It's high season for pie-making. And when we came upon this touching story about a bunch of women gathering to bake fresh apple pies for the people of Newtown, Conn., it warmed our hearts here at The Salt. Truly.
We agree, there is great comfort in baking. And amen to blogger Suzi Banks Baum, who — longing to reach out to the grief-stricken community of Newtown — served up kindness as part of a pie mission.
Earlier this year, I overcame my fear of making pie, and in doing so I grew closer to my mom and the memory of my beloved grandmother.
So, if you're planning to bake this week, I bid you to put away the rush of the holidays and try to move, as Banks Baum wrote, "at the Pace of Pie."
Here's a bit from the story I wrote back in July, when I took a pie-making class at the Culinary Institute of America, the nation's premier cooking school, in Hyde Park, N.Y. There I learned the foolproof pie crust formula that chef George Higgins teaches his students. "It starts with 3, 2, 1," he explains.
That's 3 parts flour, 2 parts fat (butter), 1 part liquid. We've laid it out for you in pictures here, to make it easy. And we also share his family's impossible-to-resist blueberry pie recipe that is made with a flaky crust.
But it takes just a bit more than that.
The Salt
Afraid Of Pie Crust? You Shouldn't Be. It's As Easy As 3-2-1