There are so many options when it comes to pies. A very simple and easy way to make pie is to make the base dough and then play around with the toppings.
Here is our take on summer pie with strawberries and peaches on top of vanilla custard or chocolate ganache.
Pie dough ingredients:
300 g (1 1/4 cups) cold butter
200 g (2 cups) icing sugar
600 g (4 3/4 cups) flour
2 eggs
This portion will give you 3 large pies.
Directions:
Mix the flour and sugar in a large bowl. Grate the cold butter into the flour and start kneading it together. At first it will be very crumbly, but once you have all the butter mixed in well with the flour and sugar you can add the eggs and continue to knead and the dough will quickly come together.
Keep kneading till the dough is smooth and uniform in texture, but do not over-knead it since it will make the dough elastic, and we don’t want that because then it will shrink a lot when baking.
Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge for 30-60 minutes.
Heat up the oven to 175 C (350 F).
Butter your pie pans and start rolling out your pie dough.
Depending on the sizes of your pie pans, you can make a few large ones or a lot of smaller ones. It is totally up to you.
Roll out the dough to approximately 2-3 mm thickness. Gently move to the pie pans and press it down and up the sides. With a fork, poke lots of small holes in the pie dough before baking to prevent it from bubbling.
Bake for 8-15 minutes depending on your pie size. Once slightly golden around the edge it is time to take it out to cool.
Cool down completely and while you wait for that, make the vanilla custard.
Vanilla custard ingredients:
5 dl milk (2 cups)
1 vanilla bean
6 egg yolks
150 g (3/4 cups) sugar
4 tablespoons corn starch
2.5 dl whipping cream (1 cup)
This will be enough to fill two large size pie crusts.
Directions:
Cut the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape all the seeds out. Mix with a teaspoon of the sugar to separate the vanilla bean seeds. Add the vanilla bean and seeds mixed with sugar to a pot with the milk. Bring to a boil and turn off. While bringing the milk to a boil, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar till fluffy and white. Add the corn starch and fold gently into the egg mixture. When the milk has boiled remove the vanilla bean, and add one ladle scoop at a time to the egg mixture while whisking. Add the milk one scoop at a time till everything is mixed together. Then pour everything back in the pot and heat up again while whisking constantly till the custard starts to thicken (about 1-3 minutes), which will happen all of a sudden, so be ready for it and remove the pot from the heat immediately. Keep whisking till the custard cools a bit and is nice and smooth.
Pour into a cold bowl and cover with plastic wrap and let it cool in the fridge. When you cover with plastic wrap, lay it on the custard so there is no air between, that way we prevent condensation and there will be no “skin” forming on the custard.
Once cooled completely take it out of the fridge and give it a good stir, then whip the whipping cream stiff, but still soft enough to fold into the custard without turning it to butter 🙂
Take about 1/3 cream to begin with and mix it thoroughly into the vanilla custard. Gently add the rest of the whipped cream and fold it together to keep it fluffy and soft.
Now it is ready to pour into your cold pie crusts.
Chocolate ganache ingredients:
1 dl (1/3-1/2 cups) whipping cream
15 g glucose syrup
200 g (7 oz) chocolate, we did a mix of dark and milk
This will be enough to fill one medium size pie crust.
Directions:
Heat up the whipping cream with glucose till just boiling. Pour it directly over the chocolate and stir till melted and smooth. Pour into the pie crust immediately and let sit to cool for 10-15 minutes.
Now it is time to be creative!!
We chose to make one pie with vanilla custard and strawberries with lemon balm leaves for decoration.
Another pie with chocolate ganache and strawberries with a drizzle of caramel sauce on top.
Our favourite was the vanilla custard with fresh peaches and thyme flowers for an awesome flavour combination and beautiful decoration.
You can choose any fruits you like and use herbs such as thyme, mint, lemon balm and basil as decoration. We would love to hear what you come up with as well as see pictures of your finished pies. So please share with us.
-Enjoy!