Firehall Fest a Smashing Sunfilled Success - Old Ottawa South

Page 20
The OSCAR - OUR 36 th YEAR
Tasty Tidbits from Trillium Bakery
By Jocelyn LeRoy
Right from day one of Trillium
Bakery’s long history, there
was a small problem that
concerned pie pastry.
During my “formative years”
preparing for the hectic and demanding
life of a bakery-type entrepreneur,
I was going to business school, as
well as art and dance schools, raising
four children, and experimenting
with recipes that used alternative
ingredients.
Back then, there were bizarre green
things such as sprouted wheat, lumpy
white bowlfuls of homemade yogurt,
beige fake cream cheese (tofu!), rusty
brown paste called miso, and blackish
bitter muffins whose only redeeming
feature was a handful of plump raisins
or dates. Such were the ‘70s!
A keen interest in health, healthy
lifestyle, “natural” foods, herbs,
organic home gardening, back-to-theroots
cooking and baking – and, for
awhile – eating all raw foods: those,
too, were the hallmarks of the times.
They were indeed preparing me for
three decades of Trillium living.
I now believe that the dance
A Slice of Pie / A Slice of Life
training was possibly the most
valuable and relevant – it sharpens
your brain and develops discipline,
focus and a freedom of spirit – all
necessary if you want to be successful
in business and ride the rollercoaster
of the early years. Then there was the
mindset of “Jump in and swim hard”
(or dance hard), fast, graceful, trying
not to injure your limbs or fall on your
face.
For years, before Trillium Bakery
became a living, pulsing entity, I
had collected and tried out recipes
from neighbours, restaurants, classic
cookbooks and my ancestors’ family
recipes. Because I liked making
TGIF pies, I was fascinated by these.
There were recipes using butter, lard,
oil, vinegar, lemon juice, hot water,
cold water and eggs. The only one
that stood above the rest was a farm
friend’s pig-fat pie. She used this
fat in all her delicious baking. But I
couldn’t bring myself to try it.
Every other recipe turned out soso.
Of course, I didn’t know about the
light, quick, relaxed touch in creating
the pastry. “Fear of pie” did not help.
Never does.
So, every baker ever hired
at Trillium got the Number-one
Question: “Can you make good pie
dough?” They all either lied or ran
away fast.
Eventually I got fed up with being
leery of pie-dough recipes, pie-dough
bakers, and pie dough itself. Then I
had a brilliant idea.
I insisted on a hands-on lesson,
using the simplest and smallest number
of ingredients, walking through it by
baby steps – doing it myself. I had
completely overlooked an opportunity
right under my nose. My long-time
beau, a professional pastry chef whose
hands created more pie pastry than I
could imagine, who had learned his
craft first-hand from experts in every
aspect of baking, said, when I begged
him to teach me once and for all time,
“It’s so easy. What are you so worried
about?”
I replied, “All the recipes from the
past yielded humdrum results. Except
my mother’s, which was buttery and
delicious. Please, show me now!”
I thought to myself, “This will
be my final attempt.” I did not like
feeling that big lumps of flour and
water had turned me into a wimp, and
I was tired of avoiding it.
Like magic, it worked! All of it.
Especially the hands-on part. It’s true:
Pie Pastry
Trillium Recipe
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
2/3 cup chilled shortening.
2 tablespoons chilled butter
4 tablespoons cold water
1. Cool the shortening for a few
hours.
2. Combine flour, salt, sugar in
bowl.
3. Add cold shortening and cut into
flour with a metal pastry cutter, using
a quick, sharp motion, cutting right
through the shortening. Do not mush
it together. You want pea-size pebbles
of fat, which pick up flour as you cut.
4. Make a well in the centre, and pour
in the ice-cold water.
5. With a strong steel fork, stir the
whole mixture with a few energetic
figure-8 motions, then a sweep around
the edge of the bowl, until the whole
mass barely clings together.
6. Resist the temptation to tidy up the
dough too much, or pat it with your
hands, or work it into a more cohesive
ball. Leave it loose.
7. Refrigerate for several hours; then
bring to room temperature.
8. Dump onto a floured wooden
table or onto a big board. Slice off a
portion for one pie crust, and quickly
shape it into a ball. Don’t be afraid to
fling around a bit of extra flour while
rolling out your crust.
9. This is the step that can utterly
ruin your results if you overwork the
JUL/AUG 2008
it’s easy. But it’s not fun for everyone,
so, if you’re one of those, let someone
else make the pastry.
My uncle from New York City
used to advise me to get into the frozen
dough business if I wanted to get rich.
Maybe he was right, but where’s the
fun in frozen dough?
The following is meant to be
enjoyed. And, perhaps by osmosis, a
few pointers will enable you to raise
the bar in your efforts with pie pastry,
wherever that bar now is. This is a
recipe for scaredy-cats, not experts;
you who are experts don’t need help.
This recipe is about the spirit of making
pies. It’s really about being creative,
loose, happy, making something
to please the senses and celebrate
anything you deem worthwhile, like
TGIF.
It’s about memories,
heartwarming aromas evoking longforgotten
moments, and making new
ones. My father’s best memories of
dessert harkened back to his days on
a freighter crossing the Great Lakes.
Memories of sneaking back into the
kitchen for “pie ends” shared with
the ship’s chef: best pie ever until my
mother perfected her pastry.
dough. The real pros are known to
produce a good disc with a minimum
of rolling. It takes practice and a feel
for when to stop.
9a. Roll out pie shells from the centre
outward. Lift the roller.
9b. Roll the dough this way to 1/8inch
thickness. Lightly patch any
tears rather than re-rolling.
9c. Loosen from the board, fold in
two, and lay on the pie plate. Unfold,
and press into place.
9d. Trim overlapping edges with a
slashing motion.
You can use this same method to
form the top crust, or you may use
a crumble mixture or lattice. (The
classic cookbooks detail many ways
to finish and decorate pies.)
So, please remember:
Light handling will avoid developing
the gluten, and it will incorporate air
into the mix, creating a tender, flaky
crust.
Too much flour can toughen pastry.
Too much water makes it soggy, and
too much fat makes it greasy and
crumbly.
We at Trillium believe that a little
treat now and then won’t kill you
– we’re not talking allergies here,
but rather the fear of clogging your
arteries. It takes a lot more than a
slice of pie to bring on a heart attack
for most people, so please enjoy the
accomplishment of creating an artful,
homemade pie with a flaky crust and
divinely delicious flavour. And have
fun!