Making Over Martha Month: Turning Galette into Pie, Altered Plates Style

From September 2009 photos

Oh Martha, you are wonderful, but your Pate Brisee does not hold a candle to Elise's All-Butter Crust as I make it with agave nectar and whole wheat pastry flour. On the other hand, your fillings are killer (at least with the alterations I've listed below).

The original recipe was for Martha Stewart's Apricot-Blackberry Galette, Baking Handbook (2005), pg. 266. but I reworked it with the double-crust (my version) and significantly tarted it up with fresh raspberries. I also changed up the rest of the ingredients a bit, so I've included the recipe as I made it below.

The raspberries make the filling very tart, but it calms down after the first day. I highly recommend enjoying the pie with some delightful vanilla frozen dessert. Also, if you are vegan and wish to make this veganly, you could use a combination of oils, including almond oil, measuring 3/4 cup total, and omit the egg wash on thee crust. Instead, you could brush the top with a jam wash (a few tablespoons of apricot jam and an equal amount of water, whisked together). It will have a nice, glossy finish. Oh, and the crust will give the whole pie the best that almonds can give. I can't think of a better way to eat apricots and raspberries.

Killer Apricot-Raspberry Pie

Ingredients:

1 awesome almond-y double-crust recipe
15 fresh apricots, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 fresh apples, peeled and cut into similarly sized pieces
2 cups fresh raspberries
4 tablespoons arrowroot
1/4 cup agave nectar
pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Press 1/2 the crust recipe into your best pie dish, wrap in plastic and chill in the fridge. Roll out the rest of the crust, wrap in plastic and chill in the fridge.
2. Mix together the remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Make sure that the arrowroot is completely dissolved.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
4. Pour the fruit mixture into your chilled crust in the pie dish. Wrap back in plastic and chill in the fridge.
5. Take the rolled-out crust out of the fridge and use some fun cookie cutters to cut out enough pieces to cover the top. Take the filled pie dish back out of the fridge and place your top pieces on top of the fruit until you have a decorative top crust. Remember to leave air/juice holes. This is very important.
6. Bake your pie for 20 minutes, then tent with foil to prevent the top and edges from browning too quickly. Bake for another 20 minutes, or until the juice is bubbling and the top has become evenly light brown.
7. Let cool completely on a wire rack before serving.

Off Topic, But Worth the Trip

My pal Richard is known for many things, but one of his defining characteristics is his love of all things chocolate. This can be witnessed in his kitchen in various ways -- from the giant jars of chocolate candies to his freezer full of Godiva ice creams.

He usually tolerates my forays into desserts because I don't cook/bake with chocolate any more, but he has enjoyed my pie.

If you are a chocolate lover, treehugger, or science teacher (or just simply curious about what this truly interesting man has to say), go visit Richard's Chocolate Lab. It's on his blog today, but he's told me there will be more on other chocolate candies tomorrow (or soon enough). His blog is definitely worth the trip.

The "I Tried" Peach Pie

I really did. I tried to make a rustic crust by using oil instead of butter, but it just didn't fly. In fact, when I tried a bit of the crust before rolling it out, it tasted horrible. John nearly took a photo of the face I made because it was just awful, but I stopped him in time.

Regardless, I did end up making the pie with Elise's all-butter crust that I alter with agave nectar for the sugar. I really did want to make it vegan and cut the saturated fat, but it was not to be.

The original recipe is for "Rustic Raspberry Pie," from the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking book that I love so. I used a combination of frozen peaches for the fruit, used a fraction of the sweetener (agave nectar, of course) and opted for the full 6 tablespoons of cornstarch to prevent any pie oozing when slicing.

Here's a short movie I made of the experience. Please forgive me for opting for the butter crust. It just wasn't worth carrying on with the awful crust. I will try to make the oaty one another day.

Coconut Green Pie

A few weeks ago, I reworked a great vegan recipe from Dr. Mary Martin for Coconut Cream Pie. I didn't make a huge number of changes, but I (gasp!) deveganized the recipe by adding an egg instead of using so much arrowroot.

Speaking of arrowroot, the filling tasted way too arrowrooty, so I added 1/2 cup of agave to it. If I made this again, I'd save half the crust to make cookies, since she warns at the beginning of the recipe that there would be a lot left over.

Finally, other than the typical agave nectar substitution I make for the sweeteners, I used brown rice flour for the spelt flour in the pie crust.

I didn't get to taste them both together since the pie wasn't actually served at the party it was taken to that day. However, I tried them separately prior to putting it together, and Mom took the photo above when she tried it.

Recommendations: less arrowroot, add vanilla extract/paste, bake the crust as cookies and do something else, maybe a mousse with the filling served with a cookie on the side. Overall, though, it's a pretty tasty and colorful combination.

Here's a short film of my efforts. Hope you enjoy it!