American Pie

I don't know whether it's all the American blogs I read or whether it's just a phase I'm going through, but lately I find myself drawn toward distinctly American tastes. I've got a growing pile of "Things To Try" which includes, and I never thought I'd say this, Pumpkin Pie! For Aussies, pumpkin is dinner, not dessert. I'm pretty sure my family would think I was going mental if I even mentioned it, but I can't help feeling I might be missing out on something, never having had the sweet stuff.

I'm also curiously drawn to the combination of maple syrup and bacon, and the saccharin-sweet "Meet Me in St. Louis". I wonder whether it might not just be that Christmas is in the air, joy and goodwill abound and my tastes and temperament are generally leaning to sweetness.

Here's my first foray into what I consider "American" food. Pie, in my mind, is quintessentially American, especially sweet pie. It conjures up images of a '50s style diner, pastel uniforms, frilly aprons, paper hats, bitter coffee and the smell of burning fat in the air.

Shell:

125g unsalted butter, cubed

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

½ tab sugar

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup buttermilk, cold

Toss butter into flour and put in the freezer for 20 minutes. Use a food processor to cut the butter into the flour. Add sugar and salt. Gradually pour in buttermilk, just until the pastry comes together. Turn onto a bench, rapidly work the dough into a disc, wrap in gladwrap and place in the fridge for at least an hour. Roll out and use pastry to line a springform cake pan. Lots of people worry about pastry but the trick is to only roll the dough out once if you can, then patch the base together. The more shaggy and patchy it is the more homespun and welcoming the pie and the more ultimately delightful the pastry. Return to fridge to chill while you get on with the filling.

Filling:

3 large eggs

1 cup sugar

2 tabs flour

125g melted butter, slightly cooled.

1 cup buttermilk

2 teaspoons vanilla

rind of ½ a lemon, finely grated

Beat eggs slightly, add sugar and flour and mix until creamy. Add melted butter, buttermilk and vanilla extract. Bake at 170°C for about an hour or until the custard is set. It will still jiggle a little bit once it’s set. Leave to cool in tin, eventually, carefully, slowly and gently transfer to a plate or cake stand and refrigerate.

Blackberry Sauce

½ cup blackberry jam, seedless/strained

1 tab Triple Sec

Heat up the jam in a saucepan over low heat, remove from heat, whisk in Triple Sec. You can pour the sauce, hot, over the pie when you serve it or you can pour it on the cold pie, as a final layer, and refrigerate.