Gluten free pie crust guesses

I've been fiddling with my GF pie crust recipe for months now. I can make a pretty good GF crust, but not one that was so good I was willing to stop trying something new.

Today I made an amazing GF pie crust. Trouble is, I can't entirely remember what I did! Still, I'm writing down what I think I did now, before I forget that too.

1 c GF flour
4 T unsalted butter
2-3T cream cheese
pinch of salt
some sugar
some xanthan gum (1/4-1/2 tsp? Liel had spilled some on the counter and I just swept that into the bowl. I probably shouldn't admit that)

Pre-baked at 350 (on bottom rack) for 30-ish min. Cooled, wrapped in saran and used the next day.

Pie, baseball and family

See what I'm doing? I'm combining all kinds of things that've been on my mind and in my posts lately. But they really did converge most pleasingly this evening.

First of all, Robert and Zion played catch after dinner. It was Zion's first time playing baseball catch (he's been playing catch with a football since he was 2 or 3), and at first he wasn't very good at it. I was cheering when his glove touched a ball, you know? But after 20 minutes are so he was catching more and more of them, and he and Robert were just tossing the ball back and forth and we were all chatting and it was awesome. And then I looked over and Liel was busily emptying one of the pots on the deck of dirt. But she put it back when I asked her to, so that was OK too.

Then I used the leftovers of yesterday's pie and made pie milkshakes and they were, if possible, even more delicious. In fact, they were so delicious that I announced my intentions to email my sister-in-law and tell her about them, in case she wanted to meet us at her apartment this weekend for some blueberry pie milkshake (otherwise she's just getting plain blueberry pie).

"You know", Zion said, "the great thing about family is, someone can not be in your family and then someone who IS in your family can marry that person...like, a boy in your family can marry a girl..."

"Or a boy", Robert and I said.

"Or a boy could marry a girl", Zion continued.

"Or a boy could marry another boy", we said. "Or a girl could marry another girl."

"Yes", Zion said, "It doesn't really matter. But someone who isn't in your family can BECOME part of your family. And that's a nice thing about family".

And it is.

Pie Milkshake

A while back someone (probably Pete) told me about a diner in Iowa City that served a pie milkshake.  Since I love all things pie, I was intrigued by this idea. But since I love all things pie I only rarely adorn my pie with anything at all, and turning pie into a milkshake remained firmly in the realm of imaginary cool.

And then a couple weeks ago when discussing Father's Day plans with Robert I mentioned the pie milkshake, and Robert was way more excited than I had been since he probably loves milkshakes even more than pie. So I told him I'd make him a pie milkshake for Father's Day.

Since blueberries are in season I decided it should be a blueberry pie milkshake. And since the best blueberry pie is the kind I made for Kenny (and blogged about) back in 2009, that's the kind I made this morning. 2/3's of the blueberries are left raw, while the remaining ones are cooked with sugar and cornstarch into a thick jam. Then they're all tossed together, poured into a pre-baked crust, and left to cool and set. It's seriously amazing and any fan of pie or summer fruit should go make one tomorrow.

(Side note: I'm tinkering with my GF pie crust recipe. I'm pretty pleased with the one I made today, but I'll post an updated recipe when I'm *really* pleased.)

So, here we have the pie, with Liel's bat, Count Fabulous, looking on in approval.

Here is a slice of that pie in the blender, along with vanilla ice cream.

Add milk...

And you'll have one super happy husband! And an excellent way of saying "thank you" to that super happy awesome husband for being an amazing dad. 

51 orange tentacles

This is what that looks like, if you were curious. 24 more to go!

Also, a couple of food notes: 1. I made a delicious kohlrabi slaw a couple nights ago. I shredded the purple kholrabi we got from our CSA along with a couple of carrots and some spring onions (also from the CSA). I salted and drained the kholrabi very briefly and squeezed out some excess water. Then I added some red wine vinegar, some pepper (Penzey's Tellicherry black pepper, if you're interested) and a couple biggish spoonfuls of Veganaise. Mixed together and yum!

2. I have mastered the eggless Key Lime Pie. In the past I've had trouble getting the proper consistency using my trusty Ener-g Egg Replacer. Normally this stuff is the bomb- simple to use (just substitute for eggs- 1.5 tsps of the powder + 2 T water = 1 egg) and impossible to detect in baked goods. For custards, tho, it's really a bit lacking. It doesn't lend the smoothness and richness of eggs, and even less of egg yolks. Furthermore, I've found that doing a direct subsitution, which normally works flawlessly, is not sufficient for custards. They just won't set up properly. My Key Lim Pie recipe uses 4 egg yolks. I know that if i put 4 Egg Replacer egg yolks in, my pie won't hold pretty slices. So I've tried different things, and here's what I find works: put in enough powder for 5 egg yolks, but only enough water for 4. Voila. Beautiful and tasty egg free Key Lime Pie!