Gooseberry Pie

SusanPachikara (COPYRIGHT 2011)

Producing a gooseberry pie from garden to table is a labor I love. I learned this last week when Pete beckoned us to harvest ripe berries from the community garden. Six of us gathered around the sprawling gooseberry bushes. The pinstriped fruit hung just inside the branches like little lanterns. When I reached in to pluck them, hefty thorns caught my sleeve and clawed at my arm. I popped a berry in my mouth looking for solace and, and it make my whole body pucker. The tartness was almost as off-putting as the thorns.

But I kept picking.

During my recent trip to India, I had spotted gooseberries at the market. In the South, they are commonly pickled with turmeric, mustard seeds and other spices. I learned that Ayurvedic doctors have prescribed Indian gooseberries for centuries. I wanted to test out a pickle recipe with the berries, but not until I made a pie.

Susan Pachikara (COPYRIGHT 2011)

When I got home, I removed the "tails" and "tops" of the berries one-by-one. Then I tackled the pie crust. I am the family baker, but my focus has always been on cookies and cakes. I knew if I stumbled with the pie, it would be with the crust. It could shrink or crack or wind up not flaky enough. So I turned to Martha Stewart and America’s Test Kitchen, two of my favorite teachers, for guidance.

Susan Pachikara (COPYRIGHT 2011)

This week, I took my gooseberry pie to work night at the community garden. Earlier in the day, I had smothered a slice of it with whipped cream, unable to fully enjoy it without a bit of taming. The gardeners gobbled the rest of it up without a dollop of dairy proving that there is an avid fan base for tart summer desserts.

GOOSEBERRY PIE

Make a 9-inch pie

INGREDIENTS

For crust

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon of sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
1/2 cup vegetable shortening, cold
1/4 cup iced water

For filing

6 cups gooseberries
2 tablespoons water
2 cups sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup dried sweetened coconut

INSTRUCTIONS

Combine flour, salt and 1 teaspoon sugar in a food processor and pulse for 10 seconds. Layer with butter and vegetable shortening and pulse until mixture forms coarse crumbles.

Pour into a bowl. Layer mixture with ice water and press. Continue until dough just sticks together. (If you need more water, add it one tablespoon at a time).

Form dough into 2 balls. Place on plastic wrap, flatten into a disk and cover with plastic wrap.

Refrigerate for at least one hour.

Pull tails and tops from berries.

Put berries and water in a saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat until the skin of the berries split and they loose their shape, about 15 minutes.

Add sugar and flour and stir until filling starts to bubble. Remove from heat.

Layer cutting board with flour. Roll one disk of dough into a 12-inch round. Loosely roll dough around rolling pin. Hold over pie plate, unwind and tuck into edges of pie plate. Cut excess from edges. Roll out other disk into a 12-inch round and lay on cookie sheet. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Layer bottom of pie crust with coconut. Pour gooseberry filling over coconut. Use a flower-shaped cookie cutter to cut flowers from the other layer of dough. Layer flower-shaped dough over gooseberry filling. (Or simply lay second layer of dough over pie filling. Trim excess dough from edges and pinch seams together. Make slits in the top to allow steam to escape.)

Brush with heavy cream and sprinkle with remaining sugar.

Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Cool on baking rack for an hour. Serve with whipped cream (apparently optional).