Four Twenty Blackbirds Cranberry Sage Pie Recipes

SWEET CHERRY STREUSEL PIE

Steps:

• Use a bench scraper to cut butter into ½-inch cubes. (If butter begins to "sweat," dust with flour.) In a large, flat-bottomed bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt. Add the butter cubes and toss to coat with the flour mixture. Use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the flour; do not smash or smear the butter. Scrape butter off the pastry blender during the mixing process and continue mixing. (If butter is softening too fast, put the bowl in the refrigerator until butter firms up, 2-5 minutes.) Continue cutting, working quickly, until butter is broken down and looks like a coarse crumble with only a few larger pieces.
• Combine vinegar with water and ice; you'll use 10-12 tablespoons of this liquid in the pie dough. Begin by sprinkling 4 tablespoons of liquid over the flour mixture; use a bench scraper or your hands to incorporate until the mixture begins to come together. Sprinkle in 4 more tablespoons of liquid and continue the mixing process. Squeeze a fistful of dough: if it holds, like wet sand, it's ready. If it falls apart, add 1-2 more tablespoons of liquid at a time, squeezing the dough to check if it holds. Bring all the dough together, sprinkling dry bits with more small drops of liquid as necessary; dough will look shaggy. Knead in the bowl just until incorporated.
• Turn dough onto a work surface and use a bench scraper to divide dough into two equal pieces. Shape into flat disks and wrap in plastic; refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, preferably overnight. Dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days and frozen up to 1 month, tightly wrapped.
• Generously grease pie dish with softened butter. Dust a work surface and a rolling pin with flour. Place one chilled pie disk on the work surface and lightly dust it with flour. (Reserve the other disk for another use.) Roll dough by starting at the center and lightly pressing down with the rolling pin to flatten slightly. Rotate the dough and repeat, pressing down so it's evenly flattened all around, about ⅛-inch thick. Then roll outward to make a circle, rotating the dough a quarter-turn at a time to keep it even. (If dough is softening too fast, chill in the refrigerator until firm, 2-5 minutes.) Roll the dough until it's about 2-3 inches larger than the pie dish, all the way around. Use a pizza wheel to trim away the rough edges. (Save the scraps to make crust cookies!)
• Overturn pie dish onto the center of the dough circle, then remove and place it right side up on your work surface. Use the light indentation created by the rim as a guide for gently positioning dough into the center of the dish. (If dough is softening too fast, put it back into the refrigerator until it firms up, 2-5 minutes.) Fit crust gently into dish, being careful not to stretch the dough. Begin crimping the edge by using your fingers to roll the dough firmly so it rests on top of the rim. Crimp by using your index finger and thumb on one hand to squeeze a letter "C" into the dough rim. (Lightly flour your fingers if the dough is sticking.) Repeat, crimping the entire pie and making sure the final fluted crust sits directly on top of the pan's rim. Pie is ready to be filled and baked.
• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Wearing gloves, use a cherry pitter to pit the cherries, with a large bowl to catch the pits. Set cherries aside.
• Streusel: In a mixing bowl, add flour, sugar, and salt. Combine using a pastry blender. Then cut in butter until the cubes are smashed and coated with dry ingredients. Wipe butter off of pastry blender and continue mixing with your fingers, rubbing the butter into the dry ingredients until texture is similar to wet sand. Refrigerate for 20 minutes. (You can store streusel in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to one month.)
• Filling: Peel the apple, then shred on the large holes of a box grater. Discard the peel and core. In a large mixing bowl, combine potato starch, brown sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, salt, and bitters. Squeeze lemon juice into the cherries, then add to sugar-spice mixture along with the shredded apple. Toss until well mixed, crushing some of the cherries with your hands.
• Assembly: Pour filling into the refrigerated pie shell, packing down the cherries and adding all the remaining juices. Evenly distribute the streusel on top.
• Pie will bake for a total of 1 hour. Place the pie on a rimmed baking sheet on the lowest rack of the oven. Bake until crust is set and beginning to brown, 20-25 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 375 degrees F, move the pie to the center oven rack, and continue to bake until the pastry is a deep golden brown and the juices are bubbling, 30-35 minutes longer. (If crust is browning but the filling isn't bubbling, cover with aluminum foil and bake until the filling bubbles.) Allow pie to cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into it, 2-3 hours. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

FOUR & TWENTY BLACKBIRDS' CRANBERRY-SAGE PIE - WSJ NOV2013

Steps:

• 5. Make filling: Fill a heatproof bowl with dried cranberries. Pour boiling water into bowl, covering cranberries by about 1 inch. Meanwhile, in a food processor fitted with blade attachment, pulse sugars, sage, salt, arrowroot, cinnamon and allspice until fully combined. Transfer sugar mixture into a large bowl. 6. In the food processor, roughly chop 2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries. Add chopped and remaining whole cranberries to sugar mixture. 7. Drain plumped dried cranberries in a colander. Add apple and plumped cranberries to sugar mixture and stir to combine. Stir in vanilla extract and egg until combined. 8. Make pie: Pour filling into refrigerated pie shell. Chill filled pie shell 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, position oven racks in bottom and center positions and place a rimmed baking sheet on bottom rack. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. 1. Make crust: In a bowl, combine flour, salt and sugar. Add butter and coat with flour mixture. Use a pastry blender or bench scraper to cut butter into flour, working quickly, until pea-size pieces form. 2. In a small bowl, combine water, vinegar and ice. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons water mixture over flour mixture. Use a bench scraper or spatula to fully incorporate into flour. Continue to incorporate water mixture, 1-2 tablespoons at a time, until dough just begins to form a ball. Use your hands to fully bring dough together into a ball. 3. Divide dough into two equal pieces. Shape each into a flat disc and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate at least 1 hour and preferably overnight. 4. On a lightly floured surface, roll out 1 dough disk, rotating periodically, into a circle 14 inches across and about ⅛-inch thick. Place dough in a 9-inch pie pan, pressing into sides, and refrigerate.

FOUR & TWENTY BLACKBIRDS' CRANBERRY-SAGE PIE

Steps:

• 1. Make crust: In a bowl, combine flour, salt and sugar. Add butter and coat with flour mixture. Use a pastry blender or bench scraper to cut butter into flour, working quickly, until pea-size pieces form. 2. In a small bowl, combine water, vinegar and ice. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons water mixture over flour mixture. Use a bench scraper or spatula to fully incorporate into flour. Continue to incorporate water mixture, 1-2 tablespoons at a time, until dough just begins to form a ball. Use your hands to fully bring dough together into a ball. 3. Divide dough into two equal pieces. Shape each into a flat disc and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate at least 1 hour and preferably overnight. 4. On a lightly floured surface, roll out 1 dough disk, rotating periodically, into a circle 14 inches across and about ⅛-inch thick. Place dough in a 9-inch pie pan, pressing into sides, and refrigerate. 5. Make filling: Fill a heatproof bowl with dried cranberries. Pour boiling water into bowl, covering cranberries by about 1 inch. Meanwhile, in a food processor fitted with blade attachment, pulse sugars, sage, salt, arrowroot, cinnamon and allspice until fully combined. Transfer sugar mixture into a large bowl. 6. In the food processor, roughly chop 2 c fresh or frozen cranberries. Add chopped and remaining whole cranberries to sugar mixture. 7. Drain plumped dried cranberries in a colander. Add apple and plumped cranberries to sugar mixture and stir to combine. Stir in vanilla extract and egg until combined. 8. Make pie: Pour filling into refrigerated pie shell. Chill filled pie shell 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, position oven racks in bottom and center positions and place a rimmed baking sheet on bottom rack. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

BLUEBERRY SLAB PIE

Steps:

• In a large, flat-bottomed bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt. Add the butter cubes and toss to coat with the flour mixture. Use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the flour; do not smash or smear the butter. Scrape butter off the pastry blender during the mixing process and continue mixing. (If butter is softening too fast, put the bowl in the refrigerator until butter firms up, 2-5 minutes.) Continue cutting, working quickly, until butter is broken down and looks like a coarse crumble with only a few larger pieces.
• Combine vinegar with water and ice; you'll use up to 1½ cups of this liquid in the pie dough, a tablespoon at a time. Begin by sprinkling about 8 tablespoons of liquid over the flour mixture; use a bench scraper or your hands to incorporate until the mixture begins to come together. Sprinkle in 8 more tablespoons of liquid and continue the mixing process. Squeeze a fistful of dough: if it holds, like wet sand, it's ready. If it falls apart, add 1-2 more tablespoons of liquid at a time, squeezing the dough to check if it holds. Bring all the dough together, sprinkling dry bits with more small drops of liquid as necessary; dough will look shaggy. Knead in the bowl just until incorporated.
• Turn dough onto a work surface and use a bench scraper to divide dough into two equal pieces. Shape into flat disks and wrap in plastic; refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, preferably overnight. Dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days and frozen up to 1 month, tightly wrapped.
• Generously butter a baking sheet and line with parchment paper. Dust a large work surface and tapered French rolling pin with flour. Roll out 1 disc of chilled pie dough into a rectangle by rolling it in an "X," diagonally, for even stretching. (If dough is softening too fast at any point in the rolling process, chill in the refrigerator until firm, 2-5 minutes.) Once the dough has been thinned out, switch to a straight French rolling pin and continue rolling the dough until it's a rectangle of even thickness, 3-4 inches larger than the baking sheet. Fit the dough into the baking sheet by gently folding in half, then in half again. Align the creases squarely in the middle of the pan, then unfold the dough so it's centered in the pan. There should be a 1-inch dough overhang on all sides. (If necessary, it's okay to stretch the dough gently.) Repeat the rolling and shaping process with top crust dough to a 17" x 13" rectangle. Invert a rimmed baking sheet and spread the dough on top. Refrigerate both sheets while assembling the filling, 20 minutes.
• Filling: Taste your blueberries first. They can vary from really sweet to really tart which will affect how much sugar is added; add or take out up to ¼ cup sugar to adjust sweetness. In a small bowl, mix shredded apple with lemon juice. In a large bowl, combine both sugars, Angostura bitters, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, salt, and ground arrowroot. Add the blueberries, crushing about half of them with your hands; mix well to combine, making sure no spices remain at the bottom of the bowl.
• Preheat oven to 425 F. Remove the chilled dough sheets; set the top dough aside. Transfer the filling into the dough-lined baking sheet, patting it down to make sure there are no gaps. Use the round pastry cutter to punch random holes into the top dough, 2-3 inches apart, to create a polka dot effect; don't get too close to the edges. (Save the pastry circles to make crust cookies!) Place the top dough sheet squarely over the filling, then seal the top and bottom crusts by tucking and pinching excess dough under the bottom crust. Seal again by pressing circumference of crust with your thumbs.
• Brush egg wash evenly over the top crust, and sprinkle with raw sugar. Pie will bake for a total of 1 hour. Bake on the lowest rack of the oven until crust is set and beginning to brown, 20-25 minutes. Lower heat to 375 F, move the pie to the center oven rack, and continue to bake until crust is a deep golden brown and juices are bubbling throughout, about 30-35 minutes longer. Allow pie to cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into it, 1-2 hours. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

FOUR AND TWENTY BLACK BIRDS BAKED IN A PIE

Steps:

• While the broth cooks make the Recipe #300887 and chill after you shape into disks and wrap with plastic wrap.
• BROTH:.
• place drained and rinsed chicken in large pot and cover with chicken stock.
• Bring to a simmer, for two hours, adding stock as necessary. Remove chicken to a bowl and discard skin, bones, and anything you would not serve a king.
• Remove two cups of broth and stir in the Corn startch stirring well into the soup to thicken. When it has thickened enough for your taste, roll out and arrange bottom crust in 10" glass pie plate and brush with beaten egg white. Let dry a few minutes while you finish the filling.
• Ladle Black Birds (or chicken) and veggie filling into pie shell and pour thickened soup over all. Be sure to do this on a sheet pan to keep your oven clean. Put top crust on and crimp edges. Cut steam vents in the shape of crows feet around the center of the top crust.
• Beat yolk with a drop or two of cream and paint the top crust to give top crust a homey look.
• Bake at 400" for 50 - 60 minutes. Cover with foil last 15 minutes if it becomes too brown for you.
• Serve hot with a salad and the queen will think it is such a dainty dish.

BLACKBIRD PIE

Steps:

• Use the pre-made pie crust to line a 9-in pie pan.
• Place blueberries and peaches in a bowl and toss with lemon juice. Add sugar, tapioca and the 1/2 tsp cinnamon and mix lightly.
• Place above mixture into pie crust and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar as desired.
• Bake 35-40 minutes in a 425° oven.