Pie Workshop, Wednesday Nov 7

Writing after the fact, last evening's Pie Workshop was great fun.  Nine students made 6 beef & veggie pies, 5 berry-berry pies, and 4 veggie & cheese quiches.  They played with creative crust designs, baked pies and took them home.  We couldn't bake them all, in spite of running the workshop more than 30 minutes longer, so students brought some of the pies home unbaked, destined either for a late evening bake-off, or a freezer stay.
I am amused to report that by the time I had made a crust for one of my own pie plates, all the fillings had been made into pies (bravo!), so I brought my crust dough home, whipped a bag of frozen apple pie filling out, thawed it in a warm water bath, and pulled a nice pie from the oven before 11 pm.
Just to re-cap simple instructions for pie:
Crust:
2 cups flour + 1 tsp salt;
1/2 cup oil + 1/4 cup milk + 2 tsp water (H2O is an "altitude adjustment", approx 1 tsp / 4k.ft +);
pour liquids into dry ingredients, mix quickly with a fork until flour is absorbed - use hands to finish mixing.
shape dough into 2 balls, one slightly larger for the bottom crust.
roll larger ball between two sheets of waxed paper or parchment until it is circular, and larger in diameter than your pie plate by 3 inches.  remove top sheet of paper, flip crust into pie plate and shape, leaving even excess around all the edges, then remove bottom sheet of waxed paper.  set aside.
roll smaller ball the same way, though diameter can be just 1 1/2" larger than pie plate.
pour filling evenly into pie plate, spreading to minimize gaps, and filling just to the level you are confident will avoid oven spillover when the filling cooks.
remove top sheet of paper from top crust and flip onto pie, centering so that edge overlap is balanced all around the pie.  remove bottom sheet of paper and press edges of both crusts together, shaping as desired into finished pie. alternatively, top crust may be cut into strips or other shapes and used to decorate the pie any way you like.
Filling, Fruit:
3 1/2 cups of fresh or frozen berries per 9" pie, or 5 cups per deep-dish 9", or shallow 11" pie;
1/4 cup max of brown sugar per cup of fruit - I usually cut this in half, but not last night!
Lime zest and juice from one lime per pie
1 Tbs Corn starch and/or Tapioca per cup of fruit.
Filling, Beef & Veggie:
saute' garlic, onions, ground beef and chopped veggies in oil with salt and spices to taste (last evening we used Herbs de Provence, alder-smoked sea salt, and smoky Turkish pepper or "Urfa Biber"), anything you like.
measure volume of filling mixture, and make gravy using liquid from sauteing meat & veggies, plus pre-made beef broth, totaling 1/4 cup of liquid per cup of filling.  measure 2 tsp of corn starch per cup of pie filling, and mix with a small amount of the cold broth, until a thin, smooth paste is formed, then mix with all the broth in a saucepan, and stir while heating, until gravy thickens.  mix gravy with beef and veggies, ready to make into pies.  taste and adjust spices to suit.
Filling, Quiche:
saute garlic, onions, mushrooms and peppers in oil with desired spices, them mix 1 1/2 cups of this with 8 beaten eggs and 1/2 cup of cheese.  add diced fresh tomato or other veggies not pre-cooked as desired.  pour filling into pie plate with lower crust only, and decorate top of egg mixture with sun-dried tomatoes, diced scallions, cheese or whatever suits your fancy.

bake pies in oven at 375°F for between 45 and 60 minutes.  when you have more than one pie in the oven, baking times may need to increase.  judge finished pie by the brown-ness of the crust edge.  with practice you can detect a perfectly finished pie, just with your sense of smell.

It's easy to find pie recipes on the internet, which you can follow verbatim, or use for inspiration for experimentation.  One thing for certain, your family and friends will enjoy your pie adventures, even if you do make a mess of the kitchen.

Happy Holidays and Happy Pies!
Michael Thompson

MT-RecipeCalc spreadsheet for great vegetarian foods