When I learned that January 23 is National Pie Day, that was all the excuse I needed to plan to bake a pie. I am not an expert pie baker by any means. But pie appeals to me as a traditional and all-American dessert. You guys know that I am a sucker for lost arts — hence all the canning — and pie-making, these days, seems to fall into that category.
Pie-making is typically something that is passed down from generation to generation. When I heard Chicago pastry chef-extraordinaire Gale Gand speak last fall, she talked about being a fourth-generation pie maker and proudly showed off her great-grandmother’s rolling pin.
My first exposure to baking pies was helping my mom with Thanksgiving dinner. These days I am much more likely to bake a pie than my mother is — I’m the food blogger after all and she is a Shakespearean scholar — but I certainly first learned about making pies from her.
This year, the January 23 National Pie Day holiday is being sponsored by the upcoming Paramount Pictures movie “Labor Day.” Based on a popular novel, “Labor Day” centers on 13-year-old Henry Wheeler, who struggles to care for his reclusive mother Adele while confronting all the difficulties of adolescence. On a back-to-school shopping trip, Henry and his mother encounter Frank Chambers, a man both intimidating and clearly in need of help, who convinces them to take him into their home and later is revealed to be an escaped convict. The events of a long Labor Day weekend will shape them for the rest of their lives.
Premiering on January 31, the movie, starring Kate Winslet in a Golden Globe-nominated role, and Josh Brolin and directed by Jason Reitman, includes a noteworthy scene that shares the message of passing down pie-making skills from generation to generation. To celebrate National Pie Day and the premiere of “Labor Day,” the American Pie Council launched on its Facebook page a ticket-giveaway promotion. One lucky person will receive a private viewing party of “Labor Day” with 50 guests in the winner’s town. The contest ends today, January 23, however, so enter right away!
In “Labor Day,” Josh Brolin’s character makes a pie crust using butter and Crisco. As you all know, I am an all-butter pie crust person. The main reason is because an all-butter crust is by far the most flavorful. Choose a European-style butter with a higher butterfat context and include something acidic — here I use lemon juice — as a tenderizer.
An all-butter crust will give you the flaky results you want as long as you handle the dough correctly: keep the ingredients cold, leave visible chunks of butter and don’t overwork the dough. To that end, it is important to realize that making a pie crust from scratch is a multi-step process. You do one part of the process and then you chill the results. You do another part of the process and chill the results. You have to spread out the work. That can be a good thing, but it does require you to plan ahead.
Because it’s the dead of winter, I chose to highlight winter fruits in my pie for National Pie Day. This pie combines apples, pears and cranberries — yes, I am still working off my frozen cranberry stash from October — with orange zest because all those fruits are abundant and in season. Plus, I just think the combination sounds wonderful.
Whether or not you make or buy a pie for National Pie Day today, I hope you will consider baking a pie sometime this winter. It’s a rewarding activity and one that we all can only get better at by doing. If you want your Thanksgiving pies to be out-of-this-world come November, start practicing now.
- Crust:
- 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 TB sugar
- 1 tsp. salt
- 16 TB (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1-inch pieces
- Juice of ½ lemon
- ½ cup ice water
- Filling:
- 3 pears, peeled, cored and sliced
- 4 Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored and sliced
- 1 cup fresh cranberries (frozen okay)
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 2 TB cornstarch
- Zest of one orange
- For the pie:
- 1 tsp. each flour and sugar
- 2 tsp. butter
- 1 egg beaten
- 1 tsp. Turbinado sugar
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt for the crust and whisk together.
- Place bowl in the freezer for 10 minutes.
- Remove the bowl from the freezer and add the cold, cubed butter.
- Using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour mixture until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs and there are still visible pea-sized pieces of butter.
- Combine the lemon juice and ice water. Slowly add the liquids to the butter-flour mixture one tablespoon at a time and stir with a fork until the dough begins to come together.
- Gather the dough up into a ball and knead it against the sides of the bowl a few times until it holds together but do not overwork it.
- Divide the dough in half and form into two disks, 1-inch thick.
- Wrap disks in plastic and chill for at least an hour. (Can make dough up to 3 days in advance.)
- After dough is chilled, roll out the first disk, which will be the bottom of the pie.
- To roll out the pie crust, place the disk on a well-floured board or silicone rolling mat such as a Roul'Pat. Flour your rolling pin.
- Start in the center and roll out in each direction. Turn the dough every few strokes and flip it over from time to time as well to prevent sticking. Have your pie plate nearby so you can gauge when you have the correct size. You want the crust to be a bit bigger than the plate.
- Lightly coat the bottom of a 9-inch pie plate with melted butter.
- Use a pastry scraper to peel the crust off your board or mat, roll it up carefully and transfer to pie plate.
- Unroll and fit crust into bottom of pie plate. Trim edges as necessary but make sure that crust covers the edge of the pie plate. Use excess dough to patch any cracks or bare spots.
- Chill the dough in the pie plate 30 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the filling and preheat the oven to 425.
- To make the filling, toss apple and pear slices with cranberries and orange zest,
- Combine brown sugar with cornstarch in a small bowl and add it to the fruit.
- Remove second disk of dough from refrigerator and roll it out according to above method.
- Sprinkle the top of the bottom crust with a teaspoon each of flour and granulated sugar to prevent it from getting soggy.
- Pour filling into pie pan, pressing down to make sure that it is well-packed, and make a mound in the center. (If the bowl with the fruit has excess liquid in it, do not add it to the pie plate.)
- Dot top of filling with butter.
- Carefully place top crust on top of filling and pinch edges of the top and bottom crusts together. Use your fingers to create a nice, fluted edge. Cut three or four tear-shaped holes in center of top crust to act as a vent.
- Brush the top of the pie with the beaten egg. Sprinkle the top with Turbinado sugar if desired.
- Bake at 425 for 25 minutes.
- After 25 minutes, reduce heat to 375. It is a good idea, at this point to cover the edges of the crust with tin foil or use a pie crust shield to prevent them from burning.
- Bake pie at 375 for 30-35 minutes until crust is deep golden.
- Cool on a rack before slicing.
Full disclosure time: this post was not sponsored in any way. The American Pie Council shared the information about its contest with me, but did not ask me to write about it, nor am I being compensated in any way. I just like pie.
I love this type of pie. We did a podcast with a cookbook author who said everything should stay really cold when making a pie crust. It’s freezing here in Ohio today. So the perfect day to make pie!
Yes, and it’s dry which is also helpful!
I just had pear apple cranberry pie at Hoosier Mama last week! I like that yours looks like it has more berries, I love the tartness.
My inspiration was the deep-dish winter fruit pie from the Rustic Fruit Desserts cookbook, which also has dried figs. But That’s interesting that Hoosier Mama had the same combination. I really like my addition of the orange zest, because I think orange zest is a dream with both pear and cranberry.