Tomato Tart

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living

INGREDIENTS

1 head garlic

3 tablespoons olive oil

All-purpose flour, for dusting

1 shell pie dough

1/2 cup of cheese of your choice, grated

4 medium firm but ripe tomatoes, cored and sliced 1/4 inch thick

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

 

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and roast the head of garlic by placing garlic on a sheet of aluminum foil, drizzling with 1 tablespoon oil, and wrapping foil around garlic. Bake until soft and golden brown and the tip of a knife easily pierces the flesh, about 45 minutes. Set aside. When garlic is cool enough to handle, squeeze the cloves out of their skins and into a small bowl; mash with a fork, and set aside. Discard the skins.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pie dough to a 1/8-inch-thick circle, about 12 inches in diameter. Brush off the excess flour and place dough into pie or tart pan. Trim the dough so that it is flush with the edges and transfer to the refrigerator to chill, about 30 minutes.

Raise oven temperature to 450 degrees. Spread roasted garlic evenly on the chilled crust. Sprinkle with half the cheese. Arrange the tomatoes on top of the cheese, in an overlapping circular pattern. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with remaining cheese, and drizzle with remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Transfer to oven. Reduce temperature to 400 degrees. and bake until crust is golden and tomatoes are soft but still retain their shape, 45 to 55 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool for 20 minutes, and serve warm.

Blackberry Pie

Blackberry season is my favourite. There's just nothing like walking out of your front door with a pail and plunging knee deep into brambles loaded down heavy, juicy berries that leave their good purple stains everywhere. It's been a slow summer for just about everything this year, but the blackberries are here in full force. In honour of their abundance, I've committed to baking up ten fresh blackberry pies before their season is over. I've already got three down, so I don't think it's going to be a problem. Pie for breakfast, pie for dessert, pie for a late night snack, pie to share and give to friends, pie to celebrate this last stretch of such a glorious season. Anyone else want in on a tasty ten pie challenge?

INGREDIENTS

For the crust:
2 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup butter, very cold (if you're looking for a shortcut, freeze your butter and then grate it in instead of cutting. It works!)
1 cup ice cold water

For the filling:
5 to 6 cups fresh blackberries, washed
1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar, depending on how sweet your berries are
2 Tbsp sornstarch
1 tsp lemon juice


DIRECTIONS

Fold the filling ingredients together in a bowl and set aside while you prepare the crust. The cornstarch keeps your pie from being halfway to berry soup, but can easily be left out if, like me, you like a little berry soup.

In a wide bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and sugar for the crust. Either cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or two knives or, if it's frozen, grate it in. Either way, you want to end up a mealy mixture that has some butter lumps the size of small peas and others the size of oats. Do your best to keep the butter cold, cold, cold by not handling it too much. Add in your water, starting by drizzling about half a cup over the mixture and gathering it together with a rubber spatula or a fork. Add more water a tablespoon at a time until the dough just barely comes together. You're going to need to get in there with your hands to know.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and nudge gently into two balls. If the dough is simply too crumbly to stay together, add a little more water. If it starts getting sticky, you've added more than you need (to know for next time). Chill those babies in the fridge for an hour or two if you're patient and think ahead; start rolling if you're not.

Make sure your surface and your rolling pin are still well floured and then roll one of the balls of dough out into a disc that more or less fits your pie pan. Scoop it up by rolling it loosely over the rolling pin and then unrolling onto the pan. You can always mend holes with a little bit of cold water as glue. Roll out the top crust in the same way.

Add your filling and place the top crust over it, sealing the two crusts together with a little cold water and by folding the bottom crust up over the edge of the top one and crimping (a fancy word for pinching) it closed. Make some decorative slashes in the top crust to let the steam out. Stick it in the oven at about 375 degrees until it's brown and crispy and bubbling irresistibly. Then try to resist and let it cool.

Eat and enjoy!

Vegetarian Mincemeat

Make a big batch of vegetarian mincemeat so that you can make a few pies and have some left over to serve with ice cream, custard, pudding, or crêpes. You can also can or freeze it for later.

INGREDIENTS

1 unpeeled orange, washed
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 lb raisins or currants
1 lb pitted prunes, halved
2 1/2 quarts apples, chopped (peeling is optional)
2 1/2 quarts green tomatoes, chopped
1 lb brown sugar
1/2 cup dark molasses (not blackstrap) or sorghum syrup
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp ginger

DIRECTIONS

Quarter the unpeeled orange and remove all the seeds. Place in food processor with vinegar and half of the raisins, and process into a chunky paste. Transfer to pot.

Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring often. Lower heat and simmer, stirring often, about 30-40 minutes, until mixture is thick and apples and tomatoes are cooked but not falling apart.

Can, refrigerate, or freeze the mincemeat until ready to use.

For mincemeat pie: Roll out two pie crusts. Place one in a pie plate, then pour in 3 cups of cooled mincemeat. Top with second pie crust, crimp the edges, make slits in the top, and bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden.

Notes: You can replace some of the raisins and/or prunes with walnuts.

Vegan Rhubarb Strawberry Pie

INGREDIENTS

1 double pie shell
4 cups fresh rhubarb, sliced into 3/4-inch pieces
1 cup agave
6 tablespoons arrowroot
2 cups thickly sliced fresh strawberries
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons unbleached white flour

DIRECTIONS

Fit bottom crust into a 10-inch pie plate. Refrigerate the dough and rolled-out crust.

Put sliced rhubarb into a colander with a bowl underneath. Pour agave over rhubarb and allow to drain 1 hour. In a saucepan, mix arrowroot with half of the drained agave. Heat until thickened over low heat, then add the rest of the agave.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix rhubarb and strawberries together in bowl. Add agave mixture along with cinnamon and flour. Gently toss to mix. Pour into prepared pie shell. Roll out top crust and place on top. Join crusts, fluting edges. Slash top so steam can escape.

Bake one hour in preheated oven. Allow to cool, then refrigerate a few hours to set (if you can stand to wait that long).

Serves 8 to 10.