Pie and Pastry Bible (63 page)

Cut away the stem from the Hachiya persimmons. Cut them in half and place them in a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Process for a few seconds until puréed. Measure the purée. You will need 1 cup (8.5 ounces/247 grams). (Any extra can be frozen up to 6 months for another pie.)

Process the Hachiya persimmon purée with the milk, brown sugar, and egg for about 8 seconds or until smooth.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Add it to the food processor and pulse about 8 times or until incorporated. Add the butter and pulse about 4 times or until incorporated. Add the chopped persimmon, raisins, walnuts, candied orange peel, and candied ginger and pulse twice, just to incorporate. (You will have about 3½ cups of filling.)

Immediately
pour the filling into the prepared pie crust (the acidity in the persimmon reacting with the baking soda will cause the mixture to stiffen quickly). The filling will reach almost to the top of the crust. Smooth the surface and, if you have prepared one, set the persimmon slice in the center, pressing it lightly into the surface. Place a greased foil ring (see page 19) on the pie to shield the exposed crust edge.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until a thin knife blade inserted about an inch from the center comes out clean. The filling will darken and puff slightly and the rim of the crust will spread slightly. On cooling, the filling will settle. Cool on a rack.

When the pie is cool, arrange the optional pecan halves around the edge, pointed ends out. If desired, brush a little corn syrup on the bottom of each to attach it to the filling, and press it in gently. Also brush a little corn syrup on the persimmon slice to make it shiny and prevent drying.

Serve warm or at room temperature, accompanied witCh cræme fraîche or whipped cream and a few slices of persimmon if desired. (The pie can be reheated for 10 minutes in a 350°F. oven. Be sure to keep the crust shielded with aluminum foil.)

STORE

Room temperature, up to 1 day; refrigerated, up to 3 days.

NOTE

The filling can be prepared by hand or with an electric mixer, but the persimmon must be puréed using a food processor, blender, or food mill in order to have a smooth texture.

POINTERS FOR SUCCESS

The Hachiya variety of persimmon is plump and pear-shaped, while the Fuyu variety is squat. Hachiya persimmons are ripe when they are very soft and almost jelly-like. To speed ripening, place them in a brown bag or fruit ripening bowl with an apple. Do not buy underripe Hachiyas if you do not have time to ripen them, as they will taste bitter. Fuyus can be substituted but must be peeled.

Fuyus are preferable for adding to the filling and for the garnish because they keep their shape. They are ripe when still very firm and bright orange in color. A Fuyu does not have the astringency of the Hachiya but has a tough skin that must be removed. If desired, buy extra and garnish each plate with a few slices.

Overcooking custard will cause the proteins in the egg to contract and squeeze the liquid from them, resulting in a curdled custard. But if the filling has not cooked sufficiently, the amylase in the egg yolk will cause it to thin out and also to become watery. When the custard has almost set, the very center will still be soft enough to leave a trace on the knife blade, but on removal from the oven, the residual heat will gently finish the cooking. With this pie, you cannot test for doneness by seeing if it will shimmy, because the thickening effect of the persimmon keeps it from moving even when not yet fully baked.

UNDERSTANDING

The cookie crust must be shielded with foil during baking. Care must be taken to maintain a temperature no higher than 325°F. if you use a glass pie plate, because it allows the heat to penetrate more easily and since the cookies have already been baked before being pulverized into crumbs, they could burn without this precaution.

Walnuts are used in the filling because they are crunchier than pecans, but pecans are used in the crust and for the garnish because their flavor is complementary to the persimmons.

ICE CREAM PIES AND ICE CREAMS

P
ie and ice cream were meant for each other. I think that
àla mode
was the first French phrase I heard, and I remembered it because it meant ice cream slowly melting on top of a wedge of warm pie. Of course, vanilla ice cream goes with everything. But passion fruit ice cream with peach pie is blissful. Peanut butter ice cream with a chocolate tart is obviously wonderful, but with cherry pie it is stunning. The refreshing tang of buttermilk or lemon ice cream is extraordinarily complementary to fruit pies and tarts. Caramel ice cream is a natural with apple, pear, or peach pies and tarts and it is also wonderful with chocolate tarts. This chapter contains recipes for ice creams not available store-bought. They all have a creamy texture without being cloyingly rich, because of the proportion of cream to milk (3 parts cream to 1 part milk). This is just enough butterfat to keep the ice crystals small.

Since ice cream is America’s number one dessert, it stands to reason that a pie bible should present ways to serve it for special occasions. A pie crust, however, does more than offer a formal and attractive presentation. A crust makes it possible to introduce other elements, such as bananas, walnuts, hot fudge, and caramel, as in the Banana Split Pie. When serving an ice cream pie, be sure to transfer it from the freezer to the refrigerator for at least thirty minutes to soften it. When it is frozen too solid, the flavors hide, but when it is soft and creamy, you couldn’t ask for a better dessert.

UNDERSTANDING ICE CREAM

I
like to add a small amount of optional liqueur (1½ teaspoons of 80-proof liqueur for every cup of cream/milk) to all my ice cream recipes. The alcohol acts as an antifreeze, lowering the freezing point of the mixture so that it takes longer to freeze. During the freezing process, the dasher or beater in the ice cream machine is constantly turning to break up the ice crystals as they form. The longer the freezing takes, the smaller the ice crystals will be and the more evenly they will be distributed throughout the ice cream. This makes the ice cream feel creamy rather than icy. (Industrial machines have more powerful motors and beaters, so they can freeze ice cream faster and still produce small, evenly distributed ice crystals.) Ice cream has the most creamy texture within three days of freezing, but with the liqueur will maintain its texture for up to a week. The alcohol also keeps the ice cream from freezing quite as hard when it sits in the freezer. Aromatic liqueurs such as Chambord add a touch of extra flavor. Vodka does not impart any taste to the ice cream.

Cobasan (see page 644), the emulsifier that works wonders with whipped cream, also works beautifully with ice cream, making it just as smooth as it can possibly be. A rounded half teaspoon of Cobasan can be added to any of the ice creams, but it is essential in the buttermilk ice cream, where a lower proportion of cream is used in order to get more buttermilk flavor, and in the red wine ice cream, where the milk is replaced with the wine.

Heavy cream (which has already been pasteurized) does not need to be heated before adding it to the custard mixture. This maintains more of its lovely pure, floral flavor and also makes it convenient to make a fruit curd ice cream, because all you have to do is add it to the already prepared curd. According to my colleague Shirley Corriher, milk should be heated to 175°F. (just under scalding) because heating causes something in the proteins in milk to undergo a change, resulting in more smoothness in the finished ice cream. Curd-based ice creams, however, are so smooth there is no perceptible difference whether or not the milk is heated. When replacing the milk with another liquid that has no protein, as in the red wine ice cream, it is possible to add the protein in the form of nonfat dry milk to achieve a smooth texture. As milk has 3.5 percent protein, ¾ cup contains 6.35 grams, equal to about 4 teaspoons of nonfat dry milk.

All of my ice creams contain egg yolks (1 large yolk for every ½ cup of cream/ milk). In addition to contributing flavor, they are great emulsifiers and, after being cooked to form the custard, offer significant body to the ice cream. Too high a temperature and they would curdle, but bringing them close to the maximum temperature produces a desirable body that feels good in one’s mouth as it melts. A pinch of salt also does wonders to enhance the flavor of the ice cream without being perceived as saltiness.

After the custard is made, it should be chilled for at least 2 hours, or until cold, before adding it to the ice cream maker. For the smoothest texture and best flavor, it should sit overnight.

Some ice cream machines introduce more air into the ice cream than do others, so the yields will vary slightly. If you have one that can make very small quantities, it is possible to divide any of these recipes by 6 and make about
cup of ice cream. For the standard ice cream base, the proportions are:

1 large egg yolk: 1½ tablespoons sugar: 6 tablespoons heavy cream: 2 tablespoons milk: ¾ teaspoon 80-proof alcohol

For 1 cup of ice cream, perfect for two, multiply the base by one and a half:

1½ tablespoons egg yolk: 2 tablespoons plus ¾ teaspoon sugar: 9 tablespoons heavy cream: 3 tablespoons milk: 1
teaspoons 80-proof alcohol