Fruit Tarts (and pies) -- baking at home

Some seasonal berry business . . .


Blueberry Tart
A little rough around the edges but there's a story behind that.


A Wee Slice
Ideally, I'd prefer a thicker crust but here, my goal was to use up the remnants of some dough I made earlier in the week. This was all I had and on top of that, I used my smallest tart pan (7" drop-bottom). The result was a tasty but somewhat thinly-crusted tart. Filling was fresh blueberries, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, corn starch and a pinch of salt. I have another fruit tart crust recipe that uses ~30% cornmeal -- a great match for blueberries. I might give that one a shot soon.

=R=

[quote="ronnie_suburban”]

Blueberry Tart
A little rough around the edges but there's a story behind

Beautiful!!

ronnie_suburban wrote:Some seasonal berry business . . .
I have another fruit tart crust recipe that uses ~30% cornmeal -- a great match for blueberries. I might give that one a shot soon.

=R=

Yum! re cornmeal, if this isn't the one you have (originally published in NYT), check it out - it's fantastic.
https://www.alisoneroman.com/recipes/bl ... nmeal-tart

Jacques Pepin has 3 different methods for making puff pastry depending on your time and energy.

https://ww2.kqed.org/essentialpepin/201 ... puffed-up/

I usually use the simplest method to make a Rustic Tart/Galette on a sheet pan.
Lately I have been using Pastry Flour from Jennie’s Mill.
https://www.janiesmill.com/collections/ ... stry-flour
Probably not any different than KA pastry flour but I just like to use a smaller producer closer to home!
About two weeks ago, I made a BlueBerry Rustic Galette which gave me the idea for a 4th of July Tart in the shape of the original Betsy Ross Flag.
The blueberry section will have white chocolate dots for the Original 13 Colonies and whipped cream stripes over cherry or strawberry will comprise the rest of the flag.
I will try to Post a picture when done.
-Richard

I was just mulling over a fruit galette - you've convinced me

Thanks for the feedback, comments and suggestions. I hope others are taking full advantage of the season and baking away. If so, I'd love to see/hear about it.

My son brought me several quarts of tart cherries from Skinners Homestead Acres (Fennville, MI), one of the vendors at the Logan Square Farmers market that were beyond stellar. Large, ruby red and just the perfect balance of tart and sweet -- maybe the best I've ever had. They were so good, it was an honor to pit them.

In any case, I used some of them to bake another pie today . . .


Tart Cherry Pie


A La Mode

=R=

Taking a couple of seasonal fruit desserts to a family gathering later today. The first . . .


Blueberry Tart w/Cornmeal Crust
I strayed a wee bit but this is a fairly faithful take on Alison Roman's recipe (thanks, Anna! ). I had a recipe for this that I used in the past but that one calls for eggs and this one doesn't. Given the humidity today and my desire for a crisp crust, I liked the idea of not including eggs (which tend to soften doughs up).

Next up was one that's becoming pretty familiar around here . . .


Tart Cherry Pie
This marks the end of my trove of extra special Michigan-grown tart cherries. Hoping to score some more next week but if not, it was a damned good run this year.

Probably no slice shots on these. I *guess* it would be kind of rude to show up at the gathering with wedges missing from both desserts!

=R=

More seasonal fruit . . .


7 & 9" Peach & Blueberry Tarts w/ Cornmeal Crust and Peach & Blueberry Pie w/Dough Scraps


Peach & Blueberry Tart
This 9" tart and the pie will go to the office tomorrow. I'm having mixed feelings about this. As wonderful as these look and taste, the peaches that went into them were so good, eating them as is would have been just as wonderful . . . but they were getting quite ripe, so this seemed like the best play.

Happy Monday!

=R=

Stop, just stop! All these perfectly delicious looking pies are killing me. I’d bite my phone but I don't want to break my teeth.

Ronnie - have you had any issues with the bottom crust of your pies not being as crisp as you would like? If so - how have you mitigated it? This problem has come up recently for me - I've tried baking on the bottom rack of my oven but that hasn't fully fixed it for me. I think maybe I'm not rolling my crusts thin enough, but I had an issue before where my crusts were too thin which caused them to slump.

I feel like baking pie crusts has been like playing whack-a-mole - I fix one problem and something else comes up.

Also - I totally agree with the above comment - your pies do look beautiful - peach is one of my very favorite pie flavors ever!

- zork

zorkmead wrote:Ronnie - have you had any issues with the bottom crust of your pies not being as crisp as you would like? If so - how have you mitigated it? This problem has come up recently for me - I've tried baking on the bottom rack of my oven but that hasn't fully fixed it for me.
- zork

Hi,

I used bottom rack with a preheated sheet pan, then the pie's full bottom surface makes contact with heat. I usually begin at 425, then bring it down to 375 or 350.

I never had a problem with soggy bottoms.

Cathy2

G Wiv wrote:Stop, just stop! All these perfectly delicious looking pies are killing me. I’d bite my phone but I don't want to break my teeth.

Don't do that!!

zorkmead wrote:Ronnie - have you had any issues with the bottom crust of your pies not being as crisp as you would like? If so - how have you mitigated it? This problem has come up recently for me - I've tried baking on the bottom rack of my oven but that hasn't fully fixed it for me. I think maybe I'm not rolling my crusts thin enough, but I had an issue before where my crusts were too thin which caused them to slump.

I feel like baking pie crusts has been like playing whack-a-mole - I fix one problem and something else comes up.

Also - I totally agree with the above comment - your pies do look beautiful - peach is one of my very favorite pie flavors ever!

Thanks. I agree about peach. When they're right, they're right. These were so good, I was glad I held a couple back just to eat on their own. I used virtually zero sugar in the filling -- maybe a tablespoon or 2. They were that perfect.

Cathy2 wrote:I used bottom rack with a preheated sheet pan, then the pie's full bottom surface makes contact with heat. I usually begin at 425, then bring it down to 375 or 350.

I never had a problem with soggy bottoms.

Cathy's baked way more pies than I have but I'm in the same camp, at least when it comes to buttery/flaky pie dough. I usually bake them for the first ~25 minutes at 425F on a pre-heated baking sheet (rotating them halfway through), then the rest of the way at 350F. That seems to mitigate any soggy bottoms. Of course, this time of year, with the humidity, it's a short window before things just soften up anyway. I hated having to bake these a day ahead but bringing them to the office, that was the best I could muster.

It's a bit different with the cornmeal-crusted tarts. I used no eggs and swapped out the brown sugar for granulated. What I may have lost flavor-wise I gained in crispiness. A trade well worth making.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:My son brought me several quarts of tart cherries .... They were so good, it was an honor to pit them.

You raised that boy right!

mamagotcha wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:My son brought me several quarts of tart cherries .... They were so good, it was an honor to pit them.

You raised that boy right!

Aw, shucks.

Mostly, I think he likes pie!

=R=

Cathy2 wrote:
I never had a problem with soggy bottoms.

Cathy2

Banner Quote!

Dave148 wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:
I never had a problem with soggy bottoms.

Cathy2

Banner Quote!

LOL - I couldn't agree more!

=R=

Still more seasonal fruit (working through my Peach Truck stock) . . .


Peach Blueberry Pie
Experimented by using 25% whole wheat flour in this crust, and I really liked the result. No difference in texture but a nuttier, more complex flavor.


Slice a la Mode
This was really a juicy one. Maybe could have used a bit more corn starch in the filling. I had to try a slice but I'm so glad I have an office where I can share the stuff I've been baking lately. I get to keep baking, not eating too much of it and nothing ever goes to waste.

Looking forward to getting through a bit more fruit and then turning my attention here.

=R=

Taking this peach pie to a friend . . .


Peach Pie
25% whole wheat flour in the dough. Between baking and giving away a lot of them, I'm finally through my half of the ~25-pound box of Georgia peaches I bought last week off the truck in the Menard's parking lot near my office.

Psst . . . the Michigan peaches I get at Jewel and Whole Foods are way better.

=R=

Another seasonal fruit pie . . .


Peach & Sweet Cherry Pie
25% whole wheat flour crust. Wasn't sure what I was going to do with some sweet cherries my son brought me from the Logan Square Farmers Market (not sure which farmer). They tasted great but were pretty mushy, so into the pie they went!

=R=

First -- and likely not the last -- apple pie of the season . . .


Apple Pie
75% Honeycrisp, 25% Granny Smith

Made this for some friends, so if I can get a slice shot later, I will but that may not happen.

=R=

Never got a shot last night but did get a day-after shot this morning. Not a half-bad breakfast . . .


Apple Pie A La Mode

=R=

Not a half-bad breakfast . . .

Wow - looks great. This brings back memories - growing up in the Pacific Northwest - we had a couple of apple trees in our backyard and often had apple pie for breakfast (Mom never sweetened it though - we added sugar to our slices at the table)!

- zorkmead

zorkmead wrote:

Not a half-bad breakfast . . .

Wow - looks great. This brings back memories - growing up in the Pacific Northwest - we had a couple of apple trees in our backyard and often had apple pie for breakfast (Mom never sweetened it though - we added sugar to our slices at the table)!

- zorkmead

Thank you. I've never heard of only sweetening a pie upon eating it. I could see not adding any sugar when baking a pie -- and almost did earlier this year -- with some really sweet peaches but never thought of doing it with an apple pie. In this case, I used 200g of sugar (50/50 granulated and dark brown) for just over 3 net pounds of apples and none of us thought it was overly sweet. Am I not getting the right apples?

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:Thank you. I've never heard of only sweetening a pie upon eating it. I could see not adding any sugar when baking a pie -- and almost did earlier this year -- with some really sweet peaches but never thought of doing it with an apple pie. In this case, I used 200g of sugar (50/50 granulated and dark brown) for just over 3 net pounds of apples and none of us thought it was overly sweet. Am I not getting the right apples?

Personally, I wouldn't try it with apples either! What with peeling and slicing the fruit, rolling and chilling the crust, etc. I would stick with a proven formula

The trees in our yard were Golden Delicious - I don't think those are normally baking apples? We had a lot of them to use up. I'm sure there was sugar in the crust and the filling was sort of dry, not your typical apple pie filling.

I think sweetening the pie to taste at the table was quirky thing my mom did - I've never served pie that way or heard of anyone else doing it (even in my mom's family). I've never even thought of trying it. However, if I have some fruit that is very sweet and will break down when baked (like your peaches, or plums) I have mixed it with another type of fruit in fruit crisps without adding sugar to the filling, but I always add sugar in the 'crisp' topping.

- zorkmead

Fig frangipane tart