The Pie Odyssey is something like the Tour de France, in that there is an overall project (a lifetime of perfecting pie baking) composed of smaller trials of varying natures. This year, apple pie is the long endurance race over flat surface. Right now, I am commencing a strawberry pie sprint. Over the next month, I must find and bake the absolute best strawberry pie recipe for the Lady Helen's birthday. Here are our requirements:
Helen:
1. It may not be a tart
2. No other fruits besides strawberries shall be included in said pie. This is not a mixed berry pie, nor is it a strawberry rhubarb pie.
3. Pastry crust is preferred, but if a graham cracker crust or equivalent is deemed most suitable, allowances will be made.
4. There will be a side of whipped cream.
Ellen:
1. Filling ingredients shall enhance the strawberries, and not obscure them. This will not be an ice cream pie, a cream pie, a no-bake strawberry cheesecake pie, or berries suspended in gelatin. This requirement generally knocks out any pie with "chiffon" in the name.
2. Since the emphasis is on the berry, and we're in the right season, only fresh and not frozen berries will be used for the final pie, although any test pies may use frozen.
Now that we've laid our ground rules, what do you think I should make? I have some great looking recipes, but I'm torn between what I think of as the classic strawberry pie (a baked pie shell, with uncooked berries covered in a light glaze mounded artfully in a pyramid) and some more daring recipes that call for actually baking the strawberries and adding crazy ingredients like "white creme de menthe." I don't know how I feel about cooked strawberries. Oh, and is it acceptable to put a crumb topping on an berry pie? I think I've had blueberry pie with a streusel topping, but I don't know about other types of berries. What strawberry pies have you made, eaten, or dreamed about?
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11 comments:
Wow, Ellen, what a pleasure to be so honored in this way! I really can't wait. Given that I practically issued you an order from Pie Command ("Hickman! Drop and give me twenty! Strawberry pies, that is!") you're really going the distance.
I found a recipe for Glazed Strawberry pie on epicurious.com that looked pretty good--it says it's from the Pie and Pastry Bible which is a veritable font of Pie Truths and Wisdom. I like the idea of cooking the strawberries some--to soften up the fruit, and kind of change the texture. It wouldn't be strawberry jam that one wanted in the pie, but something squishy. Like you started out making jam but stopped 1/2 way through.
Changed my mind, Ellen. Just heard from Lolo who says, that berries shouldn't be cooked prior to baking and I realized that I forgot that the pie would be baked. She thinks that the berries could be mixed with sugar and a bit of corn starch and left to drain for a bit and then baked in the pie with a lattice crust.
So the berries could be cooked and then the pie refrigerated, or the berries put in pie uncooked and then baked. But double-cooked strawberries are probably dangerous.
I owe you a whole host of pies considering the delicious birthday cakes you have made for me over the years, Helen! Sometimes I stop in the middle of my microfilm reading to think wistfully about the chocolate cake you made me the first year I knew you.
I saw that glazed pie recipe on epicurious - it sounds like the kind of strawberry pies I've had, so it's my front runner in the uncooked berry column.
Mmmm, Laura describes a very tasty pie. I think you ladies are right in regards to food safety. Although there is also the option of slightly undercooking the pie so that you don't get a jam pie. I think that fresh berries will probably hold their shape better than frozen.
Once I made a strawberry margarita pie. It doesn't fit the rules for the one you're making, but it was quite tasty. That might have been the tequila.
Here is that strawberry margarita pie recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_21063,00.html
It uses a pretzel crust, which might be interesting for a baked pie instead of a graham cracker one (if you decide against a pastry crust).
OK, last comment on the strawberry pie. I realized my Food Network link didn't show up properly, but you can search for "strawberry margarita pie" if you're interested. There is also an Emeril recipe for a crumb-topped strawberry pie with a pastry crust.
AND I think you should consider adding brandy, like the strawberries at La Madeleine.
at some point I'm going to have to do a summer pie series, and make a strawberry margarita pie. I also just got this 1970s recipe booklet called "Cooling Dishes for Hot Weather" that have some really zany icebox pies, some of which involve melting marshmallows in a double boiler....
Yes! The brandy sauce from La Madeleine would be perfect!! That's exactly the kind of cream I was thinking of. And hmmm, it looks like there are several recipes on line, all of which agree that the ingredients should be some proportion of heavy cream, powdered sugar and brandy.
Love this blog cuz. Now please find me the perfect pie for the Indy 500 event that I will be attending on Sunday. Since this is my first racing culter experience, I expect this pie to bridge the gap of unfamiliarity with the mullet-tude of these intense race fans!
errrr....."culture" instead of "culter"
Lee - I don't know much about racing either, and sadly, Indiana pies are a hole in my midwestern pie knowledge, but there is something known as a Hoosier pie, which appears to be a crust filled with sugar goo. Might not go best with other Indy foods. I will think on this.
I just want to add that I am really, really looking forward to Helen's strawberry birthday pie. And that last summer my birthday tart was a vanilla cream custard with fresh berries on top, which was quite lovely and showed off the berries in all their splendor. Just a thought.
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