Thanksgiving Pies

It’s hard to believe that when flour, butter, and a little water are mixed just so, they can yield a flaky, flavorful, and sturdy crust that can hold a wide variety of sweet fillings. Along with cranberry relish and baked squash, pie is a New England Thanksgiving must for the buffet. The ultimate comfort food, pie can be served in a rustic cast-iron skillet, individual ramekin, or right from a tin pie dish. With lattice, crimpled, or open-faced tops, pies can be dressed up or down depending on your whim. And for fillings, the choices are endless: Chunky apple, silky pumpkin, and crunchy pecan create sweet sensations for the holiday palate. We spoke to three local pie chefs about their love of the ultimate Thanksgiving Day dessert.

Ashley Bush

BUTTERMILK BAKING COMPANY, buttermilkbaking.com

Pastry chef Ashley Bush, owner of Newburyport’s Buttermilk Baking Company—a small-batch, made-from-scratch bakery—discovered her passion for pie at a very young age. “When I was little, I loved to read cookbooks; I’d make an apple pie filling, following a recipe, step-by-step,” she says. She loved baking and knew one day she would open her own bake shop. A native New Yorker, Bush studied at the Culinary Institute of America, and after graduating took pastry chef positions up and down the East Coast—anywhere to get her feet wet.

Two years ago, when she and her husband landed in New Hampshire, she saw her golden opportunity. She decided on Newburyport for her shop location, and has been busy rolling out dough since. “Making pie is so tactile, the flour on your hands, feeling the consistency of the dough. It’s meditative— it’s like gardening in that way.” Last Thanksgiving she took orders for 100 apple pies— each pie gets 10 apples (a mix of Granny Smiths, Courtlands, and Paula Reds).

She sources her ingredients locally—apples from Cider Hill Farm in Amesbury, creamy butter (she uses 90 pounds each week) from Vermont’s Cabot Creamery, and King Arthur Flour also sourced from Vermont. Sugar and cinnamon are also tossed into the mix. Her hand pies are great grab-and-go snacks and a fun way to personalize pies for holiday desserts. Many of her pies are seasonal, and she offers a wide variety for Thanksgiving Day. When asked what her favorite pie is—she exclaims, “That is like choosing your favorite child!” But she does admit she loves her sweet potato pie with house-made marshmallows. Pumpkin with house-made ginger snaps, and pecans is another seasonal crowd-pleaser.

Jennifer Cobb

THE BANCROFT, the-bancroft.com

Another recent North Shore transplant from New York, pastry chef Jennifer Cobb was enlisted by the Burlington steak house, The Bancroft— the latest farm-to-table establishment by the Webber Restaurant Group—to create exquisite desserts. Cobb has a great understanding of farm-to-table cooking. After she learned her craft at the French Culinary Institute (today known as the International Culinary Center), she worked for famed restauranteur and father of the farm-to-table movement Peter Hoffman in his two New York restaurants, Back Forty and Back Forty West. She was also a pastry sous chef at Mas (farmhouse), a tiny 60-seat prix fixe restaurant, which made Zagat’s top 10 restaurant list for New York City. “We source much of our produce from Gibbet Hill Farm in Groton, which is also owned by the Webber Restaurant Group,” she notes. One of her favorite dishes to make is the apple and cranberry pot pie. “You can bake it in a single- serving dish or a large skillet,” she says. “I love using New England fall flavors in my desserts—you can taste the season in every bite.”

The Bancroft’s Apple Cranberry “Pot Pie”

(adapted for home use)

1 1/2 c. cranberries, dried

1/3 c. dark rum

8-12 med. apples such as Macoun, Cortland, Empire, or a mix

2 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg, grated or ground

3 tbsp. granulated sugar

3 tbsp. light brown sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tbsp. cornstarch

1 recipe of Buttermilk Pie Dough

1 egg plus

1 tbs. water

Equipment: One 9 ? or 10 ? cast-iron skillet

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Take the chilled pie dough out to soften slightly.

Combine the cranberries and rum in a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to a low simmer to soften the fruit and allow it to absorb most of the rum, about 3 to 4 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Pour the lemon juice in a large bowl. Peel, core, and chop the apples to approximately 1/2″ diced and place the apples directly in the lemon juice and toss to coat as you go—should be about 8 to 9 cups total, depending on the size of the apples. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, sugars, and salt and mix well to incorporate. Toss in the cranberry-rum mixture and let macerate while you roll out the dough. Unwrap the disc of slightly-softened dough. Flour a large surface and roll the dough into a round about 1/16″ thick. Set aside.

Toss the cornstarch with the apple mixture and pour it all into the cast-iron skillet—mound it up high; some of it will shrink in baking. Roll the dough up on the rolling pin and then unroll over the filling, tucking the excess around the filling on the inside edge of the skillet, trim if necessary. Cut vents in the center of the dough in whatever pattern you like. Beat the egg and water together in a small bowl and brush the egg wash over the dough with a pastry brush. Bake on a cookie sheet (to catch any drips and juices) in the middle of the oven for 15 to 25 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Enjoy warm with cinnamon ice cream for dessert (or cold from the refrigerator in the middle of the night).

Buttermilk Pie Dough

2 sticks cold butter, cubed

2 3/4 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. sugar

1/3 c. (3 fluid ounces) low-fat buttermilk, cold

Combine the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer.* In a smaller bowl, toss a quarter of the butter with approximately a quarter of the flour mixture and place in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Add the remaining butter to the mixer bowl and chill in the refrigerator at the same time.

Remove the mixer bowl from the refrigerator and place on the mixer with the paddle. Mix on medium-low speed until the butter is very small and the whole thing looks a little crumbly. Add the butter and flour from the freezer and mix on the same speed until the frozen butter is the size of small peas. With the mixer running, pour in the cold buttermilk and allow the dough to come together. Gather the dough together, wrap it in plastic and chill it for at least 30 minutes or overnight. The dough can also be kept frozen for one week.

* By hand method: Follow the two bowl method above, but work each butter mixture separately with your hands or a pastry cutter, then drizzle in the buttermilk a little at a time.

Sharon Driscoll

MILK & HONEY GREEN GROCER, milkandhoneysalem.com

Sharon Driscoll, owner of Salem’s Milk & Honey Green Grocer, began making pies as a hobby. “My mother baked pies and my grandparents owned a bakery in upstate New York in the 1940s—you could say baking runs in my family,” she explains. Last year she decided to make and sell pies at her shop for the holiday season and enlisted the help of personal chef Ricardo Sanchez to devise a plan. “Chef Sanchez is so talented. He really helped with the process, and the pie recipes are his,” she notes. “We make apple, pumpkin, pecan, and blueberry.” She uses frozen blueberries from Maine and McIntosh apples from Brooksby Farm in Peabody. Pumpkins are locally sourced as well. Driscoll also keeps hand-made pies in the freezer section of her shop. “Pie is my favorite dessert— I love the flaky, warm crust. There is nothing like it. It’s such comfort food—I even love pie cold for breakfast.” Her journey into pie making has proven to be a delicious endeavor.