The Life of Pie on American Food Roots

Have you visited American Food Roots yet? If not you should (and the Washington Post thinks so too). It’s a superb new food site by a team of four talented and seasoned food journalists Carol Guensburg, Michele Kayal, Domenica Marchetti, and the editor of NPR’s Kitchen Window Bonny Wolf. As a folklorist and home baker, it’s a dream come true, as it explores what we eat, why we eat it, and what that says about our identity, our place, and American society at large. There you'll find profiles on the likes of farmers and producers like Lee Calhoun, a North Carolina heirloom apple orchardist and author of Old Southern Apples, articles such as the one on the University of Michigan Culinary Archive and its curator Jan Longone, and recipes old and new, for delights like milk punch, a Ben Franklin favorite drink currently enjoying a comeback.  I’m excited to see this project continue to grow, and I hope to be a little part of it as it does.

For last month's launch I was honored to contribute a piece, The Life of Pie, on the ritual of pie making. It is that ritual--the process and connection to others that it entails, that is the main reason I like baking pie, and making and thinking and writing about food in general. These themes combine my personal and academic interests, and help me to envision myself as part of a community of bakers and home cooks and writers, past and present, instead of just a lone gal in the kitchen or at my computer screen.  The piece also features a recipe for Chocolate Chess Pie and a fun illustration by Elizabeth Graeber from our Pie Amanac of a Nothing-in-the-House Blueberry Icebox Pie.

Congratulations to the women of American Food Roots, for their launch, recent press, and promising future. Check out their site, follow them on Facebook and Twitter, and enjoy the food and the stories behind them.

Blueberry Icebox Pie at NPR Music

Last week was #pieweek at NPR. Amid all the lovely stories on Morning Edition and The Salt on how to make the perfect crust, desperation pies (aka nothing-in-the-house pies, hence the name of this blog), and how pie history is like The Game of Thrones, Nothing-in-the-House got a little tiny slice of the action when my friend Lars made my blueberry icebox pie for the NPR Music office where he works.

His rendition featured a half-pretzel, half-graham cracker crust (!), and a few peach slices and strawberries thrown into the filling. He posted pics on the NPR Music Tumblr and soundtracked it with the Black Mill Tapes Vol. 1&2 by Pye Corner Audio. Very appropriate. Thanks Lars for bringing #pieweek to Nothing-in-the-House, where every week is pie week.

Blueberry Icebox Pie

We used to go blueberry picking every summer. We'd pile in the red minivan with armloads of tupperware, drive out to the blueberry farm, and collect our buckets, strapping them around out waists with the old belts they had for borrowing. As the berries ker-plinked, ker-planked, ker-plunked into the bottom of the bucket, I imagined that I was a character in Blueberries for Sal, wandering off along the hillside, straying from my mother and happening upon a mama bear. Though these were farmed, high-bush blueberries (which I called bluebellies, since they look like little blue belly buttons), instead of wild low-bush berries, and there were certainly no bears nearby, it was still easy to pretend.

I haven't been berry picking yet this summer, though I have been picking berries out at the farmers' market, and a few weekends ago, it was fresh blueberries at the Takoma Park Market. I brought them home and whipped them up into a blueberry icebox pie, based on Nancie McDermott's recipe for a strawberry icebox pie, which I made about a month ago. As I said before, this recipe is a wonder, because it's super simple and incredibly versatile. Try it with raspberries or peaches, strawberries or bluebellies or some kind of summery combination--it'll always be good. It also requires little stove & oven time and a lot of refrigeration time, so you don't have to mess around with melted-butter crust dough while you sweat it out in your hot kitchen. Though it might not be a real berry-picking summer so far, I hereby declare this the summer of the icebox pie.

Blueberry Icebox Pie
An adaptation of Nancie McDermott's Strawberry Icebox Pie recipe from Southern Pies

Ingredients
For crust:
1 1/4 c. gingersnap crumbs
3 Tblsp. sugar
1/3 c. butter, melted

For filling:
1/3 c. cornstarch
1/3 c. water
5 c. blueberries, ideally fresh (though frozen is okay too!)
1 c. sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. lemon zest
2 tsp. butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 c. heavy cream + 1 c. (extra cup is for topping, optional)
1 c. additional fresh blueberries, (for garnish, optional)

Directions
For crust:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Put gingersnaps in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until crackers are finely ground into crumbs. Add sugar and melted butter and pulse until well mixed.

2. Pat the buttery crumbs into a 9-inch pie pan, pressing mixture into the bottom and sides to form a pie crust. Place in oven and bake until crust is lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Place on a cooling rack and let cool to room temperature before adding the filling.

For filling:
1. Combine cornstarch and water in a small bowl, whisking until all lumps are dissolved. Set aside.

2. Combine blueberries, sugar, salt, and lemon zest in a medium saucepan. Cook on medium heat until the blueberry mixture comes to a low boil. Stirring often, continue to cook the mixture until a sauce begins to form, about 5 minutes.

3. Re-whisk the cornstarch and water mixture and add it to the saucepan. Continue to cook and stir the sauce until it boils again, becomes thick and berries soften, approximately 3-4 minutes longer. Remove from the heat, stir in the butter and vanilla and set aside to cool to room temperature.

4. Meanwhile, whip 1 1/4c. cream in a large bowl until it becomes very thick and holds round medium peaks. Stir in the blueberry jam mixture and gently it in with the cream until evenly combined. Pour filling into the gingersnap crust and refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours, until pie is very cool and the filling is quite firm. Serve cold, with extra blueberries and topped with additional whipped cream.

Though this pie was originally intended for a Fort Reno picnic or a post-baseball game (Go Nats) treat, I ended up getting a wicked migraine that lasted for days, so was not able to partake in any of those summer activities, let alone this pie. However, it was at the ready in the fridge when my parents stopped by for a visit last week, and we enjoyed a slice after a delicious pizza dinner out at Two Amy's.