300 reasons to save room for dessert

Pie: 300 Tried-and-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie By Ken Haedrich (Harvard Common Press, 2004)

Thanks to Ken Haedrich's cookbook Pie, anyone can learn to make a crust as pretty as the one on the book's cover. That's a big deal because making an attractive--and delicious--pie crust can be intimidating. Yet Haedrich's instructions and recipes enable anyone to bake like a pastry chef.

From the "Berry Good Pies" chapter, I turned out a good-but-not-great Wild Blueberry-Maple Pie with a seductively crunchy cornmeal crust. Breitbach's Raspberry Pie from the same chapter was the hit of a dinner party. Joe's Stone Crab Key Lime Pie, made with a homemade graham cracker crust, bottled Key lime juice and sweetened condensed milk, was incredibly easy and tasted divine. The super-easy Classic Chocolate Cream Pie, from a chapter on icebox pies, had a silky texture that contrasted beautifully with a purchased graham cracker crust.

Haedrich includes 21 crust recipes in Pie but acknowledges that busy cooks can successfully use store-bought crusts for almost any recipe. For cooks baking from scratch, however, the half butter/half Crisco Basic Flaky Pie Pastry recipe is as easy as they get. I used it to make a variety of pies successfully. A single-crust version of Shaker Lemon Pie was so good that I made it three times. Maple Pumpkin Pie, one of the best I've ever tasted, was especially full-flavored when I used fresh roasted pumpkin rather than canned. Sugar Pie, a French-Canadian specialty much like shoofly pie, got better after a day's rest. The one disappointment was The Mother of All Apple Pies, for which I bought the huge $43 Emile Henry ceramic pie plate that Haedrich specifies. While the pie was certainly an impressive mountain of dessert, it was as sticky-sweet as one made with canned apple pie filling--not worth peeling, coring and slicing 13 cups of mixed fresh apples.

One of the great features of Pie is the author's "Recipe for Success" sidebars that amplify the directions for every pie. Tips include how to manage the challenges of cornmeal crust, how to spread a crumb topping without mixing it with a fruit filling and how to shop for rhubarb. Haedrich seems to have anticipated every question a reader might have. The introductory chapter discusses tips for buying commercial pie shells, why cooling a pie is crucial and which pie pans to use.

Pie is a unique collection of more than 300 recipes with copious notes and tips. It is certain to be the only pie cookbook you'll ever need--or want.

SAMPLE RECIPE

JOE'S STONE CRAB KEY LIME PIE

Serves 8

Instead of a meringue topping, this one is
garnished with a dollop of whipped cream.

1 graham cracker crust

Filling

  3 large egg yolks, at room
    temperature
Grated zest of 2 limes
One 14-ounce can sweetened
    condensed milk
2/3 cup lime juice, preferably Key lime

Topping

1 cup cold heavy or whipping cream
1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar

1. Prebake crust according to the package
directions and let it cool. Refrigerate until
ready to use. Leave oven set at 350F.

2. In a medium-sized bowl, beat the egg
yolks and lime zest together with an electric
mixer on high speed until somewhat
fluffy and well-aerated, about 5 minutes.
(Set the timer; that's a lot of beating, and
you may be tempted to cut it short).
Gradually add the condensed milk and
continue to beat until the last of the
condensed milk has been added and the
mixture is rather thick and fluffy, about
4 minutes. Slowly add the lime juice,
mixing it in on low speed just until evenly
blended. Pour filling into the chilled shell.

3. Place the pie on the center oven rack
and bake just until the filling appears set,
about 10 minutes.

4. Transfer the pie to a wire rack and
let cool thoroughly. Cover with loosely
tented aluminum foil and refrigerate
until very cold, at least 2 hours.

5. To make Topping: Using a chilled large
bowl and chilled beaters, beat the cream
with the mixer until it barely holds soft
peaks. Add the confectioners' sugar and
continue to beat until stiff but not grainy.

VT's NUTRITIONAL ANALYSIS

PER SERVING: 470 CAL; 8G PROT; 24G TOTAL FAT
(12G SAT. FAT); 56G CARB; 135MG CHOL; 210MG
SOD; 0G FIBER; 45G SUGARS

IN A NUTSHELL

Almost entirely vegetarian. The exception: one crust is made with lard; a few recipes call for gelatin.

Pie, like most dessert, is not health food. It's a treat. While there are healthier choices--fruit fillings and graham cracker and cornmeal crusts--enjoy pie for what it is. Just don't go back for seconds.

What makes a pie difficult to make is the crust. The book includes almost two dozen crust recipes--all do-able.

A plus: The design is enlivened with lots of sidebars, quotes and pie miscellany. A minus: Although Haedrich's recipe instructions are comprehensive, they demand a certain amount of shuffling back and forth through the book.

Nearly all pastries need to be chilled before rolling out, and then put in the freezer for 15 minutes before baking. Pies calling for purchased graham cracker crusts, such as cream pies, meringue-top citrus pies or Key lime pie, come together in minutes.