Sunday, July 31, 2011

Fresh Off the Vine

It has been a good week here.  Our grapes growing in the garden came up ready to pick and pick them we did!  The only problem with growing grapes (and this holds true for many fruits and veggies) is that they're almost all ready at exactly the same time, which means we had a ton of grapes sitting in our kitchen all week.  We ate some and then we needed to figure out what to do with the rest.


After looking at grape jam recipes I had the idea to search for a grape pie recipe.  Sure enough, I found a few that looked promising.  After browsing through commentors' tips I decided which steps to include in my own recipe.  The crust actually took the longest, as it needed to chill for at least an hour, but the filling came together really easily while the dough was chilling.  After I rolled out the crusts the filling went into the pie.  It was a beautiful color!


The pie baked for around 45 minutes and came out beautifully!



Grape Pie Filling 
and  
Perfect Pie Crust (from Elise on Simply Recipes)



Perfect Double Pie Crust Recipe

Prep time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
  • 1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, very-cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 6 to 8 Tbsp ice water

 

Directions

1.  Combine flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor; pulse to mix. Add butter and pulse 6 to 8 times, until mixture resembles coarse meal, with pea size pieces of butter. Add ice water 1 Tbsp at a time, pulsing until mixture just begins to clump together. If you pinch some of the crumbly dough and it holds together, it's ready. If the dough doesn't hold together, add a little more water and pulse again.

making-dough.jpg

2.  Remove dough from machine and place in a mound on a clean surface. Gently shape into 2 discs. Knead the dough just enough to form the discs, do not over-knead. You should be able to see little bits of butter in the dough. These small chunks of butter are what will allow the resulting crust to be flaky. Sprinkle a little flour around the discs. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour, and up to 2 days.

pie-crust-crumbles.jpgpie-crust-disc.jpg

Use this time to make the pie filling (recipe below).

3.  Remove one crust disk from the refrigerator. Let sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes in order to soften just enough to make rolling out a bit easier. Roll out with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface to a 12-inch circle; about 1/8 of an inch thick. As you roll out the dough, check if the dough is sticking to the surface below. If necessary, add a few sprinkles of flour under the dough to keep the dough from sticking. Carefully place onto a 9-inch pie plate. Gently press the pie dough down so that it lines the bottom and sides of the pie plate. Use a pair of kitchen scissors to trim the dough to within 1/2 inch of the edge of the pie dish.

4.  Add filling to the pie.

5.  Roll out second disk of dough, as before. Gently place onto the top of the filling in the pie. Pinch top and bottom of dough rounds firmly together. Trim excess dough with kitchen shears, leaving a 3/4 inch overhang. Fold the edge of the top piece of dough over and under the edge of the bottom piece of dough, pressing together. Flute edges using thumb and forefinger or press with a fork. Score the top of the pie with four 2-inch long cuts, so that steam from the cooking pie can escape.



Grape Pie Filling

Prep time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

  • 5 cups grapes
  • 1/2 cup water
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • A pinch of salt  
  • Egg white

 

Directions

1. Place grapes, water and lemon juice in a pan over medium heat and bring to a boil.  Boil, uncovered, for about 20 minutes.  Turn off flame.

2. Add sugar, flour and salt to grape mixture and whisk until there are no remaining flour lumps.

Set aside until crust is ready.  

3. Pour filling into first pie crust and top with second crust.  Brush top of pie with egg white.  

4. Bake at 400˚F for 45 to 50 minutes.

Enjoy!!