This week our Sunday Supper tastemakers are sharing their best holiday dessert recipes. And because it is absolutely one of the best I’ve ever eaten, I’m sharing this perfect plum pie from Kate McDermott’s Art of the Pie – A Practical Guide to Homemade Crusts, Fillings and Life. We are also giving away a copy of this wonderful book so make sure you scroll down to the bottom to enter.
Perfect Plum Pie – Photos by Stacy Rushton
As a mom, one of my joys has been to pass on my kitchen skills to my girls. Some things they learn but do reluctantly, some they come to own. Sometime in her early teens, my elder daughter became the resident piecrust maker. If I needed a piecrust, I’d just ask, and she’d make it for me. It was a system that worked fabulously for many years, until she left home for university.
Suddenly I was back to making my own crusts again. And that was no bad thing. As pie baker extraordinaire Kate McDermott says, it is a meditation. You just can’t rush a flakey piecrust, especially if you live in normally hot places, like I do.
For some reason, pie is one of those things that seem to divide the baking world. Some of us get it, some of us don’t. Fortunately, Art of the Pie is for all of us. Experienced pie bakers will love the creative recipes and the fresh ways to crimp or vent. But starting from the (17-page!) introduction, Kate’s rules for pie making and life are the calm and knowledgeable words of a wise woman as well as an experienced pie baker. Her instructions regarding measuring ingredients and the equipment you’ll need are thorough. I’m pretty sure even a nervous pie maker would relax at Kate’s reassuring “you got this” tone.
Chapter one is all about pie dough. Kate shares seven all-purpose flour dough recipes, six gluten-free dough recipes and two she calls crumbly and sweet, with tips for making each the best it can be. There’s even a vegan gluten-free option. Now everybody can eat pie!
Moving on to Chapter two, Kate is equally as informative about fruit, sweeteners, seasoning and thickeners. I’ve been baking pies for years and now I have another thickener in my stash – tapioca – which is particularly good for fruit pies. She shares recipes for fruit fillings that can be made into traditional or hand pies.
The chapters that follow are The Quintessential Apple Pie; A Berry Pie for Julia, Sweet as a Peach (and Other Stone Fruits); Old-Fashioned Rhubarb and Citrus Pies; Creamy, Nutty, Cool and Yummy; and, finally, Savory Supper Pies.
I love the stories that are interspersed between the recipes, especially the one that introduces A Berry Pie for Julia, about Kate’s afternoon with Julia Child. By the time I closed the book – yes, I read cookbooks all the way through like novels – I felt I knew Kate as a friend. A friend who was going to show me how to improve my own pies and keep everything chilled, especially myself.
- 2½ cups (363g) all-purpose flour, unbleached (Use dip and sweep method, leveling off the top with a knife)
- ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
- 8 tablespoon (112g) cold butter, salted or unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces
- 8 tablespoons (112g) vegetable shortening
- ½ cup (118ml) ice water plus 1-2 tablespoons (15-30ml) more as needed
- 6 cups (about 1½ - 2lbs or 680-900g) plums, pitted and quartered
- ¾ cup or 150g sugar
- A small grating of freshly ground nutmeg
- ⅓ teaspoons (2g) salt
- 1-2 tablespoons (15-30g) Cointreau or other orange liqueur (optional)
- ⅓ cup (48g) flour
- 1 tablespoon (12g) quick-cooking tapioca
- 1 knob butter, about 1½ teaspoons (7g)
- 1-2 teaspoons (4-8g) sugar, for sprinkling on top of pie
- 1 egg white plus 1 tablespoon (15ml) water, fork beaten
- Put all the dough ingredients but the ice water in a large bowl.
- With clean hands, quickly smoosh the mixture together, or use a pastry blender with and up and down motion, until the ingredients look like cracker crumbs with lumps the size of peas and almonds.
- Sprinkle ice water over the mixture and stir lightly with a fork.
- Squeeze a handful of dough to see if it holds together. Mix in more water as needed.
- Divide the dough in half and make two chubby discs about 5 inches (12cm) across.
- Wrap the discs separately in plastic wrap and chill for an hour.
- Once the dough has been chilled, preheat the oven to 425°F (225°C).
- In a medium bowl, place the plums, sugar, nutmeg, salt, Cointreau, flour, and tapioca, and mix until the fruit is well coated.
- Take out the dough discs and let them temper until they feel slightly soft to the touch and easy to roll out. Unwrap one disc and place it on a well-floured board, pastry cloth, parchment paper, or plastic wrap.
- Sprinkle some flour on the top of the disc. Thump the disc with your rolling pin several times. Turn it over and thump the other side.
- Sprinkle some flour onto the top of the dough as needed to keep the pin from sticking, and roll the crust out from the center in all directions.
- When the dough is 1-2 inches (3 to 5 centimeters)larger than your pie pan, brush off the extra flour on both sides.
- Fold the dough over the top of the pin and lay it in the pie pan carefully.
- Don’t worry if the crust needs to be patched together. Paint a little water where it need to be patched and “glue” on the patch piece.
- Pour the filling into the unbaked pie shell and dot with the knob of butter, cut into pieces. It’s okay to tear pieces off with your fingers as well.
- Roll out the remaining disc of dough, lay it over the fruit, and cut 5-6 vents on top, or cut strips and make a lattice top. Trim excess dough from the edges and crimp.
- Lightly brush some of the egg wash over the entire pie, including the edges.
- Bake for 20 minutes at 425°F (220°C).
- Reduce the heat to 350°F (175°C) and bake for 30-35 minutes more.
- When there are about 10 minutes of bake time left, open the oven, pull the pie out, and quickly and even sprinkle the top of the pie with sugar.
- If the filling is not making steady bubbles, turn the heat back up to 450°F (230°C) for 5 minutes to help it along.
- If needed, cover the pie loosely with a vented piece of aluminum foil, shiny side down, before you turn the heat up.
- Remove the pie from oven and cool as long as you can before serving, so the filling can set up.
Check out all the other fantastic holiday dessert recipes our Sunday Supper tastemakers are sharing today! Many thanks to our host this week, T.R. of Gluten Free Crumbley and our event manager Cricket of Cricket’s Confections.
Best Holiday Dessert Recipes
Bars and Cookies
- Frosted Sugar Cookies by Pies and Plots
- Gluten Free Cinnamon Shortbread Bars by Gluten Free Crumbley
- The Best Pecan Pie Bars by Life Tastes Good
Cakes
- Chocolate Fudge Layer Cake by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
- Clementine Cake with Cranberry Glaze by Caroline’s Cooking
- Coconut Pecan Cake with Coconut Rum Frosting by The Chef Next Door
- Coconut Syrup Cake by Palatable Pastime
- Japanese Sugar Plum Fairy Cupcakes by NinjaBaker.com
- Moms Texas Sheet Cake by My Life Cookbook
- Pumpkin Roll with Cream Cheese Frosting by Recipes Food and Cooking
- Rave Review Coconut Cake by Family Around The Table
- Salted Caramel Mocha Bundt Cake by A Mind “Full” Mom
- Salted Caramel Pretzel Cupcakes by Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
- Spiked Chocolate Eggnog Cake by The Crumby Cupcake
Cheesecakes
- Raspberry Cheesecake by Mindy’s Cooking Obsession
- White Chocolate Cranberry Cheesecake by Baking Sense
Drinks
- Pumpkin Patch Cocktail by Wholistic Woman
Pastries
- Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie by This is How I Cook
- Butterscotch Pecan Pie by Fantastical Sharing of Recipes
- Perfect Plum Pie from Art of the Pie #Giveaway by Sunday Supper Movement
- Pumpkin Spice Mochi by Cricket’s Confections
- Purple Yam-Ube Blueberry Tart by Asian in America
- Swedish Apple Pie Cups with Date Caramel Sauce by Simple and Savory
Puddings and Creams
- Arroz Con Leche with Coconut and Cheese by Basic N Delicious
- Cranberry Apple Croissant Bread Pudding by The Freshman Cook
- Rauhreif – German Apple Dessert by Cosmopolitan Cornbread
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Many thanks to the publisher The Countryman Press who is sponsoring one copy of this wonderful cookbook for a giveaway, open to US residents only. Please check out the book on Amazon and leave a comment on the post – Which pie would you bake first from Art of the Pie? – to enter. The rafflecopter has several options for earning more chances to win! The more you do, the better your chances. No purchase necessary. The winner will be notified by email. If the winner does not respond in 48 hours, an alternate winner will be selected.
I love pie but have never been that good at making it myself. I would like to try the recipe Blackberry Pie for Julia Child from the Art of Pie Cookbook.
Mud pie would be my first choice!!
Blueberry crumble pie is the first one I would make. Beautiful book!
Oh my goodness. I am mesmerized by this pie. And the cookbook sounds so interesting…I hope I win the giveaway!
I love any kind of pie, specially this season, that we have the change to bake even more and more. Don’t mind me if I can get the change to win the cookbook. 🙂
The apple pie – the quintessential apple pie – as that is my husband’s favorite. I need this book. Love to master the art/meditation of pie crust-making =)
i WOULD BAKE THE Blackberry Pie!
It would have to be mud pie for me – so decadent
I’d try the Chai Pie.
Angel Food pie
I would make the Rhubarb pie for my husband and then the apple pie for me and the kids.
Mud pie. My Dad’s favorite (although he will never turn down an apple pie either)
Mmmm … That plum pie looks so good and I love plums. That would be my new favorite.
Apple pie sounds good as do they all.