Pie

I like pie.

I like pie a lot.

For my birthday you can keep your cakes, I always ask for apple pie. Pie, to me, is love in a pastry shell. Served with a good strong cup of tea, it's the perfect snack, and I see no reason why fruit pies can't be eaten for breakfast.

I have a list of favourite pies.

Apple is of course first (and it doesn't need cheese or ice cream either). But after that it really depends on the season and what is available. Cherry, Sweet Cherry and Cherry Meringue are all good. So is Rhubarb Meringue, Key Lime and Peach. Pumpkin pie is never wrong and a small slice of Pecan won't go neglected either. For Christmas Eve supper we always make a Tourtiere (a French Canadian pork and potato pie). Lemon Meringue is alright too. Cream pies are a complete non-starter for me though. I can't see the point of glopping perfectly fine pudding into a pie shell.

I am choosy about my pie. I used to say that there wasn't an apple pie I didn't like until last year when I tried one from a CWL lunch at our parish. It was dreadful. Horrid tough pastry and the filling was like cubes of styrofoam in apple flavoured jelly. I actually couldn't finish it.

The pastry has to be good and the filling can't just be anything. Fortunately I married a women for whom the phrase "Easy as pie" is literal and she can make a nice flaky pastry. She prefers to use Northern Spye apples for her pies and will buy them up when they are in season and pre-make and then freeze pie fillings. Northern Spye don't go mushy and have a nice tartness which makes them perfect for baking with. (But if you can't find them, Courtland apples will do.)

My wife's apple pie recipe is a fusion between these two books

Now, sadly both out of print. The Laura Secord Canadian Cookbook is so useful she looks for used copies on line to buy for our daughters. The Complete Pie Cookbook was rescued from my mother-in-law's bookshelf and my Snugglebunny has put it to very good use trying out new recipes.

She likes to use sour cherries in cherry pie. The tartness works better. But we have several pails of sweet cherries left in our freezer. So last night she tried the 'Sweet Cherry Pie' recipe from the Complete Pie Book hoping to find a use for them. The pie shell is first filled with a layer of cream cheese and then topped with the cherry filling. After the cherries have set up the slice is topped with whipped cream.

And yes, she insists (thank God!) on real whipping cream. None of this aerosolized edible oil crap out of a can or a bucket.

It was a complete success. 'Sweet Cherry Pie' has now entered my list of favourite pies.