So, I was lounging around my desk this afternoon when the offspring mentioned it being Pi Day. Apparently, we can also have pie on Pi Day. Yipee!
It’s Pi Day. OK!
We don’t have any pie though. We have a problem Houston.
A quick trip into the kitchen for a quick peek in the freezer was in order. Yup. No Pie.
What I do see in the cold recesses of my freezer are some frozen blueberries and some frozen butter. At this point, I’m pretty sure I have flour and I remember a technique I came across years ago for making quick pastry.
Let’s just play and see what happens!
I did the unthinkable for baking…I eyeballed some of the ingredient measurements! I grabbed 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour, a pinch of salt and then used my grater to grate my frozen butter into my flour mixture. This is the point where the eyeballing found its way in. I just grated until I thought I had the right amount of butter. I tossed the frozen butter into the flour and slowly started adding some ice-cold water, a little at a time, into my mixture until it all came together. I patted it into a small round disk, wrapped it in plastic and left it to chill in my fridge while I whipped up my dinner.
When it was time to bake, I grabbed a couple of cups of frozen blueberries, 1/4 cup of brown sugar, zest of half a lemon, 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and a splash of almond extract. Toss it all together. Roll out the chilled pie dough, fill each round with roughly a cup of the blueberry mixture. Fold the pie dough over on itself to cover the berry mixture and brush the pie rounds with an egg wash mixture and sprinkle with extra fine sugar. Bake in a 375F oven till golden brown, depending on your oven, 30-45 minutes give or take. Just check on it often to make sure it’s not burning.
And now I have pie for Pi Day!
Ymmmy pie for Pi Day! It was pretty darn good for whipping up on the spot. I love digging around my kitchen and discovering things to make with what I find 🙂
