A Little Bit of Improvisation

When people talk about cooking (savory, not in an oven,) and baking (sweet, in an oven,) they often talk about improvising in the kitchen. To them, people who like to bake like to have things done precisely, with temperatures and measurements and timings clearly laid out. And on the other hand, people who like to cook can just free-wheel through the kitchen, making things up as they go. It's like the baker is the control freak aunt who has to have everything just so and keeps plastic on the furniture so it never, ever gets dirty. The cook is the fun uncle who never shows up on time and is always fun when he does show up.

Do you see why I take exception with this characterization?

The thing is, I bake a lot. I don't bake every day, but I bake more days than I don't. And after baking so much for more than a decade, I have a pretty good idea of what you can improvise with, and what you can not improvise with.

First of all, you should recognize that any recipe is an approximation, because we're dealing with agricultural products. Even with extremely consistent national products, there are small variations that matter. The temperature of your kitchen matters, the humidity of the air matters, how old your chemical leveners are matters. When you introduce fruit into the mix, the variations are infinite. The same fruit from the same tree can be different from year to year. So even if you are using the same butter, sugar, and flour, you are still going to get a different product from what I make, because the fruit I'm using is different than the fruit you are using. So you need to engage your brain in your baking.

Second of all, there is a difference between what improvisations will merely change the final product, and what will cause the final product to fail. Some changes will result in something still edible, just not the consistency you are used to. Others will result in a failed recipe, something that is either inedible or something that is so far off from what you intended as to be something completely different. So here is what you can vary, and what you can't:

Chemical Leveners: like baking powder, baking soda, or cream of tartar. Mostly can't be substituted or changed without causing big changes. Baking soda is roughly four times as powerful as baking powder, so if substituting, you need to take that into consideration. This isn't a huge issue in pie baking, as there aren't too many pies with chemical leveners in them.

Flour: you can sort of substitute here. Flours vary in protein content, which can affect the outcome of pastries. On one hand, if you use flour with too high protein content, the crust can come out too tough. If you use a low-protein flour, such as White Lilly or other pastry flour, it might not have enough protein to hold together once baked. On this blog, I generally use King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose flour.

Eggs and Milk: I don't use egg substitutes, so I can't speak to them. But changing the number of eggs in a recipe will dramatically change the outcome. The proportion of eggs to milk is important to the consistency of custards, so on any cream pies or custard pies, the proportion needs to stay the same.

Spices: You can totally substitute here. I have a friend who's daughter is allergic to cinnamon, and all fall long, we substitute nutmeg and allspice in for cinnamon. Like more cinnamon? Go ahead and add it in. Watch out, we're getting crazy here.

Fats: can often be substituted on a one to one basis, but it will affect the final outcome. For instance, shortening has a different melting point than butter. Cookies made with shortening will spread while baking much less than cookies made with butter. And pie crusts made with shortening will hold their shaping much better than pie crusts made with butter. That being said, I still prefer the flavor of butter. I know, huge surprise.

This subject is one with countless variations. If the ways that the protein content of flour or the type of fat you use impact the final outcome of recipes is interesting, you should spend a few years reading "CookWise," and "BakeWise," by Shirely Corriher. I've also heard good things about the works of Harold McGee, but I've not read his books so I can't vouch for them.

One thing that I talk about quite a bit and can't be changed is the temperature of butter in a pie crust. If you roll out the butter and the flour like I suggest, the butter has to remain solid, or generally lower than 68°. If you  combine butter and flour like this, you end up with thin sheets of butter separated by layers of flour, which creates the flaky texture we all want in our pie crusts. If the butter gets warmer, you will end up with butter and flour all the way through the crust, with no distinction between the layers. Still tasty, just not the texture we're going for.

This pie is another variation on Hypocrite Pie, but it's such warm comfort food that the name seems inappropriate here. At one time, the only way to preserve fruit was to dry it, thus dried fruits feature prominently in older cook books. The fruit is often re-hydrated, like it is here. Then the fruit is layered on a pie crust, a custard is poured over and baked. In the last few minutes of baking, you add a meringue. The result is creamy, soft, and homey, like something your mother or grandmother would have served you. You should go and make it right now.

Dried Peach Custard Pie

Crust

1 ½ C. AP flour
1 tsp. sugar
½ tsp. salt
6 Tbsp. butter, chilled and cut into 1/2 tablespoon pats
2 Tbsp. butter flavored shortening, chilled and cut into 1/2 tablespoon pats
4-5 Tbsp. cold water

Combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Toss the flour mixture with the butter and shortening pats, making sure that each piece is covered by flour. Put the mixture in the fridge for ten minutes to chill the fats. Dump the mixture out onto a counter and roll over it with a rolling pin. Scrape the mixture back together and roll over it again. Repeat scraping together and rolling out until the mixture resembles large paint chips. It's important that the fats remain cold, so if you ever think the fats are getting too warm, put the mixture back in the fridge for a little while. Add the water and briefly knead together, being careful to keep the fats cool. Make sure that you have a dough that is moist enough to hold together, but it should not be sticky. If the dough is still crumbly, add water a teaspoon at a time. Chill the dough for 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough and fit it into a pie plate. Return the pie crust to the fridge until it is needed.

Peach Filling

½ C. dried peaches
½ C. water

Put the peaches and water in a small pot. Heat, covered, over low heat. If the pot dries out, you can add a little more water. When they absorb most of the water and are soft, mash with a fork or a food processor.

Custard

⅓ C. sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
3 egg yolks, room temp (keep the whites for the meringue)
3 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 C. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
pinch salt

Pre-heat your oven to 350°.

In a small bowl, combine the sugar and flour until there are no lumps.

In a larger bowl, whisk the egg yolks, then whisk in the melted butter. Whisk in the milk, vanilla, and salt. Whisk in the sugar/flour mixture.

Spread the peach puree in the pie crust. Pour the custard mixture over the peach puree. Put in the oven and cook until the custard is just set, about 40 minutes.

Meringue

3 egg whites
¼ C. + 2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Toward the end of the baking time above, beat the egg whites until foamy. Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until the meringue holds stiff peaks, but is not dry. Stir in the vanilla extract.

When the custard is set, remove from the oven and top with the meringue. Swirl and make some divots and waves. Return to the oven to cook for an additional 10 to 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes. If you eat it warm, it's completely comfort food. Anything not eaten should go into the fridge, where it will keep for a couple of days, if you don't eat it first.