Pie!

I've recently accomplished one of my 2015 resolutions: bike to the coast (and back)!  After this 40 mile biking expedition involving lots of big hill climbing, we were pretty hungry so we went to a cafe in Woodside.  Their bakery case had many different flavors of pie, and one slice could be had for $4.  I was seriously contemplating just eating some kind of fruit pie for lunch, but figured I needed something more substantial after the big bike ride.  The pot pie I ordered fell short of the pie-ness I had wanted, so I resolved to make my own berry pie at home.

So I made the best pie dough recipe I learned from a super awesome baker Cathy a couple of years ago, and waited for my friend Nance to bring over frozen boysenberries from her yard, and we baked a super awesome pie!

Dough: (enough to make a top and a bottom crust)
305 g flour
15 g sugar
5 g salt
225 g butter (1 cup)
4 - 6 tbs cold water

Filling: (don't make this until you've got the crust ready to roll out!)
1/3 c flour
3/4 c sugar
zest of 1 lemon
5 c washed and dried berries
Mix the flour, sugar, salt together.  Cut the butter into the flour mixture (I used a food processor) until it's crumbly.  Add water slowly until the dough comes together.  Divide the mixture in half, make each half into a disc maybe 6" in diameter, and wrap with cling/saran wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hrs.

Roll out the dough until it's larger than the pie plate (I used a 10-12" pyrex pie plate) because the bottom layer will need to follow the tapered sides of the plate when you put it in, so it's nice to have extra.  I find it easier to do the rolling with the dough on a Silpat or cling wrap, so then you can just flip the dough layer into the plate and it comes right off.  Put the plate into the fridge or freezer as you roll out the top layer of dough.

Pour in the filling mixture into the bottom layer, and then put the top layer of dough on, and use your fingers to fold the two layers of dough together to seal the edges and prevent leaking.  Make the circumference whatever design you like!  (We did pinching on the left, and pressing down with a fork on the right)

Cut some slits in the top of the pie for venting the berry juices, and then paint the whole thing with an egg yolk mixture (1 egg yolk + 1 tbs water) so it'll brown nicely.

Bake at 425 F for 15 mins, then turn the oven down to 350 F and bake another 30 - 40 mins.

Here's the important part!  Take the pie out and let it cool at least a couple of hours so the inside mixture can thicken before cutting into it.  It is hard to resist eating it immediately though with the aromas wafting around the kitchen, but this is really important!

This would have been even better with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, but it's pretty darn good already!