Thanksgiving Pies: Part I Piecrust

A slight detour in the KAF Baker's Companion to compensate for Thanksgiving! That means pies! I'll walk you through step-by-step the KAF recipes for pumpkin pie and pecan pie. But first we must begin with the piecrust.

I started with the "Basic Piecrust" found on page 408 of the KAF Baker's Companion. I'm always surprised how many people think that making a crust from scratch is difficult. It's not folks. And let me tell you, homemade piecrusts taste wonders better than anything store bought. The basic piecrust recipe makes two 9-inch piecrusts, which worked out perfectly as I needed to make two pies. Great thing about piecrusts is that you can whip up the crust and put it in your refrigerator until you want to make the pie. I made my crusts two days in advance. Saved me loads of time.

The basic piecrust recipe is a simple combination of flour, some salt for flavor, water as a binder, and the fat which prevents the flour from making gluten, i.e., a flaky piecrust. For the basic piecrust, KAF recommends a combination of butter, lard or shortening. I, however, only had butter on hand. I would recommend using a combination for the best mix of flavor and texture. Ah, next time.

 

Mounds of butter.

You then cut the butter into the flour. You can either use two knives in a slashing motion, trying to get the butter into the size of tiny flakes, or you can use a much simpler tool: the pastery blender. Do about half the fat, cut it in, and then add the rest.

A pastery blender makes cutting in a breeze.

Once the salt, fat, and flour have been sufficently mixed in, you add, slowly, the water.  The dough is not meant to be wet, just moist enough to hold itself together. This is key.

Notice how the dough is starting to hold its own shapes.

At this point you take the dough out on to the counter and divide the dough in half. Make two flat disks and then refrigerate. If you are using the dough immediately, let it remain in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to make shaping easier. Otherwise, keep it in the fridge until it is time to make the pie.

The formed piecrust.

Next I'll take the piecrust and make two pies.

-Erin

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with a Vanilla Scented Sauce

Ah, next out of the KAF cookbook was lemon ricotta pancakes with vanilla scented sauce (Here at the KAF site). Sounds fancy-schmancy, but utterly delicious. However, this is probably the most labor intensive pancake I have made yet, not in regards to difficulty, but in the amount of bowls. I think I had four bowls out in the process of making these and took up the entire countertop in my kitchen. Just an FYI for those who want to whip this up on the fly. It take a little planning. But you can make both the pancakes and the sauce a day ahead of time, for those who really want to plan ahead!

Essentially you will begin with three parts to the batter (wet, dry and beaten egg whites) before mixing them all together. This is the wet ingredients which contain egg yolks, buttermilk and ricotta cheese.

Action shot! Beating those egg whites into submission.

Mix the wet with the dry and then fold in the egg whites.

As usual, once bubbles form, the pancake is ready to be flipped. Approximately 2 minutes or so.

The egg whites really make these pancakes fluff up.

Given the fact that I lack a griddle, I have to do double duty in order to cook all those pancakes.

A partially finished batch waiting for consumption.

And the vanilla sauce. This is a mixture of ricotta, powder sugar, vanilla, and salt. Hello, frosting! I put in about a tablespoon of milk to thin the mixture some.

A partially eaten pancake with the sauce.

These were certainly tasty, but I think if given the option again, I would just make the pancakes and skip the sauce. I find that it was unnecessary. Buttermilk and ricotta with a hint of lemon fluffy goodness doesn't need an extra layer of sugar. However, my roommate disagreed and thought that the sauce complemented the pancakes. To each his own.

'Til next weekend for either strawberry puff pancakes (yikes berries are out of season!) or Welsh cakes.

-Erin

Gingerbread Pancakes

On my day off on Wednesday I whipped up another excellent KAF recipe: gingerbread pancakes (pg. 5). These are really favorful and quick to whip up on those crisp fall mornings.

You begin by mixing the dry ingredients (including yellow cornmeal) and then in a seperate bowl the wet.

You then mix the two together, wet into dry. The wet mixture is a combination of molasses, vegetable oil, an egg, and buttermilk.

As you let the mixture sit, I noticed that it tends to bubble.

As with the "simple but perfect" pancake, the pancake will bubble when it is time to flip it over. These pancakes tend not brown.

Ah, the finished batch. Truly packed with spices and certainly reminds one of eating a gingerbread cookie. The cornmeal makes the texture a little gritty, which I am not used to in my pancakes, but the taste certainly makes up for the texture. These are great with apple butter, powdered sugar, or the standard here in VT--maple syrup.

Over and out until Sunday when I whip up something fancy: lemon ricotta pancakes with a vanilla cream sauce.

-Erin