Pushing Daisies

Thanks to a tip from friends of mine who know how I love both pies and Pushing Daisies, they led me to this blog where someone was kind enough to share a recipe that is closest to Charlotte Charles’ Apple-Gruyère Pie.

Tisha, the lady behind the recipe, shares that on the night she decided to return the piece of (very dry) Gruyère she bought, it was the same night of the episode where Chuck first baked a pie for her aunts, mixing Gruyère into it. And according to Tisha, the idea is a stroke of genius. She writes:

Unlike the cheddar traditionally used in pie crusts, Gruyère doesn’t turn oily and leathery when melted and cooled, but instead takes the texture of the surrounding flour. The crust holds between your teeth for just a moment, then shatters delicately into the juicy apple filling.

I know very little about baking or cooking pies. I am just an expert at eating it. And how she describes it leaves me feeling like Janine (from the episode, Dummies). I want to have that apple pie! As in, right this minute.

Anyway, here’s her recipe…and at five days before Christmas, I found it just at the right time!

3 lbs. tart red apples (Northern Spy, Romes, Empires, or Harralsons)
1/2 c. sugar
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
5 tsp. cornstarch or all-purpose flour
1 egg, lightly beaten

1 Gruyère Pie Crust–recipe

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Take dough out of fridge.
• Peel, core and slice apples into quarters. Slice each quarter thinly. Mix with other ingredients.
• Roll the larger piece of dough into a disk about fourteen inches in diameter. I use a piece of parchment paper dusted with flour to prevent sticking. Flip parchment paper over 9 inch deep dish or 10 inch glass pie plate, and ease dough into plate.
• Roll smaller piece of dough into circle twelve inches in diameter. Pile apples into pie plate, scraping any juice on top of the apples. Place smaller round of dough on top of the apples. Seal two crusts together, brush with the beaten egg, and make three parallel slits in the top crust to allow steam to escape.
• Place pie on a cookie sheet to catch any drips, put in oven, and reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees. Bake 50 minutes to an hour, or until you can see the filling bubbling up between the slits in the crust. Cool on a wire rack at least 20 minutes before serving.

The complete procedure is found in Tisha’s The Rice And Spice Cupboard.

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