It's now after 12:40 am so I thought I'd write my post about making pies. Isn't that when all bloggers do their best work? You pretty much have to be delirious to blog anyways I think. So here it goes.
If you have leftover Chicken dinner with gravy and vegetables then it's super easy because your filling's already made. For these pies I cooked a whole chicken at 350 F for 2 1/2 hrs. in a couple inches of water. Then I boiled some corn, and peas. You could do carrots or green beans. Just whatever you prefer. Let's face it nothing can really taste too bad in gravy and pie crust, right? Remove your cooked chicken, cut it up and make the gravy. I'm not sure if I have a set recipe for gravy. I just take a tupperware (or protein shake) shaker, fill with cold water just past 1/2 then add flour til just below the lip. Shake that up until the lumps are gone, pour it slowly into the chicken juices while whisking. I put the roaster right on the stovetop and turn it to med low. Bring to a low boil and let it thicken for a min., add bit of salt and pepper (not to much). Then take a couple tablespoons of chicken bouillon powder or other kind that you use and stir that in. Taste it and add more boullion if it needs more. Get a bowl and mix the gravy, vegetables and chicken together. Also you can make your peach filling now too.
Turn on your oven now or you may forget, and I hate waiting 10 mins. longer for the oven to heat up when your pies are all ready to go in. Set it for 425 F.
Let's make the crust for all the pies. Usually I put all the dough in the fridge for an hour if I have time, because it's easier to work with and stays together better. This time I didn't do that though. You may just have to add a little more flour or water depending on if the dough is too dry or too sticky. The pastry is really easy and has just a few ingredients. Get a large bowl and put in your flour, salt and lard. Take a pastry cutter or two knives and start to cut the ingredients together.
The dough should now look like crumbs. Add your water and cut it as much as you can again but if it's too sticky then mix it by hand until it looks like this and is sticking together. Next sprinkle some flour on the counter and just knead it a bit, only until its not as sticky. If it's been refrigerated I sometimes need to add a little water and I sprinkle a few drops on top then knead it in so it's not too dry and the dough stays together.
Sprinkle flour on your counter. Take a handful of dough and cover the rest with a dishtowel.
Roll the dough out so it's not quite see through but maybe 2-3mm thick.
It doesn't have to look all even and pretty so don't worry. Ok so gently take the top of the dough and fold it in half. Pick it up and you can shake it a tiny bit so the extra flour falls off. Now place it on one half of the pie plate and open it up carefully.
Now for the fun part. Scoop the filling into the pie shell. I did take a bite of the chicken filling. In my defense I was starving by then and my poor family was so patient while I was taking way longer than usual to make supper. I'm sure they snuck some chicken pieces while I wasn't looking too! Oh I scooped about 3 cups of filling into each shell. Also if you roll out all the bottoms at once then you can adjust the filling amount so all the pies are even. Then roll out the tops after they all have filling. But it's up to you.
The chicken might have some darker flecks or I may have let the gravy get a little browner (of course i would never burn it haha) than usual because of taking a thousand pictures for this blog. Cooking is never perfect, especially with a family needing you every second. Infact I've burnt hamburger so much that if my husband smells a tiny burnt smell at all he's like well kids we're having mom-burger again. Haha!
For the top of the crust you make a slightly smaller ball, roll it out, fold in half and place it on top of the pie.
If you don't know how big to make it that's fine, you can make it bigger and then just trim off more of the extra dough. Bigger is better than smaller. It's just that once you roll out dough it's tougher to work with the second time, like if you need to make a final top crust it just doesn't stick together or roll out as well. So I try to not have much waste to cut off for that reason.
And here's the peach filling. It should be a tiny bit liquidy. Is that a word? Probably not.
Pinch the dough around the sides. I used to cut it with a knife evenly around the edges and then pinch it but it shrinks when baked and won't be as thick. If you push your thumb against the pie plate the dough will be cut off and fall away at the same time that you pinch it, so that's one less step.
Take your knife and poke some slits so it doesn't bubble up while baking. You can make a "C" for chicken or "P" for peach. And in fact while I made these I for some reason was just thinking peach and I poked them all with a "P". Luckily they pretty much all got eaten that night, well at least both peach pies did. Or we might of been having chicken pie for dessert instead of peach. Haha!! See nothings ever perfect like I said. I've done a lot of trial and error (my poor husband), but now usually we have pretty good meals with not many problems. Unlike the first quite a few years when I didn't know you had to actually plug in and turn on the rice cooker. Or one of my best things was when my husband wanted me to buy tuna and I looked and looked everywhere then came home so distraught and told him all I could find was "chicken of the sea", no tuna. And he rolled his eyes a million times I'm sure, and said, that IS tuna. Haha oh so many memories of the early years! Ok where are we......
Some people do an egg wash on pies I think? But I just do milk, so take a brush and brush some milk over the whole thing. Just a bit, don't soak it. Also only do it right before you're going to put it in the oven or it just soaks into the crust and makes it soggy.
Ready for baking!! Finally YAY! It's only been 2 hours, I mean the blogging part. Your pie making should be much shorter. Ok I guess an actual recipe would be nice, huh? Unfortunately I do not remember my GR. 7 computer skills and have no idea how to underline a word. Also my last child awake just went to bed so we won't have an underlined recipe heading. Sorry.
Bake at 425 F 15 mins and then 350 F for 45 mins. Let cool 20-30 mins after or it will be too liquidy to cut. My family can never wait so we always have a runny first piece of pie. ENJOY!!
PIE CRUST
Makes 5 double crust pies
6 cups white flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups Tenderflake lard (or other brand)
1 cup cold water
Blend all dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add lard on top. Cut with a pastry cutter or 2 knives, until resembles a crumbly mixture. Pour water overtop and mix with hands. Best if refrigerated for an hour, but not absolutely necessary. Add a few sprinkles of water if refrigerated. Knead on a floured surface to pull dough together and add enough flour so it stays together but isn't sticky.
Bake double crust pies at 425 F 15 mins and then turn down to 350 F for 45 mins. ENJOY!
PEACH PIE FILLING - for one pie.
4-5 small peaches washed and sliced
or 29 oz can sliced peaches
Discard 1/2 the juice if using canned peaches.
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup + 2T cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cinnamon
Pour peaches and 1/2 the juice into a bowl. Mix remaining ingredients in another bowl. Pour dry ingredients over the peaches. Stir a bit. There may be some small clumps and that's ok. Pour into pie shell, cover with top crust. Cut slits, brush with milk.
Bake at 425 F 15 mins and then turn to 350 F and bake 45 mins longer. Should be golden brown. Let sit 20-30 mins so it has time to set and won't be watery. Enjoy!
Hope it all works out and your family likes it as much as mine!
Well that only took 3 hours to blog and edit. Shhh don't tell my family what time it is:) How do people do this? I'm thinking they probably don't have 8 kids.
