Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Labor of Love

001
Cherries!

002
Never buy the housewares brand "Feckelman"...they just stink.


015
I took over pitting and scooped out all the worms. Liquid courage to my left. 

008
There are the worms, right there. You all needed to be included in the grossness.


016
Very juicy.


017
Surgery, circa 1800.


018
Boiling.


019
Thickening.


020
Rolling out the dough.


021



022
Ready for the oven!


027
While we wait... eat some baby cheeks.


029
Done!


030



I made a cherry pie on Sunday from the last of the cherries we could reach in our yard. What seemed like a simple request in the beginning turned out to be a 2 hour ordeal. Luckily I enjoy simple, repetitive, silent work. If it hadn't been for the small white WORMS in just about every cherry I pitted, it would have been an almost therapeutic endeavor (and taken half the time). Perhaps on some level it was anyway. As you can see from the picture above I was not excited to be scooping those worms out - but I did it!

Everyone agreed, the pie was a success and although  I will teak a couple things here and there next time, it really was quite delicious.

Also, I wanted to share my dough recipe. In America they have something called "pie sticks" which are basically just pie crusts already made, pre-packaged, and you just take them out of the box, unroll them, and throw them in your pie dish. I used to always use those, it quick and they are delicious in that flaky, fake buttery kind of way. Here in Poland I have not found this type of dough or crust available so I make my own. I consistently get compliments and I feel slightly sheepish because it's not that hard.Very easy and quick to make (and much healthier I assume)...

Makes one 9 in. pie crust (so, for this pie I doubled the recipe)

1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup milk

If it's a savory dish like a chicken pot pie I usually add a couple tsps. of salt. (if you use salted butter you can skip this)
If it's a sweet dish like a cherry pie, I add a couple tblsps of sugar.

Cut the butter into the flour, crumble and mix until it creates course looking crumbs, chunks of butter are ok and even preferable. Add milk. Mix until dough forms, cover in plastic wrap, pop in fridge. Make your innards and then get the dough out. Knead until smooth. Form into ball and roll it out as a circle. With a pie like this I use 3/4 of the dough for the bottom crust and 1/4 for the top. Easy!

It always comes out flaky and crisp. There are definitely fancier recipes out there that probably taste better...my sister makes one that requires vodka, she's fancy like that... but this is simple and gets the job done.

Plums will be ready soon! I can't wait to try these again!

2 comments:

  1. My favorite pie! Poland seems an appropriate place for vodka crust! But this pie looks great and your crust does too.

    ReplyDelete