NJ SPICE

The Three Winners & their Pies

Here are more recipes from the July 4 blueberry pie contest at the West Windsor Community Farmers Market. I also want to add a shout-out to Market Manager Chris Cirkus for her fantastic contest organization, and for her signboard for the contest (Featured photo & at bottom of this post)- it deserves a prize of its own! Remember, if you want to enter the Peach Pie Contest (Aug. 15) or the Apple Pie Contest (Oct. 10), email wwcfm@yahoo.com for information.

First, the crust recipe for the First Place pie; the rest of the recipe is in the Lifestyle section of the Packet.

Berkshire Blueberry Pie

DOUBLE PIE CRUST (for Berkshire Blueberry Pie)

By Stephanie Lett

2 ½ cups All-Purpose Flour

2 tablespoons Sugar

1 teaspoon Salt

1 ½ sticks Unsalted Butter, cut into ¼” cubes and frozen on a plate

½ cup Vegetable Shortening (Crisco), cut into ¼” cubes and frozen on a plate

¼ cup Chilled Vodka

¼ cup Ice Water

1. In a large food processor (or a large bowl with a pastry cutter), pulse flour, sugar and salt until combined.
2. Scatter butter and shortening over flour mixture and pulse until no floury bits remain.
3. Sprinkle water and vodka over mixture and pulse until dough sticks together. (Dough will be sticky).
4. Divide into 2 equal pieces, shape into disks, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 1 hour, or up to 3 days.       Freezes well.
5. Roll out using plenty of flour between two sheets of parchment, flouring both sides intermittently.

Lavender Blueberry Pie

LAVENDER BLUEBERRY PIE (Second Place)

Rosanne Whitby, Princeton Junction

5 cups blueberries

1/3 cup flour

¾ t cinnamon

juice of ½ lemon

1/3 cup lavender sugar

1/3 cup sugar

1 T butter

Pastry shell (She used Trader Joe’s Gourmet Pie Crust, or use your favorite double crust recipe.)

Sprinkle lemon juice onto washed berries.  Combine sugars, flour, and cinnamon.  Add to berries and stir well.  Pour into pastry shell and dot with butter.  Place pastry over filling, seal and crimp edges.  Cut slits in top.

Bake at 375° for 45 minutes or until golden brown.

Doreen Garelick’s Blueberry Tart

FRESH BLUEBERRY TART (Third Place)

Doreen Garelick, West Windsor

Ingredients:

• 4 pints fresh blueberries (6 cups), rinsed and picked over to remove bad berries, leaves or stems
• ¾ cup granulated white sugar
• 1 small lemon, zested to yield 1 teaspoon zest and juiced to yield 2 teaspoons juice
• 4 tablespoons tapioca flour
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• ⅔ cup + 1 tablespoon (separated, for dusting) confectioners’ (powdered) sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick, very cold), cut into 24 cubes

Equipment:

• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons
• Citrus zester or fine grater or sharp knife
• Large soup pot
• Wood or plastic spoon, or something else to stir with
• Whisk
• Food processor (a food processor makes preparation easier, but it can be substituted with a strong fork, pastry cutter or hands)
• Plastic wrap or parchment paper
• 9- to 9½-inch tart pan with a removable bottom and fluted sides, about 1 to 1¼ inches high
• Box grater
• Sharp knife
• Cookie sheet
• Aluminum foil
• Metal or ceramic pie weights
• Small, fine mesh sieve

Prepare the filling:

In a large soup pot, toss 3 (of the 4) pints of fresh blueberries with sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and tapioca flour.  Cook on medium heat, stirring often, until the blueberry mixture looks like a like a thick jam and the berries are very soft (about 8 – 10 minutes).  Allow the filling to cool before assembling the tart.

Prepare the crust:

1. Whisk together yolk, cream and vanilla in a small bowl and set aside. In a food processor, pulse the flour, confectioners’ sugar and salt until combined. Scatter the butter cubes over the flour mixture and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse meal, about twenty 1-second pulses.  With the food processor running, add the egg mixture and process until the dough just comes together, about 30 seconds.  Turn the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap or parchment paper and use your fingers to press it into a 6-inch disk. Wrap the disk in plastic and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
2. Unwrap the dough and break the disk into two approximately equal pieces. Grate one piece of the dough using the larger holes on the box grater. Place the grated dough in the tart pan and arrange it evenly around the perimeter of the tart pan.  Use your fingers to press the dough up and slightly over the edge of the pan and into the fluted sides, to create the side crust of the tart.  Try to make the side crust dough an even thickness all around the edge of the pan.  Grate the remaining piece of the dough and place the grated dough in the center of the tart pan.  Use your fingers to arrange it evenly around the bottom of the pan.  Press the dough down into the pan to create the bottom crust of the tart and connect the side crust with the bottom crust.  Use a sharp knife to trim the excess dough from the fluted edge of the crust.
3. Freeze the dough in the tart pan for 30 minutes.
4. While the dough is chilling in the tart pan, adjust one oven rack to the upper-middle position and the other rack to the lower-middle position. Heat the oven to 375° F.  Place the chilled dough in the tart pan on a cookie sheet.  Press a 12-inch square of aluminum foil inside tart shell and fill it with metal or ceramic pie weights.  Bake on the lower rack for 30 minutes, rotating halfway through the baking time. Carefully remove the foil and weights.  Transfer the cookie sheet with the tart crust to the upper rack and continue to bake until the edge of the crust is deep golden brown, about 5 minutes longer.  Allow the crust to cool before assembling the tart.

Assemble the tart: Add the cooled filling to the tart and spread evenly.  Sit down in a comfortable place with a solid surface in front of you.  With patience, one-by-one, starting from the center, place enough of the remaining fresh blueberries, stem side up, on top of the cooked blueberry mixture, so that the top of the tart is completely covered with fresh blueberries.  Place the powdered sugar in the sieve and lightly dust the top of the tart.  Eat and enjoy!

Blueberry Crumb Pie

And here is a “bonus” recipe, the BLUEBERRY CRUMB PIE* from Sunita Kramer. While this pie didn’t place, I personally loved the crunchy topping and the well-browned crust that was nice and crispy around the edges.

*Adapted from Blueberry Crumble Pie recipe from Williams-Sonoma

Crust:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/8 t salt

1/3 cup cold butter

2T cold water

1 T cold vodka

Combine ingredients and Pre bake crust for 15 minutes at 400°F and transfer to wire rack

Filling:

5 T all-purpose flour

1/3 c firmly packed light brown sugar

1 t ground cinnamon

1 t lemon zest

1 T lemon juice

5 cups fresh local blueberries

Mix gently together in a large bowl.

Topping:

½ c all-purpose flour

¼ c whole wheat flour

¼ c almond flour

1/3 c firmly packed brown sugar

1/3 c granulated sugar

1 t ground cinnamon

1/8 t salt

8 T cold, unsalted butter, cut into ½” pieces

In a large bowl, stir together the flours, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon and the salt.  Scatter the butter pieces on top and toss with a fork or your fingers to coat with the flour mixture.  Using a fork, work the ingredients together until the mixture forms coarse crumbs.  Set the topping aside.

Pour the blueberry filling into baked pie crust.  Sprinkle the topping over the blueberry filling.  Bake the pie at 375°F until the blueberry filling begins to bubble, 50 to 60 minutes.

Photo courtesy Chris Cirkus, WWCFM Manager