Culinary Disasters (But the recipe at the end is great)

Was it me? Should I have given it more time? Did I forget to add something? Such are the questions we ask ourselves when a recipe goes awry. Actually, I should rephrase that: Such are the questions that some of us obsess over when a recipe goes awry.  As was unfortunately the case with a cherry pie I made last weekend. A complete failure. A disaster.

I was very excited to make this particular cherry pie as my uncle was visiting and cherry pie is his favorite and he's my favorite. But something went horribly wrong and the pie was awful. My uncle kindly gave it a 5, but unless it was a 5 on a scale of 1 to 100, I think he was just being nice. My cousin ate one bite. Even Mw, who will happily consume vast quantities of food that I deem merely acceptable [it is not that he lacks taste, it is that I am a very tough judge of my own cooking], would not eat the pie and finally I threw out the better part of it after three days of it remaining untouched on the kitchen counter.

It remains only my best guess about what went wrong. My theory is that the cherries I used had been in the freezer for too long. Mw thought that somehow the pie had reacted with the metal pie dish. Even though I'd used that pie dish for plenty of other pies with great success, I took precautionary action and recycled the pie dish (I wanted a pretty ceramic one anyways). The weirdest thing about the pie was that not only was the filling runny and not set, but the crust was also not fully cooked, even though I cooked it for about 30 minutes longer than the recipe called for. Truly, everything that should have been right was wrong. And tasteless.

Despite the cherry pie debacle, I already had my heart set on making a blueberry pie for last week's bookclub. I was admittedly a bit nervous making another pie so soon after the last one. What if it wasn't the cherries? The pie dish? What if I'd just lost my innate pie making skills (clearly, maternally inherited)?  Well, I was definitely very cautious with this pie, but am happy to report that the blueberry pie was phenomenal. The crust was just as it should be, light and flaky. The filling was well-set, and sweet without being too tart.  The leftovers from bookclub survived less than 24 hours.  All around, a perfect pie.  I'm happy that I have my pie-making skills back.  Let's hope they don't fail me again, that cherry pie really was awful.

Blueberry Pie

Essentially from the 'Joy of Cooking'

Flaky Pie Crust 

[this is my standard pie crust, it works well with apple pie, and probably cherry too under different circumstances]

21/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup solid vegetable shortening (I use those nice Crisco sticks; you can also use 1/2 cup shortening plus 1/2 cup cold, unsalted butter)

1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp ice water

Mix flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.  Cut shortening into large chunks, then add to the flour mixture. Cut the fat into the dry ingredients using a pastry cutter or two knives. The mixture will come to resemble the consistency of coarse crumbs/cornmeal; some of the fat may remain in pea-sized pieces. Drizzle the water over the mixture, mixing in until the mixture looks evenly moistened and begins to form small balls. Once balls of dough stick together you have added enough water. If necessary, drizzle an additional 1-2 Tbsp ice water over top. [Note:  I usually do all of this in a Cuisinart mixer, makes the process extremely fast and easy.  Essentially, mix the dry ingredients with a few pulses, add the fat and pulse until the consistency is as described above, add the water and pulse until the dough begins to form as described].  Press the dough into a ball, the dough will be a bit rough. Divide dough in half, wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or up to 2 days.

Blueberry Pie

5 cups blueberries, rinsed and picked over

3/4 cup sugar (or up to 1 cup if you like sweeter)

31/2 Tbsp cornstarch

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/8 tsp salt

1 Tbsp butter, cut into small pieces.

Place oven rack in the lower third of the oven. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Roll out half of the dough you made above into a 13-inch round. Fit dough into a 9-inch pie plate, trim overhanging edge to around 3/4 inches all around. Roll the other half of the dough into a 12-inch round for the top crust.

Combine blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and salt in a bowl. Let sit 15 minutes. 

Pour blueberry mixture into the bottom crust. Dot with butter. Brush edges of pie crust with water and then cover with top crust. Seal the edges, trim the overhang, and crimp or roll the edge of the crust as desired. Cut steam vents into the top crust.

Bake pie for 30 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F and slip a cookie sheet under the pie to catch juices. Bake the pie an additional 25-35 minutes, until thick juices bubble out of the vents. Cool completely on a rack, then serve and enjoy!