Brown Warren - Pie love: inventive recipes for sweet and savory pies, galettes, pastry creams, tarts, and turnovers

Published in 2013 by Stewart, Tabori & Chang

An imprint of ABRAMS

Copyright 2013 Warren Brown

Photographs copyright 2013 Joshua Cogan

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for and may be obtained from the Library of Congress.

ISBN: 978-1-58479-895-8

Editor: Jennifer Levesque

Designer: Alissa Faden

Production Manager: Tina Cameron

Stewart, Tabori & Chang books are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use. Special editions can also be created to specification. For details, contact specialsales@abramsbooks.com or the address below.

115 West 18th Street
New York, NY 10011
www.abramsbooks.com

Contents

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

have this distinct memory of walking home from school sometime in the fourth or fifth grade. It was hot, and there was a hill, two streets to cross, and one yard before I was at my front door. The keys for the front door always got a little stuck, but I put up with that because it was faster than going around to the back. It was a straighter path to the kitchento the fridgewhere the leftover pie was kept, waiting to become my after-school snack. Most of the time, there was enough for my sisters and me. But this lingering memory ends with an empty pie tin left out on the counter. Ill never know who got to it first; it was probably my mom. She loves apple pie and always has it la mode with Breyers vanilla ice cream. (Made with real vanilla bean, she would proudly say.) Shes the one who instilled in me my deep appreciation for real vanilla and all things gourmet. But that last slice, the delicious one I missed, I still want it.

Theres a drive that comes from not getting what you want that never goes away. Apple pie will always be that dessert for me. Who knows if any of these recipes are as good as the slice that got away, but Im having fun figuring it out. I hope you do too!

FLOUR

Unless otherwise noted, my flour of choice is General Mills brand unbleached all-purpose flour. Unlike with cakes, I dont bother to sift and weigh the flour; for crusts, were aiming to mix a dense pastry anyway. If you have any of my other books or have seen me speak, you already know how strongly I feel about using a scale to get an accurate amount of flour for cake recipes. While a scale is your best bet for success when hedging against packing too much flour into a cup measure, its okay to have a little more flour than called for when mixing pie dough. So if you dont have a scale or just want to keep the measuring simple, stick with the cup measures to scoop and levelbut only with pie dough!

There are a range of other grains called for with the different piecrusts covered in the first chapter of this book. Baking with a mix of grains creates a lovely balance of flavors and textures in each bite.

I especially like working with whole-wheat flour either pastry flour or all-purpose whole-wheat flourfor the earthy bite it brings to a pie.

Flaxseed is great and brings a distinctly nutty flavor to the dough, but be sure to grind it immediately before use to take advantage of the healthful omega-3s found in the oils. These will have evaporated from preground store-bought flaxseed flour.

I dedicate a kitchen coffee grinder as a spice mill and gristmill for my grains.

Millet flour is great as a substitute for wheat flour in limited quantities to lower the gluten content. If its used exclusively in lieu of flour, the resulting crust will not have the same texture.

Polenta is very finely ground cornmeal, which brings an oven-toasted crunch to the crusts.

SWEETENERS

Superfine granulated sugar is the default for each recipe. Its a little bit smaller than the standard granulated sugar and yields a finer texture with baked goods. Again, with pies, scooping the sugar works just as well as using a scale because we have a lot more fudge room. One cup weighs a little less than 8 ounces if youre using a very sensitive scale, but rounding up will do.

Occasionally, other sources of sweetness come into play. Here are a few alternatives to consider if you want to cut back on refined sugars in your baked goods.

Maple sugars and syrups are perfect substitutes for refined sugar. Note that the distinct maple flavor may compete with other ingredients, so choose this sweetener only if youre a real fan of maple syrup.