Open Hand, Open Heart
With an open hand (pie) and an open heart, sharing and caring brings out the best in all of us. The 4th of July may have come and gone this year, and, perhaps, you didn’t feel very celebratory. Never mind, though, because the recipe in this past week’s Berkshire Eagle column will work with various fruits. For the visual red, white, and blue, I used strawberries and blueberries for the photo, but peaches or cherries would work just as well, and you can use a heart cookie cutter, instead of a star.
(My helpful hint on this recipe: Even if homemade pie crust is your thing, if the weather is hot, I highly recommend using store-bought refrigerated crust.)
A BIG HAND
by Elizabeth Baer
When I realized that my first July column would land on the 2nd, I wondered whether I should be doing something with strawberries and blueberries. I had just gone to pick strawberries at Mountain View Farm in Lanesborough, and since I needed to make something with all those berries, developing a recipe was the perfect excuse. Although I didn’t want to make a pie, I thought perhaps I should do something else with store-bought pie crusts, to make life easier.
I was pondering possibilities while visiting my sister on the other side of the state, asking myself out loud whether I could make a galette with a store-bought pie crust. My brother-in-law is an engineer, who also loves to cook, and he has never encountered a problem that he didn’t want to try to solve. He was the one who said, “A big hand pie! Use both crusts, and cut out the middle of the top one to give it a sort of skylight. If you want to add to the July 4th theme, cut out stars with the extra dough for decoration.”
And so I did. I decided to add a layer of sweetened mascarpone under the berries, and, of course, I made sure to try it with homemade crust, as well as with a package of store-bought. I know that pie crust can be intimidating. For a long time, after many failures, I had given up. Now I use the pie crust that local cookbook author Alana Chernila has online. But if homemade crust is not your thing, I totally feel you, and so I made sure a commercial product would work, too.
For the purposes of today’s column I made it with strawberries and blueberries, but you can certainly use other fruit, such as peaches, raspberries, or cherries.
OPEN HAND PIE WITH STRAWBERRIES AND BLUEBERRIES
Serves 8-10
INGREDIENTS:
1½-2 cups fruit
8 ounces mascarpone cheese
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch salt
2 rounds pie crust, homemade or store-bought
1 egg, beaten
½-1 teaspoon vanilla sugar or non-melting sugar, optional
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 375°F and line a half sheet pan with parchment.
Prepare the fruit you are using. For strawberries, hull and cut in half from top to bottom. Blueberries or raspberries need no special treatment. Cherries would need to be pitted and halved, and peaches should be peeled and cut into wedges. (Cut a shallow ‘X’ into the bottom of a peach and dip into boiling water for about 20-30 seconds. Let cool to the touch and the skin should peel off easily.)
In a small bowl, combine the mascarpone, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and salt, and mix well.
If using homemade pie crust, roll out to about 11 inches in diameter, approximately ⅛” thick and place on the parchment. Trim to desired shape if necessary. (Confession: I have not mastered rolling homemade pie crust into a decent circle, so, for me, this recipe looks much neater when I use a store-bought crust.) If using a store-bought crust, unroll gently and place on the parchment. Pinch or rub together any cracks. Take the second pie crust and roll out similarly or unroll. Using a small plate or bowl placed upside down as a guide, cut a circle in the middle of the second crust.
Place the mascarpone mixture in the middle of the bottom crust on the half sheet pan. Spread to an even thickness, leaving a border of about 1 inch. An offset spatula can be helpful here if you have one. Arrange the fruit as desired. Depending on the size of the fruit pieces, you may not use the full 2 cups.
Brush beaten egg on the border. Carefully lift the ring-shaped piece of crust and place over the bottom part of the tart. Use a fork to crimp the edges. Brush more egg on the top ring-shaped piece.
If desired, take the center piece from the top crust and use cookie cutters to make shapes for decoration. Place around the tart however you wish, and dab with more beaten egg. Sprinkle the vanilla sugar or non-melting sugar over all, if desired.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. The mascarpone will be quite loose, so allow to cool fully before cutting and serving.