Last night's huge thunderstorm washed the whole island clean--woke up this morning to blue skies and blue water. A perfect day to hike through the spider-webbed, mossy pine woods and then over the granite boulders at the edge of the shore. Found wild gooseberries growing amid the blueberries, raspberries, and bearberries, along with wild roses, irises, beach peas, and Queen Anne's lace. Another storm blew in at 4pm--dramatic torrents and thunder as I rolled out the dough for my blueberry and raspberry-custard pies. By the time the pies were cooling, the puddles were reflecting a peaceful rose-and-cream sunset and a twilight blue sky.
The blueberry pie looks so sweet--nothing fancy, just straight-up pie. The filling is as simple as it gets: 5 cups berries, 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup Minute tapioca, a tiny sprinkle of cinnamon. And the crust, 2 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp sugar, 2 sticks of butter (8 oz), 1/4 cup of ice water and I'm slightly ashamed to admit, a few tb of vegetable shortening, because it was there, and because I'm just sick of wrestling with those goddamn diva-bitch all-butter doughs. Working in a nice cool kitchen with an ocean breeze blowing through the screen door helped a lot, too.
1 comment:
OK, I have to confess I know nothing about baking pies...sort of. I can bake a mean apple pie if I follow my mother's instructions to a T. But I really stopped by 'cause I make it a point to show blogging support to fellow professional writers. You have a great blog. And I've enjoyed browsing your postings today. I'm a writer as well (news, but hopefully soon I'll land an agent so I can add author to the resume). And I too comment on good manners and bad behavior and how people generally treat each other in public.
Anyway, keep up the good work.
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