Recipe of the week: Basic pie dough for sweet and hearty pies

Recipe of the week

With a basic recipe for pie dough laying around you'll be prepared for anything.... well, in regard to cravings for pie anyway. This is a versatile dough which can be used for all sorts of pies and pastries. You can make tiny pies, large pies, sugary pies or quiche! It's a perfect beginner's dough because it's easy to make and roll, and it doesn't have a lot of ingredients to it. It also has to rest, very important for dough by the way so don't skip that part! But while it's resting you have time to eat something healthy and if you decide your hunkering for pie has past, no worries, just freeze the dough. And next time your cravings start acting up again you can just pop that out the freezer and get right to making one of those yummy pies ;)


Basic pie dough for sweet and hearty pies 
(enough for a 10 inch pie shell)

Ingredients

- 250 grams flour
- 150 grams cold butter in cubes
- 1 egg yoke
- 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 1/2 tablespoons ice cold water

- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Optional:
- 2 tablespoons sugar for sweet dough

Put a bit of water and some ice cubes in a bowl and set aside. If you don't have ice cubes just put something else out of your fridge in a clean bag and hang that in the bowl.

Mix the flour, salt and if using the sugar in a large bowl. Add the cubes of butter to the bowl and rub the mixture between your fingers till you get a bread crumb consistency and no large pieces of butter remain.

Whisk the egg with the lemon and water.
Make a dent in the flour mixture and add the liquids. Stir with a fork until everything starts to stick together. Now use your hand to knead the dough until everything is incorporated. Don't over knead it or the dough will become tough. Make a ball of the dough and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap.

Put the dough in the fridge for at least 4 hours but better yet an entire night. After that you can roll the dough for large or small pie crusts see How to make an apple pie for tips.

Print out this recipe and put it near your flour, handy ;)

Make it beautiful!

Starting a decorated cake shop

Ok so it won't really be a shop. I'm just starting a business in decorated cakes, and just plain yummy pies. I've made quite a lot and since I can't seem to find a decent (or any) job, this is a good time to start my own business :)

I haven't quite figured out what it is going to look like but I do know I am not including the color pink in my name, logo or website. All cake stores here seem to be pink, and not a little pink, very very pink! Any guy wishing to make a nice cake (and lets face it, with Buddy on tv I'm sure there are a lot of men out there), is never going to want to go into a store that is so extremely frilly.

Well I have thought of the name, which is translated is Cake and Art. Though in English it doesn't sound wonderful, in Dutch it is nice and it makes for a nice logo because the word art is part of the Dutch word for cake (huh?? you say...: taART)

So I'm hoping to get the business going sometime soon and then I'll happily link you to it. In the mean time check out this fabulous fabric I got for the nursery (yes I said it, I'm pregnant woohoo!): World of Susy Bee

Sharing some treats

Just wanted to share some of my recent treats.


1personPizza

 First up is this 1 person pizza. Yummy! Pizza is so easy to make. I generally use wheat flour to make the bottom so it's good for your digestive system. As a sauce I just use tomato puree, adding garlic and Italian herbs. I like the puree because I hate runny sauce on my pizza. Then some nice serrano-ham, some cheese and after it's baked, top it off with rucola lettuce. Yum!!




Plum Strawberry Pastries

 Plum season has started again, or at least they are selling them in the supermarket again. To make these sweet treats take a square of puff pastry and cut out two opposite corners. (Take a close look at the picture if this confuses you.) Prick a few holes in the pastry between the two cuts. Cut your plums in pieces and add some cut up strawberries. Sprinkle with sugar. If your plums and strawberries are really sweet you won't even need this, unless you like your pastries really sweet. Put a bit of the fruit lengthwise between those two cuts. Now fold the loose corners over the fruit. Lay all the pastries on a baking sheet on a wire rack. Scoot into the middle of the oven which you preheated to about 380 degrees (190 celsius). They'll stay in there for about 20 minutes. With 5 minutes to go you can sprinkle some coarse sugar over the top.
After I took them out of the oven I glazed the fruit with a bit of diluted raspberry jam. Just to make the top fruits a bit moist.

Plum pie (which tastes surprisingly like rhubarb pie)

I had a few plums which were threatening to turn bad so I made a pie. The crust is cookie dough, easy and yummy. I rolled it out and pushed it into a small tin (about 6 inches/ 16 cm) using the leftovers to make the wire top. The filling contains mostly plums, a handful of cranberries and a few blueberries. I added about a teaspoon of cornstarch just to bind those juices. You have to adjust this amount when your plums are really juicy and/or when you make a larger pie. I also added a crumb topping under the wire top. It's made of a handful of crushed walnuts, the same amount of oatmeal, some sugar (depending on your sweet tooth, I'm not a great sugar eater) and a bit of butter to bind the crumbs. You could add a little bit of juice if you have it, that will give it a little more fruity flavor but it's no biggy if you do not.

Bake temp is about 360 F (180 C) and bake time ?? hmmm don't really remember. I think it was 35 minutes. Just check once in a while. Fruity pies like these are done when you see some of those juices boiling up thickly at the edges. Take it out of the oven and leave it on a wire rack to cool. You need it to cool down considerably so the juices will set. If you have a hubby like mine, who wants to eat everything the moment it's made (flattering but not always handy ;) try to make it when he's not home hahaha. Or remember to put a deep enough plate or dish under the pie when you cut into it. If you are able to wait, wait until it is lukewarm. That will give you a pie that can hold itself but is still that nice warm out of the oven taste. And otherwise eat it at room temp, also very nice!