Look, Ma! No Pan!

Your average pumpkin or apple pie at Thanksgiving looks good. It looks like some effort has gone into the crust, maybe a top crust, possibly some artistically piped whipped cream. It's charming, in it's own way. It looks like the boy or girl next door, plenty attractive, but not likely to star in a movie. And really, we like them (both the pie, and the neighbor,) just the way they are.

There are pies that are all dolled up. They sport carefully cut out top crusts in the shape of autumn leaves, perfect lattice tops, delicately brushed with milk and sprinkled with glistening sugar, and they stand out among the plainer specimens around them. They're the prom queens and kings of pie. They might be made by pastry chefs or the neurotic woman that goes to your church. Carefully coiffed, every meringue wisp artistically draped and singed, just enough of the filling showing to show what they got. They look great, and they look like a lot of work.

Freeform pies are not either of these pies. They're visually stunning, but in a much less contrived manner. They're the "I just woke up, threw my hair in a pony tail and put on whatever was on the floor," pies. My wife calls them the "Walk of shame," pie, but she needs to see a therapist. They look like you had a little dough laying around, put some quickly chopped and spiced fruit in the middle, folded it up and baked it. Delicious.

A freeform pie is a pie made without a pan. You put the crust on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper, put the filling in the middle, fold over the edges of the pastry, and throw it in the oven. If you like food that doesn't look contrived, or if you just like easy desserts, this is the pie for you.

There are a handful of rules, which are really just common sense. With no pan, having filling leaking through the crust is a bigger issue than it is with most pies. So, custard fillings seem to be out of the question. It's easiest to use fruit that can stand up to long baking times. This can, of course, be the creative challenge for people that don't like to follow recipes. You can decide how much fruit you want to chop up, as long as you don't put in more fruit than you can fold into the pastry. I like to add some dried fruit to add complexity and color. You could add some chopped nuts, if you like. There aren't hard and fast rules, just general guidelines.  Let your creativity go nuts. Or just follow the recipe below. It doesn't suck.

 

 

With a few friends coming over the other day, I threw this pie together. The crust is the same that I used that slid down the side of the pan and inspired the last post. The crust is killer, in both flavor and in heart stopping fat content. Seriously, it is the best tasting crust I've ever had. It also browns beautifully, especially against the pan where the temperatures are highest. Don't try to blind bake it, though, or you'll have a mess on your hands. There are some techniques you can use to successfully blind bake it; I'll detail those another day.

Freeform Apple Pie

Crust:
1 Tbsp water
1 tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
16 Tbsp. Butter
2 C. All Purpose Flour
8 oz. Cream Cheese

Mix the water, vinegar, and salt. Refrigerate while working on the rest of the ingredients.

Cut the butter into 1/2 tbsp parts, then put in the freezer.

Put the flour in a food processor. Cut the cream cheese into half a dozen pieces and put onto the flour.  Process until it resembles course meal. Put in the freezer 25 minutes.

After freezing, return the cream cheese mixture to the food processor. Process in the frozen butter. With the machine running, drizzle in the water mixture.

Pat the dough into two equal disks, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours.

On a piece of parchment paper, roll out the dough into a disk, maybe 14" across. Put it onto a cookie sheet.

Filling:

1/2 C. Brown sugar
1/4 C. Potato starch (You could use flour, if you don't have potato starch laying around.)
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Allspice (fresh ground is best)
1/2 tsp. Nutmeg (fresh ground is best)
1 big pinch kosher salt
2-3 C. Apples, peeled, cored, diced
Some milk (You don't need much, maybe a couple tablespoons.)
A couple tablespoons sugar

In a small bowl, mix the sugar, starch, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and salt.

Prepare the apples.  In a big bowl, mix the apples and the sugar mixture.

Pre-heat your oven to 400.

Pour the apples into the center of the dough you've rolled out. Fold the edges over the fruit. Brush the dough with milk and sprinkle with sugar.

Put the cookie sheet and pie into the oven an bake for 45 minutes. Remove and cool for at least ten minutes before devouring.