Dutch Berry Pie

A slice of Dutch Berry Pie.

Apple might be the best known Dutch or crumb topped pie but berry is darn good too.

Pre-cooking the berry mixture helps control the bubbling juices during baking and makes for an easy pie to slice and serve.

For beginning bakers, this is the pie to make. Because it has no top crust, it's one of the easiest pies to assemble.

Here's the recipe:

Dutch Berry Pie
(makes one 10-inch pie)


Berry Filling:
1 16 ounce bag frozen mixed berries
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup heavy cream

In a medium-sized saucepan combine the berries, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Over medium-high heat, bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring frequently and breaking apart the berries.

In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and cream. Add this to the simmering berry mixture and continue cooking, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens. Remove from the heat and let cool completely before using.

Crust: 
1 1/2 cups flour
2 /3 cups vegetable shortening
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt and sugar. Add Crisco and using your fingers, break it into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs with some large pieces remaining.
Add the water, just a few tablespoons at a time until the dough is moist enough to pull together into a ball. Roll out on a floured surface for the bottom crust.

Place the dough in a 10-inch pie pan and crimp the edges.


Topping:
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Combine all of the ingredients in a medium-sized bowl, using your fingers to break apart the butter. The mixture should resemble coarse crumbs.

To assemble and bake:

Preheat the oven to 400  degrees.

Fill the crust with the berry filling and sprinkle on the topping.

Place the pie on a sheetpan to catch any spills in the oven.

Bake for 5 minutes at 400 degrees, then reduce the temperature to 350 and continue baking for 40 to 50 minutes or until the topping and crust are golden brown.

*Note: Cooking the pie at a higher temperature for the first five minutes helps set the crust and keep its shape in place. If you put a pie into a lower temperature oven, the crust will cook too slowly at first and droop.

Early Morning Shopping

My cart at Cash 'n' Carry.

My Wednesday started with an early morning shopping trip to buy food for the community meal.

I received word on Tuesday from our gleaners that there was rice, soup, apples, cucumbers and red peppers but no main protein for the meal.

I like to wait to the last minute before shopping just in case some food comes in late.

So this morning I left the house at 7 a.m. and headed to Cash 'n' Carry where I bought pork loins and salad greens.

It's always hard not knowing how many people will come to eat but I try to error on the side of getting too much food because we can always offer seconds.

Once I got to Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, my friends and fellow volunteers worked hard and by the time we were ready to open our doors, we were ready to offer plates of roasted pork, caramelized apples and baked potatoes topped with sour cream and green onions. The guests were very happy.

Volunteers Leah and Ann are such a help to me. They always arrive early and help prep the vegetables for the salads. It's a tedious job and they never complain.

In addition to the main meal there was soup, salad and dessert.  The latter was pumpkin chocolate spice cake made by super volunteer Cheryl. Yum!

Servings of pumpkin spice cake.

We served 376 meals today.

How To Make Tofu Tasty

A pan of crispy tofu.

I think tofu gets a bad rap because of its soft texture and the fact that it's often served under-seasoned.

Let's face it, out of the package it is pretty blah. But diced, seasoned and baked in a hot oven, it becomes a flavorful and crispy treat.

My family loves it and I think you will too. It's also good for you and inexpensive. Stay positive and please give tofu a try.

Crispy  Oven-Fried Tofu

1 package extra firm tofu
Canola cooking spray
Salt
Black pepper
Any additional seasonings of your choice

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Line a baking sheet with parchment or aluminum foil and spray liberally with the canola cooking spray or the tofu will stick.

Pat the block of tofu dry with a paper towel and cut it into 1/2 to 1-inch squares. Place the tofu on the prepared baking sheet and coat the tofu with the canola cooking spray.

A pan of tofu before seasoning.

Season the tofu liberally with salt, black pepper and any seasoning of your choice. I like chili powder, cumin and oregano.

Bake in the hot oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until the tofu is brown and crispy.

Lavender Cookies

After weeks of dark rainy weather in Portland,  yesterday was surprisingly warm, sunny and reminiscent of Spring so these lavender cookies were what I chose to make.

Only four colors of royal icing are needed to create them - white, green and two shades of violet. It's important that your royal icing is the right piping consistency to get a crisp looking scalloped edge and leaf and bloom details. Toothpaste is the best way for me to describe the desired consistency.

I let the base icing dry for 20 minutes before adding the lavender decorations so that the flowers would sit on top of the cookie and not sink into the icing.

I can imagine these would be a hit at just about any tea party. I made an additional super-sized cookie for my daughter Eleanor to present to her friend Momoko on her birthday. Because I don't have any giant square cutters, I cut the cookie freehand using my 6-inch bench scraper.

Here's how to decorate them:

With piping consistency white icing and a #1 tip, pipe a scalloped border.

Add a border to all of the cookies.

With flood consistency white icing and a #2 tip, flood the cookies and use a skewer to move the icing and evenly fill the cookie. Let the flooded cookies dry for 20 minutes.

With piping consistency green icing and a #1 tip, add lavender stems.

With the same icing, add "v's" to a few sections of the stems.

Do this to all of the cookies.

With  two shades of piping consistency violet icing and #1 tips, pipe dots on top of the "v" sections of the stems.

Because the base icing was left to dry for 20 minutes, the lavender will sit on top of the cookie and add dimension.

I like to use self-sealing cellophane bags to package the cookies.

Petite Pies

Move over cake balls.  I've created Petite Pies, a new mini dessert that I'm anxious to share with you.

When I first made the berry-filled treats for my family earlier this week, they went absolutely bonkers for them. The next day, my daughter shared a few with her friends, causing one of them to tell her, "that's the best thing I've ever put in my mouth!"

Petite Pies came about because I'm making treats for the October 25th performance of my friend Sharon Whitney's acclaimed play, "Eleanor Roosevelt-Across a Barrier of Fear." Eleanor's favorite dessert was pie so I wanted to make a pie treat that would be small and easy to eat without a fork or napkin.

The secret to making them is a really good berry filling that is precooked so that the juices don't run all over and make a mess as you are assembling them.

The crust is just my favorite shortening pie crust that I rolled and cut with a 3-inch round cookie cutter. After baking the pies, I drizzled them with a glaze.

I'm anxious to experiment with other fillings. When a pie is this small of a size, you can enjoy more than three before even coming close to eating the equivalent of a slice of pie.

Following is the recipe if you'd like to try making them. Or, you can have a taste if you attend the Friday night performance of "Eleanor Roosevelt-Across a Barrier of Fear."

Here are the details to reserve a seat:

Trinitarian Sharon Whitney's acclaimed play, "Eleanor Roosevelt-Across a Barrier of Fear," starring Jane Van Boskirk, is scheduled for two performances, Friday, October 25 at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday, October 26 at 1:00 p.m. in Kempton Hall. To reserve a seat, visit www.trinity-episcopal.org. Seating is limited. A $10 donation at the door is suggested. This is an offering from the Cathedral Arts Committee.  


Petite Pies
(makes approximately 36 to 40)

Berry Filling:
1 16 ounce bag frozen mixed berries
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup heavy cream

In a medium-sized saucepan combine the berries, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Over medium-high heat, bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring frequently and breaking apart the berries.

In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and cream. Add this to the simmering berry mixture and continue cooking, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens. Remove from the heat and let cool completely before using.

Pie Crust:
4 cups flour
1 1/3 cup vegetable shortening
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
A glass of cold water

In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar and salt. Add the shortening and using your fingers break it into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs.

This is what the flour and shortening mixture should look like before adding the water.

Add the water, about 1/4 cup at a time until a soft dough can be formed. Be sure to use enough water since a moist pie dough is much easier to roll out than a dry one. A moist dough is also more malleable and you'll appreciate this when it comes to forming the pies.

Divide the dough in half and roll out each half on a well-floured surface until it is 1/4 inch thick. Cut 3-inch rounds using a cutter or glass. Place the rounds on parchment-lined sheetpans. Continue rolling until you've  used all the dough.

Keep cutting rounds until you've used all the dough.

To assemble and bake:
 Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Place a teaspoon of the filling in the center of each round. Using your fingers, pull the dough up over the sides of the filling and pinch it together.

Filling on the dough.

The pies after shaping.

Bake the Petite Pies for 5 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for another 20 to 25 minutes or until the pies are golden brown.

To Glaze:
As soon as the pies are out of the oven, make a glaze by mixing 1/2 cup of powdered sugar with 4 teaspoons of milk. Whisk the glaze until it is smooth and drizzle it over the pies. The glaze will set as the pies cool.

Just glazed Petite Pies. The glaze will harden as the pies cool.

Roast Pork Loin

Mmmm.....Our guests were very happy today.

The first 100 or so guests today at the Wednesday Community Meal were treated to oven-roasted pork loin and homemade mac and cheese. The lean meat was seasoned with a rub made of sugar, salt, cumin, garlic powder, black pepper, chili powder and Italian seasoning and came out of the oven with a nice flavorful crust and super moist inside.

Roast pork loin just out of the oven.

Volunteer Linda serving the pork. It's always a treat to put beautiful and nutritious food on the plates.

We served sauteed chard as a side with the pork. The just-picked chard was donated by longtime volunteer Kate who has an amazing garden and is so generous. Kate also brought in zucchini and squash that we roasted and served with the following entrees — crispy chicken wings, barbecue chicken, Thai green curry, sauteed beef and peppers, breaded halibut, oven-baked chicken, ribs and pizza.

We had to change our menu multiple times to utilize the food we receive from wonderful donors like Good Samaritan Hopspital, Phil's Uptown Meat Market and Pizza Schmizza.

The pork loin that we served was purchased by Trinity Episcopal Cathedral to extend the meal and help us feed every single person who comes to our door.


For dessert we served rice pudding made by volunteer Cheryl whose creativity amazes me. She made the rice pudding by mixing leftover cooked rice with boxed vanilla pudding. She topped servings of it with crushed Oreos and vanilla wafers and the guests loved it.

Cups of rice pudding topped with crushed Oreos and vanilla wafers.

We also served hot soup, salad and drinks.

At the end of the day, we served 266 meals and received the following comment from a satisfied guest that just about sums everything up:

"Nothing lifts the spirit like good food."

Dutch Apple Pie

A slice of Dutch Apple Pie in the process of being devoured.

I recently enjoyed a fun day of baking with my friend Cindy. She wanted to make some mini apple pies that she could share with friends.

One of the yet to be baked mini apple pies made by my friend Cindy.

With two people working, the task of peeling and chopping apples went by so fast that in the end we actually had four cups of surplus apples so we decided to also make a full-sized Dutch Apple Pie.

Because there is no top crust, the part I think is usually most stressful for novice pie makers, Dutch Apple is quick and easy to make. And, the topping,  made with rolled oats, flour, sugar and butter, adds a nice crunch and texture to the soft sweet filling. It really is comfort food at its best and the perfect antidote to blustery Fall weather. Who cares if it's rainy and cold outside when there's Dutch Apple Pie waiting inside?

Here's how to make it:

Dutch Apple Pie
(makes one 9-inch pie)

Crust: 
1 1/2 cups flour
2 /3 cups vegetable shortening
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt and sugar. Add Crisco and using your fingers, break it into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs with some large pieces remaining.
Add the water, just a few tablespoons at a time until the dough is moist enough to pull together into a ball. Roll out on a floured surface for the bottom crust.

Place the dough in a pie pan and crimp the edges. Chill while preparing the filling and topping.

Filling:
4 cups peeled and chopped apples (I like a combination of Granny Smith and Golden Delicious)
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch sea salt

Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Set aside while preparing the topping.

Topping:
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Combine all of the ingredients in a medium-sized bowl, using your fingers to break apart the butter. The mixture should resemble coarse crumbs.

To assemble and bake:

Preheat the oven to 400  degrees.

Fill the crust with the apples and sprinkle on the topping.

Place the pie on a sheetpan to catch any spills in the oven.

Bake for 5 minutes at 400 degrees, then reduce the temperature to 350 and continue baking for 40 to 50 minutes or until the topping and crust are golden brown and the juices are bubbling.

*Note: Cooking the pie at a higher temperature for the first five minutes helps set the crust and keep its shape in place. If you put a pie into a lower temperature oven, the crust will cook too slowly at first and droop.

Dutch apple pie before baking. The heart on top was made with a tiny piece of the dough and adds a nice touch.