The Brew House

The development of pie, and America's undying romance with it, was a slow and messy process - not unlike creating a pie itself. Homemade pie is going to take you home even though you're sitting at a slick table in a noisy and busy bistro that seats and serves hundreds of people and prepares nearly a million meals every year. Pie is probably one of the mainstays that has enabled Southern cuisine to expand throughout the country. There are pie recipes from old southern cookbooks, nevertheless they live on through tradition, passed on generation-to-generation.

Some lucky people are destined to bake pie and pie crust yourself; you can see it when they flick their arm, the easy and intuitive feel in the tips of their lightly floured fingers, and accurate instincts about how it will taste, look, texture, smell, and even feel within the mouth. Most pie crusts are built by combining flour and water with shortening, butter, lard, or any combination of those fats.

Basic sweet pie crust is good for use in a sweet wherein a little sweet taste inside the crust will boost the dish. Position the pie on a baking sheet to catch spills, and set it on the bottom rack in hot oven. Put the pie on the bottom shelf in the oven. Fruit pies have a tendency to run over, so always put the pie on a rimmed baking sheet for baking. Let the pie to cool on a wire baking rack or perhaps a thick kitchen towel, and serve it warm or at room temperature. Allow the pie settle down for 2 to 3 hours before cutting into pieces and serving; cutting while the pie is hot from the oven can produce a soggy crust. Experienced pie pros and new at home cooks will both find these pie crust tips helpful.

Pie is often served whole or perhaps rich, delicious slices like coconut cream, blood orange, rhubarb, or chocolate. In my family, a good pie crust that is buttery, crunchy and thick is a rite of passage. Regardless how you slice or bake it, pie is classic, simple, easy and it is everlasting. There is no substitute to warm, out of the oven, homemade pie to complete a great meal.

A helpful and enduring definition of pie doesn't get more bite-sized than this: Any kind of food, from four-and-twenty blackbirds all the way to peaches to coffee mousse, that is put in any crust. Still, we are of the mind-set that pie is never more delightful, more full of many advantages and all that in which implies, than if it is made of little more than a perfectly ripe berry, a heavenly dollop of real whipped cream, and a homemade - never store bought or frozen -a crust.