Nostalgia

As I was picking Saskatoon berries at The Saskatoon Farm with my friends, I was thinking of the time I picked apples from an orchards in Montreal. I was a kid but I don't know exactly how old I was. My family was there and I was picking anything that was big and red with the perfect shape. I was worried that worms would pop out. I don't know what apples they were, nor did I remember its taste. One thing that I remembered vividly was the cool weather. The sun was setting as the sky turned orange and the air was getting breezy. We had to hurry to fill our baskets up to be in time so Dad can cook them at home for supper that day. And then the next day, and the next...

Fast forward two decades later and here I am, picking up where I left off. Except it's not the same farm. The fruit is one-tenth of an apple in size. The day was getting hotter as we were in the middle of August. And my pits were getting sweaty as we picked for more than 3 hours to fill two pails. All of our hard work did pay off as we were able to make...

Saskatoon Berry Hand Pies!

It actually took me several weeks to get to these results. Recipe below will actually make a batch of nine hand pies.

Crust:
I followed the recipe from Serious Eats with some modifications. I referred to this site because it explains better.
-Egg white

Filling:
-4 cups of Saskatoon berries
-2 tbsp of corn starch
-1/2 cup of sugar
-1 tsp of cinnamon

1. Prepare the dough a day in advance.
2. Mix all the filling ingredients in a bowl.

3. Roll out the dough to and trim to 18" by 15". Cut into 9 equal rectangles.

4. Add about 3 tablespoons of the berries in a the centre of a sheet and brush the seams with egg white.

5. Fold about a quarter of the sheet length wise and brush the middle seam.

6. Fold the quarter of the sheet over. You'll have to pull the edge a little so it overlaps the other.

7. Flip it over. Using a fork, press on the edges. Cut 3 vents. Brush with egg white and sprinkle with sugar. Place it on cookie sheet with parchment paper.

8. Once the cookie sheet is full, bake at 375°F for about 20 minutes.

Below is a video that I took at The Saskatoon Farm. Nothing in particular stood out but I still enjoyed the view nonetheless.



In Search of a Pie Cafe

When my friends and I booked our plane tickets to Chicago, we didn't know Lollapalooza was scheduled on the same weekend we were there. We worked our schedule to do what Baseball fans needed to do when they visit Chicago: watch a Cubs game... and to boo A-Rod because he happened to be in town against the White Sox. Aside from Baseball, we ate, ate again, ate some more, saw Book of Mormon, and ate for the rest of the week. With only a couple days left before we leave the Windy City, there was an empty square on my list of things to do that needed to be checked off: eat at a pie café.

My interest in visiting a pie café in Chicago that serves good individual slices comes from the fact that I have yet to find one in Calgary. I want to be able to sit down at a café that smells like butter and enjoy every bite of that warm flaky homemade crust with fresh fruit. With very little time left because of how the schedule worked out, I knew I had to get to this place right after my crazy deep dish pizza meal that would put anyone into a food coma. With one eye opened, I crawled to my destination.


Hoosier Mama Pie Company. More on this later.

There was another pie café in town that I looked up after this one. One pie café wasn't enough so I hopped on the train and got off at the California station. I walked a few blocks south to find:

Bang Bang Pie Shop

I liked the interior design but I especially liked the air conditioning as it was a hot and humid day.

But I came for the pie!

I ordered a blueberry pie and while it looked nice, it wasn't my kind of pie. Where's the flaky buttery crust? Where's the juice? Why is it cold? It's supposed to be served cold and while this gelatin based pie tasted pretty good, it wasn't what I was looking for. What about at Hoosier Mama's?

I ordered the same pie for the same price and this is how it turned out. A little closer to what I have in mind however, the crust was more hard than flaky. It was also cold as this place doesn't seem to have a pie warmer. What I am impressed at is how firm and crispy the bottom crust was despite the runny filling. The staff was kind enough to advise me to simply freeze the crust after blind baking. I'm supposed to blind bake 375°F for 15 minutes as well, which is hotter and longer than what I normally do. And with that advice, it made the pie trip worthwhile despite not finding the perfect pie café.

The little shop at Hoosier Mama's

I was eager to try this simple technique when I left Chicago. I used Saskatoon berries that my friends and I picked from a farm (more on this in the future), and this is how it turned out.

It worked! However I found out later that Saskatoon berries are much more firm than blueberries. Zut!

So the real test is with blueberries which I haven't had much success with in the past.