"We can't all be good at everything," right? You've heard that line, I've heard the line, you've used it, I've used it, we all know it and we all somehow, sometimes, feel "deficient" or "inadequate" for lack of a better word. And when we're good at something that is a big category, there are always things within it that fall on a "bell curve" of competence. If you play tennis, for example, (and you've heard this on tv), you may have an excellent serve, and a weak return. Or, if you're a gym rat, you may be good at lifting, and stink at the bike (I'm guessing at that last one. I know way more about TV sports than the real stuff).
In my own area of cooking, I stay away from pie. I just don't feel all that comfortable at it, and I don't think I'm very good at it. A cake? Hell, put me in a kitchen, give me some flour, butter and sugar, and you'll have cake in 30 minutes. Ask me for a pie? Well.. we're kinda pushing the line here. You gotta be a DAMN good friend to get me to make a pie.
Enter Keith. Keith's name has come up in these entries before, not as often as some others, but he's here. Well, in one of the fortuitous coincidences of the calendar, Keith's birthday is tomorrow, while we're still in the throes of gay pride, which is today.
Every year, when pride comes around, I find myself thinking about my gay blessings. Those are different, you see, from the general blessings of good health, or financial security. See, when you enter this "club," you find out that it's a tough one. A REAL tough one. Many pundits have written about it far better than I can. Let me just say that on the list of my blessings, Keith is up there at the top of the list.
One of the reasons for it is, he'd never ask me to make a pie. NEVER. In fact, he'd never ask for anything. I offered to give him a birthday party, and he accepted, with tremendous, heartfelt, almost tearful gratitude. So, what do you make for dessert for a friend that dear to your heart? For me, it means tapping into what I remember as favorites. Keith loves cherries. And there is no dessert that shows off cherries better than cherry pie.
Oh dear. Somewhat worse than being torn between two lovers: my desire to really do something special for a very special friend, and my fear of turning out something awful. So, what do you do in that situation? You swallow , take a deep breath and say "I can do it." And I did. Here's the story.
I have a wonderful cookbook called "The Pie and Pastry Bible," by Rose Levy Beranbaum. I don't consult this book very often, because I don't make pie very often. After today, perhaps I shall use it more often. This is a book that can very easily intimidate people. Ms. Beranbaum is EXTREMELY detailed in her recipes, and her measurements. But that is something I LOVE. And there is extreme good sense in the book. For example, for this pie, which has a lattice top, she recommends rolling the dough to a rectangle, since you're going to be making long slices.
Isn't that sensible? Well, it's the first time I've seen someone recommend that. And it's the first time my lattice has not made me want to scream. Pie crust is supposed to be made with cold ingredients. New York apartments are warm. So, what does she suggest you do? She suggests you get the ingredients ready and put them in the freezer for a short period of time before you make the crust. Brilliant, common sense. And something I've never seen before. So if she needs a paragraph or two to explain this, I'm all for it. "GO GIRL" is all I can say. Ms. Beranbaum has a blog of her own, and I shall be thanking her for this later today.
So, here's the pie. Starting with the crust. This is a crust that has some cream cheese in it. Again, this is quite brilliant. When I was rolling it out (one of the things that gives me fits), it was so smooth, and so easy, that I felt like I could make another one. What you do is measure about 1 1/3 cups of flour (Ms. Beranbaum says bleached. I don't have bleached flour in the house, so I used all purpose. I p robably lost some tenderness here, but I can't in good conscience use a bleached flour), together with 1/8 teaspoon of salt (see what I mean about the measurements) and 1/8 teaspoon of baking powder. You put t his in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer, for 30 minutes. You do the same thing with a stick of unsalted butter, that you've cut into cubes.
After the thirty minutes, get 1.5 tablespoons of ice water ready, and 1.5 teaspoons of cider vinegar. Also get a 3 ounce package of cream cheese, and cut it into four pieces. Put the flour into the food processor and pulse it a few times. Add the cream cheese with the motor running, and then add the butter, and pulse, pulse, pulse, until you've got a consistency of small peas. Then add the water, and the vinegar and pulse a few more times.
You will get something that looks decidedly unpromising. But this is what you want. I learned, a while ago, that if your piecrust "feels" like piecrust when it comes out of the processor, it's too tough. Then you put all of this into a plastic bag (I used the former flour bag), and press it into a solid mass with your fingers. Trust me, it works. Then, for the lattice crust, divide that into one piece that is half the size of the other (I have a metric scale and I weighed it). Wrap them separately, and refrigerate. I let them refrigerate overnight.
Next day, I took out the dough to let it rest, and I made the filling. Here, I was more generous than Ms. Beranbaum. She calls for 1.5 pounds of sour cherries. I had nearly 2 3/4, and I took a chance, which worked. I pitted them with my fingers, and it didn't take long: maybe twenty minutes. Since I had increased the amount of fruit, I increased her sugar from 3/4 cup to one full cup and the cornstarch from 2.5 teaspoons to a heaping tablespoon. Some may argue about the amount of sugar, but Keith doesn't like things that are too sweet, and it's his pie. I agreed fully with her suggestion to add some almond extract. Had I a few noyaux around (the kernels of apricots and peaches), I would have crushed them, and used that instead. I let the filling sit.
I rolled out the dough on a well floured, DRY board (part of my problem with pastry is that I don't keep a neat kitchen, and things are always wet. So I did this before I did anything else). After I had rolled out the dough, I pressed it into a pretty pie dish and refrigerated, like Ms. Beranbaum suggested, while I preheated the oven to 425. I also rolled that second piece of dough to a rectangle so I could make my slices, and refrigerated that.
After an hour, with renewed confidence, I took out the pieplate, filled it with the cherries, and dutifully made my lattice. I will not try to explain lattice. I suggest you get the book and look at the illustrations. NOW, I know how to do it. The pie went into the oven, looking stunning and baked for 45 minutes. I DO have a baking stone, but my oven runs hot, so instead of baking it on the stone, I put the pieplate on a baking sheet, for spills, of which there were some, because sour cherries are juicy.
Out of the oven came a beautifully brown, bubbling, wonderful smelling pie. It LOOKS homemade. This is not a perfect pie. There is some patching of the lattice, there are some uneven edges, but when you get right down to it, isn't that what homemade is about? And I have never pretended to be without my own patches or uneven edges (and for that matter, neither has Keith).
And it's done. It's cooling now, waiting for our party, where I hope to put a great big candle in the center of it, put a knife in Keith's hands, and hopefully see a big smile on his face when he tastes it.
Keith, I love you to pieces. There aren't many people who could get this kinda pie out of me, but you can have one anytime you want. All you have to do is ask. Even though you never will.
Happy birthday bright eyes, and happy pride.
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