An Irrational Amount of Pi(e) (part 1)

Happy 30th birthday to meeee!  How does it feel to be 30? Well, it feels like 29 only with 365 more days.  Honestly, it feels good.  I hated my 20s, lol.  Cuh-razy is all I'll tell you. But let's not dwell on the past, let us celebrate life with pie!  (Hm, reminds me, I still have to read the Life of Pi ).

My birthday happens to fall on Pi Day, or 3.14, March 14th.  Yes, it's a math joke. It's celebrated the world over by nerds.  We also celebrate Einstein's birthday but he would be 131 and I don't even know if he liked pie.  Pi Approximation day is also celebrated on July 22, probably more so in countries that write the date with the day followed by the month. 

Blowing out 30 candles over 4 square feet left me lightheaded.

So to celebrate my big 3-0 I decided to make 30 mini-pies. My good friend, Danyel, graciously also made 3 pies.  We couldn't eat just sweets, so I also made 4 pizza pies.  Two were grilled and two were deep dish. This was my first try at deep dish and let me tell you what - YUM.  Anyway, total pie count = 37.  Did I mention there were only 5 people here for dinner?  Such an irrational thing to do! HA! Nerd...

Pi(e)!

To be extra nerdy, some of the pies had little pi symbols!  I used 5 crusts (3 homemade, 2 store bought) to make the mini pies in muffin tins.  I made the dough three days ahead of time and shaped everything over the next three days before and after work.

I cut out 5 inch rounds using a bowl as a template and cut them in half to fill the tins.  I filled the gaps with extra dough.  The crimps were made with the help of the rounded end of a hand held nut cracker.  Otherwise, my giant fingers would have made HUGE crimps.

The morning of my birthday I made apple, blueberry, cherry, strawberry, and egg custard filling.   That was all done sooner than I thought and cooling the pies didn't take as long, happily, since they are so small!

The recipe for crust is below.  The recipe for the egg custard is just this one here and it was my first try at it.  I won't repost it here, because I didn't LOVE it.  It was damn good though, but I would go back and play with it to make it a little creamier.  The recipe for the fillings is hardly a recipe: fruit (if fresh, like apples, dice and cook until tender) + sugar + about a tablespoon of cornstarch dissolved in about a cup of cold water + heat = pie filling.  If you want, add your vanilla (for apple) or almond (for cherry) extract at the end when the cornstarch is clear.  Add cinnamon and nutmeg, maybe some cardamon to your apple filling.  Lemon juice to your blueberry and strawberry fillings is nice.  Just wing it and play and have fun!  Trust yourself, it will work out deliciously! You can't play around too much when baking, but here you can, so do it!

Danyel made three pies for me!  They were pumpkin, chocolate pudding in a homemade graham cracker crust, and a delightfully, refreshing pink lemonade ice cream pie in a shortbread crust.

Pumpkin had a face that was an accidental cutie pie! Yes, that's a wax droplet on the bottom.  It took awhile to blow all those out :/

They were all delicious and I couldn't have had a better present.  But she also got me a gift card to Williams-Sonoma. Squee!

Up next: Pizza pies!  I'm not going to go into making pizzas right now because making 34 pies pooped me out and it was also Daylight Saving Time which made my birthday the absolute shortest day of the year.  I feel so cheated.  Oh well, I'll just have to celebrate ALL year ;)

Combination butter and shortening pie crust from Simply Recipes (such a great blog!) that really makes pies easy as themselves:

•  2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 3/4 cup (a stick and a half) unsalted butter, chilled, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
• 1/2 cup of all-vegetable shortening (8 Tbsp) (I use Spectrum non-hydrogenated shortening)
• 6-8 Tablespoons ice water

1 Combine flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor; pulse to mix. Add the butter and pulse 4 times. Add shortening in tablespoon sized chunks, and pulse 4 more times. The mixture should resemble coarse cornmeal, with butter bits no bigger than peas. Sprinkle 6 tablespoons of ice water over flour mixture. Pulse a couple times. If you pinch some of the crumbly dough and it holds together, it's ready. If the dough doesn't hold together, keep adding water, a tablespoon at a time, pulsing once after each addition, until the mixture just begins to clump together.

2 Remove dough from machine and place in a mound on a clean surface. Divide the dough into 2 balls and flatten each into 4 inch wide disks. Do not over-knead the dough! Dust the disks lightly with flour, wrap each in plastic, and refrigerate for at least an hour, or up to 2 days before rolling out.

3 After the dough has chilled in the refrigerator for an hour, you can take it out to roll. If it is too stiff, you may need to let it sit for 5-10 minutes at room temperature before rolling. Sprinkle a little flour on a flat, clean work surface and on top of the disk of dough you intend to roll out. Using a rolling pin, apply light pressure while rolling outwards from the center of the dough. Every once in a while you may need to gently lift under the dough (a pastry scraper works great for this) to make sure it is not sticking. You have a big enough piece of dough when you place the pie tin or pie dish upside down on the dough and the dough extends by at least 2 inches all around.

4 When the dough has reached the right size, gently fold it in half. Lift up the dough and place it so that the folded edge is along the center line of the pie dish. Gently unfold. Do not stretch the dough. 

5a If you are only making a single crust pie, use a pair of kitchen scissors to trim the dough to within 1/2 inch of the lip of the dish. Tuck the overhang underneath itself along the edge of the pie dish. Use your fingers in a pinching motion, or the tines of a fork to crimp the edge of the pie crust (never do this. it looks awful. learn to crimp).

5b If you are making a double crust pie, roll out the second disk of dough. Gently place onto the top of the filling in the pie. Use a kitchen scissors to trim the overhang to an inch over. Fold the edge of the top piece of dough over and under the edge of the bottom piece of dough, pressing together. Finish the double crust by pressing against the edges of the pie with your finger tips or with a fork.

6 Use a sharp knife to cut vents into the top of the pie crust, so the steam has a place to escape while the pie is cooking. Optional Before scoring, you may want to paint the top of your crust with an egg wash (this will make a nice finish). This is not optional in my opinion. Make a pretty golden pie!  Egg wash is just an egg beaten with tablespoon of water or milk. 

I would also freeze your pie or, at least the crusts, before they are filled prior to baking to limit shrinkage.  You don't want to work on all those crimps for them to just fall into the pie filling.