Short Street Cakes on Pies

In case you missed it in the Citizen-Times on Wednesday, (I dunno, maybe due to the fact that the front page news was something about a historical event of international import or something), there was a sweet little article about pies, along with a few recipes from the pie department at Short Street Cakes. Click here to read the article, and here are some of the recipes:

Fall Pies using WNC Local Produce
By: Jodi Rhoden, Owner, Short Street Cakes, Asheville, NC

Pie Crust Recipe (adapted from “The Gift of Southern Cooking” by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock)

1 ½ c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 t. salt
½ t. sugar
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons lard (substitute margarine if you cannot find non-hydrogenated lard)
4-6 tablespoons ice water

Place flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Whisk to combine. Cut chilled butter and lard into pieces and scatter on top of the flour mixture. Cut fats into flour using a pastry cutter or two knives, until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle ice water on mixture, one tablespoon at a time, and gently fluff the mixture until one large dough mass forms. Knead gently, 3 or 4 times. Flatten dough into a disk and wrap well with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight or for at least 2 hours.

Roll out dough and line an 8 or 9 inch pie plate.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Fill with one of the following pie fillings. When you place the pie in the oven, reduce heat to 375.

Apple Custard Pie with Crumb Topping (Recipe by Jodi Rhoden):
A great WNC apple for this pie is Mutzu. Its firm, like a Granny Smith, but sweet like a Golden Delicious.

Combine, one ingredient at a time:
½ cup brown sugar
2 T. flour
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 egg

Add:
2 cups diced apple pieces

Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup butter
Combine ingredients with fingers and sprinkle over pie filling. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes, or until the pie becomes slightly firm in the center.

Pumpkin Pie from Scratch (Recipe by Jodi Rhoden):
Choose a small, fleshy pie pumpkin from a local WNC grower (find them at one of the many tailgate markets in the area, or the Farmers Market on Brevard Road). Slice pumpkin in half from top to bottom. Scrape out seeds and stringy pulp, and roast the seeds! Place pumpkin halves, cut side down, on a baking sheet and bake until soft.
Let cool, then scrape out the pulp.
Mash the pulp in a bowl with a potato masher.
Place pulp in a strainer, and strain over a bowl for 2 hours, or overnight in the refrigerator.
Some bakers puree the pulp at this point, but I think its optional.

Now, for the recipe:
Combine, one ingredient at a time:
1 ½ c. pumpkin
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 T cinnamon
½ t. ginger
¼ t. nutmeg
½ t. salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 425. Pour into prepared pie crust. Turn down oven to 375 and bake at 375 until the sides are firm but the center is slightly jiggly.






I know, I know, its Short Street Cakes, not Short Street Pies. But I can't help it. When the weather turns and the leaves fall, I'm all about some pie.

now, you, too can bake my award losing pie. by Elyse Manning

Elyse Manning is my friend and the oft-mentioned spiritual and baking adviser for My Life in Cake, and today, she's our guest blogger! Please enjoy her tale of triumph and pain in pie-making:

elyse's deeply underappreciated irish cream pie

preheat oven to 350

1 cup sugar
2 tbls corn starch
pinch of salt

mix all this together in a small saucepan and set aside, now take

4 egg yolks (seperate the whites and put them aside for merengue)
2 1/2 cups whole milk

mix them together, then dump em in the saucepan with sugar mixture and cook over medium heat at first mix it every minute or so to break up lumps, but after about 5 minutes you wanna mix it constantly to keep the bottom from burning. when it starts getting thicker, add

2 tbls butter
4 tbls irish cream liquor (i used baily's, but please, don't be a label queen, anything good will do)

leave on heat for another 45 seconds or so, then pull off heat for 30 seconds then put on heat again for another minute, stirring all the while, fun! pour immediatley into a pre-baked pie crust, and cover with plastic wrap to keep the filling piping hot while you make the

merengue
4 (or more if your feeling fiesty) egg whites
pinch of salt
pinch of cream of tartar (if you don't have it, don't stress, it just helps the process along a bit)

whip up at "high speed" and slowly add
1/4 cup powdered sugar
beat it still it forms fairly stiff peaks (eh-hem), then take the plasic wrap off the pie, spread the merengue on, make it look pretty, cause it will hold it's shape, and bake it for about 10 minutes or so, keep a good eye on it, and pull it out when it gets all pretty and golden-tipped.

Now, honestly, here's where i messed up y'all, you SHOULD let it cool completely on a rack, then put it in the fridge for at least 2 hrs to chill and set. you SHOULD NOT stay up too late in the s.m.s. kitchen waiting for some sorry-ass game of wizards to never start, drag your ass out of bed at 7:30, make the pie, then stick it in the freezer to make up for your lack of cooling time, then dress like a total witch with bright red hair and bring your wobbly-ass pie to some small town fair, past the guys in the prison jumpsuits doing community service who are laughing at YOU for being a freak and give your pie to some pinch faced ole biddy who is looking at you like you maybe put some wierd drugs in it.
don't do that.... i tried it already and we see where that got me

good luck.