The Blueberry Pie From Hell!!!

Growing up, my favourite thing in the world was blueberries. As an adult, I still feel that way. I was talking to my mom about making a blueberry pie and she told me about one she made a long time ago that she swears is the best blueberry pie she has ever had. So of course, I had to make it.

My mom said it was very simple. All you have to do is make sure to mix half fresh blueberries with cooked blueberries and you will have the most amazing blueberry pie. I was intrigued!



I turned to Martha Stewart's New Pies and Tarts for inspiration. She has a recipe for Lattice-Top Blueberry Pie that I thought would be perfect to tweak to make a version of my mom's pie. I should have realized when I screwed up her Pâte Brisée the first time by only putting in half the amount of butter, it was time to leave the kitchen for a few days and get some rest but no. No, I made it again, this time the right way:

Pulse 2 1/2 cups of flour with 1 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of sugar. Pulse in 1 cup of cold unsalted butter cut into pieces.



Pulse in ice water until the dough comes together. Do not over pulse!



I divided the dough into disks, covered with plastic wrap and chilled in the fridge.



I got to work on the filling. Since this was going to be partially cooked, the filling would have to cool off. I had a large container of blueberries, around 7 cups, that I divided in half. I set aside one half and put the other into a medium-sized sauce pan, added half a cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of water.

I bought everything to a simmer and saw that it was very liquidy. I could have reduced it but my mom said it was important that the blueberries remain whole. I got 1/4 cup of cornstarch, added some cold water to it and then drizzled it into the blueberry filling still over medium heat. This slurry thickened everything up nicely but I did not want it to cook all the way through. I wanted some of the cornstarch to also thicken the liquid from the fresh blueberries that would also be going into the pie.

Oh I thought I was so smart.



I had cooled the pot off in some cold water in my sink and mixed the cooked blueberries in with the fresh ones. I threw it all in the fridge and then the phone rang.

"Now Sue, you know you're supposed to use a cooked pie crust, right?"

Blink, blink.

"What do you mean? A store-bought frozen pie crust?"

"No, it is supposed to be cooked."

"How do the berries cook then?"

"They don't. You just put them in the shell and cover it with whipped cream."

What the hell??!!!!

It was at this point I realized that my mom did not actually make the pie. She baked a pie crust, mixed a can of blueberry filling with some fresh blueberries and added whipped cream on top instead of having a top crust.

Oh crap!!!!!



Yes, my mind was spinning and I was officially lost in panic problem-solving mode. Fine, I can do this, I thought to myself. I can save this pie.

I rolled out the larger piece of dough and fitted it into a springform pan that I lightly greased. I docked the dough with my fork. Yes, I was going to par-bake the crust. If I didn't, I was going to end up over-baking the filling.



I covered it with aluminum foil and added my brown rice pie weights. I baked the crust at 325F for 20 minutes and let cool a bit.



I added the filling and look, you can still see the cornstarch clumps!!!



Martha's recipe was a lattice-top but I was so frustrated at this point I just made heart-shaped cutouts on the top and threw it in the oven at 350F for 30 minutes.

The top still looked raw. I baked it for another 15 minutes. Still looked raw. I was on the phone with my sister Jamie at the time and said to myself, "Screw it!" I turned on the broiler.

Yes, I broiled the damn pie.



I watched it like a hawk and it turned out to be the smartest thing I could do. The bottom crust was definitely getting over-baked so I just kept an eye on it while on the phone and took it out when the hearts started to darken. How symbolic.

Yes, only a pie from hell could be this pretty.



And of course, sinfully delicious. Actually, it was not very sweet a pie, I would add a little more sugar if I ever made this again which I won't. The bottom crust was pretty darn tough but overall, it was devilishly divine.

I think considering the curve ball I was thrown I did quite well and averted complete foodie disaster and everyone who tasted it agreed, it was a yummy pie. I hope they all enjoyed it because it will never exist again.

Spelt Pizza Dough

My experimenting with spelt flour continues! This time in pizza dough. If I can add some nutritional content to pizza without compromising flavour, why wouldn't I?



I added 2 1/4 tsp of yeast and 1 tsp of sugar to 1 cup of warm (not hot) water. I let it sit for 10 minutes.



I like my pizza dough to be on the sweet side sometimes so I added a couple of tsp of honey.



I added 1 cup of spelt flour to my mixer and then added 2 cups of regular all purpose flour.



I added 1 tsp of salt to the dry ingredients and mixed together for a few seconds with a paddle attachment.

I slowly drizzled in the yeast mixture and some additional warm water for the dough to come together. I replaced the paddle attachment with the dough hook. The mixer kneaded the dough for 10 minutes.



I tossed the dough around a greased bowl, covered and let rise for an hour or so.



You can tell it has been warm here, wow, what a change!



I divided the dough, stretched and flattened to make individual pizzas then grilled on both sides for around six minutes each on medium high to cook the dough.

I slathered on some of my sundried tomato pesto (this time I made it with pecans and added some balsamic vinegar), roasted portobello mushrooms, caramelized onions, goat cheese... and put it until the broiler for a few minutes.



Super tasty and I still enjoyed the texture. No, it is not 100% spelt flour but I am working my ways towards that. So far, I like what I am tasting. What appeals to me most about spelt is that you it is supposed to be 100% interchangeable with regular flour and I am starting to believe that may be possible.

Next? Spelt cookies!!! Oh man, I hope I like them. Crappy cookies would be such a waste.

Another spontaneous newsletter is on its way!

Was this blueberry pie a dream or was it a disaster?! Only my newsletter readers know for sure! They also know about a super-secret foodie project coming up in this fall. Want to find out all about it? Sign up for my free newsletter!



Also, I have the opportunity to interview Sarah B. Hood, author of We Sure Can! How Jams and Pickles Are Reviving the Lure and Lore of Local Food. If you have any canning or jam-making questions for Sarah, either leave a comment here or email me and I will ask her for you!

My newsletters are free and I like to share secret intel with my readers about what is coming up on my blog. Think of it as a fun little letter I write to my readers who love getting a little taste as to what is coming up on my blog.

OK, that is it! Time to step away from the computer, make some blueberry jam and goodness knows what else this week.

Happy Long Weekend Everyone!

~ Suzie the Foodie

Join Suzie The Foodie's mailing list

* indicates required

Email Address *

One Smart Cookie's No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

We are getting beautiful warm weather on the east coast and it is now September. Which is totally wrong and unjust... So unfair autumn is now so close!

This stunning weather means it has been too warm to bake which is why I made these no-bake chocolate cookies which are a healthy take on one of my favourite childhood treats. The recipe is from the cookbook One Smart Cookie by Julie Van Rosendaal. I am getting a lot of use out of that cookbook already!



You begin with finely chopping 1/4 cup of dried fruit (I used cranberries) and 1/4 cup finely chopped toasted nuts (I used almonds).



In a medium sauce pan add 1 cup of sugar, 2 tbsp of butter and 1/3 cup of milk. Bring to a full boil slowly over medium heat.



Reduce heat and boil for 3 minutes, stirring frequently.



Add the dried fruit, nuts, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1/3 cup cocoa and 1 cup of quick oats.



Stir to combine and chill in the fridge for around an hour.



Shape dough into 1" balls and roll around in some icing sugar. Chill until firm.



I absolutely adore that these turn into a kind of low fat truffle, filled with lots of goodies. Each cookies has only 3.3 grams of fat and I would say are best eaten while quite chilly. That way they have more structure to them. I love that the recipe only makes 15 cookies, that is perfect for us. I did not have to divide the recipe in half.

Due to the warmth, these went a little fuzzy and the icing sugar got quite moist almost immediately after I took them out of the fridge though so you may want to re-roll them in icing sugar before serving them.

I did have one major issue but it had nothing to do with the recipe. Mike and Jen, if you noticed a slight "floral" flavour when you tried these I apologize. It looks like this wooden bowl's previous owner cleaned it with a strongly scented soap that made its way into my cookies!!! My apologies and that bowl is going into the bag of donations and back to the thrift store I bought it from. Blech!

Despite this technical difficult with my foodie prop, I loved these cookies and tried to ignore the ghastly floral aftertaste! I can feel less guilty about one of my favourite treats. Reg was not as huge a fan as I was, probably because they were so soft (he did not notice the floral flavour like I did which I find shocking). Next time I will only rough chop the nuts and fruit to add more structure and texture.

I personally give these cookies four and a half out of five wooden spoons!

Have a tasty long weekend everyone! And those in Toronto going to the CNE this weekend, eat some perogies for me at the food court! Oh how I miss those perogies...

Cookbook Review: Mairlyn Smith's Healthy Starts Here

Stir Fried Broccoli and Chicken

I have been recipe testing from Mairlyn Smith's cookbook Healthy Starts Here: 140 Recipes That Will Make You Feel Great published by Whitecap Books. I will be honest. I have yet to make a bad recipe! Seriously, that is so rare.

Above you will see what we had for dinner last night. You can find the recipe for her Stir Fried Broccoli and Chicken on my Facebook page. Not only was I happily surprised to eat a chicken dish that had lots of zing and flavour (instead of being bored), Reg could not get enough of it, he found it so very tasty with just enough heat. I actually toned down the heat a bit to match our tolerance but it worked out so well!

I did choose pretty safe recipes. I doubt I will ever enjoy grilled salmon fillets with raspberry salsa, I just do not believe in mixing meat with fruit but I know some people love it. I still do not think I can combine blueberries and tomatoes in a salad together but because it is in Mairlyn's cookbook and I had success with so many of her recipe, I may actually give it a shot.

 

I gave her red lentil soup a rare five out of five rating and her garlic shrimp was so delicious I have made it quite a few times now. 

My issue was not with the food but with the cookbook itself. Dividing it by food group and then into a seasonal subcategory made finding recipes quickly and easily impossible. As a result, you go from baking to cooking to baking... which just threw me off. Also, even though the chapters are divided into food groups there is no group for chicken or beef. Just fish. I find that totally irresponsible and a tad ridiculous. This is not a vegetarian cookbook. There were only two recipes with beef in the entire cookbook which I found in the index was under ground beef, not beef. OMG, very confusing and frustrating!

I love the introductions that Mairlyn writes for every recipe. She is such a character and I adored hearing about what she was trying to accomplish when she came up with a particular recipe. That said, her intro to the cookie recipe was four paragraphs long! Too much text. In a lot of the recipes we are told to wash our hands over and over again which fills the directions up with lots of text. For the stir fry recipe, for example, if the list of ingredients had told us how the vegetables and meat were to be prepared, there would have been less text in the directions making it easier for me to make the dinner and the recipe appear less daunting.


To round everything off I also made one of her salads with beets and goat cheese and it was flavourful and refreshing. 

This cookbook needed a really good edit. It would have kept Mairlyn's voice and personality throughout the book but made it easier for the recipes to follow. The photographs are beautiful but many of them are not of the final dishes but of the ingredients themselves which I suppose makes sense because of how the book is divided. I personally would have preferred helpful photos showing the final dishes rather than see someone pick blackberries.


I did have some logistical issues with her triple chocolate brownie cookies but they turned out so deliciously I gave them four and a half out of five. 

If I sound harsh it is because I feel bad for Mairlyn. The recipes she created are fantastic. It was the layout and editing that let her down. I really wish that the cookbook was organized better and the recipes were clearer to showcase her fantastic food. Despite the challenges I had with the book, I loved it. I really trust the recipes, which is so very rare. I give this cookbook four out of five wooden spoons.