I suppose when I think of pies I tend to think of autumn, of Thanksgiving, really, when apple, pecan, and pumpkin pies are plentiful. But, I don't know? All of this summer fruit has me on a huge pie baking kick lately. When my mother came home with 4 pints of raspberrries the other day I immediately thought of Rose Levy Beranbaum's recipe for Nectarine Raspberry Pie that I've had bookmarked in the Pie and Pastry Bible forever. We had more peaches than nectarines on hand, so this is really a peach raspberry pie with a couple of nectarines. One advantage to making more pies? I'm getting more and more comfortable following my instincts and working without a recipe. For this pie, I couldn't resist adding just a bit of ginger and cinnamon to the peach and raspberry mixture. I'm not sure I added enough to make a huge difference in flavor, but I liked the flavor of the spices with the peaches and raspberries.
Rose Levy Beranbaum usually calls to cook a fruit pie on the bottom of the oven at a high temperature at first. So, I set the oven to 450 degrees to start and put my oven rack on the lowest shelf. I remembered, at the last minute, that I should put the pie on a cookie sheet and then I put parchment paper on the cookie sheet because I knew that the juice of the peaches and raspberries would bubble over. Now, I almost always use a silpat, mostly because I'm cheap and I hate having to buy parchment paper all of the time, and I forgot that parchement paper, because it IS paper, burns at 450 degrees (thank you, Ray Bradbury, for burning this fact into my mind). Well, imagine my surprise when I looked into the oven about 5 minutes into baking and I saw what looked like cherries jubilee in the oven. My parchment paper was on fire -- it's always exciting when you bake and create honest to goodness fire. At that point, oh my gosh, I missed being a singleton in the kitchen. In the kitchen were: yours truly, my sister, my mom, and Duke (the chocolate lab). The chaos that ensued was something like this:
Jessica (opens the oven door and smoke comes out): *shrieks in a high voice* "Open the door!" (by which I mean the back door, so we can air out the kitchen.)
Mrs. M: (does NOT open the door but comes over to look in the oven as Jessica is putting on oven mitts to retrieve the pie from the firey inferno within) "Let me get the pie out of the oven."
Jessica: (growing increasingly agitated by all of the people in and around this chaos): *shrieks in a higher voice*: Open the door! Open the door! Open the door RIGHT NOW!!!!
Mrs. M: (raises her eyebrows and opens the door)
. . . meanwhile . . .
Dr. M strolls in the kitchen to see what the fuss is about . . . and proceeds to stand with Duke, right in front of the oven and peer inside to see what's going on.
Jessica: starts barking shrill orders to, "move!" and finally retrieves the pie. At this point the parchment paper has finished burning, and the scorched remains are removed, the pie is placed back in the oven, and no one is really worse for the wear.
. . . except for Mrs. M . . .
who can't resist telling Lucy: "Your mom (that would be moi, the Singleton) really freaked out!
To which I say: Doi! Freaking out is what I do.
Now, if that had happened in my lonesome kitchen, all of that would have been a much calmer event. But, I wouldn't be able to laugh about it either. And, I just have to give props to my sister for very calmly watching the chaos unfold.
Shockingly enough, the pie turned out very, very well even with the parchment paper incident. My dad has been enjoying this pie quite a bit. I shared a piece with him and I thought it was pretty darn tasty, if I do say so myself. Note: I always make this pie crust recipe (though I often use a little more butter and less shortening) -- Virginia Willis is fabulous!
Peach and Raspberry Pie
1 double pie crust
4 lbs (about 8 large) peaches, peeled and sliced
1 pint of raspberries
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
optional:
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
On a lightly floured surface, roll out half the dough to a 1/4-inch-thick circle. Drape dough over a pie plate, and transfer to refrigerator to chill for about 30 minutes.
6 comments:
beautiful
That is a gorgeous pie, Jessica! Glad it survived the inferno...
J go look at my pies...I think you'll see something(s) you'll like... xoxo
Ciao Jessica !!! It's always better to be aloe i the kitchen....but your result is gorgeous even so !!
That pie looks amazing! I own that cookbook and it's been a while since I've used it. Thanks for the reminder. (Oh, and thanks for the laugh, too!)
Shortening is for Jewreds.
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