I realize writing about a spring pie four days into the summer season is nothing short of seasonal sacrilege, but the spring fruit is still here and I’m a rhubarb, strawberry junkie. The beauty of the Spring Fling Pie is it invites some tropical friends to join the Midwest party and all of a sudden reds and yellows are having a seasonal tryst in your pie plate. Banana, pineapple, strawberry, and rhubarb make wonderful bedfellows.
This is a pie I made and took to my friend Catharine's farm for a potluck gathering to celebrate summer, animals, and life in general. It was a hot day, with temps in the 90s, so a fruit pie was the way to go because it can stand up to the heat. And it did stand up, until everyone ate it. It turns out having a Spring Fling at a summer party was acceptable.
The idea for this pie came from a 1938 cookbook titled Town Crier Recipe Book: 300 Lucky Low Cost Prize Winning Recipes. The cookbook endorsed Town Crier Family Flour made by The Midland Flour Milling Co. of Kansas City, Missouri. I haven't been able to determine what happened to the Midland Flour Milling Co, though I suspect it's long since gone out of business. I've sent an email of inquiry to the Missouri Historical Society and will wait to see if they can shed some light. I was paging through the book and found a recipe called Spring Medley Fruit Pie which offered the idea of changing up the usual strawberry-rhubarb combo. I adapted it by cutting the sugar in half and used my preferred recipe for Cook's Illustrated's Foolproof Pie Dough.
Spring Fling Pie
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Don't worry about dicing your fruit into small pieces.
In fact, I'd say I cut mine into chunks. I prefer the
aesthetics of larger cuts and keep in mind that fruit
will shrink during baking.
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Pie dough for a double crust (recipe here)
1 1/2 cups diced strawberries
1 1/2 cups died rhubarb
1 1/2 cups diced fresh pineapple
1 diced banana
1/2 cup flour
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 cup, plus 1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. butter
1 egg white
After making and refrigerating the dough, take one disk out of the fridge and roll it out on your generously floured work surface. Don't skimp on the flour or your dough is going to stick to the surface and the rolling pin. Roll the dough into a 12 inch circle and then gently fold that circle over your rolling pin and lift the dough into a 9-inch pie plate. Straighten out the dough gingerly and press it down into the plate. Leave the dough overhanging the plate and stick it in fridge to get firm, about 30 min.
Adjust oven rack to lowest position, place a rimmed baking sheet on the oven rack, and preheat the oven to 425 degrees. While the dough chills and the oven heats, clean and cut up the fruit, measuring it into a medium mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, measure and mix the flour, starch, and sugar thoroughly. Set both bowls aside.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pull out the other disk of refrigerated dough and roll out into a 15 x 11 inch rectangle. Using a pizza wheel, fluted pastry wheel, or pairing knife trim off uneven edges, then cut the rectangle lengthwise into 8 strips. Gently pick up the strips and lay them on the baking sheet. Put the baking sheet into the freezer to firm up the strips, about 20 min.
Pull the dough lined pie plate out of the fridge. Spread 1/4 of the flour, starch, & sugar mix in the bottom of the dough lined plate. Thoroughly combine the remaining flour, starch & sugar mix with the fruit. Pour the fruit filling into the pie plate. Cube the butter into small pieces and dot the filling with the butter.
Remove the pie strips from the freezer and if they're really stiff, let them sit at room temp until they soften a bit, but are still cold.
Now, you may think a lattice top pie is too difficult or that you can't do it, but you can. The first time I tried making a lattice top, I didn't realize you were supposed to weave the strips and just laid them out in a grid, but it was fine! If weaving the strips seems too much, then layer them. Either way, you're going to want four strips going across the pie one way and the other four strips laying perpendicular. Weave, don't weave, no biggie. This dough is extremely easy to bend, move, and repair.
After the strips are on the pie however you want them, trim off the excess ends, fold the dough rim of the shell up over the lattice strips and crimp with your fingers or a fork.
Next, grab a pastry brush or a smallish unused paint brush. Crack open your egg and separate the yolk from the whites. Use the brush to paint the egg white onto the top of your pie, coat the strips and the edge until they're glistening. Use the remaining Tablespoon of sugar to sprinkle over the dough, the sugar will stick to the wet egg white.
Take out the pre-baked rimmed baking sheet, set your pie on the sheet and put it into the oven to bake at 425 degrees until the top is light golden brown, about 20 to 25 min.
Then reduce the oven temp to 375 degrees, rotate the baking sheet and continue baking until the crust is deep gold brown, about 25 to 30 min. Pull the pie out and set it on a wire rack to cool for an hour or two.
Note: After reducing the oven temp to 375, I usually place a metal pie ring over the pie's edges to prevent it from getting too brown. If you don't have one of those and you think the edge is browning more than you'd like, just use tinfoil and place it around the edges. It's always important to keep an eye on your pie while it's baking. Ovens vary a great deal, so what cooks faster in your oven, may cook slower in mine. Baking times should be regarded as a suggestion.
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| Enjoy. |
Pies are what got me into baking. There’s much I can say about my failures and successes, and stories to go with, but that’ll be a post for another day.
