Rounding the Corner, Headed for Home

I did it! Kinda. In 24 weeks, I made 18 out of the 20 pies listed by the New York Times as the "Twenty Pies to Make this Summer."

It's no longer summer. But not all of them were pies. I'd say that evens things out a bit.
Between Midpoint Pie and now I made three last desserts:

Butter Pie

A Butter Pie, to which I added cranberries, chocolate chips, and pecans. This was taken to a Friendsgiving at Sarah's house, which was super delicious. It would very sugary and rich, to no one's surprise. But I rocked the crust out!

A Pear-Pomegranate Pie. This got made twice, because it was THAT good. The crisp pears and the pomegranate molasses was consumed at two additional Thanksgiving celebrations. I used the Smitten Kitchen's All-Butter Crust for this recipe, and made a lattice top. It was beautiful - probably the crown jewel in my quest.

I was all proud of myself for making 18 pies, but while coming up with this post realized I'm a dummy who can't count - I had missed the Mixed Berry Almond Crunch Crumble! So on December 23 I scraped together everything I had in my kitchen and came up with this dessert, which was very, very good- and got eaten in a bar during a concert. A tip: drain frozen fruit before you bake it. Why didn't I do this before?!

Two pies remain: an Apricot and Almond Tart, and a Rose-Scented Berry Tart with Almond-Shortbread Crust. But screw those pies. No way. I'm done.

Pear Pomegranate Pie

Why I am not making the last two pies:

1. They are not pies. they are tarts.

2  They will collectively take over 8 hours to make (including chill time)

3. French butter, apricots, frangipan is expensive

4. Pretty sure I’ve gained five pounds and eating pie has contributed to this

5. My last two pies were easily some of the tastiest and had the prettiest/best crusts. Mission accomplished.

6. I DO WHAT I WANT, NEW YORK TIMES. I refuse to be guilted into completing a faux contract filled with desserts that weren’t even pies to begin with.

Top 10 best pie moments:

1. Deep frying peach pies for my streetcar friends

2. Pie-stravaganza!

3. Diner - en - Blanc tart - most complicated and super pretty - I couldn’t believe that not only did it turn out, I didn’t drop it on the way to the picnic

4. Grandpa’s pie - probably one of the last desserts he got to enjoy before he died. Also, sister bonding time is awesome.

5. PIENADO. most fun group outing. 

6. Brown Butter Nectarine Cobbler/Lumenocity was fun to share with strangers and the easiest/tastiest to make

7. Giving away berry crumble at a rock concert the day before Christmas Eve.

8. The first crust I made that didn't fall apart - Plum Crostada

9. The alone time I got to spend working out complicated recipes

10. Spreading sweet dessert goodness amongst lots of friends, family, and strangers. 

Pie Superlatives:

Best pie-eating spot: Washington Park

Worst pie: Lazy Sonker. Not a pie.

Healthiest pie: Pear Ginger Crumble

Farthest-away pie: Cherry-almond crumble (sang happy birthday to Katy in England)

Least healthy pie: toss up between Butter pie (added chocolate chips) and tarts (SO MUCH BUTTER)

Total pounds of butter used: 6

Total pounds of sugar used: 5

Pie participants: over 50

Best filling: Plumb Chutney Crumb Pie/Peach Pie

Prettiest Pie: Fruit Tart/Raspberry Hazelnut Tart

Ugliest pie: Pear Ginger crumble

What Did I learn?

Patience. Planning. How to roll out a great crust (keep it cold, use lots of flour). Adding savory herbs to fruit is really tasty. Pears are hard to find ripe. French butter is a thing that exists. Recipes are annoying but sometimes necessary. Dessert is best when eaten with friends. 

Mid Pie Music Festival

Maybe you noticed, but it's been a minute since I posted about pie. After sailing through number fourteen, I realized that maybe all the butter and sugar was getting to me, and took a break. A ten day break. And by break, I mean cleanse. By cleanse, I mean I did the Advocare 10-Day Challenge with my gym (the best ladies gym in the Cincinnati area. Go check out Bella Forza Fitness! No, I'm not getting paid to tell you about this!)

These meal was super healthy, easy, and cleanse-friendly!

The Advocare system is a series of various weight loss supplements and workout enhancers. I figured I could use the challenge, and so for 10 days I had no sugar, no processed food, no alcohol (!), no mushrooms, fried food, or dairy. I ate five small meals consisting of complex carbs, fruit, veggies, lean meats, and nuts and beans. I kicked up the workouts - using the Spark supplement helped a lot, especially because I don't ingest much caffeine. Deprivation kinda sucked... but the feeling of accomplishment after was worth it.

 For me, it wasn't about losing weight, but about trying something new. I'm looking forward to continuing to tone up and push myself during workouts - ESPECIALLY because there are four pies left to my personal baking challenge!


Coincidentally, the last day of the cleanse was the first night of MidPoint Music Festival. It was fantastic timing. How did I celebrate? Pie is definitely the right answer. Surprisingly, the Pear Ginger Crumble was relatively healthy - very little sugar and (relatively) small amounts of butter - AND it's gluten free!

Larry and His Flask was the best performance I saw all weekend.

The crumble topping is made with quinoa. It was just sweet enough, and the candied ginger gave the pears a balanced kick. My sister came down for Friday and Saturday of the festival, and we enjoyed pie in between sets, alongside some fantastic Bakersfield tacos and pre-concert drinks.

The festival this year didn't have as many headliners, but we managed to find some really fun bands to jam out to. Great weather, fun friends, and the freedom to roam made for an incredible weekend experience.


Pear Ginger Crumble - adapted from this recipe

Takes about an hour to make
Serves eight

it tasted better than it looked. Promise.

Here's what you need:

• 2 1/2 to 3 pounds pears (about 5 large ones), peeled, cored and sliced
• 2 tablespoons raw brown (demera) sugar, preferably organic
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons chopped candied ginger (or 1/3 cup, if you like a kick)
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, or the seeds from 1/2 vanilla bean
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch or arrowroot

1 batch quinoa-oat crumble topping

Here's what you do with it:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 2- or 2 1/2-quart baking dish. In a large bowl, mix together the pears, sugar, lemon juice, candied ginger, vanilla extract or seeds, and cornstarch or arrowroot.
• Scrape the fruit and all of the juice in the bowl into the baking dish. Set the baking dish on a baking sheet for easier handling, and place in the oven. Bake 20 to 25 minutes until the fruit is bubbling and the liquid syrupy. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool if desired.
• About 30 minutes before serving, spread the crumble topping over the pear mixture in an even layer. Bake 20 minutes, or until the fruit is bubbling and the topping is nicely browned. Remove from the heat, and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Here's how to make the topping:

Put this in the food processor and pulse until ground - 

• 1 1/4 cups gluten-free rolled oats
• 1/2 cup quinoa flour (grind quinoa in a spice mill to make the flour)
• 1/3 cup unrefined turbinado sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon salt (to taste)

Add 6 TBS cold butter, cut into pieces and pulse until crumbly. Spread it on a baking sheet and put in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes. Store in the freezer-  is great warmed up over raspberries.

PIE-Stravaganza

We have some catching up to do. Two weeks ago I made a delicious Jumbleberry Grunt, but due to Final Friday activities (and a last minute call to action), none of my friends made it to my apartment to partake with me. More like a GRUMBLEberry grunt. So I put it away and went out with friends, and Liz and I ate it over the next few days for breakfast. Sucks to your ass-mar.

Last week was a special occasion that called to pull out ALL the stops. My fella Keith got a new job in a different city. He's sampled nearly every pie I've made, and I didn't want him to miss out on too many... so this weekend I made four pies. Three for a going away shindig; the last one we'll talk about another time.

It doesn't really get better than friends and pie. Unless it's friends and THREE pies. True to form, the pie recipes took a bit of work, but the results were definitely worth the effort.

Rhubarb Raspberry Cobbler with Cornmeal Biscuits was the easiest. I threw it together last and it cooked up easily. Finding myself without cornmeal, I subbed in instant grits (ground in the food processor to make them a little finer). They worked out splendidly. Normally one thinks of strawberries and rhubarb, but the raspberries added a nice twist.

Lemon Confit Shortbread Tart lived up to its name. The confit itself could've used some more sugar, but the crust was buttery and sweet, and adding a little whipped cream toned down the pucker a little. I'd never made confit before, and was surprised that the peel candied so well. Be prepared - the sour will sucker punch a little, but it's really delicious.

The last pie was my favorite. Every fruit pie made so far could easily be created sans crust for an incredible ice cream topping, or just eaten alone- and I could eat a pint of this filling all by myself. Plum Chutney Crumb Pie got started two days early. Boiling down plums with rosemary, black pepper (yup!), star anise, and cinnamon stick created a complex chutney that was unexpectedly tasty. I was nervous it would be too savory, but the balance worked. Well done, New York Times.

The kitchen was a disaster zone, but the Neon's courtyard was perfectly peaceful for a late summer evening. Lots of people came by for well wishing, and by the end of the night all the pies were pawned off.

Of Desserts and Disaster Movies

*jaws theme here*

pie for everyone at Rhinehaus!

 Last week we discovered the comically bad made-for-TV movie Sharknado returned to the small screen. There was only one option for Thursday Pie, and it was bloody delicious. Perhaps you've heard of Sharknado? A freak storm sweeps over LA, and a few brave souls (and their myriad of weapons) are the only ones who can save the city from being destroyed by thousands of flying sharks. Sounds bad? It was terrible.

Some movies are so corny and ridiculous they must be celebrated. Sharknado falls into this category. The Sour Cherry Pie was a perfect fit, and was a great use for the GIANT jar of sour cherries purchased at the Meditteranean store at Findlay Market. It was also an actual pie - with a double crust and everything. Slowly but surely my pie-making skills are improving.

I gave myself enough time to let the dough chill - Liz and I went to go give blood (only appropriate - and it's really easy at Hoxworth!) before putting it all together. I briefly considered making little sharks and people out of the crust, but the final result made great use of the negative space. A quick and easy hour in the oven, and it was time to head to the bar for our own personal feeding frenzy.

My buddy Jack owns the local hipster sports bar, and Sharknado viewing fell after a 1pm Reds game and a slow soccer day. As I don't have cable, watching in public was our only option (and a fun one at that!) We ordered pizzas, let the pie cool, and turned on the closed captioning to better experience the terrible dialogue in the bar.

There's only one way to successfully get through a bad movie, and that is with a drinking game. We would NEVER drink to excess, but with some local brews and reasons to watch this silly movie, by the time it was over the entire bar was getting into the spirit of the game and shouting out whenever there was a newscast, someone got killed (not by a shark), or Tara Reid was being belligerent (which happened more often than you'd think.)

The pie was good. Really, really good. The crust held the filling well, it wasn't mushy or spilling juicy cherries everywhere, and it served a good thirteen or so of us. The sour cherries were just tart enough. This was maybe the best pie yet.

If the movie ever comes back to TV, gather some friends, pie, and brews - you'll be in for a really fun night.

Special Sharknado Shot and Official Rules

Sharknado Drinking Rules (for those responsible and of legal age):

Yell loudly and take a sip every time...

• The camera angle is from the Shark's Point of View
• There is a news broadcast
• Someone is killed mid-sentence
• There is stock footage
• There is terrible CGI
• Someone is killed, not by a shark
• A shark is killed with something that's not normally a weapon
• There is a bad pun
• Tara Reid is belligerent

Take the Sharknado Shot in memory of the Rather Young and Fit Elders in the Nursing Home who get Sharks Rained Upon Them (spoiler, sorry...)

• Blue Curacao
• Sour Mix
• Absolut Citron
• Grenadine Floater

Sharknado Sour Cherry Pie - adapted from this recipe

takes 1 hour 45 minutes, plus chill time for dough

serves 10-12

This is what you need:

•  1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, more for rolling out dough
• 3/8 teaspoon kosher salt
• 15 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into pieces
• 1 cup sugar
• 5 tablespoons tapioca starch
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 pounds sour cherries (about 6 cups), rinsed and pitted - one 54 oz jar works nicely. Drain most of the juice. 
• 1 tablespoon brandy
• 3 tablespoons heavy cream
• Demerara sugar, for sprinkling.

This is what you do with it:

•  To make dough: in bowl of a food processor pulse together flour and salt just to combine. Add butter and pulse until chickpea-size pieces form. Add 3 to 6 tablespoons ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and pulse until mixture just comes together. Separate dough into 2 disks, one using 2/3 dough, the other using the remaining. Wrap disks in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour (and up to 3 days) before rolling out and baking.
• Heat oven to 425 degrees. Place larger dough disk on a lightly floured surface and roll into a 12-inch circle, about 3/8-inch thick. Transfer to a 9-inch pie plate (sprayed with non-stick cooking spray). Line dough with foil and weigh it down with pie weights. Bake until crust is light golden brown, about 30 minutes.
• While pie crust is baking, prepare filling. Place cherries in a bowl and add sugar and tapioca starch - more tapioca = firmer filling. Drizzle in brandy and toss gently to combine.
• When pie crust is ready, transfer it to a wire rack to cool slightly and reduce heat to 375 degrees. Remove foil and weights. Scrape cherry filling into pie crust.
• Place smaller disk of dough on a lightly floured surface and roll it 3/8-inch thick. Use a round cookie cutter (or several round cookie cutters of different sizes) to cut out circles of dough. Arrange circles on top of cherry filling in a pattern of your choice. like, say, the mouth of a shark.
• Brush top crust with cream and sprinkle generously with Demerara sugar. Bake until crust is dark golden brown and filling begins to bubble, 50 minutes to 1 hour. Transfer pie to a wire rack to cool for at least 2 hours, allowing filling to set before serving. Goes well with disaster movies.          

Lazy Sonker is the worst name for a pie. Ever.

Everything about this pie recipe is a lie. First off, New York Times, what the freakin' heck is a sonker? It sounds vaguely onomatopoeic, like a noise a sad, stuffed up goose might make. Definitely not a pie (as we discussed last week.) A Way With Words defines it as such:

Is this a sonker? Only because I said so.

 sonker n. a type of berry pie or cobbler. Editorial Note: This appears to be specific to the area near Mount Airy, N.C. Etymological Note: Perh. fr. Sc./Brit. Eng. songle, singill, single, ‘a handful of grain or gleanings,’ or from Sc. sonker ‘to simmer, to boil slightly.’

A quick search reveals that the NYT is pretty into sonkers, but no one else is, really. Because I had no basis for comparison, I can't be sure I did this recipe correctly. I will tell you one thing - ain't nothing lazy about this sonker. I ended up using 4 different pans to whip this up, one of which got scorched and is STILL soaking in my kitchen sink days later. There's a lot of butter in the dish, and the final result looks nothing like Serious Eat's version of a Peach Sonker. It also took MUCH longer than the prescribed 35 minutes- I finally took it out of the oven after an hour and it was still a little wobbly in the middle.

the tiniest pie eater weighs in.

It was very well received at Bluegrass in the Park, and we made some new friends - specifically a super cute little girl who was determined to scale the picnic basket, Rob's knees, and anything else more than a foot off the ground, anchored or not. We shared the sonker with her folks and had a nice time listening to Hickory Robot. If you haven't had a chance to check out Washington Park's Bluegrass Thursdays, do it before the season is over!

Lazy Sonker- adapted from this recipe
Takes an hour - this is a lie. It takes the better part of an hour and a half.
Serves 8-10

Here's what you need:

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
• 4 heaping cups (about 1 1/2 pounds) hulled strawberries (halved if large) or pitted cherries
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons self-rising flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Here's what you do with it:

• Heat oven to 350 degrees. Put 5 tablespoons butter in a 9-by-12-inch baking pan, and place in oven; remove when melted.
• In a large saucepan, combine fruit, vanilla, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon butter and 1 cup water. Place over low heat and simmer until fruit is slightly tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Drain fruit, reserving liquid and fruit separately; there should be about 1 cup liquid.
• In a small saucepan, combine remaining 2 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons of the sugar and 2 tablespoons of the flour. Place over medium heat and stir until butter melts and mixture is well blended and thickened, about 2 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of the liquid from the fruit, and whisk until smooth. Add another 1/2 cup liquid and whisk again. Add mixture to fruit, combining well. - do this quick or risk scorching the bottom of your pan. 
• In a medium bowl, combine milk, remaining 1 cup flour, the salt and remaining 3/4 cup sugar. Whisk to consistency of pancake batter. So I don't know about ya'all, but my pancake batter is generally a little runny. Maybe this was a problem? It drizzled funny and sunk under the fruit. Not sure if this was the intended result, but it was a little weird. 
• Pour fruit mixture into the pan with the melted butter. Carefully pour batter over fruit, taking care to spread it so it touches the edge of the pan. There will be some bare spots. Bake until crust is golden, about 35 minutes.             

Battle Scars

 This pie project is a marathon. 20 is a large number. There's going to be a lot of butter in my future. And each recipe is its own tiny battle. This week was pretty much Waterloo.

As I was contemplating which recipe to knock out this week, two things stuck out to me:

1. It is too damn hot.
2. Peaches are currently at their peak.

I was afraid if I waited too long I would have a peach pie recipe to make with peaches no longer in season. So I headed to Madison's at Findlay Market, whose peach selection is practically taking up half of their tiny store. I didn't want to turn on the oven, so the obvious solution: DEEP FRY!


This recipe yields delicious results. Flaky pastry, a boozy, delectable filling; but it's not for the faint of heart. If you're a pro at handling high stress situations, juggling multiple deadlines, not collapsing under pressure, and rolling with the punches (and working with hot oil) - by all means, be my guest.You've been warned.

I got my first kitchen injury of the challenge this week - a small welt on my hand from some bouncing oil as I was transferring a cooked pie from the pot to the paper towels. As my friends and colleagues with Cincinnatians For Progress will agree - it was totally worth it.


#PROTIPS:
 * Don't be a hero with the filling. The picture to the left has too much filling, and consequently got drippy and broke the seal of the pie.
* Flour and the fridge are your friends. Adequately chill both the filling and the pastry so the pies won't leak before you fry them. Use a ton of flour on the rolling surface - both sides, and use more flour after sealing the pastry to help solidify drips.
* The NYT picture makes these guys look like empanadas, but by the end I was treating them more like dumplings. This made them easier to construct.
* Don't freak out! They're going to break, you will make a giant mess all over your kitchen. It's worth it. Keep going!

Fried Peach Pies with Bourbon and Cinnamon - adapted from this recipe

takes about 1.5 hours with proper chill time
best served hot and fresh
technically serves 10 but I made 12

Here's what you need:

(For Crust)

• 2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), chilled and cubed
• 1 large egg, whisked with enough ice-cold water to make 1/2 cup

 (For Filling)

• 1 1/4 pounds ripe peaches
• 2 1/2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon tapioca starch (find it at Asian markets)
• 2 tablespoons bourbon
• 3/4 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Vegetable oil, for frying
• Cinnamon sugar (see note), for sprinkling. 

5chw4r7z tested, mother approved

Here's what you do with it:

• In a food processor, pulse together flour, sugar and salt. Add butter and pulse until mixture forms pea-size crumbs. Pulse in egg mixture a tablespoon at a time, until dough just comes together (you may not need all the egg mixture). Divide dough into 10 (or 12) equal pieces. Flatten into disks with your palm, wrap in plastic and chill for at least 45 minutes.- I used a plastic produce bag and layered the disks on top of each other. Use this time to clean your kitchen, play Candy Crush, and feel really good about your kitchen skills so far.
  
• Meanwhile, make filling: Using a paring knife, peel and pit peaches (I didn't peel); slice into quarters or eighths, if they're giant peaches. Transfer peaches to a large skillet. Stir in sugar, tapioca starch, bourbon (and bourbon vanilla, if you've got it), lemon juice and cinnamon. Let sit for 10 minutes, then bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Cook until sugar dissolves, 2 to 3 minutes. - I think I wandered off at some point, and when I came back the mixture had REALLY cooked down, so I deglazed my pan with a 1/2 cup of water, which ended up making more of a sauce. So do that. Transfer mixture to a bowl, preferably metal, and freeze for at least 20 minutes to cool, stirring once or twice. Stirring is important. You want both the pastry and the filling to be cold. It's cool to still feel good about your skills at this point. You awesome cook, you.
  
• Fill a medium pot with 4 inches of oil and heat to 375 degrees. On an extremely floured surface, roll out dough into 6-inch rounds - or so. Don't make the pastry so thin you can see your counter top through it. Use lots of flour. Put the pastry in your hand, and place a spoonful of filling in center of each round. Don't overdo it. Using a pastry brush, lightly moisten edges of each circle with water. Wrap the pastry around and seal. Flip the pastry over in your hand to ensure the seal, also because having a bunch of pastry on the bottom will hold the seal better. Don't make too many at once. How ya feeling now, hot shot?
  
• Okay, now it's go time. Make a pie, put it (gently) in the oil. While it's frying, make another. Flip the first one over, put the second one in. While that one's frying, make a third. When you're done with the third, take out the first, put it on a paper-towel plate, put cinnamon sugar on it, flip the second, put in the third. Check your oil temperature. Curse at the pies that are exploding in your hands. Try not to freak out. It will be over soon. Here's the point where your formerly clean kitchen is a flour-covered disaster zone, your hand is burnt, your pies have oozed and exploded a hundred times, and you have to be somewhere in a half an hour. This is what humility feels like. Savor it.

Note: If you don't know how to make cinnamon sugar, you should maybe re-think making this recipe.

Loose Bottomed Tart Pans and Other Baking Innuendos

There's a lot of things I excel at. Pie crust is not one of them. The New York Times recently posted an article rounding up their top twenty pie recipes- with a suggestion to try a few while summer is in full swing. Friends, I am convinced that it would be a shame to let any of these delicious sounding pie remain unmade. Thus begins my challenge.

End result

I am making one of these pies every week (barring sickness or travel) for the next twenty weeks. Every Thursday at 7pm I will be serving a new pie - hopefully bringing together new groups of people to enjoy company and dessert.

So anyway. I made a pie yesterday. An Easy Summer Fruit Tart - with a mix of jams and jellies and fresh to bursting peaches and plums from Findlay Market. The crust came together surprisingly well, though a little sticky - I didn't flour my work-surface quite enough. I thought it would be harder to arrange the fruit, but seven or eight little plums and five or six largish peaches exactly filled my pan. It was a little leaky after removed from the oven - I may have used too much jam. But the lovely people I shared it with at the cookout (cook-in, it was really rainy!) yesterday didn't seem to mind too much.

The one thing about the recipe that really threw me off (I had to consult my mother and a foodie friend for secondary opinions) was the it called for a specific type of pan - specifically, a springform style with removable sides. I used the pan usually required for cheesecakes, but I had a good chuckle over their recommendation of a "loose bottomed tart pan". Oh, come on. You laughed, too!

Easy Summer Fruit Tart - adapted from this recipe

Total time: 1.5 hours
Serves 8
Really good cold and for breakfast

Here's what you need:

• 1.5 cups flour, plus more for rolling
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 11 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
• 1 egg yolk, beaten
• 2 1/2 to 3 pounds fruit - I used six or seven small plums and five or six larger peaches. Figs, nectarines, or apricots would also work well. 
• 6 tablespoons preserves - I used a combination of strawberry jalapeno, apricot, and raspberry

Here's what you do with it:

• Blend flour, salt and 2 tablespoons sugar in a bowl or food processor. Dice 8 tablespoons of the butter. Use a pastry blender or two knives to blend flour mixture and butter, or pulse them together in a food processor to make a crumbly mixture. Beat the egg yolk with 3 tablespoons cold water. Dribble it over the flour mixture, then stir or pulse slowly until the mixture starts clumping together. A bit more water may be necessary. Gather dough in a loose ball and form into a disk on a floured surface.

I was nervous the fruit wouldn't stand up, but it worked out well.

• Heat oven to 375 degrees. Roll out dough and line a 10-inch loose-bottom tart pan- what they mean here is some sort of springform pan. But they worded it funny-  Blind bake pastry for 12 minutes - line with foil and put pastry weights or dried beans on top. Meanwhile, melt the remaining butter, cooking it on low until it turns a light brown. Pit fruit and cut in eighths or, if fruit is small, fourths. After 12 minutes, remove foil and weights from pastry. Return pastry to oven and continue baking until it is lightly browned, another 8 to 10 minutes. Remove pastry from oven and increase temperature to 400 degrees.
• Brush pastry with preserves. Arrange fruit in tight concentric circles, starting by placing it around the perimeter, skin side down, against the vertical sides of the pastry and standing it up as much as possible. Brush with melted butter. Dust with remaining sugar. Bake about 35 to 40 minutes, until edges have browned but fruit has not collapsed. Refrigerate and serve with creme fraiche, if desired.