Lard Pastry

It's easy to tell the difference between a homemade crust and a store bought one. The homemade one, to me, is always so much flakier and it always just tastes a million times better. I made this recipe for the top of my chicken pot pie and it was delicious. The crust became a deep golden colour, was perfectly flakey and didn't take any flavour away from the pie itself. Just what you want in a savoury pie. 

Lard Pastry

Makes 2 disks, to cover 2 9" pies

Ingredients

• 3 cups flour
• 1 cup cold lard, cut into pieces
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup ice-cold water
• egg wash
• fleur de sel for garnish

Directions

• Put the flour, lard and salt in a food processor and pulse to crumbs
• Add the water and pulse until the dough just comes together
• Remove, pat into a disk, wrap in plastic and chill until you're ready to roll it out
• Once it's on the pies and just before baking, cut a few steam vents, brush all over with egg wash and strew over fleur de sel

Recipe from Dinner Chez Moi, by Laura Calder

Individual Fruit Pies in Cream Cheese Pastry

I'm a fan of foods that come in individual sizes: Timbits, Halloween-sized chocolate bars, Altoids Smalls. It just seems less overwhelming to see a box of Timbits than an entire box of donuts, or if someone offered me a small chocolate bar, I'd be much more inclined to take it over a full-sized one. Now, don't get me wrong, I have no illusions that I'm not going to eat the same amount as a full-sized anything -- in fact, I'm likely to eat more -- but when something comes in a small package, it just seems less overwhelming. Mind over matter, my friends.

Using that theory, I jumped at the chance to make these individual fruit pies instead of making a whole one. With just two of us at home, it seems a little gluttonous to make a whole pie, but four individual ones? A perfect way to satisfy a craving without eating half a pie (though, it's totally possible that by eating two of these individual ones, I did anyway).

This recipe, like any pie recipe, is totally adaptable, and can be filled with whatever you have on hand. I just happened to have the items it called for, but next time, I might omit the Craisins and put in more apple or pear.

Ingredients

Cream Cheese Pastry:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp icing sugar
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Filling:

• 2 tbsp orange juice
• 1 large apple, peeled, cored and chopped
• 1 ripe pear, peeled, cored and chopped
• 1/2 cup Craisins (dried cranberries)
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
• milk and granulated sugar (for glaze)

Directions

Cream Cheese Pastry

• Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter, cream cheese and salt until smooth
• Add icing sugar and 1/2 cup of flour at a time until just combined
• When the dough starts to ball up around the paddle, stop the mixer and scrape the dough onto a lightly floured surface
• Gently knead the dough. Divide into four balls, flatten each into a 1/2 inch disc and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until firm enough to roll -- about an hour. 

Pies

• In a medium saucepan, combine the orange juice, apple, pear, cranberries and 2 tbsp sugar. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, cover and cook for three minutes.
• Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the remaining 1 tbsp sugar, cornstarch and spices. Stir the mixture into the fruit and cook, stirring for one minute. Remove from heat and stir in lemon zest.
• Let the fruit cool.
• Use a floured rolling pin to roll each piece of dough into an 8 inch circle.
• Spoon about 1/4 of the filling over half the dough, leaving a 3/4 inch border along the edge.
• Moisten the edge of the pastry with a finger dipped in a little water, then fold the empty half of the dough over the filling. Pinch the edges together to seal.
• Place on baking sheet. Brush each turnover with a little milk and sprinkle with sugar. Poke a few holes in the top to let steam out while they bake.
• Bake at 400 F for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 375 F and bake for another 20 minutes or until golden brown. For even browning, rotate baking sheet halfway through baking.
• Transfer the turnovers to a wire rack and let cool.

** Freezing: You can freeze the unbaked turnovers on a baking sheet until they're firm, then wrap in wax paper and put in resealable freezer bag. Store in freezer for up to one month. To bake from frozen, just add a few minutes to baking time.

Recipe from Ezra Pound Cake

Blueberry Pie

I made another pie! This time it was made with fresh Ontario blueberries and I learned a few tricks along the way.

I spent some time on YouTube to learn how to roll the crust out and better make edges. The first time I made pie, I just cut off all the edges -- resulting in a pretty thin crust. This time, I learned to trim off the excess crust but to leave about an inch of dough around the edges, and then fold the top layer over the bottom layer and tuck inside the pie plate. I didn't do a great job, but I also tried fluting the edges here. So two pies down and already a vast improvement. 

I had this pastry dough in the freezer from the first batch that I made and it still tasted delicious. I had frozen the remaining pastry dough into balls (each ball makes one pie crust). To use it, I just left it in the fridge for a couple of days to thaw, then I rolled out as normal. 

With the pastry already made, this pie really just took about 20 minutes to prepare and then I popped it in the oven! Like the strawberry-rhubarb pie though, the fruit is really runny when it comes out of the oven, so it needed to sit for about three hours to firm up before I could cut it. It was worth the wait, for sure!

Ingredients

• 1 Flakey Pastry Crust
• 4 cups blueberries
• ¾ cup white sugar
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon

Directions


1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt and cinnamon and sprinkle over blueberries. Toss together.


3. Line pie dish with one pie crust. Pour berry mixture into the crust.


4. Cover with remaining pie crust. Cut off excess dough and fold edges (top over bottom) and tuck into pie plate. Slice air vents into top of pie.
5. Bake pie on lower shelf of oven at 425 for 15 minutes. Turn oven down to 375 degrees and bake for another 35 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.

Download printable recipe for Blueberry Pie

Butter Tarts

I eat my food in sections. I have done this my entire life and continues to mind-boggle my parents. If you gave me a plate with three different foods on it, I would eat them one at a time, starting with the vegetables and ending with the meat. In the case of desserts, I always eat butter tarts with a spoon. I first scoop out the filling and eat it, and then I eat the pastry. It's weird. I know. But that's how I roll.

Anyway, I'd had a pining for butter tarts for awhile and I always resist them in the grocery store, but after I made the strawberry-rhubarb and blueberry pies, I had one pie crust left in my freezer -- perfect for a batch of butter tarts. A quick search online told me that I had all the ingredients I needed on hand and away I went.

The most challenging part of these was getting the pastry into the muffin tins. I took timbit-sized balls of dough, rolled it out and then manouvered it into the pans. They weren't pretty, but for a first try they were acceptable. If nothing else, they tasted delcious and way better than those ones you buy in a grocery store. And, for the record, I ate these with a fork and enjoyed the pastry with the filling and it was good!

Ingredients 

• 1 unbaked Flakey Pastry Crust
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• ½ cup butter, melted and cooled
• ¾ cup raisins, walnuts or pecans

Directions


1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.


2. Roll out pastry and fit carefully into 12 muffin tins.


3. In a large bowl, beat eggs, then beat in brown sugar. Stir in vinegar and vanilla extract. Mix well, then stir in melted butter (make sure it’s cool). Fold in rasins or chopped nuts.


4. Carefully spoon mixture into tart shells.


5. Bake in oven for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake an additional 8 to 10 minutes, until set.




Recipe from http://www.allrecipes.com/

Download the printable recipe for Butter Tarts