Thursday, July 9, 2015

Stars & Stripes Patriotic Pie, A Holiday Best!

Susanna Smith inspired this creation by sending me a link on facebook... and I knew I had to make a patriotic pie for Independence Day!

I didn't use the recipe accompanying the picture, it called for canned pie filling and that just isn't the norm here in Ruthy's kitchen, not when making pie filling is really easy-peasy!

So pick a pie crust of your choice. My recipe is here, it's my all-time favorite, but if you buy the pie crust the world as we know it won't end! I promise!!!

Here's the goal, my friends!


And here's how we get there!

I like firm-set pies that cut beautifully, so I do my fillings on the stove-top first. That way, once cool, the pie doesn't ooze and run, but you can just mix the fillings in a bowl and put them in the appropriate sections! I used a deep dish 9" pie pan, so these measurements work for that. If you're not cooking the fillings first on the stovetop (and that's fine!) don't use water! Water is only for pre-cooking, just use berries, sugar, cornstarch and dot with butter.

I didn't have fresh berries and cherries, so I used frozen wild blueberries and frozen strawberries and fresh cherries. Great textures!

Blueberry filling:

3 cups blueberries
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon butter

Mix water and blueberries in 2 quart pan on stove top. Heat over medium heat. Mix sugar and cornstarch in bowl, add to hot blueberries, and stir until thick and bubbly, about two minutes. Add in butter, remove from heat, stir and set aside.



Strawberry filling:

4 cups strawberries
1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons butter
Do the same thing! Mix strawberries and water in 3 quart pan, bring to boil. Mix sugar and cornstarch together. Add to strawberries, stir while thickening, add butter, stir and set aside.

Add 3 cups fresh pitted cherries to strawberry mixture.



Roll out pie crust and line the pan with it. I took step-by-step pictures of this, and I crimped the edge of the pie crust because I love crimped edges!


Lay crust in pan, trim overhanging edges to about 1" +/- , then fold it under like you see below.


Now to crimp the edge, I poke the inside edge of the crust (closest to where the filling will be) with the index finger of my left hand, and using the thumb and pointer finger of my right hand, I "pinch" a small section of the dough around that pokey finger! Pinch! Pinch! Pinch!!!  And here's a crimped edge:


Yes, I love it!!!!!!

 Fold a piece of aluminum foil to make an "L" and section off a corner of the pan for the blueberry mix.



Fill the small section with blueberry filling.

Fill the large section with the strawberry/cherry filling.



Roll out second crust. Using a little star-shaped cookie cutter, cut out five or six stars, whatever fits on your "blue field".

Cut strips for stripes from the rest of the pie!


I cover the edges with two strips (or so!) of narrow, folded aluminum foil to prevent over-browning. If you don't cook the filling first, pie will need more baking time.

Bake at 425° for about twenty minutes.

And although facebook thought it was too pretty to eat, I assure you, we did eat it, LOL!


Notice how well the filling stays together in the cooled pie. It cuts beautifully, so other than apple pie (apples maintain a better firmness when cooked, and have more pectin) I usually do a quick cook of berry and rhubarb pie fillings.

And here's some 4th of July at the farm!


Maple-glazed bacon made an appearance!!!!

Trimming trees to give the chickens more sun and remove some of the shelter Mr. Coyote has been using to creep around the chicken coop! GO AWAY, COYOTE!

Mr. Coyote might be seeing the business end of ... Wait, I can't say that here! :)

But rest assured, Mr. Coyote would be better served to hunt mice and rats and ... anything but chickens!

And then there's this, a special Happy Independence Day from six-month-old Morgan Delaney...


#happy

And Happy Canada Day to my good buddies across the pond! Hugging you!

And a quick glimpse of our new Seeker summer collections, going live this week!


Gotta love stormin' into summer with good food and great books!


18 comments:

  1. Good morning, Ruthy.
    That pie looks scrumptious. I'll just pretend I'm having a big ole piece with my morning coffee.

    Mmmmm. Tastes just as good as it looks.

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    1. Cate, I understand virtual indulgence! This is perfect when you've got company coming, even if it's not a holiday! But it's pure temptation when there's some left over!!! EEEK!

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  2. Ruthy, your lies always look stupendous, and this one is no exception. Not to mention SO patriotic. I get what you're saying about firm fillings, too. Nothing worse than cutting into a pie, removing one slice and then filling spreads to fill that empty space. Last person to get a slice gets crust, maybe with a little juice, right?

    And that bacon!!!!! Be still my heart. Sounds like a great fourth at Ruthy's house.

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    1. Mindy, I think I learned this trick from an old Yankee Magazine cookbook, and it worked! I loved making berry pies... raspberry??? OH BE STILL MY HEART!!!!! But to have that puddle, and then soggy crust. :( So sad. So this method works perfectly!!!! I make me happy and you know, if Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy! :)

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  3. I saw that pie on Facebook when Susanna shared it, and I knew you could do us proud with your version! It looks so Americana I could burst :)

    And thanks for the tip about sectioning off part of the pie with foil. Ingenious!

    But don't show this post to my family. They'll want pie, and there's no baking until after my deadline!!!!

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    1. What's Carrie's e-mail addy????? Wait. FACEBOOK!!!!!!

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  4. Showed this to the high school girlfriends and they LOVED it. I showed them the patriotic strawberries too. So fun. Yay. I love July.

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    1. Sandra, have so much fun with the chickies!!!!! I love this kind of thing, WAY FUN. And yeah, I love the July huggin-the-bbq stuff too!

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  5. Oh wow! That's beautiful!!! I'd be fighting for the blueberry part. LOL

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    1. Missy, I've got to tell you, doing it with the frozen wild blueberries was better than domestic fresh. I don't know why, they have a slightly different flavor and texture, but half of my family doesn't like blueberry filling, but they loved this! So this week we're doing Maine Wild Blueberry crepes and I bet we have some blueberry converts here! I'd never tried to use them before.

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  6. yours looks even better! (and I didnt' read the recipe just saw the crust LOL I knew you made crust from scratch) though I thought later I could probably take the frozen stuff and thaw it out and cut strips out of it ha! but then I'd have had to do the canned stuff and I don't like that stuff either but the from scratch version looks easy enough..

    now I'm hungry!

    Susanna

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    1. Susanna, I know how hard you're working to be good! I'm so proud of you, and thank you, thank you, thank you for tipping me off about this. It was a huge hit!

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    2. thanks but I've slipped several times_ and by slipped I mean ate worse than I planned- I do eat sweets still but try not to make it a huge daily event- either a little bit most days or when I'm where they have good desserts(like old town Katy's tea room...or family recipe at Christmas)

      Susanna

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  7. Ooo, more collections! You guys must be whipping these out in your sleep! I just can't keep up with everything you all have out there.

    That pie looks delish! I'm enjoying a hot cup of coffee at the sweetest little coffee shop on the beach. I've been to a lot of coffee shops this trip, some were better than others. Then I got smart and asked the locals. And wayyyyy down the beach, a little cedar shingled house all gray from the sun and surf, the sweetest cottage-turned-café with the loveliest woman. Her five kids are almost the same age as mine, so they're down on the beach, poking at tidepools... and I can still see them from where I sit. Just perfect! Happiness!

    Thanks for the recipe, Susanna!

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    1. That's my favorite kind of coffee shop! I love folks who are as crazy as I am, who don't consider me insane because I have a big family and I'm well... insane! I'm so glad you're enjoying a wonderful vacation! And I can't say enough about how fun it is to work with these ladies... And to meet their readers! We are blessed to play in the pond together, dabble our toes. Not the ocean, mind you, wiggling toes might be shark bait there! #nosharkzone

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    2. Oh Virginia, that sounds heavenly.

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  8. Your pastry crust always looks divine. Mine never looks like that. I'm always patching together -- looks like a crazy quilt! And thanks for the tip about cooking the pie filling first. That had never occurred to me.

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  9. You are awesome! This is so stinking cute, I pinned it to my patriotic board.

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