PearBerry Pie: The Pie Practice Party Finally Yields Something Great

So the Pie Practice Party wasn't a total failure, because I managed to make a preeeetty good PearBerry Pie during the Pumpkin Cream Pie disaster. Typical, don't you think, that the more complex pie would turn out better for me than the easier one does? I can't tell if that says something good about me or something terrible.

I started by following Martha Stewart's recipe for piecrust, because hey, the lady knows her stuff.

This involved a lot of butter, which you see here. It also involved a lot of precision elements like "1/4 cup ice water, added while machine is running" and "not overworking the dough," which made me nervous.

Even though it felt like I added too much water and pulsed the food processor for too long, the dough ended up...well, the way dough should look. It was crumbly but stuck together when I pressed it between my thumb and my finger, and that's really all I could ask of it, right?

I like this little trick, almost as much as I liked the fact that I managed to roll the pie dough flat enough to cover the dish. 

For my filling, I followed the proportion guidelines for Martha Stewart's Pear-Cranberry Pie, although I elected not to try making a lattice top on my first go-round. Because I had them on hand, I used cranberries, raspberries, and sliced pears for my filling. I also added some cornstarch, sugar, and salt to flavor the filling and make it thick.

I don't know how I knew to embellish the top with that fancy little flower or brush on egg wash or use a fork to make a pattern around the edge of the piecrust; I just did it. I guess I have absorbed something from the hours of food T.V. I watch a week (EXTREME UNEMPLOYMENT).

There's my baby! Alas, being the most impatient person in the world, I cut into her before she had cooled properly, so the first few pieces kind of fell apart. But now she's as sturdy as a pair of new Carhartts (seriously...those things can stand up on their own).

Happily, this pie had nothing in common with its Pumpkin Cream predecessor. We've eaten more than half of it by now, and it just gets better each time. It's really tart and not very sophisticated, but it's my first real pie, and I love it.