Alpha Bakers -- Black & Blue (& Bloody) Pie

Why do I bake so much? The pursuit of attainable goals. I am in all things a procrastinator. Like Mr. Bennet, I'm "dilatory in undertaking business, [but] quick in its execution." I have trouble stirring myself to do things other people consider basic. I don't hang pictures on my walls. I rarely dust. Half of my furniture is broken. Once I begin a project, I am happy to have begun it, but it is terribly hard for me sometimes to begin even the simplest-seeming things. For this reason, I love structure. I love step-by-step guides and challenges and deadlines. And I love baking--quickly executed projects that use skills I enjoy, that produce tangible and pleasing results in a minimum of time. Low commitment, quick execution, ephemeral decision. It's not the only reason I love baking, but it does seem to be the one discipline I have where I am quick, decisive, and good at planning out my time. Baking gets me out of bed better than anything else--I will lounge if required to shower but happily hop up at 4am to preheat an oven--which has made bread baking a great structure to hang things like writing articles or papers, as the time constraints marry nicely. 

Add on the domestic goddess aura and a sexy if slightly nuts whiff of Little House self-sufficiency, and it becomes clear why this happens so much. Also, pie is delicious. 

This week's pie was the Black & Blueberry pie, a mixed berry with a cream cheese crust. Unlike some of the Alpha Bakers, I make a lot of pie, and I love it. I don't find pie crust daunting, and I like to make it with my hands. I don't mind runny fillings, (John Thorne says they're the way to go, and he's always right), and yet pie always carries with it a certain anxiety that doesn't come up in most other baking circumstances. 

Pie is more than a set of instructions. It's a skill. A physical skill. Because of this slightly mystical truth, pie gets a lot of reverence and a lot of fear. It's not hard, it's just not easy to get right. Pie can turn and bite you in the ass. Every pie is different. I realize that to the true baking personality (or the true librarian) this unpredictability can be painful, even destabilizing. Luckily, I'm more the kind of baker (and librarian) who is caught up in the story and careless of some details, so pie is my kind of game. Also, pie is so, so delicious. I would rather have pie than cake any day, but that's another story (never mind).

It's a story about fruit. We can talk about it when it is not winter any more.

Black & Blueberry pie. A fairly straightforward double-crust pie, made with Rose's cream cheese enriched pie dough. I like this pie dough, but it hasn't become my one and only. An all butter crust still has my heart. The cream cheese crust is very friendly, though, and holds a very nice shape without getting too tough. I can't bring myself to put it in and out of a bag and the freezer as Rose instructs (sorry Rose, I know your detailed instructions really do get unexpectedly perfect results, I just can't be perfect about pie. Talk to me when we're back to wedding cakes), but my hands-in technique yielded some quite acceptable pie crust action. Substitution alert: I misread the amounts I would need so the final product had subbed in mascarpone for 1/3 of the cream cheese (richer, but not devastatingly so), and I used leftover coquito (condensed milk, evaporated milk, coconut milk, and rum) for the three tablespoons of heavy cream. Alcohol is good in pie crust--some people swear by vodka.

I also mis-read the filling amounts a bit so the final mix was 12oz frozen blackberries and the rest frozen blueberries, with a handfull of cranberries and strawberries thrown in, making this a Black & Blue & Bloody pie (Black & Blue & Bloody new band name I call it). I didn't change the ratio of other filling ingredients because I judged it close enough, and so it was. I added the berries to the cornstarch (all right, it was tapioca), sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest straight from the freezer, then let the pie rest filled for roughly the recommended hour and had no problems. There were plenty of juices but it wasn't runny at all. I would have possibly opted for a runnier pie and a slightly less thick tapioca twinge, but that's a personal preference. It did run enough to resemble a very satisfactory crime scene.  

We had it for brunch, along with a very excellent quiche. My friend 'BeeBo,' below, is a big fan of blueberries.

Raz-Berry Ganache

The kind u can't find in a second hand store...

Can you guess what was playing in my head during the entire production and planning (and eating) of this wonderful cake? I amuse myself to a potentially unbearable degree.

This weekend we celebrated Miriam's birthday, and she was nice enough to pick the cake I'd already been assigned out of a (short) lineup. Leading the witness, of course, plus I know she likes raspberries.
In short: chocolate genoise, brushed with cocoa syrup, torted and filled with the best raspberry ganache ever, made with chocolate, cream, raspberry puree, and Portuguese cherry brandy.

This cake transcended the sum of its parts, melding into one good lump of soft intensity. Happy birthday, Miriam.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Lingonberry Shortbread Cake

You know what makes great cranberry sauce? Lingonberries. Ikea lingonberry jam is a great cranberry substitute in almost all conditions. Worked like a charm in this jammy little cake, with crumbly shortbread crust. Just the way we like it. You can find the recipe here.

Photo by Matt.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Cottage Cheese Pufflets

First turnovers, now pufflets. These desserts appear in the cookie section of the book, but they are pretty much turnovers by another name, a very soft, flaky, deeply sticky dough. The chilled product seemed more like a very thick cake batter than a full on pie dough, but I underchilled it a bit, so perhaps the fact that it wasn't that easy to work with was my fault. The final product was turnover-like in feeling, but actually better than the flaky turnovers (at least this time--such temperamental doughs probably take a while to sort out to the point where they're consistent).

For the filling, I used gooseberry jam that I bought out of curiosity. Deeply ingrained associations ensured that most of the people who ate them referred to them as 'apple' turnovers regardless.

Maine Wedding Cake, Part II: The Maine Event

Life has been sweet here the last few weeks. Buttercream, sun, love, and friends, all outdoors as much as possible. Flowers in my hair, lipstick on my teeth.

I'm turning into a wedding connoisseur this summer--I can make the obligatory complaints and assess the finer points with the best of them, with two down and one to go in a 5 week span. I know that's amateur hour for some of you, with three a week during the summer month, but for me, two weddings of people very close to me in two weeks is a marathon.

I have a lot of feelings about weddings, what they are and how they're handled, and I'm still trying to work out exactly what a lot of them are, but there is one thing I do know: Weddings are a production, and can be a disaster when not properly produced and stage managed (and written and performed). Although, in almost any situation, wedding guests do get to squeeze babies. (Role of baby performed by the charming Lucy, below. From her expression it is entirely possible that I am squeezing too hard).To be clear--where there is loving family and a happy couple, any wedding is joyful, but it really is true that production values matter to the experience in many ways. Things that make an 'audience' of guests and a 'company' of the wedding party feel clear, at ease, well used, and well displayed add immeasurably to the satisfaction and contentment of a ritual well performed.
Unsurprisingly, the marriage of a producer and a writer/actor, carefully planned and showcasing many of the talents of their performing and designing friends, is an impressive thing (especially when graced with real feeling and impeccable weather). From the big house, to the good people, to the rosemary on the chairs, and the thoughtful, gorgeous, catering (not to mention the bluegrass band), Stacey and Avi's wedding was the best kind of show--one that helps all concerned to participate and improve the joy at hand, where the basics move smoothly enough to leave room for playful improvisation, where it all seems, well, effortless. Without anything seeming overly slick, everything just went so well and it was so easy to be a celebratory part of the whole.

One of the best talents of a great producer is knowing how and when to delegate, and Stacey and Avi were wise enough to invite their friends and family to join them in ownership of the event. Flowers, lights, cake, and all manner of tasks were given into the hands of people who put all their love into them, with impressive results. Going into the creation of their wedding cake, (my first) I knew that it would never be a professional affair--it would be rustic and slightly messy, but it would taste fantastic. Secure in the knowledge that Stacey and Avi would rather have the work of my hands than all the fondant in the world, I felt free to experiment and to be daring and imperfect, and to learn.
Cake assembly began the Friday night before the wedding. One of my greatest worries was leveling the layers so that the cake didn't list to one side, something I don't have much of an eye for. An iphone level app was generously loaned for the purpose, but it turned out the counters were uneven, and I wound up eyeballing it, but I think it got pretty close.Throughout the process, I had constant help from everyone in the house, in the form of company, moral support, zesting, advice, grocery runs, photography, and encouragement. Matt asked every morning what I needed, and made it happened, and meticulously documented every step of the process, while grilling and making fires in the yard every night as well. Thank you. Thank you all.
The bottom layer, ten inches in diameter, was filled with pastry cream, strawberry jam, lemon curd, and the lemon buttercream that also covered the cake. Because the fillings were a bit liquid and the icing, being just butter and sugar, wasn't very stable, I froze the cake for at least 45 minutes to an hour between every step, between layering and crumb coat, and refrigerated all three tiers for a while before and during the final frosting. The top two tiers, at eight and six inches respectively, had the same fillings but substituted wild blueberries for strawberry jam.

We had gone back and forth about decorations, but in the end, it was very simple. The cake plate provided (Stacey's Grandma Ann(e?)'s), had glass balls all around the edge, and so I just piped similar balls around the bottom of each tier. I had to work fast, as the icing wasn't very strong, and the weather was warm, but in the end, it looked very lovely. The outer coating wasn't completely smooth, and lemon curd almost oozed out in a few places, but the overall effect was lovely. It took my breath away when it was finally piled up. Regarding the piling--the cake was a relatively dense cake, and fairly heavy, so I did reinforce the bottom layer with dowels before piling on the second tier, but didn't bother for the next one.

To decide on the floral decorations, I took a poll--bright black-eyed susans, or tiny blue forget-me-nots. Since everyone but me voted for forget-me-nots (everyone is twee), on they went, in every imperfect part of the icing. We did have a brief moment of wondering whether forget-me-nots were in fact poisonous, but decided to go ahead, and just asked the caterers to remove them all before plating, which they did with masterful skill. All in all, it looked good, tasted better, and for a first effort, was a triumph. Thank you, Stacey and Avi, for a challenging assignment and wonderful week.
Next up, wedding #2, and team cupcake. Thanks to Risa for additional photojournalism. Thanks to Rose Levy Berenbaum, Deb at Smitten Kitchen, and all the rest of the writers, bloggers, and photographers who provided expertise, recipes, and examples.