Pistachio-Plum Crisp by Alison Roman

I like pistachios, and I really like plums. Sadly, I didn’t care for this dessert. 

The pistachio topping was a little too wet and the pistachio flavor too overpowering. The plums became nice and jammy, but their flavor was too sweet for me. It needed to rely on the natural sugar more, and added sugar less. Normally with a fruity dessert, I’d say layer on the ice cream, but that would have made an already overly sweet dessert even sweeter. 

The assembly is rather simple, like any fruit cobbler. The fruit is tossed with corn starch, sugar, and your acid of choice. The topping consists of butter, flour, sugar, spices, and nuts, then gets scattered on top of the fruit to bake. I love simplicity, but I’d prefer to use my plums differently.

Next plum season, I’ll opt for just making Alison’s Torn Plum Browned Butter Cake like five times in a row. That cake is incredible. Seriously, go make it.

132 recipes cooked, 93 to go.

Double-Crusted Peach Pie with Honey, Ginger, and Lime by Alison Roman

It’s been a minute! I just took a full two weeks off of this project to relax, reconnect with my husband, and spend time in nature. We spent a few days up in Northern Minnesota in the Boundary Waters, which is a collection of over 1,000 lakes and many islands between the Minnesota and Canadian borders. To get to our campsite, it took eight miles of canoeing and six different portage sites where we had to move all our gear, including the canoes, from one side of an island to another. It was hard work, but very rewarding. 

We spent our second week of vacation mostly in Door County, WI. We biked, hiked, sailed, and ate some surprisingly fantastic meals. I even discovered what Jordan calls “my spirit restaurant.” A magical, thoughtful, incredibly delicious place called Trixie’s. It was so good that we ate there on two different nights. I plan to write about it at some point because it really was that special. 

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Alright, now back to our regularly scheduled programming. Because what you’re really here for is pie. A peach pie. A double-crusted peach pie. A double-crusted peach pie with honey, ginger, and lime. A pie for the summer, for standing apart from other regular fruit pies, for making a statement. 

As per usual, I made both pie crust discs from King Arthur’s Gluten-Free Pie Crust recipe. It’s become a reliable staple for me as I venture further on this gluten-less journey, and I recommend it to all others who find themselves on the same gluten-less road. Once I prepared the dough and let it chill for about two hours, I followed Alison’s suggestion to roll both discs out to roughly 14-inch rounds and then stuck both of them back in the fridge to cool. It was a really hot day, so the butter seemed glad to spend maximum time in the cold. 

Meanwhile, I prepared the filling, which consists of 4 lbs. of ripe peaches, sugar, honey, lime zest and juice, cornstarch, and a good bit of freshly grated ginger. Unlike some of Alison’s other fruit desserts, I actually followed the suggested amount of peaches. In the past, I’ve found that for whatever reason, her quantities of fruit far surpass the capacity of my baking dishes. So I’ve ended up with anywhere from 1-2 lbs. of extra sliced fruit. Not the worst problem to have, but not ideal either. But this time around, I had a feeling that the pie could handle a piled-high mound of slices. And so it could. 

The rest of the process was rather straightforward as far as pie construction goes. One crust on the bottom, filling added, another crust on top with three slices into the dough to allow steam to escape. The whole thing is covered in egg wash and a third cup of Demerara sugar. The tough part is the time! The pie spends roughly an hour and forty-five minutes in the oven, and then it needs three hours to cool! Talk about an opportunity for character development. The pie most certainly tested my patience. 

But boy, the reward was worth it. As I said in the beginning, this is no ordinary fruit pie. The lime zest and ginger, though simple, add complexity and elevate the peaches to a tangy, snappy sweetness. The ginger mellowed out a bit by day two of leftover pie, but it was still the strongest flavor. If you don’t love ginger, don’t cut it out completely, just cut it in half, or reduce it by a third. In my opinion, ginger is the key to a non-boring peach pie. And you don’t want to be boring, right? 

125 recipes cooked, 100 to go!!!!!

Sour Cherry and Sesame Galette by Alison Roman

I was legitimately nervous about making this galette, for the sole reason that the pictures of it in nothing fancy are gorgeous. The top crust looks so delicate and precise – there’s no way my galette could even closely resemble what Alison made.  

Well, guess what. About half-way through the baking process, I decided not to care! I let my tendency to compare and harshly judge my own work go by the wayside. I was at my in-laws home with a lovely afternoon breeze passing through the screen door. My brother- and sister-in-law were in town, and I love their company. To let my petty pie crust fears get in the way of a lovely afternoon would simply violate all logical cost-benefit analysis. And if you’re a Varberg, cost-benefit analysis reigns supreme. 

So I went to town on two pie crust rounds, utilizing King Arthur’s Gluten Free pie crust recipe. I’ve now made five of these crusts now, and the recipe continues to hold up well. While the dough chilled, I focused on pitting 2.5 lbs of cherries. That’s a LOT of cherries! It was a divine moment when I discovered that Michelle owned a cherry pitter… I didn’t even know that existed! Instead of halving each cherry and digging the pit out with my thumb, I just punctured each cherry with the pitter, which spit out the pit into a tiny bowl. But even with this modern contraption, the task took about 30 minutes to finish. I tossed the cherries with lime zest and sugar before setting them aside to roll out the dough. 

Rolling pie dough takes patience and a willingness to stick it back in the fridge at a moment's notice. As soon as the dough starts to feel slightly too warm, it really needs to get cold again before trying to coax it along. I’m learning that pies are not something I can count on being finished in a certain window of time. They take the time they take, and so many external conditions affect that. 

Once the first disk was ready, I spread a third-cup of tahini paste over the dough, leaving a sizeable border along the edges. The cherries followed suit. I cut out holes in the other dough as instructed, though I confess that I didn’t plan the spacing out very well. To be honest, I was quite distracted by the fantastic conversation I was having with Heidi, my new sis. She’s delightful. Even more delightful than pie. I placed the holey dough on top and folded the edges. The final touches include an egg wash for browning, sugar, and sesame seeds. The galette spends about a half hour at a higher temp, and 20 minutes at a lower temp. By the end, the crust should be a light golden brown. 

I love cherries, so I enjoyed this one. The combination with tahini works, but it wasn’t my favorite. I wish everything was a little sweeter; the sourness of the cherries and saltiness of the sesame paste dominated the flavor. Even though some of the crust broke on top, I’m still proud of how this turned out. I’m growing, friends. And that feels really good. 

121 recipes cooked, 104 to go.

Hibiscus-Roasted Peaches with Brown Sugar Bread Crumbs by Alison Roman

I have a confession to make. I dropped the ball on finding hibiscus flowers. I know it’s a defining feature of the recipe, but I was unable to find it in stores, and I just didn’t plan far enough in advance to order it online. Alison advises that we should be able to find dried hibiscus flowers in our local Caribbean or Jamaican grocery store… just me or do you also not have a Caribbean grocery store nearby? It must be nice to live in Brooklyn. ;)

I imagine that hibiscus flowers would add a pleasant, and for lack of a better word, floral note to the dish. But the peaches were just as delicious on their own. Paired with lemon juice, sugar, and a bit of water, these peaches spend about 30 minutes in the oven, until they start bubbling on the edges and the liquid turns slightly syrupy. The lemon juice is rather prominent in flavor which necessitated the brown sugar bread crumbs to balance the sourness. 

One of the key food lessons from this project entails the power of fresh bread crumbs. Alison loves her fried bread crumbs with various seasonings. They add texture and depth to her dishes, and now I love them too. Whether sauteed in butter or olive oil, seasoned with garlic and pepper flakes, sumac and anchovies, or brown sugar, bread crumbs take a dish to the next level. Bread crumbs fried in butter and brown sugar, and sprinkled with flaky sea salt elevated these peaches, balancing the sourness of lemon juice and giving a rich texture to the softened fruit. 

All that to say, this dessert didn’t take my breath away like some of Alison’s other desserts. But I’m not sure “breath-taking” is what she’s going for. Alison gives us her spin on a classic summer dessert, and I think she just wants to give us a good time. Well, a good time was had. 

113 recipes cooked, 112 to go.

The Only Pie Crust by Alison Roman - GUEST POST by Margaret Winchell

Margaret, my dear friend who I mention frequently on this blog, has generously made and reviewed Alison’s pie crust recipe. Due to my gluten intolerance, there wasn’t a way for me to keep the integrity of this recipe AND eat it. So I asked Margaret, queen of pies, to do the honors. What a TREAT this post is. Margaret knows her pie crust, so listen up….

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Pie crust recipes are everywhere. Everyone has their own method, and the recipe is more of a shorthand for that method than any kind of unique formula. The key players are flour, butter, salt, and water, with recurring guest stars sugar and vinegar. If you see eggs on the ingredient list, keep looking. If the recipe doesn’t mention keeping things cold, run. And if anyone tells you it’ll always be the same precise proportion of ingredients, give that recipe writer the side eye. Pie crust is about feeling your way through a bunch of decisions about variables, and it’s a little different every time.

Here’s what I like about Alison’s recipe:

• She acknowledges the need for flexibility and restraint. There’s a guideline for how much water you’ll need and advice about how much wiggle room you should allow within that quantity, and she tells you to add less than you think. Smart.

• She specifies that ingredients need to be chilled. Pie crust is a greasy mess when they’re not, so this is critical.

• She has you rest the dough. Any dough involving gluten (so, pie crusts, bread doughs, even cookies) benefits from a rest before rolling. Just like when a person gets worked up, sitting in a cool, quiet room for an hour allows the dough to relax and limber up for the next event. In addition, this gives moisture a chance to distribute itself evenly among all the little bits of flour so you don’t end up with crumbly bits at the perimeter of the dough.

Here’s what I wish Alison did differently:

• Cut the butter smaller. She has you cut it into 1-inch pieces, which just makes a little more work for your hands when you incorporate it into the flour. Hands are hot. Knives are cool. Cutting butter smaller = less warming up of the butter as you rub it in. (Pie math!)

• Get the palms OUTTA there. I don’t understand why Alison tells you to smash the butter between palms and fingertips and later, to knead the dough with your palms. Fingertips stay cool, but palms are hot. Keep! It! Cold! I like to crush the cubes of butter with a motion akin to aggressively rubbing a dog’s ear, tossing the exposed butter in flour every few seconds. (Picked up that tip from my main science dude Alton Brown.) See? ^^^

• Keep the flour-butter mixture in the bowl. WHY do we have to dump it out on the counter? This just means I’m chasing flour and water around the counter as I work. I think keeping it in the bowl makes it easier to toss with your fingertips (see notes on palms, above) and helps the water find its way to the floury bits. I added a little more water than I meant to in making this because it was harder to mix it all together evenly on the counter. 

• Give a clue for when you’ve added enough water. I follow the rule that if you can squeeze a clump of dough in your fingertips and it mostly holds together, you’re done. 

The recipe makes two discs, so one went in my freezer, and I rolled out the other to make a lid for a little skillet pie with some mushrooms and rainbow chard I got at the farmer’s market this morning with a friend (summer, amirite?).

Rolling out the dough was a little tricky. It was a hot Michigan summer day, and the larger chunks of butter that remained got a little soft and stuck to the rolling pin a bit, but the dough sort of fused back together in the oven, hiding a couple cracks in the crust. Using Alison’s skillet mushroom and chicken pie as a guide, I brushed the crust with egg wash and baked it at 425, but not before sprinkling it with some flaky salt for extra crunch.

In the end, the crust had superior flakiness and was very, very buttery. It’s delicious, but I might dial back the butter just a bit for warmer months when I want a lighter meal. Alison goes full throttle on flavor, and the salt was no exception; if I foresee wanting to sprinkle flaky salt on top again, I might reduce the quantity in the dough. All that being said, this is a totally delicious pie crust. I don’t know that I’d call it the only pie crust you’ll ever want, but you could certainly make it so if rich, buttery pie crust is up your alley.

107 AND 108 recipes cooked, 117 to go. This recipe appears in both cookbooks, and thus, it counts for two recipes.

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