Monday, August 22, 2011

Powerhouse Cuties


                 Mini Blueberry Pies with Cardamom and Mint


Blueberries are in season, take full advantage people...why you say? Because you know they’re not going to taste as good from your freezer in the fall when you’re craving these little wonders again. But its all good, I freeze berries too though usually it’s because I can’t eat a flat by myself in the time it takes for them to acquire fruit flies. Who doesn’t prefer fresh over frozen? Its just dependent on availability. Frozen berries are still amazing because they are usually cheap and are great in oatmeal, smoothies and pie of course. But if you can, grab those little powerhouse cuties when their at their peak in late summer. No matter when you decide to make this pie, blueberries: fresh or frozen, are going to produce a wonderful pie. 
When I first started seeing those cute blue half pints of berries a couple of weeks ago all I could think about was pie. I’ve always known blueberry pie to be a little on the overly sweet side because well blueberries are really sweet, but I didn’t want a sugar coma with my side of fruit. So how could I make a pie thats not too sweet and heavy? Hows about I downsize and vamp up the flavor. I figured why not mini ones that could be made in a muffin tin. Size, check. Now flavor. Having just come off of my Moroccan sandwich kick I wanted to add a spice to my pies. Cardamom is an old love of mine that I occasionally have after an indian meal, usually covered in a pastel sugar shell. Hmm sugary cardamom? Yes. Now the mint, the mint was a suggestion from my mother, who’s oven I happened to be borrowing for this experiment. “Dani what do you think of mint in there?” Mumsy says, “why?” I ask. Her response; “It just smells sooooo good!” Good enough for me, just a few leaves though. The last issue is that of acid, berry pies usually require a bit of acid and I only had a half a lemon. Problem solver? Can of pineapple juice. Fulfilling the sugar quota with the fruit juice so I could use less actual sugar in my pie. Now were on to something. 
I’m not going to lie to you folks, the crusts you see below are indeed, store bought. I’ll admit that sometimes I take a short-cut when I’m having a busy day or have happened upon a great blueberry sale, but don’t get used to it! Homemade pie crust really is a magical thing once you get it down, but I know that it can be a daunting task. There also seems to be so many different methods and ingredients in which people claim their famed pie crusts to materialize from, naturally its hard to pick the winning recipe. All that I can truly offer to you as an amateur baker is this...temperature is where its at. Everything must be COLD, I mean everything. Keeping not only the ingredients but the tools cold are the secrets behind a successfully flaky crust. The Flakiness is created after an evenly mixed crust’s pockets of fat, get in touch with that high heat. The fat is then melted and steam works to lift the dough up. Huzzah a perfect crust is born and ready to be filled to its fatty little heart’s content...might I suggest blueberries?
Since I cheated with my crusts I feel like i need to make it up to you. Im going to share something amazing, a family recipe. I would like to offer you my late Grandma Randi’s flaky crust recipe. This woman knew how to bake. For real.


                                       For the Crust

  • 3 cups flour (plus around a 1/2 cup more for rolling out dough)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 6 Tbsp COLD unsalted butter, cut into small bits
  • 6 Tbsp COLD shortening, cut or spooned (depending on how your shortening was sold, bucket-o-fat or fatty sticks) into small bits
  • 8 Tbsp COLD water (I add a few cubes of ice to a bowl of water, then measure out of the bowl)
  • 1 Tbsp COLD white vinegar

                                       How

1.) Sift together the flour and the salt in a large mixing bowl. (Don’t have a sifter? A fine mesh colander or a grease splatter guard for frying pans will get the job done too)

2.) Begin to cut in cold fats with the flour/salt. This means simply blending the two mediums together to achieve a crumbly flour with pea size bits of butter throughout. Just drop in your bits of fat into the large flour bowl and begin to mix. (The best tool for this job is a pastry cutter which works quickly because of its wide shape and multiple blades. Don’t have one? A fork or wooden spoon will suffice.) Place in fridge until completing the next step.

3.) Mix together your COLD water and vinegar in a medium-sized bowl.

4.) Working slowly with a Tbsp at a time, add your liquid mixture to your fatty flour. (You want to work slowly so the dough has time to absorb each addition of liquid.) Once your dough has come together and it isn’t sticking to the sides of the bowl, gather into two balls. Then cover with sheets of plastic wrap and place in fridge for an hour or until your ready to use. 

5.) When ready to bake, remove dough from fridge, sprinkle your rolling surface as well as your rolling pin with flour and give a couple good kneads. Then roll out to about a 1/4 inch to a 1/2 inch thickness. Next decide what you’re going to fill it with.

                                       For the Filling

  • 4 half pints of blueberries, rinsed and thoroughly drained (about 4 and 1/2 cups roughly)
  • 1 Tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup pineapple juice
  • 2 Tbsp cornstarch
  • 3/4 cup raw cane sugar (good ole white works great too)
  • 1/2 Tsp ground cardamom
  • 5 to 7 fresh mint leaves ripped into little bits (I wouldn’t try to substitute with dried mint here but hey its up to the baker)

                                       How

1.)  Once you have your sheets of dough, look through your collection of drinking glasses until you find one with a large mouth. Use the glass to cut out rounds of crust to fit into a (pre-greased) muffin pan. Know that you are not limited to drinking glasses but rather anything with a wide enough mouth to cut out circles. Repeat this step until you have filled your pan. This should get you a full rack of 12 pies, plus more crust.

2.) In a small bowl, whisk together both lemon and pineapple juices with cornstarch until smooth. Add in sugar along with the cardamom and mint and continue to whisk until combined.

3.) In large bowl using a wooden spoon, mix the blueberries with the pineapple sugar slurry. You want to mix for a few minutes to give the berries a chance to take on the acids and starches. (Don’t worry if you bust up a few berries in the process, a lot of them wont make it out whole anyway)

4.) Now ladle as much blueberry goop as you can fit into each of the crusts. The berries should be higher than the crust level but don’t over fill (or you will just have burned sugar drops to scrape off later).

5.) Bake mini pies first at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Then drop temperature to 350 degrees and continue to cook for about 25 to 30 more minutes or until the edges of your crusts are beginning to brown.

6.) Remove from oven and allow to cool before taking out of the pan. Decide who is worthy of your dark little wonderful pies and eat up! Yields 12 mini pies.

                                       Substitutions

-Plain white granulated sugar could be used in place of raw cane sugar.
-Huckleberries, blackberries, or marionberries could be used in place of blueberries.





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