Fresh Raspberry Pie — The Best! July 21, 2008
This weekend I made a raspberry pie. Summer really IS here. I have been making this pie for years– at least, every year when I live where you can buy raspberries without taking out a mortgage on your house to buy them. This is very likely my favorite pie in the world, at least partly because they are the perfect way to wallow in raspberries once a year, when it’s raspberry season.
Here is the recipe, from an old Lee Bailey cookbook. Unfortunately these are no longer in print, but you can find them from time to time in second hand bookshops.
Lee Bailey’s Raspberry Pie
1 pie crust, baked
Whipped cream, flavored with vanilla or very lightly sweetened with sugar
Filling:
3 pints fresh raspberries, approximately
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons of cornstarch
½ cup of water
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Make the pie crust and bake it blind. Set it aside and allow to cool to room temperature.
To make the filling, mash enough berries to fill one cup. Combine with the sugar, cornstarch, and water in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture comes to the boil. Continue cooking for about 2 minutes over low heat until the mixture is thickened and clear. Stir in the butter and cook until melted, then allow to cool to lukewarm.
Place the remaining uncooked berries in the baked crust, saving a few perfect ones for garnish. Pour the cooked berry mixture over the berries in crust. Shake gently so glaze seeps down around the raw berries.
Chill pie for a few hours (I usually chill overnight for best firmness, but in these pictures you can see that we couldn’t wait more than three hours to eat it, so it’s oozing a little over the plate), then top with the flavoured whipped cream and garnish with the reserved whole berries.
This is one of those pies that are so incredibly easy, yet so incredibly good, that they make your reputation as an amazing baker. I really encourage you to give this recipe a try. Just make sure that you have good quality raspberries, with flavour to them. That’s the hardest part of the recipe.
You will also notice the wonky crimps in my crust. I’m afraid that my pie crusts will never again be perfectly crimped, because I can’t bring myself to sacrifice my perfect flake and taste for appearances. Remember my cooking rules? Again, taste trumps looks.
Last night I got to attend a James Taylor concert in Victoria. My friend and I were definitely on the young side in the crowd. The music was great, James Taylor himself was very entertaining, and I had a really good time. Maybe not as good as the time some of the older people around us were having, however. Even though I say, yes, everybody should do what they are interested in, be enthusiastic, have fun, there was a moment last night when, looking around at the baby boomer crowd hysterically screaming and singing along with James Taylor, I felt a deep thankfulness that my parents would never attend a concert and engage in concert-like behaviour (e.g. wave one arm back and forth over their heads toward the stage). I know. I’m a hypocrite. At least, I’m a hypocrite when it comes to my parents. But don’t we all hold our parents to slightly different standard that the hypothetical standard we apply to other people’s parents?















