Farm-style Pie

How many times has a fruit pie dripped all over the oven and caused alarms to go off? Too many times in my kitchen! I am not sure where I stumbled upon this solution; however, it is now the only way I put a pie together today. I remember the method being referred to as farm pie mostly because it is fast to assemble and no mess to deal with in the oven - usually. Do you know any farm wives who have extra time to spend cleaning their oven? Me neither! There is very little pastry waste as well which is really nice. Simply roll out your pastry to exceed a good three to four inches past the perimeter of the pie plate depending on how high you pile your pie. What you are aiming for is roughly a two to three-inch in diameter hole in the centre of the pie. It's important to have a place for the steam to escape. When steam gets trapped under the crust of the pie, that's when you run into overflowing issues and air pockets. I usually trim around the steam hole so that it looks nice and then use the excess pastry to make shapes for decorating. In the past, I have made a simple twisted rope design to go around the steam hole. Making feathers, leaf shapes or any shapes also look great. Any and all decorating looks great especially if sprinkled with a cinnamon and sugar mixture or poppy seeds and the like.

Fruit pies are a bit tricky to get the measurements exact. How big is a large peach? How many medium-sized apples do you need to make up for five large apples? How dry is the fruit you are using? How juicy? How sweet? How sour? Generally, I take into account all of the things above. Taste the fruit for its level of sweetness and add sugar and spices accordingly.

• 5 to 6 cups of fruit (fruit should be mounded well above the rim of the pie plate)
• 3 tbsp of flour (roughly, add more for juicy fruit such as ripe, fresh peaches)
• 1 cup sugar, brown or white depending on what you like best (more if you are adding rhubarb or other not-so-sweet fruit)
• 2-3 tsp of your favourite spice combo (ginger for peach, cinnamon for apples, as a general idea) keeping in mind that some fruit may or may not need spices such as cherry or blueberry. Again, it's all up to your personal taste.

1. Roll out the pastry in a circle 3 to 4 inches past the rim of the pie plate.
2. Roll up circle onto the rolling pin and then unroll the pastry onto pie plate making sure it is evenly placed from the centre out past the rim of pie plate.
3. Slice or chop fruit (rhubarb should be cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch lengths).
4. Measure flour, sugar, and spices into a large freezer bag.
5. Toss fruit in the spice bag and shake until well coated.
6. Place coated fruit into pie shell being careful to keep it even across the bottom of the shell
7. Gradually fold pastry edges inward, toward the middle, covering the fruit and leaving a steam hole in the centre.
8. Trim any excess pastry from the centre using a knife, leaving a 2-3 inch steam hole.
9. Decorate with leftover pastry if you like.
10. Brush milk or watered down egg white onto the top of the pastry.
11. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon mixture on top (substitute with seeds, nutmeg, preferred topping or just leave it alone).
12. Bake at 400 F for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 F and bake for an additional 40 minutes or until tester pushes through the fruit. Fruit should feel tender.