Guest Post: Pumpkin Pie Variation

My friend Judy tried out this flourless variation on the Pumpkin and Blue Cheese Freeform Pie.

So, I thought I’d let you know about our attempt. We made something a little different. The pie itself was cubes of pumpkin, roasted, and bits of red onion, roasted.

 Then with about 100g blue cheese crumbled

and mixed through (with hands).

The pie crust was the really different part. It was hash browns. So, shredded potatoes, rinsed and patted dry on towels, salted…

cooked on the stovetop in a skillet with lid on until the underside was browned and the top a bit cooked, then pushed onto the bottom and up the side of the skillet with the back of a spoon

then cooked in the oven until brown and crisp.

Then add the filling and bake!

The verdict: yummy! But... the crust didn’t work. Hash brown crust completely collapsed (the sidey-bits) when scooped out of the skillet. Sigh. Need quite possibly to pre-cook it longer, both on the stovetop and in the oven. But it was so yummy we’ll be giving it another shot.

Thanks so much for the idea!!

Repeat: Spanish Chicken Pie

I made the Spanish Chicken Freeform pie again tonight for my daughter's Birthday dinner. It was a little different this time.

I followed the pastry instructions as closely as I could: I did not add water like last time, though the pastry did not ball up in the blender like the recipe says it should. It remained very crumbly and difficult to work with. I rolled it out between two sheets of baking paper, but it was still very crumbly. It broke most of the time when I attempted to fold it up. You can see the cracks and leakage that's burnt in the photo.

I got the stock volume correct this time so the filling was perfect. There was too much filling - I'd say 500g of chicken would be plenty.

Even though the pastry was such a pain to work with the resulting pie was absolutely delicious. When next I'm up for a bunch of frustration I'll make it again! I think I'll add a tablespoon or two of water next time.

Pear and Apple Tarte Tatin

I didn't have the energy for anything Earth-shattering tonight so I just threw together a pear and apple tarte tatin (roughly half and half: two and a bit apples, two pears). Used the same old recipe from way back. Sprinkled a little cinnamon onto the lot before baking. Very, very tasty. As usual the fruit shrunk more than I expected - I really need to pack it all in more tightly. Did I mention it was very, very tasty?

Pumpkin and Blue Cheese Freeform Pie

I wanted to make another savoury pie this weekend and decided to try to make a vegetable pie. That's a bit of a challenge for me because I'm not known for my love of chunky vegetable things (ratatouille, for example, is not something I'm very fond of). This pie jumped out at me as I was randomly wandering the Internet looking for inspiration. It's an adaptation of this recipe.

It was absolutely delicious.


Ingredients

• 500g butternut pumpkin
• 1 brown onion, sliced
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 100g blue cheese
• 25g chopped walnut (use up to 100g more if you like walnuts a lot, or sub in pecans if you like)
• 1 amount (250g flour) rough puff pastry

Method

1. Make the pastry. The rest of the preparation should give it just enough time to chill.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 225º C and line two baking sheets with foil or baking paper.
3. Peel, de-seed and slice the pumpkin flesh thinly. Coat with a bit of olive oil, some salt and the thyme and spread out onto a baking tray. Coat the onion with some oil and salt, and spread it into a single layer on the second tray. Roast the vegetables for 20 minutes.
4. Pour the balsamic vinegar over the onion to coat, and turn the oven down to 200º C and bake for another 10 minutes.
5. Roll out the pastry to make a large circle slightly larger than the tray you'll be using to bake the pie. Crumble the cheese onto the pastry leaving a 4cm border. Sprinkle the nut pieces over the cheese and the spread the pumpkin and onion mix over the top of that. Fold the 4cm overlap into the centre and bake for 40-50 minutes. Slightly longer because of the folds, but don't overcook the filling.

I modified the recipe I found at the link by using my simpler pastry. I also altered the vegetable cooking time as the instructions were unclear and my pumpkin ended up a little overcooked. Because of this I ended up not cooking the pie for quite long enough and some of the pastry was undercooked. I also used 100g less of the nuts than the linked recipe as I'm not a big fan of walnuts and I couldn't find pecans.

Repeat pie: freeform chicken and spinach

I made the freeform chicken and spinach pie on request this weekend. I left out the chorizo as planned, and then accidentally left out the lemon zest as well. As I suspected the chorizo didn't add much but the lemon was missed. They were still quite yummy, but the lemon adds an little something extra.

Pear Pie

This weekend I wanted to make a fruit pie for dessert on Saturday night. It's currently not really any particular fruit season, except maybe quince and I knew I didn't have the time to cook quince. So I went with some pears which looked yummy.

I followed the recipe at about.com Southern Food to the letter even though I was pretty certain it'd have problems. And it did.

Ingredients

• pastry for 2-crust pie (I used a double amount of my standard rough puff)
• 5 peeled, sliced fresh pears
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons butter, cut in small pieces

Method

1. Line a 9-inch pie plate with pastry. Add the sliced pears. Combine sugar, flour, lemon peel, and seasonings; sprinkle over the pears. Drizzle with the lemon juice then dot with the butter. Make a lattice top; flute edges. Cover edge of pie with a strip of foil. Bake at 220°C  for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake about 10 minutes longer.
2. To make a lattice top crust, cut rolled out dough into 1/2-inch-wide strips. Arrange 5 to 6 dough strips across top of filling. Form the lattice by arranging more dough strips at right angle to first set of dough strips, weaving the strips if you wish. Trim dough strips even with the overhang on bottom crust. Tuck ends of dough strips and overhang under; press to seal then crimp the edges.

What Went Wrong

The pie was way too wet. When I pulled it from the oven - even after giving it an extra 10 minutes - liquid was slopping over the side of the pie when I tilted it slightly. I poured out about 1/2 cup of liquid before even attempting to cut it, and there was still a bunch of liquid in the bottom.

The pastry on the bottom wasn't fully cooked either. It wasn't that it was soggy, it wasn't completely baked.

The flavour was great but concentrated on the top - sprinkling the flour/sugar/spice mixture on the top just meant it sat there. I shook the pie a little before cooking but that didn't seem to distribute the mix much.

I think I'll try this recipe again but modify it by pre-cooking the pear to reduce the liquid and combine the flavour some more, and I'll also blind bake the case.

I've looked around the Interwebs to try to get some advice on what other things you can do in the face of a too-wet pie, but haven't really found anything (except cook it longer, which I intend to do...) I do wonder whether the ripeness of the pears (they were quite crisp) or the variety of pear (I'm not sure) might have something to do with it. Nothing I've read seems to indicate that's the case though.

Individual Shepherd's Pies

This week was a partial success. I picked up some cheap ceramic individual pie dishes so thought I'd see whether I could use them to make some little pies. It turns out I can't - not in the style I tried anyway. The pies had a rough puff case, yummy porterhouse steak (also bought cheap on special) and vegetable filling and potato mash top.

The dishes stopped the pastry from cooking properly. Perhaps with a little longer in the oven they might have cooked through properly, but I actually doubt it. I'll keep the dishes for doing other things (I'm not sure yet) and see about getting some metal tins to make individual pies in.