How To: Make pie sans pie plate

For awhile in college/grad school, my culinary ambitions far exceeded the kitchen I had to work with.  I lacked pretty much every kitchen tool–even the obvious ones like spatulas–which meant having to improvise every time I made something.  Once, in a fit of nostalgia, I decided to make an apple pie like Gram’s…except I didn’t have a pie plate.   And thus, the No-Pie Plate-Pie was born!  Later, I discovered that my brilliant improvisation was not at all new; rustic French cooking has been making ‘pies’ in this way for ever–they call it a galette–and lots of fancy restaurants like to pretend it’s not pie and serve it for $12 a slice…duh.  But it’s wonderfully simple, and has become my go-to pie baking method, so I thought I would share.  Even if you think you suck at baking, you can do this!  (And, really, who doesn’t love pie?)

This is just the method, of course–I left out the recipes for the crust and filling pictured since I spent an entire year perfecting them and they really are pretty anal and involved.  But if you’re interested in those, let me know! 

1. roll out (or unfold) your crust on a foil-covered baking sheet.

2. arrange your filling on the crust

3. ...it'll still taste good w/o the compulsive pattern

4. fold up the edges of the crust around the filling

5. seal/gloss pastry w/ egg wash

6. sprinkle everything with coarse sugar

7. ready for the oven! 350 for 40-50 mins

8. mmm golden brown and ready for ice cream!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now for some gratuitous food porn shots…