The Friday Pie Slice: North Carolina Edition

Alright. Gonna try to get this little segment goin' again.

1st slice. My friend April McGreger's new book Sweet Potatoes from UNC Press' "Savor The South" series just arrived in the mail. I can't wait to make sweet potato-habanero hot sauce, sweet potato sonker, sweet potato donut muffins, etc. etc. etc...

2nd slice. Last weekend I trekked down to Asheville, NC to hang out with pals at Harvest Records' Transfigurations II Festival. I made a little country-ish mix for my road trip and thought you might enjoy it too. Find it here.

3rd slice. On that trip I got to finally visit Tara/Smoke Signals Baking's beautiful little enclave in the hills of Marshall. If you're in the area, check out her upcoming pie classes and Saturday PIZZA NIGHTS!

The tasty crumbs. I also got to hang out and make pie for & eat pie with one of my favorite musicians and long-time pen pal Michael Hurley! Check his Nothing in the House post from a few years back.

Find past Friday Pie Slices here. 

Pictured above: Butterscotch Pie with a Meringue Top and Butter & Lard Crust

Abra Berens' Celery Ham Tart aka Pissaladière

I'm very excited to have this guest post and recipe from my friend Abra Berens, a talented chef and farmer who splits her time between Chicago (where she's worked in some of the city's top bakeries like Floriole and Hoosier Mama Pie Company) and Bare Knuckle Farm in Michigan's Leelanau Penninsula. I've always loved being a guest at Abra's dinner table ever since we became friends in college, so I'm glad to be able to share some of her work here with this Celery Ham Tart. From Abra...

Years ago I worked at Zingerman's Deli in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I have a vague recollection of Rodger Bowser making these tarts for a daily special. When I asked him why he made it, he said, "Celery is really good right now and it is what I wanted for lunch."

When our friends Matt and Carissa showed up next to us at the Sutton's Bay market with beautiful, dark green celery, I knew what I wanted for dinner. Then work got busy, I forgot I had tomatoes that needed to be roasted that day and I never made my tart. Luckily that Sunday, our neighbors Gene and Kathy Garthe were having a party and asked me to bring an appetizer. "Aha, I'll make the tart and cut it smaller!" I thought. There was also an avid mushroom forager at this party, so I made one tart vegetarian, substituting our recently harvested wine cap mushrooms for the ham. Any sort of rich mushroom would work.

I like taking regular pie dough, which I try to keep in the freezer at all times, and treat it like puff dough to make a slightly different texture. It won't puff like true puff pastry, but it is nice and makes me feel like I'm doing something extra for my friends.

The only nerve-racking part of this recipe is inverting the tart onto the platter. The tart is usually greased enough with lard to avoid sticking, but if some sticks, just scrape it out and add it back. No one will be able to see the difference.

Celery Ham Tart aka Pissaladière
From Abra Berens of Bare Knuckle Farm

Ingredients
Nothing in the House pie dough, halved
1 head celery*
1 long leek
1 teaspoon thyme leaves
1/2 cup white wine
5 strips unsmoked ham of bacon**, smoked is okay but can overpower the delicate leeks
2 Tablespoons lard or butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1. Prepare half of Nothing in the House pie crust as per the directions (freeze the other half for a future pie, or make two tarts!). Once chilled, roll the pie dough into a rectangle and fold into thirds like a letter. Roll it to the same size as the original rectangle and fold into thirds again. Repeat one more time to mimic puff pastry. You could also use puff pastry if you like making your own.

2. For the final rolling, roll pie crust into a circle about the same size as your cast iron skillet (slightly larger is okay, but you don't want it smaller). Chill the dough for at least 20 minutes after all the rolling.

3. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Thinly slice the celery and leeks and wash them in cold water. I like to slice them on a long bias so that the leeks are in long ovals and the celery doesn't look like it came out of a can.

4. In a large cast iron skillet, heat the lard or butter until melted. Add the leeks, celery, and thyme with a hefty pinch of salt and black pepper. Let sweat until the celery is softening. Add the white wine and allow to reduce until syrupy.

5. Lay the ham strips over the leek mixture. Then lay the dough circle over the whole lot and bake until the dough is golden brown and crispy, about 25 minutes.

6. Remove the pan from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes. Now your ready for the flip. Place your serving platter over the skillet and invert, flipping the tart out of the pan. Scrape any clinging celery bits from the pan and place on top of the tart. Slice and serve warm.

Recipe notes: *Abra recommends using local celery for this recipe, available in late summer/early fall in most places of the country. But I made mine in winter with grocery store celery and it was still delicious. **To make this tart vegetarian, substitute any rich mushroom for the ham.

Related posts:
Floriole's Milk Chocolate and Salted Caramel Hazelnut Tart
Hoosier Mama's Hoosier Sugar Cream Pie
Peach Apricot Raspberry Wedding Pie

Decorative Crust with Tara Jensen of Smoke Signals Baking

Tara Jensen and I both lived in Burlington, Vermont around the same time and had many of the same friends. I had heard about her and her art through various pals, but strangely our paths never crossed. Then she moved to North Carolina, and I moved to North Carolina and then left North Carolina, and  unknowingly we gathered more common friends along the way. Then somehow through the small mediated world we know as Instagram, we made a connection. It took a few weeks of oggling the rustic bread loves and incredibly artful pie crusts of "bakerhands" before I realized who was behind it all, and then it all seemed to make sense.

Tara now owns and operates Smoke Signals Baking in Marshall, NC, just outside of Asheville. Tara comes to baking from a background in art (as evidenced by her beautiful work in pastry), and approaches her bakery as "a living entity that combines food, writing, and photography." I asked Tara if she would share a tutorial on her decorative crust tops and tell us a little bit about her baking practice. You can find her lovely and inspiring words and photographs below.



What is it about pie making that's inspiring?

I came into making pies a few Thanksgivings ago. I wanted to offer my customers something special so I started making sweet potato pies from the potatoes we grew on the farm. After a long day of difficult bread baking I turned towards my pie orders and felt a sense of relief. Pie was the kind friend I was looking for in the kitchen. I find pie to be a forgiving and creative process with the pleasure of immediate gratification. Bread feels so rugged and demanding, yet pie proposed a chance to be delicate, feminine even. And of course, sweet.

How has your background as an artist influenced you?

I enjoyed success as an artist through my twenties, but when I decided to turn my life over to baking and farming, making art took a back seat. This wasn't a painful transition; I was ready to welcome a new chapter of my life. I began to feel strongly that my entire life became my creative project and what made me an artist was not so much what I made materially in the world, but rather my perspective.

It's been a few years now since I've painted or attempted a drawing, but when I hold the pastry wheel and slice through a nicely-made dough I feel the same thrill and expression as when I would strike out on a fresh piece of white paper. There are movements of the wrist and body that I will always go to when making a shape or a line. Treating the pie dough like a creative material, rather than food, was helpful to making all kinds of patterns, designs, and forms. I also think there is no wrong way of making a pie or any kind of way a pie should be, which frees me up to experiment, fail, and learn about myself along the way.

Decorative Crust: A Tutorial

The top crust of your pie affords you a moment of reflection. The bottom crust is done, the filling has been prepared and you are left with a final canvas of flour and butter. When I would paint my favorite creative time was after the majority of the legwork was done and I got to sit back and decide where to put that final speck, that last mark which was going to tie it all together. I love the top crust because it's that special space, when most of the heavy lifting is done, when one can look with a discerning and excited eye.

I get really jazzed about decorating my pie tops. I like to clean up the kitchen first. Maybe make another pot of coffee. Definitely find the right song. Step outside the hot kitchen and look at the sky. And then just r e l a x. After I roll out the initial top, upon which I'll assemble different shapes, I imgine I'm cutting paper and let my hands guide me to whatever shapes they want to make. Think of pie dough as your material and egg wash as your glue. You can be literal or abstract. The goal is to have a little joy and embrace the process. There's no right or wrong here.

Things you'll need: 

Egg wash

Pastry brush

Knife

One fully filled pie ready for a top!

Things you might also want: 

Pinking shears

Cookie cutters

Pastry wheel

Ruler

1. When you roll out your pie crust for the bottom, save any scraps.

2. Fill your pie. Now you can either make a top with a traditional cover boasting fun shapes or cut outs, or you can make a top by assembling many small pieces to cover the filling.

3. I like to put on a whole top-- makes it feel like a blank page to me. Be mindful when rolling out the dough for your decorative pieces to roll it relatively thin. That way you can do several layers and you won't end up with a top crust three inches thick and hard to bake thoroughly. Also keep in mind that shapes or pieces that stand tall above the rest of the pie will brown quickly.

4. Roll out the extra dough you've saved and go to town! Let your hand make whatever shapes it wants. I go for long lines and organic looking leaves. If you need a warm up try drawing on a huge piece of butcher paper to get your wrist in the mood. You can cut the dough with a knife, with scissors, cookie cutters, or with a pastry wheel: choose one or try them all.

5. Brush wherever you are going to lay down dough with an egg wash. The possibilities here are endless. I don't start with an idea; I just start cutting up the dough and place it randomly, letting a pattern, design, or image emerge. Express yourself!

6. I give the final pie one more light brush of egg wash and dust it with coarse sugar to add some sparkle. Bake it and eat with friends or alone, in between dance breaks to your favorite song*.

*My current favorite song: Take this Waltz by Leonard Cohen

Thanks so much to Tara Jensen for sharing this tutorial, photos, and bit of inspiration . You can find more of Tara's words and photos via her website, tumblr, and instagram.

The Friday Pie Slice

Happy Friday! Please enjoy this first Friday Pie Slice of the NEW YEAR.

1st slice. I've been so inspired lately by the photographs and baked goods of Tara Jensen of Smoke Signals Baking in Marshall, North Carolina. Visit her website and view her beautiful tumblr/instagram feed.

2nd slice. My friend Shauna Lott just successfully completed a kickstarter drive to fund The Long I Pie Shop-- a mobile bakery with a social justice mission in Denver, Colorado. Can't wait to see all the goodness that comes out of this project. Check out my interview with Shauna and her recipe for Apple, Brie & Prosciutto Pie here.

3rd slice. One way I kept warm during THE POLAR VORTEX was by making a wintery mix of songs for cold and blizzardy weather, including Hardanger fiddle and other Scandinavian styles, songs, fingerstyle guitar, and a little psychedelia. You can download it here.

The tasty crumbs. Elizabeth Graeber did the above sketch of Kate Lebo & me at our reading and pie tasting at Trohv back in September. Elizabeth and I are working up a new collaboration this weekend--stay tuned!

Find past Friday Pie Slices here.

Thanksgiving Pie Twitter Chat

We're just one week away from the number one pie holiday of the year, and for a little bit of guidance, I'm participating in a Thanksgiving pie twitter chat hosted by American Food Roots! I'm honored and excited to be included among this group of pie heronies, which includes Nancie McDermott, Art of the Pie's Kate McDermott, Paula Haney of Hoosier Mama Pie Company, America's Test Kitchen's Julia Collin Davison, Jan Moon of Dreamcakes Bakery, and D.C.-area pastry chef Tiffany MacIssac. Get more info here and join us tomorrow, November 22nd at 10am EST, via hashtag #TGPieChat for Thanksgiving pie advice, crust tips, regional varieties, and historical tidbits. It's going to be a fun conversation with some real pie pros.

The Long I Pie Shop's Shauna Lott & Apple, Brie & Prosciutto Pie

I believe it was Jess who first "introduced" me to Shauna. She showed me a Long I Pie photo-- of a golden crust baked in a cast iron skillet, and said I should probably check it out. Since then I've been a devout oggler of the whole Long I aesthetic, following closely as they've launched their new website and business in Denver, Colorado (if only it weren't so far away!) As Shauna and I started to correspond, we found we had a lot in common-- pie, sure, but also a love for folk music and butter and Americana. Then we realized that we're both from Indiana and it all made sense. 

I was pretty jazzed that Shauna was game to share a few words about her pie baking, The Long I Pie Shop, as well as the recipe I was MOST excited about-- "Too Piglet To Quit Pie" or her Apple, Brie & Prosciutto. At least it will assuage my hunger before I can get myself out to Colorado to taste it and meet Shauna in person. After you're done reading her words, head on over to Long I Blog to find more about the shop and read my thoughts on these same questions.

Tell us about yourself! Where are you from, what are your hobbies, whaddaya like to do on the weekends, what books do you like to read, etc.?

I’m from Fishers, Indiana originally --- born and raised.  Now,  I have been living in Boulder, CO for the last 7 ½ years.  I really enjoy traveling and try to get out of the United States at least once a year to see friends that live around the world. On the weekends, you’ll probably find me hanging out with friends at one of Colorado’s amazing breweries or distilleries, listening to live music, sitting around a table with my dearest friends eating a home cooked meal and catching up on life, finding a photo booth to take ridiculous photos in, or baking pie.  As for books, I love people’s stories, so I like to read memoirs or autobiographies. 

What led you up to the point of opening a pie shop and why did you decide to do it?  

Honestly, I feel like it was a mix of a few things.  One was the desire to honor a legacy of hospitality and generosity that my grandmother has left after she passed a year and half ago and one my mother is still building.  Baking is something that my family does well.  Pie is the baked good that I think of when I think of the feeling of being at “home”.  It’s not like a cookie that you can eat in passing.  It’s a conversation dessert.  You sit down at a table with your family or friends and laugh or cry, but definitely enjoy each other’s company.  The thing that led me to opening a pie shop was to combine my love and skill of pie making with my passion for helping people.  I’ve done social work type jobs since I graduated college.  In this past job, I worked primarily with youth and refugee families.  In working with those two populations, they have one thing in common --- a low chance at obtaining stable employment.  Youth and refugees have different kinds of barriers, but they both lead to not get a first chance at employment.  My plan is to start a youth employment services program to go with our first mobile pie shop.  We’ll teach a curriculum that discusses everything from hygiene to resume building to interview skills along side pie making and customer service skills training.  My hope is that as we grow that we can expand to an employment program that focuses on refugee women as well. 

What's the intersection between pie and social justice/community and specifically your social justice mission?

Pie is a creative tool for me to pursue justice in my community. Our social justice mission is two fold --- employing youth at risk of homelessness, exploitation, or incarceration and giving $1 per slice to an organizations working to prevent or restore children who’ve been trafficked in to the sex trade both locally in Colorado and around the world.  Pie feels like home and safety.  I want to provide a workplace that provides a place that is safe and feels like home for our youth.  Also, I want to put money into organizations that provide for other youth in the city and around the world. 

Why Pie?

Pie is home. Pie is family. Pie is comfort. Pie is laughter around a table. Pie transports people to good memories.  Pie is an art form that you can consume and enjoy.  It’s creative and I happen to be good at making it.  The “why” is how it makes me and others feel when we are eating it with our family and friends.

Tell me your pie aesthetic in one pithy sentence.

Think “what would my great-grandma do?” --- simple recipes, fresh ingredients, and butter.

I have to ask--what's your favorite pie?

My favorite pie is the pie my grandma used to make all the time when I was growing up --- Spiced Apple Cranberry Pie.  It’s the best combination of tart and sweet.  It brings back beautiful memories around my grandma’s kitchen table for dinners of homemade chicken dumplings and playing a rousing round of rummy after dinner.

Where'd the Long I name come from?

The Long I came from one Tuesday night sitting around the kitchen table with a couple of friends.  We’re all a little nerdy, but one of my best friends from college, Mandy, is the English Lit/grammar kind of nerdy.  We were dreaming together about what an Americana, homey airstream food trailer could look like.  I was set on pie, but Mandy thought sliders and fries.  Then, the name "The Long I" was birthed because they all have the long “I” sound in them.  I chose to stick with pie.

What's your crust philosophy?

I want my crust to always be simple, buttery, flaky goodness. You achieve that by making the crust as cold as you can and bake it as hot as you can.  Cold butter.  Ice water.  400 degrees.

Any special pie-making tips for home bakers?

Be creative with your pie.  Think of some of your favorite flavors in other foods and try them out in a pie.  Experiment.  Experiment.  Experiment. 

What do you like to listen to while baking?

I LOVE music which makes it hard to choose just one genre.  There are days when I listen to banjo and fiddle-filled folk music like Gregory Alan Isakov.  Other days, I listen to Beyoncé and dance around my kitchen. 

What pies will you be making for your own Thanksgiving feast?

My Grandma’s pie --- Spiced Apple Cranberry, Bourbon Chocolate Pecan (“The Drunken Nut”),  and an experimental Chocolate Pumpkin Pie.

Tell us about the recipe you're sharing. How did it come about and what should we pair it with (other food or drink)?

I’m sharing the recipe for my "Too Piglet to Quit Pie."  Last Spring, I went to Paris with a few of my close friends. Oh, it was a treat!  One night we went to Rue Clar, picked up some brie, prosciutto, baguettes, wine, and macaroons, walked to the Eiffel Tower, sat on a bench all buddled up and ate until our hearts were content.  It was a dreamy French picnic.  I wanted to put that experience into a pie, so the Too Piglet to Quit pie was birthed.  I’d pair it with a generous glass of a red wine blend from Bordeaux. 

Too Piglet To Quit

From The Long I Pie Shop

Ingredients

Pie crust dough (your favorite recipe)

7 small/medium Granny Smith Apples (cut in 1/4 inch slices)

1/2 c. packed brown sugar

1/4 c. granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoon cornstarch

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/4 lb. prosciutto

1/4 lb. Brie

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a dutch oven or a cast iron skillet, combine apples, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, and cornstarch, then stir until everything is evenly coated.  If you're using a cast iron skillet, cover with foil.  Bake apples on 400 degrees for 30 minutes.  Remove from pan, pour into a medium size bowl and stir in juice from lemon and vanilla extract.  Let cool for 30 minutes.

2. Roll out your favorite pie crust recipe. Line a 9-inch cast iron skillet with dough. Evenly layer the thinly sliced prosciutto on the bottom of the pie. Dump in the cooked apple mixture. Evenly layer sliced Brie on top of the apples. Lattice the top of the pie and bake in oven for 35 minutes at 400 degrees. Let pie sit for 30 minutes before serving for pie to set. Enjoy with laughter with friends or family!

Big thanks to Shauna Lott of Denver, Colorado's Long I Pie Shop for the lovely words and recipe. 

All beautiful photos by Caitlin Fairly.

The Friday Pie Slice

1st slice. D.C. is no doughnut town, but DCist gives it a good go with this round-up. When I'm hankering for  fried dough, I either make my own, or take a trip to old-school bakeries like Woodmoor Pastry Shop in Silver Spring or Mt. Pleasant's Heller's Bakery (pictured above). 'Cause in my opinion all you really need is a good classic plain glazed and a cup of coffee.

2nd slice. Notice something new around here? I'm still working out the overall look, but Nothing in the House has a BEAUTIFUL new hand-printed logo designed by my friend Mike Costello of Printed Appalachia. It's a perfect fit for this pie blog's rustic aesthetic and historical & folkloric bent and I'm so happy to have it.

3rd slice. Next week is Pie Week at Food52! Tag your pie instagrams with #PieWeek and #f25grams and they'll feature their faves. So on it.

The tasty crumbs. Looking for something to do this weekend? The D.C. Square Dance, which happens to be the biggest square dance in the country, is this Saturday. It's always the best party in town, and sometimes-- there's pie. Come out swingin'.

The Friday Pie Slice

Inspired by Morgan, the genius at PandaHead, I'm serving up a new weekly series here on Nothing-in-the-House--The Friday Pie Slice! Each Friday, I'll post a round-up of pie and pie-relevant stories, links, and news from the past week. Expect historical articles and recipes, food events and interviews, music and art. If you've got something you think might be a good fit for The Slice, don't hesitate to get in touch. Got your plate? Let's eat!

1st slice. Check out Phoebe Lawless of Durham's Scratch Bakery (previously featured on the pie blog here and here) in the latest issue of Garden & Gun with recipes for 3 late summer pies and lovely illustrations to boot.

2nd slice. My pal April McGreger of Farmer's Daughter Brand Pickles and Preserves shares her preserve-making philosophy on A Chef's Life.

3rd slice. "Some made good pies, some made good applesauce. And some, made really good cider." Orchardist Lee Calhoun talks about his preservation of "old-timey apples" on WUNC.

The tasty crumbs. My friend and fellow folklorist Ashley Melzer and I just finished a short film for the Southern Foodways Alliance on DC's historic Maine Ave. Fish Market. If you watch closely, you'll notice that they do, in fact, sell pies there...

Illustration by Elizabeth Graeber from our book Pie: A Hand Drawn Almanac, available on Etsy

Cheap Tart Bakery's Dinah Grossman on Rhubarb

When I embarked on my Chicago Pie Tour back in March, one pie slinger I sadly missed is the suggestively named Cheap Tart Bakery. Owned and operated by pastry chef Dinah Grossman, Cheap Tart offers up sweet and savory pies, galettes and tarts, hand pies and pie pops, all made-to-order with seasonal, local ingredients and available for delivery within Chicago's city limits. For all you Windy City dwellers, that means you could have fresh Ginger Cream Pie, Apple Tarte Tatin, or Maple Pecan Pie Pops (and much more) appear on your doorstep in 48 hours.

Though I didn't get to make an order when I was there, Dinah has written up a lovely little post about her love of rhubarb which developed while she was growing up in rural Maine. Then, she shares her recipe for a beautiful Rhubarb Tart.

"Before starting my pie business, I didn’t give much thought to why pie was the thing I always chose to bake. I liked to eat it, of course, and I enjoyed the tactile elements--rolling out the crust, with its pale flecks of butter showing through, slicing ripe peaches, squeezing the pits from juicy tart cherries. But perhaps more that those things I found it comforting to have a pie nearby. It wasn’t so much that pie reminded me of someone in particular (I do not come from a long line of pie makers), but through its ingredients, a pie connected me to a sense of place. I just felt better with on around.

            

I grew up in rural Maine, surrounded by acres of woods, fields, and orchards. In our family we mapped much of that land by referring to perennial edible landmarks--the blackberry patch, a particular apple tree, or the place where the rhubarb reappeared every spring. I would keep a watchful eye on these particular locations, making sure I knew when the blackberries or apples were almost ready so I never missed them at their peak. Often, impatient for the fruit to ripen, I would sample a berry or apple too soon, the intensely sour bite of the juice becoming, over the years, as welcome a taste as the mellow sweetness that followed a couple of weeks later. To this day I prefer fruits with a pronounced acidity, which explains my affinity for that tartest of pie ingredients: rhubarb.

Of all the edibles whose progress I monitored, rhubarb could be counted on to appear first and was ready to be harvested long before anything else. It was also plentiful, the long stalks and elephantine leaves growing at a pace even our steady pie baking couldn’t match. During rhubarb season a pie was almost always on the kitchen table. And not just at our house. For many of our neighbors, too, a rhubarb pie became as ubiquitous as the salt and pepper shakers on the counter. When only a slice remained in the Pyrex plate, someone inevitably walked outside and pulled another armful of stalks from the ground to be baked into a replacement.

Aside from pie, I enjoyed rhubarb best pulled straight from the ground, the end dipped in a small bowl of dark brown sugar. As kids, my ordinarily health-conscious mother would let us take our treat outside, where a stalk of rhubarb dipped then chewed and sucked on, became an activity as well as a snack. My favorite spot to sit and chew was inside a horseshoe of lilac bushes growing around an enormous rock in our yard. Surrounded by the heady smell of those pale purple flowers, the sweet and sour rhubarb would take on another taste altogether.

Like all favorite foods my love for rhubarb is inextricably connected to these memories. It is impossible to make a rhubarb pie without also remembering the cold, day-old slices eaten in my neighbor’s kitchen, how somehow the sweet-tart filling and crisp edges of crust tasted better a day after the pie was made. I can’t rinse a haul of farmers market rhubarb without also remembering the feeling of walking barefoot through the tall, wet lawn by our barn to pull up the shiny stalks, the squeak and snap as each came away from the plant. It’s been more than ten years since I lived near that patch, but as I bake my way through a third year of business I’m reminded of why I chose this pastry among all others to guide me. In a third floor Chicago apartment with no balcony or back yard maybe I can’t grow my own fruit, but I can mark the seasons by making pies from rhubarb, then strawberries, then peaches. If I can’t ground myself through the ground, I’ll do it with pie."

Post and photos by Dinah Grossman of Chicago's Cheap Tart Bakery. Find Cheap Tart online and on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Rhubarb Tart
From Dinah Grossman of Cheap Tart Bakery

Ingredients
For crust:
8 Tblsp. unsalted butter, cold, cut in the 1/2'' cubes
1 1/3 c. + 4 tsp. pastry flour
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1 Tblsp. granulated sugar
1 Tblsp. apple cider vinegar
1 c. ice water

For the filling:
4 c. rhubarb, cut into 1/2'' chunks
2/3 c. + 1 Tblsp. granulated sugar
Pinch kosher salt
4 Tblsp. tapioca powder
1/4 orange zest
2 Tblsp. fresh squeezed orange juice (about half an orange)
1 Tblsp. all-purpose flour
1 Tblsp. whole milk or cream for brushing

Directions
For crust:
1. In a bowl of a food processor combine the flour, salt, sugar, and butter. Pulse until the butter is broken down to the size of small peas.

2. Add the cider vinegar to the ice water and stir. Add 3 Tblsp. of the water/cider mixture to the food processor and pulse to moisten the flour mixture. If the mixture still looks dry and powdery, add more water a teaspoon at a time. The dough should just hold together when you squeeze a small amount in your hand, but it should not be sticky and should not form a ball in the food processor. When the mixture looks crumbly and slightly darker in color, it's done.

3. Dump the crumbs into a big mixing bowl and pack them into a rough ball. Wrap the ball in plastic wrap and use the plastic to help you flatten the dough into a disk. Refrigerate at least 1 hour, preferably overnight.

For filling and assembly:
1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl except 1 Tblsp. of the sugar an flour. When the rhubarb pieces are coated in the tapioca/sugar mixture, set aside.

2. Toll the pie crust into a circle about 1/8'' thick. The crust should hang over the edges of the pie pan by about an inch and a half all the way around. Place the crust in the pie pan, and sprinkle the Tblsp. of flour and 2 tsp. of sugar on the bottom.

3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Add the rhubarb mixture to the crust, mounding the filling slightly in the center. Starting with the edge of the crust farthest from you, fold the edge over the filling, then rotate the pan slightly and fold the crust over again, repeating all the way around. The crust will overlap at each fold. Brush the crust with the milk or cream, and sprinkle the remaining teaspoon of sugar over the top.

4. Bake at 400 for 25 minutes with the oven rack on the bottom rung. Reduce oven temperature to 375 and bake an additional 20-25 minutes (moving the tart to the middle rack of the oven), or until the crust is a deep golden brown and the juices are bubbling. Cool completely before slicing.

Related recipes:
Four and Twenty Blackbirds' Rhubarb Pie
Rhubarb Meringue Tart with a Pecan Shortbread Crust
Simple Rhubarb Tart

Hoosier Mama's Hoosier Sugar Cream Pie

I'm a bad Hoosier. For someone who studies and champions local identity, this is a bit of a hard thing to understand about myself, but it's true. I just don't have much pride for my home state. Growing up, I imagined I'd live in the big city of Chicago, and as soon as I graduated high school, I made a beeline across the border to Michigan-- a state I considered--and still do--much cooler (to be fair it was only about 5 miles away from where I grew up). To counteract this, though, I keep a running list of "cool" things (besides my family) about Indiana when I discover them, things to be proud of about my home state. To date, it includes: Kurt Vonnegut, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Johnny Appleseed, and Ball Jars.

Also on that list: Paula Haney and Hoosier Mama Pie Company. Granted, the shop is actually in Chicago, but Paula is an Indiana native, incredible pie baker, and someone who reps hard for the state and does a lot to celebrate its food history. We also have a similar interest in valuing home bakers and traditional recipes, both love an all-butter crust, and share a common love for rhubarb. Score one for the home team.



Though I'd been there before, and we occasionally share pie curiosities via the internet, In February, I finally had the chance to sit down with Paula for a slice of pie, and a face-to-face chat about her bakery. There in the bay window of the small shop, she told me that one of the reasons she started her shop is that she felt that while here in the states we were acknowledging the poor foods of other countries, we weren't recognizing those of our own country and region. For her (like me), pie was something that was always present at every holiday, it was something simple, rooted in tradition, where home bakers took what they had, and made something out of it. At the shop she offers some of these simple home recipes-- things like Oatmeal Pie, Vinegar Chess Pie, and Hoosier Sugar Cream, which she invited me back to the kitchen to bake.




Hoosier Sugar Cream Pie, which Paula found in the 1965 edition of the Farm Journal Pie Cookbook, is a true "desperation pie," listed as a historical oddity. The story goes that Indiana farm wives would throw all of the ingredients in the pie shell, stir it with their fingers, throw it in the oven, and go back out into the fields. Whatever the story, it is shockingly simple, and though not much of a looker, it's quite a pleasant surprise when you taste the rich caramel custard flavor of the smooth, oozy filling.



Hoosier Sugar Cream Pie
Via Hoosier Mama Pie Co.

Makes 1, 9-inch pie

Ingredients
Nothing-in-the-House pie crust, halved
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. dark brown sugar, packed
2 Tblsp. all-purpose flour
1 pinch kosher salt
2 c. heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla paste or extract

Directions

1. Prepare half of the Nothing-in-the-House pie crust as per the directions. Chill dough at least 1 hour before rolling out and fitting into a greased and floured 9-inch pie pan. Pierce the bottom of the shell all over with a fork, and let chill for 15 more minutes in the fridge. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375.

2. Line chilled pie shell with parchment paper and pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 10 minutes just until edges begin to brown. Remove from oven, and take out parchment and dried beans. Let cool.

3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. In a medium mixing bowl, combine sugars, flour, and salt. Use a whisk or your hands to break up any clumps and combine ingredients.

4. With a wooden spoon, gently stir in the heavy cream. Do not overmix--whipping the cream will prevent the pie from setting. Stir in the vanilla paste or extract and mix to combine.

5. Pour filling into the pre-baked pie shell. Bake pie for 20 minutes. Rotate pan 180 degrees and bake for 20-25 minutes more, until large bubbles cover the surface. Pie will be quite jiggly and will not appear to be set when it comes out of the oven.

6. Let pie cool to room temperature and refrigerate at least 4 hours or up to overnight before slicing. Dust with sifted confectioner's sugar before serving. Pie may be stored in the fridge for 3-5 days.

Thanks so much to Paula and the gang at Hoosier Mama for making my visit a highlight of my Chicago Pie Tour and for welcoming me into the kitchen to roll crusts, mix fillings, and ogle the old-fashioned apple peeler. As Paula said in our chat, pie is a natural slow food--you can't eat it on the go, so it requires you to sit down, have a cup of coffee, and talk to people. A Hoosier mentality to be proud of.

North Carolina Pie Eaters c. 1940s

Video via the State Archives of North Carolina

I'm headed down to North Carolina today to give a pie lecture to my wonderful thesis advisor Dr. Marcie Cohen Ferris' foodways class, so I thought I'd share this 16mm film clip of two 1940s-era High Point, NC college students eating pie. They look pretty pleased there, in the Pie Enjoyment Zone, and perhaps a little embarrassed to be stuffing their faces on camera. Personally, I'm pretty pleased to be heading down south for a few days, to spend some time with Marcie and her class, do a little foodways research, plot out a film, play some music, hang with the gals at my favorite Chapel Hill restaurant, meet my friends' new baby(!), and if there's another time between all of that, squeeze in a visit to Scratch.

UPDATE: Apparently my grandfather attended High Point College around this time! Perhaps he knew these pie eaters.

Floriole's Milk Chocolate & Salted Caramel Hazelnut Tart

Though I'm a Midwesterner by birth, having lived in more southern climes for the past five years, I sometimes forget just how bone chillingly cold the northern winter can be. So cold, that long underwear (top and bottom), a hat, scarf, and ankle-length puffy coat are necessary attire even if you're just stepping out to the corner café for a cup of coffee. This was something I forgot once again last month, when, in my thin wool coat and no hat or long underwear to speak of, I ventured to Chicago to embark on a Windy City Pie Tour for an NPR Kitchen Window story.

It turns out, I was in luck for at least that first day of my visit. Though the temperature was soon to plummet drastically, it was pushing the high 40s when I boarded the bus to meet my friend Ryan at my first pie stop--Floriole Café and Bakery.





I've been wanting to try Floriole's baked goods every since my friend Abra started working there, back when it was just a 10X10 stand at Chicago's Green City Market. Since 2010, though, its occupied a 2-level beautiful light-filled brick and mortar space in Lincoln Park and features chalkboard menus listing breakfast quiches, Lottie + Doof-inspired Rotini and Cheese, and Mushroom and Swiss Chard Sandwiches; a full espresso bar; shelves lined with house made jams, wine, and baguettes; and a pastry case stocked with the likes of Orange and Satsuma Tarts, Basque Cakes, and Raspberry-Rose Panna Cotta. As head chef and owner Sandra Holl says, the Floriole approach is "pretty simple baked goods and pastries, made with the best fresh, seasonal ingredients." While "simple" may be selling herself a bit short, particularly for a home baker like me, in awe of her creations, I understand what she means. In each pastry or savory dish, excellent ingredients are the highlight, and they're presented with real care and without pretension.

Abra who now runs the savory program, was in the kitchen prepping sandwiches when Ryan and I arrived. She gave us a little tour of the kitchen, and presented us with a large plate of three Milk Chocolate Caramel & Hazelnut Tarts to photograph (and oh yes, sample) for the pie tour story. With our little table by the door filled with the tarts, two sandwiches, a slice of quiche and a Passionfruit Tart and Basque Cake that Abra brought for us to try, we felt like total gourmands. What the other customers walking in the door must have thought! But we weren't complaining.

Of the savory selections we tried, my hands-down favorite was the B.A.D., a bacon, arugula, almond-date spread and goat cheese sandwich on a yeasted corn bread. I'm gonna have to try to replicate that at home so I can satisfy my cravings between my infrequent Chicago visits. As for the pastries, though it was hard to decide. The Passionfruit Tart was just-tart and light and sweet with a few pomegranate seeds sprinkled on top--good for the morning hour. But the Milk Chocolate & Salted Caramel Hazelnut Tart! Just so rich and decadent, though a nice pairing of sweet milk chocolate and slightly bitter dark caramel. Sandra calls it an "adult candy bar," and recommends eating it with a cup of black coffee or Earl Grey tea. Luckily, she shared the recipe so you don't have to immediately jet to Chicago and brave the Windy City cold to try a bite.

Milk Chocolate & Salted Caramel Hazelnut Tart

From Floriole Cafe and Bakery

Makes one 10-inch tart or five 4-inch tarts

Ingredients

For sablé (or short crust) dough:

8 ounces (2 sticks) soft butter

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs, at room temperature

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

For milk chocolate ganache filling:

1 1/2 cups cream

14 ounces chopped milk chocolate

For salted dark caramel/hazelnut topping:

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon corn syrup

1/2 cup heavy cream

½ cup hazelnuts, toasted and chopped

Directions

For the dough:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter, sugar and salt. Mix until well combined and the mixture just begins to lighten.

2. Add the eggs one at a time. Allow each egg to be fully incorporated before adding the next. Add all of the flour at once. Mix on low speed until homogenous.

3. Form the dough into a ball, then pat it out into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least three hours or overnight.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out into a 12-inch circle about ¼-inch thick. Place the dough into a 10-inch removable bottom tart pan. Press the dough into the corners and remove excess dough. Chill about 15 minutes before baking.

5. Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until golden brown. If the dough bubbles while baking, lightly press it down with a measuring cup. Let cool to room temperature.

For the ganache:

1. Place cream in a small saucepan on low heat, and bring to a simmer. Put chocolate in heat-proof bowl. Once the cream is simmering, pour over the chopped chocolate and let sit 5 minutes. Stir

until homogenous.

2. Pour the ganache into the prepared shell and let set at room temperature. This will take

about four hours.

To make the caramel and hazelnut topping:

1. Combine all ingredients except the cream in a deep heavy-bottomed saucepan. Bring to boil and cook until the color begins to change. At this point, begin to stir the mixture slowly with a whisk. It will first begin to smoke from the sides. Once it begins to smoke from the center and is a deep amber color slowly add the cream and stir. Be very careful because the mixture will bubble up and can cause terrible burns.

2. Let the caramel cool. It should still be warm but not hot when you pour it over the top of the chocolate. Top the tart with chopped and toasted hazelnuts. Serve at room temperature.

Thanks so much to Sandra, Kerry, and Abra for arranging the visit and interview, and for hosting us the day of. I'm looking forward to making it back to Floriole, perhaps in the heat of summer. In the meantime, I'll let you know how my B.A.D. experiments go and more dispatches from my Chicago pie tour coming soon...

Related recipe:
Dark Chocolate & Salted Caramel Pie

This post was featured on Relish Magazine's "Blogs We Love". Thanks, Relish!