Dan and I got ambitious a few nights ago and together we tackled a recipe I had seen made on the Food Network challenge. The recipe was by Melissa d'Arabian, who is the most recent winner of The Next Food Network Star. I've never tried a recipe like this before and NEVER even thought to attempt home-made pie crust. Dan was amazing! I really love cooking with him. It is becoming a hobby we like to do together. There was no way I could have done this without him, I knew I would have puttered out half-way without his help.It turned out SOOOOOO good! We were just in heaven eating it. It was like ultimate comfort food! We did substitute the bacon for turkey bacon, and I could not find Gruyere cheese anywhere, so we just used what we had - I would definitely suggest a strong cheese though. Ours could have used a little more cheese POW! Also, instead of fresh thyme we just used dried and strained it from the cream.
We had so much fun making this and we really felt like we had accomplished a great feat when we were done and got to enjoy our spoils! We also enjoyed left overs another night and breakfast! Very filling! Now we want to use this pie crust recipe and make other things with it, like chicken pot pie or even a fruit pie! CAN'T WAIT!
HERE is the Torte and crust recipe and I'll type out the Pie Crust recipe below.
Pie Crust:
Ingredients:
1 cup butter (2 sticks), cubed and chilled
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
8-10 Tbs ice water
egg wash: 1 egg yolk, whisked with a splash of water
Directions:
~ Put the butter, flour, and salt in the food processor, and pulse lightly just until the mixture resembles wet sand.
~ Add the water, 1 Tbs at a time, pulsing briefly after each spoonful of water. Keep adding water until the dough just begins to gather into larger clumps.
~ Transfer equal amounts of the dough into 2 resealable plastic bags and pat each into a disk. Let rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
~ Remove one of the disks from the bag to a flour coated surface. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to a 10-inch round. Gently fit the rolled dough into a 9-inch pie pan, and refrigerate while you prepare the torte ingredients.
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~ Roll out the remaining disk of refrigerated dough after pie is filled. Cover the pie with the dough and crimp the edges closed.
~ Brush the top and edges of the crust with egg wash.
~ Make a few slits in the center of the top crust, for the steam to escape, and put the pie pan on a baking sheet.
~ Bake the torte at 375* F until crust is browned and crispy and the potatoes are cooked through, about 50-60 minutes. If the crust edges get too brown, cover them with some strips of aluminum foil.
~ Remove the pie from the oven and let rest at least 15 minutes before cutting into wedges and serving.
7 comments:
Wow, that looks DELICIOUS. And oh my goodness, you are SEVENTEEN days away from your due date!! Insane. Feels like I'll never get there.
I hung out with Geoff on NYE. He's a funny guy. However, I knew more about your pregnancy than he did... I guess he should read your blog more. haha.
Awesome recipe! Great job on the pie crust! I wonder if you could substitute any Swiss cheese for the Gruyere? What kind did you use?
I guess Gruyere is a type of swiss. We ended up just using sharp cheddar, mozzarella, and Parmesan. That is what we had in the fridge. I'm definitely not a cheese connoisseur so I'd have to research it, but swiss would probably work.
I was going to buy some Gruyere for a recipe this Christmas, but when I saw it was about $22 for a half pound, I picked a simple swiss. I think the Gruyere is stronger.
That looks yummy! We might have to try that one.
I just glanced at your widget and you have FOURTEEN days left on it. You could have a baby any day!
Wow. That looks amazing! Great job! I have never seen Gruyere at $22 for a half lb before. But I bought smoked Gruyere and I thought it tasted nasty! Asiago cheese is pretty strong, I wonder if that would work.
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