Easy as Pie

On Saturday I took my first of three scheduled (well, so far) with Helen's Kitchen. This particular class was at pastry chef Leslie's house in Belmont. It was awesome!! Oh, the joy of tapering! This is the first time all summer I've had time to do something like this - I spend most Saturday mornings training. But, with the Chicago marathon looming in the near future, I spent a beautiful fall morning making pie with 8 strangers. What else would I be doing 2 weeks out??

She shared with us her pie crust recipe, which she has been perfecting for years. While I won't share her secrets with you (you'll have to take the class yourself) - below are pictures of the awesome things we made.


First item of the day? An apple galette. A galette is (apparently) a free form pie - you just arrange apple slices on rolled out pie dough, turn over the edges, and bake. Amazing simple and incredibly delicious.


Next item - a pear tatin. The pear was made on the stove in a saucepan in some caramel (just sugar and water) and then the pie dough was put over it. The whole saucepan was put in the oven, and after it has cooked and cooled, you flip the whole thing over. Pretty cool.




Then, we moved onto a plum frangipane tart. It is pie dough, and almond custard with plum slices. This might have been my favorite of the day...next time I'm figuring out how to incorporate raspberries!

We had to make a traditional pie while we were there! Peach pie, especially awesome since peaches are in their peak season right now.


We ate dessert before lunch...if you can call a quiche a lunch. This leek and gruyere quiche was great, next time I'm adding some ham!