mousse. Put into the fridge and let it chill and set up a bit (maybe 10 minutes, 15 max if you get distracted, that’s okay).

Topping: Whip up remaining 1 cup of whipping cream with ¼ cup sugar (to taste) for your topping. Let that chill in the fridge.

Garnish: Whole raspberries, lemon twist or grated rind.  

LET’S PUT THIS BABY TOGETHER!

Put about 2/3 – ¾ of the lemon mousse into the pie shell. Take the room temp raspberry sauce and spread a good sized layer on top of the lemon mousse in the pie shell (eyeball it). Top with the rest of the mousse (if you don’t use it all, you have some awesome leftover mousse to snack on later).  Top with the remaining 1 cup of sweetened whipping cream. Add single berries, lemon twist or grated peel for garnish. Refrigerate. Done.

Sour Cream Lemon Pie –From the Lutz Kitchen, adapted from Taste of the Country Cookbook

Part One:
1 cup Sugar                                                                3 TBSP + 2 tsps Cornstarch
½ cup fresh lemon juice (fake is not as good, TRUST me)
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten                            1 cup Milk (preferably 1% or 2 %)

Part Two:
¼ cup Butter (a ½ stick)                                      1 cup Sour Cream                               
1 cup Whipped Heavy Whipping Cream                  ¼ cup Sugar
lemon rind twists as garnish                        1- 9” cooked pie shell

1) Combine sugar, cornstarch together in a medium bowl and blend well. Add sugar/cornstarch, lemon juice, egg yolks and milk into a medium heavy saucepan; cook over medium heat until thick (will scorch- keep stirring!). Once thick, remove immediately from heat and set aside to cool down.

2) Stir in butter and cool mixture to room temperature. While custard is cooling, combine sugar and whipping cream in a bowl and whip to desired consistency. Set Aside. When custard reached room temp, fold and mix in the sour cream until well blended and pour filling into a cooled cooked pie shell. Cover with the whipped cream and garnish with a lemon twist or shavings. Refrigerate. Enjoy!

This week I recreated Lemon Raspberry Ribbon for Thanksgiving and used my mom's pie crust recipe, which she learned from her mom.

Grandma Phyllis's Pie Crust
1 1/3 c flour
1/3 c oil (overflow the cup a bit)
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp ice cold water (over flow a bit)

Stir together. Make into a ball. Put some water on the counter. Stick a big rectangle of wax paper to it. Put the ball in the middle of the wax paper. Top with another piece of wax paper. Roll it out into a big circle. Peel off the top wax paper. Put your hand underneath the bottom wax paper and your other hand under the pie plate. Clap your hands together so that the pie crust gets centered in the pie plate. Flute the edges. Poke with a fork.