9.11.2012

KCRW 4th Annual Pie Contest

My Maple Dark Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie won 3rd place in the nut pie category at KCRW's 4th Annual Good Food Pie Contest!

With over 200 pies entered I feel great about placing, especially since several of the winners were professional bakers. Although it felt great to place, I was having fun at the event even before they called my name. The contest was held this past Saturday at Hancock Park at LACMA. It was open to the public who could come and taste three pies at the event for free. It was nice to hang out on the lawn talking to the public as they approached me to taste my pie, chatting with fellow bakers, and listening to Anne Litt DJ. Also, I did feel special to have an impressive panel of judges taste my pie.

I've been practicing my pies recently. I made eight test pies with varying crusts and fillings until I landed on two that I liked: an apple, pear and cranberry pie and the winning maple chocolate pecan. We were required to bake a pie for the public and another pie for the judges, which means I made an additional four pies, bringing me up to a grand total of a dozen pies in the past two weeks.

Roy and I have been joking that we're on a pie diet, but it really isn't that far from the truth. And Miles has been in on the pie action too. He helped me press the pulse button on the food processor which he thought was hilarious. As I was baking one day Miles kept pointing to me and saying "pie." Great, he rarely says "mama" and now he thinks my name is "pie." I can only blame myself though and it was pretty cute.

I landed on the winning pie pretty easily. One of my first thoughts was to make was a pumpkin mascarpone pie with ground pecans in the crust. The filling did not work at all but the crust was delicious. I kept the crust and began focusing on what I really wanted in a pie. I thought of some of my favorite things: chocolate and nuts. I decided to make a pecan pie even though I had never made one before.

As I thought about the pie I knew that I did not want it to be overly sweet as most pecan pies, in my opinion, are.  I remembered that my uncle, who is an avid pie baker, once told me that the trick to pecan pie was to use maple syrup instead of corn syrup (sorry all you southerners out there). I wrote out everything I thought should be in the filling, including some sea salt and a bit of lemon juice to balance the sweetness. And you know what? I loved it the first time I made it. Now, for research sake I decided to alter the filling ratios slightly and melt the chocolate instead of keeping it in whole chips. I didn't like the second pie nearly as much as the first, so for the contest I went back to the original filling. And I was happy that I did.

As always, I've included the recipe at the bottom of the page. Enjoy!

Thank you KCRW and especially Evan Kleiman and the Good Eats crew for a wonderful event!

Apple, Pear, Cranberry

Maple Dark Chocolate Chip Pecan

My pie was one of the first to be gobbled up.

The judges' pie awaiting the final vote.

Evan Kleiman and me

Celebrating with my boys

Maple Dark Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie

Crust:
3 tablespoons chopped, toasted pecans
5 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
5 tablespoons cold butter
3 tablespoons cold vegetable shortening
3-4 tablespoons ice water

Filling:
3 large eggs
1 cup grade B maple syrup
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 1/2 cups chopped, toasted pecans
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips, frozen

Make the crust: Cut the butter and shortening into 1/2 inch cubes and place in the freezer while you work with the other ingredients. Pulse the nuts and sugar in food processor until nuts are ground to the texture of sand. Add flour and salt and pulse a few times to combine. Add the butter and shortening and pulse until the pieces of butter and shortening are large pea to walnut size. Add 3 tablespoons of ice water and pulse until the dough begins to come together but does not form a ball. You should be able to pinch the dough together with your fingers and it should stick together. If it is still too dry to do this add the other tablespoon of water so that it does. Transfer the dough to plastic wrap, flatten into 6 inch disk and place in the refrigerator for at least one hour or overnight.

Once the dough has rested pull it from the refrigerator and allow to soften enough to roll out (how long this takes will depend on the temperature of your kitchen). On a lightly floured surface roll the dough into a 13 inch round.

Gently wrap the dough around the rolling pin and carefully transfer it to a 9.5 inch pie pan. Fit the dough into the pan and trim the overhang so you only have 3/4 inch overhang. Tuck the dough edges under to create a clean border and then crimp into fluted pattern. Freeze dough 30 minutes.

Place one rack at lowest position and another rack at the middle position in the oven. Preheat to 400 degrees for at least 20 minutes. Remove pie shell from freezer and line with foil. Fill halfway with pie weights or dried beans. Bake on lowest rack for 15 minutes. Peel away foil - if it comes away easily, continue to remove all foil and pie weights from pie. If it sticks, return to the oven in 2 minute increments until the foil doesn't stick to the dough anymore. Keeping the pie on the bottom rack, reduce oven to 350 degrees and continue to bake for another 5 minutes until crust is very lightly golden.

Filling: Meanwhile, whisk together first 9 ingredients until smooth. Stir in pecans and chocolate chips. When the pie shell is done baking, remove from oven and pour the filling into the hot shell. Return to middle rack of oven and continue baking for 40-45 minutes more, rotating once halfway through baking. Let cool completely before serving.

Makes 1 pie. 

Notes: Be careful not to overwork the dough. The easiest way I found to do this is to roll from the center toward you, then rotate the dough a quarter turn and roll toward you again. By continually moving the dough it should be less likely to stick and you should only have to add a small amount of flour during the rolling process. If it is still sticking, it may have gotten too warm and you may need to return it to the refrigerator to chill again. If it cracks as you roll it then it may still be too cold and you may need to wait for it to warm up for a few more minutes.  

The pie is actually better the next day, making it the perfect recipe for holiday entertaining. 




9.05.2012

Goodbye Summer

It feels like summer is gone. The days are already getting shorter. In fact, today we had some weird weather and it rained for half the day. Although summer won't officially end until September 21st, Labor Day always marks the end of the summer for me.

We spent our Labor Day walking by the beach in the morning and BBQing with friends in the afternoon. I was in charge of dessert, and I wanted some sort of berry dessert before summer ended. I scrolled through my mental files of berry desserts that I liked and I remembered a cake that my good friend Yvonne made me when Miles was born. She brought me a fresh strawberry cake, and it was so good that I have thought about it many times since that day.

I set out to make the cake but then I started to second-guess myself. Was it some sort of postpartum sleep-deprived sugar craving that made me think the cake was so good? No, I told myself, Yvonne is a good baker, and that cake must have been good, even to normal, non-sleep deprived people.

So, I made the strawberry cake and I was not disappointed. This is a simple cake topped with lots of fresh strawberries, many of which sink into the cake giving it some lovely jammy pockets. Unfortunately, I only got a picture of the cake on my phone before I took it to a potluck, so it's not the prettiest picture ever.


Anyway, don't let that detour you from making the cake! For all my talk of summer ending, for those of us who live in Southern California we know that September is still really hot. That means there is plenty of time to make this cake before summer is really gone.  Here is the recipe, adapted from Martha Stewart.

Strawberry Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature, plus more for pan
2 cups plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup milk
1 1/2 pounds strawberries, hulled and halved
Lightly sweetened whipped cream for serving, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and set rack to middle position. Butter 9 x 13 inch baking pan.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. Place butter and 2 cups sugar in stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Beat on medium until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and mix on low until combined. Add the flour mixture and milk in 3 alternating increments beginning and ending with the flour.

Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Place strawberries cut side down on top of batter, placing them as close together as possible. Sprinkle the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar evenly over the top of the cake.

Bake for 15 minutes. Then lower temperature to 325 degrees and continue to bake until the cake has become puffed and golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 45 to 55 minutes more. Let cool on wire rack. Serve with whipped cream if desired.

Cover loosely with plastic wrap and keep at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Serves 12-16