Recipe: Strawberries and Cream Pie

Lately I've been on a pie making kick. My goal is to make a kick-ass crust that is both gluten free and tastes good. I think I've succeeded. Now, I just need to figure out how to transfer it from the parchment paper to the pie plate without it looking like a complete mess. I'll keep working at it until I get it right. There's nothing I like better than a baking challenge. It's almost summer time and there are a bunch of berry and fruit recipes that I would like to try.
Last week I bought some strawberries from an office fundraiser. They came from my coworker's pick-your-own farm. Wegmeyer Farms.  In the summer he has berries and in the fall he has pumpkins and gourds. If you're in the Loudoun County area stop by the farm, I'm sure they'd love to see you.

Since I had a whole quart of strawberries I decided to try the strawberries and cream pie recipe that I found at allrecipes.com. I've adapted it a bit to make it gluten free but I imagine it to be just as yummy as it's wheaty counterpart.

This recipe takes a bit of time but that's only because it needs to be chilled for about 4 hours.

I made two pies* by doubling the recipe.

Strawberries and Cream Pie
Prep time: 20 mins
Bake time: 10-15 mins
Refrigerate: 4 hours
Serves: 8

Pie crust:
Follow directions for Bob's Red Mill pie crust from my Strawberry Rhubarb Pie recipe.
* If you're going to make two pies make two batches of this crust. I tried to split the dough and make two crusts out of it but I ended up with a really thin and brittle crust.

Filling:
Ingredients

• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened (I used the pre-whipped kind)
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup mashed fresh strawberries
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

Directions

• In a small mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Stir in the strawberries. In another small mixing bowl, beat cream until it begins to thicken.
  

• Gradually add confectioners' sugar, beating until stiff peaks form. Fold into the cream cheese mixture. Spoon into the crust. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight

If you prefer you can skip making your own whipped cream and just fold in a small tub of ready-made whipped cream. It'll turn out just fine. If you do decide to use the ready-made whipped cream you won't need the heavy whipping cream or the confectioners' sugar. 

The result is a completely creamy, strawberry-y, delicious little bit of summer heaven.

Suggestion: when you're buying strawberries from the grocery store, farmer's market, or Wegmeyer Farms stop and smell them before you put them in your basket. They should smell sweet and have a dark red color. These berries are the sweetest and will add that much more flavor to your pie. If you don't smell anything when you're sniffing them, put them back. Those are likely to have less flavor and sweetness. And last but not least, don't discount the small berries, sometimes those are the ones that pack the biggest flavor punch.

Until next time...
Enjoy!
 

Recipe: French Silk Pie

Happy Labor Day Everyone!
I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend. The family and I had a definitely did. It was chock full of fun activities and a little bit of doing nothing. I also happened to do a lot of cooking and baking this weekend...not that I minded one little bit. There is nothing better in the world than making friends and family smile. The way I see it there is only one surefire way of making that happen and that's to feed them delicious food.

My weekend started last Thursday. I had to leave work a little early because I had some errands to run. So, I had a bit of time before my hubby came home from work and I thought I would make him his favorite pie...French Silk.

This recipe is so very simple to make and so worth every single calorie. This recipe has been adapted from a recipe of I retrieved from Faithanne on Bakespace.

Crust:

• 1-1/2 cups GF All Purpose Baking Flour (I recommend using Bob's Red Mill GF AP Flour and not Mama's Gluten Free Almond Blend)*
• 1/4 tsp xanthan gum + a little extra
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/2 cup Margarine (one stick)
• 1 Tbsp Vanilla (if you can, use the real stuff not the imitation)
• 4 Tbsp Cold Milk

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 400.
• Mix all ingredients together. To make the job a bit easier cut the margarine into small cubes before mixing the dough together with a pastry blender or fork.  To show you just how well I follow directions I just realized as I was typing this that I've been using butter and not margarine sticks. Don't do what I did. Use margarine and not butter. Using butter sounds like a good idea but it makes the pie crust gooey and difficult to press into the pie pan. 
• Add the vanilla and milk one tablespoon at a time until you have incorporated all of the liquid. The dough might be a little dry and that's ok. I found that it works well to continue to work the dough with my hands (yes, I washed them first) until all of it came together.
• Place dough in between two pieces of parchment, flatten the dough with your hand, then roll out to the appropriate size with a rolling pin. Be careful not to roll it out too thin.
• Remove the dough from the parchment. This might not be easy. The dough might be a little sticky in some places. That's ok.
• Press dough into the pie pan and poke holes in the dough to allow steam to escape while baking. This will keep the crust from bubbling. 
• Bake for 10-20 minutes depending on whether or not your oven runs hot or not. Mine does so 10 minutes is good for me. The crust should be nicely browned.
• Let the crust cool completely before adding the filling.

Use a stoneware pie pan whenever possible. Not glass like I did.

Filling: 

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

2-oz semisweet or bittersweet (60% cacao) chocolate, melted and cooled**

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs, room temperature 

Directions:In a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of an electric mixer), cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in chocolate and vanilla extract.
Add in one egg and beat at medium speed for 5 minutes (I prefer the paddle to the whisk if you’re using an electric mixer). Scrape down sides of bowl. Add in the second egg and beat for an additional five minutes. Mixture should be very light and smooth.
Pour into pre-baked pie crust and smooth with a spatula.
Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving, until firm.
Serve cold, with whipped cream and chocolate shavings, if desired.

Makes 1 pie. Serves 8.

Again, I failed to follow directions and didn't see that I was supposed to beat each egg into the chocolate mixture for 5 minutes each. What I did was to let the mixer run for longer after I added the 2nd egg. It still turned out just fine.

*Mama's gluten free almond blend flour is wonderful to bake with. I did find that it produces a crispier crust. If you prefer your pie crusts crispier I say go for it. If you want a thicker crust stick with using Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free AP flour. Definitely don't forget to add the xanthan gum. 
  
** I did this in a double boiler on my stove. To me it's worth the extra time for a smoother finish. The original recipe calls for 1 ounce of chocolate. 1 ounce of chocolate is definitely not enough in my book so I doubled the amount. 


To finish off the pie I took Faithanne's advice and added a dollop of whipped cream to the pie before hubby and I dived in. Hubby liked it so much he took some to work with him to share with his coworkers. The report was that it was a hit there too. 


Delicious, decadent, creamy, and chocolatey. Who could ask for more? 


Bon Appetite