Blueberry Pie

We had ordered some products (we got mini pans and a zester) from CSN Stores for review. I want to say that their website is easy to use and ordering was quite simple. They ship pretty fast and keep you updated on each item's transit!

To test our new products, I had thought it would be fun for Howard to make some pies:

Wow. The perfect pie dough is hard to make! Howard and I were pretty sad about the way ours turned out, I think we may need to learn the techniques and practice more. With that being said, this is no reflection of the recipe we tried, we're pretty sure we messed up because the dough didn't turn out as flaky as it should. We will keep practicing in order to add pies to our repertoire!

Pie Dough
Adopted from The Grand Central Baking Book
(Makes one 10- to 12-ounce disk)

1 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon of granulated sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1 stick of cold unsalted butter
3 tablespoons of cold water
Omitted 1 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice (maybe this is where we went wrong?)

1. Measure out your flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Let is refrigerate for at least two hours or overnight.
2. Dice the cold butter into 1/2 inch cubes and toss them with the flour mixture.
   
   
3. Add in your cold water. (But don't. This is where you're suppose to add the cold water to the lemon juice, so do that instead.)
4. We mixed our dough by hand, move quickly so that your hands don't warm up the butter. Use your fingertips and thumbs to rub the butter together with the dry ingredients. The butter should be cold enough that you're coating the butter cubes with the flour.
5. Stop mixing when the texture of the flour changes from silky to measly.
6. You can hydrate your dough with the cold water and lemon juice mixture, one tablespoon at a time.
   
7. Check your dough, if it holds together, it's ready. If it's dry and crumbly, mix a little longer before adding more water.
8. When the dough has the proper amount of water, it will come together with minimal effort and no deliberate packing.
9. Wrap the dough tightly and chill it (don't roll it out, it isn't ready to be used yet) for at least 1 to 2 hours or overnight (we left it overnight).
   

Blueberry Filling
Adopted from The Grand Central Baking Book
(Makes about 3 to 4 servings)

2 cups of blueberries
1/2 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons of lemon zest
2 tablespoons of cornstarch
1 tablespoon of lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F).
2. Begin by zesting your lemon and squeezing out the lemon juice.
   
   The Microplane zester was easy to use and easy to clean. Look at how quick Howard is zesting!
   
   
3. Toss the blueberries with the sugar and lemon zest.
   
   
   
4. Combine the cornstarch and lemon juice, stir it a little.
5. Roll out your pie dough, work quickly so that the dough doesn't soften. If it becomes too soft or sticky, cover it and refrigerate until firm.
6. Place your rolled out pie dough in your pan and trim off the excess sides.
   
   
7. Pour your blueberry filling in.
   
   
8. Bake for 20 minutes until the crust is a rich golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Funny note: our crust remained quite pale and did not reach a golden brown colour. =(
   
   

The blueberry filling was really good, so we just have to work on creating flaky, buttery pie crust. The pans we tested out are non-stick and do just as they say. The pies popped out of the pan with ease and were easy to clean (since nothing stuck to it).

A Cry for Pie

Pie!

Buttery, delicious pie crust.

That's what Howard likes baked. Not my cute and sweet cupcakes. He needs something savoury to chew on. So, from time to time I attempt to make pie. But Howard doesn't like it. The reason? I don't make real pie crust. My pie crust is sweet and crunchy (the way I like it) and not buttery and flaky (the way most people make it).

Every time we order a slice of pie, Howard asks, "can't you make real pie instead?" or "do you know how to make real pie crust?"

I answer with, "we technically do know how to make pie crust. I have numerous cookbooks that teach us." It's just a matter of picking a recipe and following the steps, right?

It is time we tried.

This is also good timing as the folks over at CSN Stores offered to let us do some product reviews! They're an online store carrying lighting, bookcases, cookware, and more. I've been browsing their cookware section, but more specifically, the pie pans!

Now, if we get ourselves some real pie pans, I think that Howard should show us how to make real pie! All in favour? Leave a comment below if you would like to see Howard bake pie! ;)