Okay, I’m making a comeback with my pie project after 3 missed months. But no apron this month. Instead, I canned for the first time. Seriously, I CANNED. After Adam and I went apple picking I had bags of apples to do something with, and I decided I would can them for apple pie. Actually, originally I thought I would get apple pie, applesauce, and apple butter out of them. I wildly overestimated how far 5 lbs. of apples would get me. But I did get a yummy pie out of a weekend spent slaving over hot apples and jars. Needs some tweaking for the future, but a pretty delicious start.
Tag: pies
Other pie/apron projects: January Pie: Lemon Meringue, February Pie: Milk Chocolate Pudding, March Pie: Thin Mint Grasshopper, Recipe-A-Day Week Vol. IV Day 7: Quakertown Crumb Pie (April), May Pie: Strawberry.
I did not make an apron this month, and I’m completely unapologetic about it. The end of the school year is always chaos, and I threw this gorgeous pie together last Sunday morning before a cookout. It is an amazing pie from The Pioneer Woman, like a pineapple version of Lemon Meringue. But I decided to give myself a break and enjoy the pie without the extra step of making an apron. Plus, Adam and his friends devoured this in about ten minutes, I hardly had time to photograph it. Maybe I’ll double up on aprons 1 month to come out with 12 of each at the end of the year.
Other pie/apron projects: January Pie: Lemon Meringue, February Pie: Milk Chocolate Pudding, March Pie: Thin Mint Grasshopper, Recipe-A-Day Week Vol. IV Day 7: Quakertown Crumb Pie (April).
Holy fruit season, Batman. This was so good, I’m still a little thunderstruck.
I had a strawberry allergy as a kid, so I never ate strawberries and eventually lost a taste for them. I kind of haphazardly avoid them, thinking they’re too tart on their own, too syrupy and unpleasant in dishes. But Adam loves them, and I knew I wanted to make a strawberry pie as part of my pie-a-month project this year. And I was going to make it next month (I’d read June is strawberry season), but the local farms and markets nearby already have a bumper crop of gorgeous looking fruit. So since it’s Memorial Day Weekend, I broke down and bought 2 bushels of pesticide-free, glorious looking strawberries and made the pie for our cookout today.
I used a recipe from The Neelys for the pie, which was so easy I cannot stand how many fruit pie variations I will be making this summer. I suddenly understand pie in the summer. And the half cafe apron is something I just whipped up in less than an hour with some fun red Michael Miller polka dots.
For the pie:
2 sheets roll-out pie crust (I used Martha’s trusty Pate Brisee recipe)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
White sanding sugar, for top of crust
2 bushels of strawberries (enough for 5 cups when hulled and halved)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
Pinch salt
Sanding sugar, for dusting
For the apron:
1/2 yard print for body of apron
1 package (3 yds) of 7/8″ double fold bias tape for the straps/waistband
Thread
Other pie/apron projects: January Pie: Lemon Meringue, February Pie: Milk Chocolate Pudding, March Pie: Thin Mint Grasshopper.
Okay, I’m finishing this week of recipes with my April pie and apron.
Originally I wanted to make Shoo-Fly Pie this month using the Lancaster County Amish Cookbook, a locally produced book I picked up during our visit to Amish country. But all the Shoo-Fly recipes had either “Wet Bottom” or “Gooey” in the title. This was traumatizing for me, there was no way I could make a pie described as either of those things. So, I picked this yummy Quakertown Crumb Pie recipe instead. And I used up some of my Lizzy House “Dish” fabric, which has been waiting for a good kitchen project.
I had to decode the original recipe a little and make some changes, but in the end this was pretty delicious. Also, all the pie recipes in this book make 2 pies, so I did my best to halve them. It’s hard to halve an egg, but I tried. I also still had a round of pie dough in the freezer from January, so I was able to use that. This was fast and pretty yummy, but it’s a different kind of pie to get used to. We actually didn’t finish all of this one.
Quakertown Crumb Pie
FOR THE PIE FILLING:
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/5 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup hot water
1 tsp baking soda
1 unbaked pie crust
FOR THE CRUMBS:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
Read more on Recipe-A-Day Week Vol. IV, Day 7: Quakertown Crumb Pie…