Saturday, November 21, 2020

Grape Pie for Thanksgiving 2020

We love hosting a giant Thanksgiving table.  This year is different of course, but the importance of pie remains the same!  Ideally there should be 1/3 to 1/2 pie per person.  I start eating pie for breakfast while getting everything else cooked.  I like to have a piece with every helping of leftovers.  It doesn't have to be a full size slice of pie, sometimes just a taste is better than a full piece.  I like it when everyone gets to take some pie home.  Pie is important :)

The most important pie is the grape pie.

Classics like pumpkin are important, but so are 'not pie', like the apple dessert cake thing.

Pie glorious pie!

To make a grape pie, 
separate the skins from the innards.

Cook the innards, send through a strainer, throw out the seeds.

Mix the skins with the cooked innards.  Add sugar, lemon juice and a thickener.  I tried clear jel this year which gives that particular gloopy texture, but also lets you preserve it, like jam or jelly.  The proportions were a little tricky, but I like it better than cornstarch.  

This year we experimented with alternatives to full on pie.  

Hand pies:

Slice the crusts off sandwich bread, flatten with a rolling pin. Add filling to one slice, dampen the edges, cover with a second slice, and seal the two pieces together with a fork.  Flip it over and seal the edges from the other side.  These can be deep-fried in shallow oil or cooked in the oven (350°F for 15 min).  


I turned the crusts into croutons that were fantastic





Not super professional looking, but darn tasty.  Especially with some peanut butter on the side.


Tiny pies in muffin tins:  

A pat-in-the-pan crust is a great alternative to a roll-out crust.  This is from a 1950’s Better Homes and Garden. If you don’t care about a flaky crust and just want the pie, this is the best! 


For 3 muffin tins:

  • Mix 1 cup flour, 1 teaspoon sugar and ½ teaspoon salt in a bowl.  

  • Add 2 tablespoons milk to ⅓ cup vegetable oil and mix with a fork to emulsify.  Add to the dry mix slowly; you may not need all the liquid.  Stir until all the flour is moist and it clumps together to the consistency of play-doh.  

  • Press into the muffin tin, add grape pie filling, and sprinkle any left-over crust onto the filling.  

  • Bake at 350°F for 20 min.





The milk falls under the oil.

This is my first chemistry memory-an emulsion!





The crust is pretty crumbly and you just have to go for it.  All delicious all the time!

2 comments:

  1. Man... I miss Thanksgiving at your place. It was always a fun time. My mother loved the time she visited as well and mentions it every now and then. Well, maybe next year things will be back to normal, whatever that means.

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  2. The hand pies look beautiful! You’ve inspired me to start documenting our yearly pie situation.

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