I’ve put off telling you about this one for a while now because I couldn’t get a good picture of it to save my life, as you can plainly see. But then I felt guilty, having this tart gem without you. Dare I say it felt like cheating on you? Never one to keep a secret like that, I set out to redeem myself, since plums are still all over the farmers’ market tables here and blackberries are ripening on my backyard vines.
The foundation of this pie is my new-favorite crust recipe. Yes, I know I can be fickle. But really, I was on a bad FAIL streak with my pie crusts this year until I found this baby. Does that ever happen to you? When you make something for years with great success, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, it turns out awful, time after time? It all started when I tried to make pie dough in the spring on a 98 degree day in a 92 degree kitchen. No amount of ice water or freezer time was going to help a pie crust out of that mess, but still I pressed on. (I kept thinking, it’s only spring, for god’s sakes, I oughta be able to make a rhubarb-raspberry pie in the spring!) And the resulting tough-as-nails crust was my well-deserved punishment.
The pie-dough gods never forgave me, apparently, because I was dissatisfied with every rolled crust I created after that – all summer long. (Hence all the press-in crusts, and tart-making in my posts.) But then I made this pie, with a streusel-topping and a brand new crust recipe, which I picked because I thought, well, it only uses a rolled crust on the bottom. If it’s tough/burned/soggy, I can scrape out the filling and topping, and call it a crisp! Luckily, we all ate pie that night.
Plum Blackberry Pie
from Gourmet, July 2009
(Warning: this pie is somewhat tart. I like ‘em that way. Same as my jams. If you prefer your fruit pies very sweet, then increase the sugar in both the filling and the streusel topping.)
Ingredients
½ recipe all-butter pastry dough*
1 3/4 pound plums, pitted and quartered, but not skinned
2 cups blackberries, washed and dried
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided into 1 cup and ½ cup
3 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into tiny pieces
¾ teaspoon salt, divided into ½ teaspoon and ½ teaspoon
Put a large foil-lined baking sheet in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 375°F.
Toss plums and blackberries with 1 cup of the sugar, tapioca, cornstarch, lemon zest, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a large bowl.
Roll out dough* into a 13-inch round on a lightly floured surface (I use a lightly floured pastry cloth or parchment paper) with a lightly floured rolling pin. Transfer into a deep-dish 9 inch pie plate. Trim excess dough, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang. Fold overhang under and crimp decoratively. Chill pastry in refrigerator while making streusel.
Stir together oats, flour, and remaining 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp salt. Blend in butter with your fingertips until mixture forms small clumps.
Spoon the filling into the chilled pastry shell. Crumble streusel topping evenly over filling.
Bake pie on pre-heated baking sheet until streusel is golden and filling is bubbling, 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. Cool completely, 3 to 4 hours. (This part is really hard, but is necessary. Otherwise, the filling will still be runny!) We served this with homemade vanilla bean ice cream, which provided a creamy contrast to the tart pie filling and the crispy, flaky crust.
*All-Butter Pastry Dough
from Gourmet, July 2009
Ingredients (Makes enough for one double-crust 9 ½ inch pie. This pie uses ½ recipe.)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/3 cup plus 1 to 2 tablespoons ice water
Pulse together flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse in butter, just until most of mixture resembles coarse meal with some pea-size butter lumps. Drizzle 1/3 cup ice water over mixture and pulse until incorporated, but not until the dough forms an actual ball.
Squeeze a small handful of dough: If it doesn’t hold together, add more ice water 1 tablespoon at a time, pulsing until just incorporated, then test again. Do not overwork dough, or pastry will be tough.
Turn out the crumbly dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into 8 portions. With heel of your hand, smear each portion once or twice against the surface to distribute butter. Gather the dough together with a pastry scraper, if you have one (I use mine constantly, worth every penny), and gently press into a ball. Divide in half and form into 2 disks. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour. (Can be frozen at this point, for later use.)
