So why wait a second longer? See you over there my food peeps.
From scratch.
Including the crust.
(Ack!)
I have always heard that pie crust is incredibly difficult to make. But I really enjoy challenging myself in the kitchen. My track record with challenging foods has been pretty good thus far (we can ignore all my whipped egg-white, meringue, flour-less cookie fiascoes, thank you very much! And thanks for remembering those....sheesh!).
That said, I consulted no less than two cookbooks, Epicurious, the Youtubes, Facebook, and my pastry chef friend Shannon in order to glean some sort of general consensus on making a successful crust. In the end, the research paid off. My first pie crust, nay, my first cherry pie, turned out, in a word, wonderful.
Pie crust is actually quite simple, as long as you have the right tools. There was no need for me to purchase pre-made Pillsbury (yes, self-doubt can be a powerful emotion). But I am here to tell you, there is no need for you to purchase fake dough either!
And without further ado, I give you cherry pie...
Cherry Pie
Time: 55 min. bake time; 1.5 hr. prep time ~ Yield: 8 slices
Ingredients
Crust
- 2/3 cup chilled unsalted butter
- 2 cups flour
- 3-8 tbsp ice water (I needed 8 to get the right consistency)
- 1 ¼ teaspoon salt
Filing
- 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 5 cups whole pitted sour cherries or dark sweet cherries
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (if using sour cherries) or 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (if using dark sweet cherries)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Tools: Food processor, rolling pin, 9 inch pie plate, cherry pitter
Directions
Crust: Blend flour, butter, and salt in food processor until butter is just pea size. Add ice water by the tbs., until you get a round ball. Don’t overblend. Divide into two balls (I did a 3/4 and a 1/4 ball because I made a lattice top rather than a full cover). Don’t overwork. Cover in plastic wrap. Chill in fridge for one hour.
Filing: Combine the filling ingredients above, set aside (I kept it in the fridge while waiting for the dough to chill).
Bake and Assemble:
- Pre heat oven to 425.
- Roll out 1 dough disk on floured surface to 12-inch round. Transfer to 9-inch glass pie dish. Trim dough overhang to 1/2 inch. Roll out second dough disk on floured surface to 12-inch round. Using large knife or pastry wheel with fluted edge, cut ten 3/4-inch-wide strips from dough round. Transfer filling to dough-lined dish, mounding slightly in center. Dot with butter. Arrange dough strips atop filling, forming lattice; trim dough strip overhang to 1/2 inch. Fold bottom crust up over ends of strips and crimp edges to seal. Brush lattice crust (not edges) with egg wash. Sprinkle lattice with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.
- Place in heated oven on bottom rack. Bake at 425 for 30 min. and then reduce oven and bake for 25 min. at 375. If pie crust begins to brown too quickly, cover with tin foil.
Notes & Tips:
- This recipe is for fresh cherries; frozen cherries will require a different bake time.
- The secret to flaky crust is keeping the dough as cold as possible for as long as possible. To that end, I found it beneficial to keep everything cold that actually touched the dough (e.g. the slip pat used for rolling the dough, the pie filling, etc.). You don't want the the butter in the dough to melt; you want the cold butter to bake into to the dough as it cooks. This creates the heavenly flake.
- The tin foil trick truly works.
- Finally, I highly, highly, highly suggest making this cinnamon and vanilla whipped topping to dollop on your warm pie. I can't get enough of this stuff...put the extra in your morning java. Mmmm.
Source: There is no one single source here. This was a group effort. To that end I would like to thank the following entities/persons for their help: Joy of Cooking, Fannie Farmer Cookbook, Epicurious, All Recipes, my high school drama teacher, and my pastry chef friend (Facebook is amazing!). Of course, I would also like to thank my mother-in-law for the inspiration!
Bride Wars: Putting the industrial complex back into weddings!But their aggression toward each other isn't their fault -- they're just women, after all, empty-headed creatures naturally prone to impractical fantasies and vicious rivalries.--Salon, movie review
The concept seems dated. Throwing away hundreds of thousands of dollars on the perfect flowers and the perfect dress and the perfect save-the-date announcement is so early 2008. In these recessionary times, it's not just misogynistic to assume that intelligent women turn into feral dogs at the sight of a Tiffany gift box, but it's also beside the point. Excessive spending is as declasse as the Bush administration.--San Francisco Chronicle, movie review
1. Avoid "The Others”. I avoided reading or hearing about how others were studying. It does no good to compare study habits. It will just make you think of all the ways you could be studying or should be studying when in fact you are probably doing just fine.
2. Take a Prep Course. I took a prep course, namely, Barbri. Barbri is the gold standard of bar prep, but there are other courses on the market with varying degrees of success. I took Barbri because I'm a sheeple...everyone else does it!
3. What Family? What Friends? I ignored almost all family and friends for 3 months straight. They probably thought I was rude, but it had to be done (and all are positively over the moon that I passed, so no harm, no foul).
4. Practice essays. I did not do very many timed practice essays but I did do at least one per subject area. Instead I read almost every essay Barbri provided, outlined an answer, and then compared my answer to Barbri's model answer. Also I did every essay assigned by Barbri and graded by their staff. There are not too many of these but they are a great way check your knowledge and progress.
5. Flashcards? Skipped flashcards. Too time consuming to create. Did not find them all that helpful. Others swear by them. Your call.
6. Relax. I think I maybe took two days "off" the entire time (and that time off was to be a MOH in my sister's wedding). But I did find time almost every day to workout and vege in front of CNN (election coverage over the summer was riveting!) or Food Network (there is something oddly comforting about Sandra Lee when you are stressed). All this is necessary to calm the nerves inherent in bar study. You should also find some comfort in the fact that if you went to a ABA approved school in CA, and are a first time taker, you have a 76% chance of passing. A significantly higher rate than CA's general pass rate.
7. Outline. Outline. Outline. I hated, hated, hated Barbri's outlines so I made my own. I made an outline for every single subject area (plus separate outlines for CA specific subject areas). Barbri doesn't suggest doing this, but my thinking was that if making my own outlines worked in law school, it would probably work in bar study too. It's the process of making the outlines, not the mere reading of someone else's outlines, that really forces me to learn and understand a subject. This was very, very, very time consuming, but in the end, I think the outlines saved me. Best. Decision. Ever.
8. Be the student you were in law school. To piggyback on point 7, I utilized very similar study methods throughout bar prep that I used throughout my three years of law school. If it's not broke, why fix it, right? Of course, I worked my ass off during law school. If you breezed through law school (1) you suck, (2) you can't breeze through the bar and (3) ignore point 8, in fact do the opposite.
9. Barbri’s schedule sucks. Chucked the Barbri time line right off the bat. And what I mean by this is that I didn’t get upset if I didn’t complete every single assignment they threw my way. If I did most of the assignments and read the Conviser, I felt good. I believe that it is almost impossible to follow their schedule to a tee and most Barbri students invariably find themselves behind. The feeling of "being behind” an impossible-to-maintain schedule is a level of stress not necessary when taking the bar. So once I started meandering at my own pace (but still sort of following Barbri's suggestions) I felt more at peace with the study process. And peace, my friends, is a good thing to have during the bar. Namaste. To that end, re-read point 6.
10. Final two weeks. I completely and utterly tore up the Barbri schedule in the final two weeks. Seriously this was a must. At the two-weeks-left mark I had to make an honest assessment of my progression and then make adjustments accordingly. I spent the second to last week finishing up my outlines and studying them hardcore (had them all professionally printed and hole-punched and put into one tabbed binder). In the final week I focused all my time on organizing practice essays, reviewing all the different PTs that could be thrown my way, and answering MBEs.
11. Skip PMBR. Speaking of MBEs, I didn't take PMBR. I had a nagging feeling that this was a mistake at the time, but apparently Barbri did an adequate job prepping me for the MBE section of the test. I procured some used PMBR materials (check ebay) and found them helpful. As to my MBE approach, every time I answered an MBE incorrectly, I reviewed the sample answer, highlighted the main rule of law, imprinted the rule in my brain, and cross referenced it in my personal outlines.
12. Don’t panic. Ever. As much as I thought I might, I didn't freak out during the actual exam. Somehow I managed to stay calm in the sea of 1000 type-A typists surrounding me (to that end, ear plugs are an absolute must). This doesn't mean that the evil crim pro/executive privilege essay question that Barbri almost guaranteed we would never see didn't throw me off. It did. Actually I'm sure I performed horribly on that essay. I think I wrote gibberish. Literally goblygook. But I kept each essay compartmentalized in my head, reminding myself that one crappy essay would not break me. Bottom line, I didn't let the pitfalls throw me off my game.
13. Trust yourself. Finally, the best thing I did was just listen to my own academic gut instincts about how I should study. So if nothing I have said seems like it could/should/would work for you, skip it. You won't hurt my feelings. Seriously, with bar study, YOU make the rules.
Good luck to all bar takers in Feb. 2009, July 2009, and beyond...! If you are a repeater, you have my utmost respect and well wishes. And to anyone else following this blog…back to baking.
***
Update! I just thought of a 14th lucky tip! And this one is very important...
14. Enlist some "cheerleaders." My parents and husband were on a three month emotional retainer of sorts. If I needed a 3 a.m. "talk me off the bridge" pep talk, they were there. This is especially helpful because there are many times throughout bar study when you feel very overwhelmed with the material and you need someone to tell you to snap out of it and also that you can do it!
- Transfer to a bowl and serve at room temperature or chilled. Stir gently before serving. Can be made 4 days ahead of time, but don't fold in the persimmons until ready to serve.
Source: Epicurious
Side Note--Other contributions from the Ms. Foodie household for this Holiday gathering:
- Pre heat oven to 400 degrees. On a foil lined baking sheet, toss butter with cubed sweet potato. Season with salt and pepper. Bake for 15-20 minutes, don't overcook you want the potato to be slightly firm. Set aside.
- Quarter, core, and slice the apples into ¼-inch-thick pieces; set aside. Season the chicken with the salt and black pepper. Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook 4 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Remove the chicken and set aside, leaving the oil in the pan.
- Add the green pepper, yellow pepper, onion, and garlic. Stir well and cook over medium heat until the vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes and apples to the pan. Cook 8 to 10 minutes more. Add the paprika and red pepper. Stir well and add the rice. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the broth and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, arrange the chicken on top of the rice mixture, and cover. Cook about 20 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed. Sprinkle with the parsley. Serve hot.
Source: Loosely adapted from Real Simple
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