GOOD HARVEST:  THE FRUITS OF SUMMER

As we round the seasonal corner to Labor Day weekend, bringing summer to a close, I wanted to take some extra time with this point to concentrate on a fantastic element of summers in the Midwest:  Summer Fruit!

I’m a Great Lakes region guy, which means summer always seems to have a plethora of great produce.  From orchard fresh peaches and cherries, to road-side farm stand sweet corn, asparagus, and berries, there’s never a lack of great offerings.  For those of us in states like Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, the season brings with it a bounty of great foods for canning, preserves, and yes, PIES!

One of the best sources for these delicious seasonal gems is your local farmer’s market.  As a Northern Illinois resident, I’m always thrilled to attend my hometown farmer’s market to explore the offerings of my local and not-so-local farmers and foodstuff providers.  Over several visits, if you’re lucky, you end up building some great relationships with these vendors.  They’re amazing folks who take great pride in what they do, and have excellent merchandise at very reasonable prices.  Take the time to check out yours, even if it’s just for an hour sometime.  You may walk away with a jar of locally harvested honey, a jug of the best home pressed apple cider, or even some jaw dropping vanilla peach preserves.  Do yourself and your community a favor:  Shop Local.  Eat Local.  Live Local.  Support your local farmers and artisans!

Alright.  Soapbox aside, let’s talk pie.  Some of the best Midwestern regional summer fruits are cherries, peaches, blueberries, and strawberries.  One additional seasonal favorite is rhubarb, which when used with a combination of fruits or doctored up with a good amount of sweetener, can be pretty amazing.  Uses of these are limitless, and can be changed in hundreds of different varieties and ways.  I’ve chosen with this post to cover not only some of the basic and time honored favorites of these fruits, but also to elaborate a little more on pie toppers!

Our selections for this posting are:

·         Cherry With Lattice Crust Top

·         Blueberry Two-Crust

·         Peach Streusel Crumb Top

·         Strawberry Rhubarb Open Face

To explain a bit more on these pie topping styles, and there will be more coverage of these styles in future posts, let me clarify quickly what these styles actually mean in basic terms:

Lattice Crust:

A lattice crust top is a series of cut pastry dough strips woven in an open-weave style over the top of a pie, with the ends tucked under the crust edges.

Two-Crust Pie:

Just as the name suggests, a two-crust pie is comprised of a bottom crust inside the pie plate, which is then filled with your choice of filling, and then covered with a second crust.  The edges of both crusts are then pressed together, or sealed, with a crimping, pinching, or other method.  (There will be future posts on edge finishing and sealing methods coming soon!)

Streusel or Crumb Topping:

Streusel or crumb toppings is an easily made, delicious finish to pies.  It’s usually a combination of sugar, flour, and some cold shortening, usually butter or margarine.  You combine your dry ingredients, then cut in your shortening with two knives or a pastry cutter.  The desired consistency should look like pea-shaped crumbles, and can be sprinkled over your pie filling before baked.

Concentrating on our four pies, here are our recipes:

**PLEASE NOTE:  For all pie crust shells, unless otherwise specified, are a standard pastry-style pie crust and should be made in advance of your filling.  Store-bought, premade crusts may be used if preferred.

CHERRY LATTICE PIE:

·         1 1/4 Cups Sugar

·         3 Tbs. Cornstarch

·         1/4 tsp. Salt

·         1 Tbs. Butter, Softened

·         4 Cups of Fresh Cherries, pitted  (2  14.5 Oz. Cans Pitted Tart Cherries, Drained and Reserving 1/2 Cup Juice may be used)

·         1/4 tsp. Red Food Coloring

·         1/4 tsp. Almond Extract

·         2 tsp. Lemon Juice

·         1 pastry for a double-crust 9-inch pie

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Wash and pit cherries.  If using canned or frozen, thaw and drain cherries, reserving 1/2 cup juice.

Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt.  Combine cherry juice, food coloring, almond extract and lemon juice.  Add to dry ingredients, mixing well.  Add cherries and mix well again.  Let stand for 15 minutes.

Pour cherry mixture into pie crust and place a few small pieces of butter on top of fruit.  Finish top with lattice work pie crust.  Bake for 50 to 55 minutes.

BLUEBERRY TWO-CRUST PIE:

·         1 Pastry for a Double Crust 9-inch Pie

·         3/4 Cup Sugar

·         1/2 All-Purpose Flour

·         1/2 tsp. Cinnamon

·         6 Cups Blueberries

·         1 Tbs. Lemon Juice

·         1 Tbs. Butter or Margarine

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In large bowl, mix sugar, 1/2 cup flour and the cinnamon.   Stir in blueberries.  Spoon into pastry-lined pie plate.  Sprinkle any remaining sugar mixture over blueberry mixture.  Sprinkle with lemon juice.   Cut butter into small pieces; sprinkle over blueberries.  Cover with top pastry that has slits cut in it; seal or flute edge.  Cover edge with 2- to 3-inch strip of foil or pie shield to prevent excessive browning.

Bake 35 to 45 minutes or until crust is golden brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust, removing foil for last 15 minutes of baking. Cool on cooling rack at least 2 hours.

PEACH STREUSEL CRUMB TOPPED PIE:

Filling:

·         3/4 Cup Sugar  (Brown, White, or Combination)

·         1/3 to 1/2 Cup Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

·         1/8 tsp. Salt

·         6 Cups Fresh Peach Slices (About 10 Peeled Peaches, Sliced)

·         1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

·         1/4 tsp. Almond Extract

·         1 Tbs. Lemon Juice

Streusel Crumb Topping:

·         3/4 Cup Brown Sugar

·         3/4 Cup All-Purpose Flour

·         1/2 Cup Rolled Oats

·         1/2 Cup Pecans or Walnuts

·         1/4 tsp. Salt

·         1/2 Cup Butter, Softened

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Mix the sugar, thickener, and salt. Toss with the peaches, extracts, and lemon juice. Spoon into the crust.

Make the topping by combining the brown sugar, flour, oats, and nuts, then mixing in the soft butter until the mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle the topping over the filling.

Place the pie on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes, reduce the oven heat to 350°F, and bake for 40 minutes more, until the filling bubbles. Cover the edges of the pie with foil or a pie shield if they brown too quickly.

You can also shield the streusel with foil if it's over-browning.  Remove the pie from the oven, and cool it completely before slicing.

STRAWBERRY RHUBARB PIE:

·         1 Cup Sugar

·         2 Tbs. All-Purpose Flour

·         1 tsp. Orange Zest

·         1/4 tsp. Salt

·         4 Cups Rhubarb, Trimmed and Cut into 1” & 1⁄2” pieces

·         3 Cups Strawberries, trimmed and cut into quarters

·         2 Tbs. Unsalted Butter

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Combine the granulated sugar, flour, and salt in a large bowl.  Remove 2 tablespoons and set aside.

Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of the sugar/flour mixture into the bottom of your pie crust.  Toss the rhubarb and strawberry pieces in the remaining sugar mixture; set aside. 
Pour the rhubarb filling evenly into the pie pan.  Dot with 2 Tablespoons of butter.  Cover the pie evenly with the crumb mixture.  Place the pie on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and put into the oven for 10 minutes.  Reduce oven heat to 350° and bake for 35-45 minutes longer until the juices are thick and bubbly.
Remove from the oven and allow the pie to cool for at least 4 hours.