A triple-almond pie with cherries on top

BY W. WAYT GIBBS
Associated Press

By late summer, the fruits hanging from vast groves of Prunus amygdalus trees in California have withered and split. Through cracks in their leathery rinds, you can see glimpses of the pale teardrop-shaped seeds they protect: almonds, ready for harvest.

By early autumn, fresh almonds are pouring into markets by the ton. It’s the perfect time of year to make this recipe for almond cherry cream pie, which works the subtle and complex flavor of almonds into all three layers: a crispy crust, a custard filling, and a sweet, crunchy topping.

The chefs in our research kitchen tested more than 40 versions of sweet and tart crusts to find the combination that, thanks to a bit of almond flour and powdered sugar, produces a container for the pie that has just the right balance of sweetness, strength, and buttery give. A thin coat of cocoa butter holds the cream filling away from the crust, so it stays crisp from the first bite to the last. And a dash of almond extract enhances the flavor of the almond flour.

The pie is filled with a simple pastry cream flavored by amaretto, the almond-flavored liqueur. Cooking the custard in a temperature-controlled pot of water ensures that the texture turns out right every time.

You can top the pie with caramelized almonds, which are easy to prepare and make an addictive snack on their own. And for a splash of color and a dash of tartness, we add canned Amarena cherries. Fresh cherries are even better, but hard to come by this time of year. Slices of fresh fig also work well as a topping.

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The crust, filling, and caramelized almond topping for this pie can each be made separately and stored until you are ready to assemble the pie. The crust will keep for up to three months if you vacuum seal it and then freeze it before it is baked. The pastry cream filling will keep for up to two days in the refrigerator. The caramelized almonds will keep for up to a week when stored in an airtight container. If you are making the pie all at once, you can save time by making the pastry cream and caramelized almonds while the dough for the crust rests in the refrigerator.

 

TRIPLE-ALMOND CHERRY PIE

Start to finish: 3 hours, including 2 hours of unattended cooking, to make the crust, filling, and topping, and to assemble the pie

Makes one 12 inch pie

12-inch Double Almond Pie Crust, baked

4 cups (1 kg) Amaretto Pastry Cream

½ cup (60 g) Caramelized Almonds

12 Amarena cherries or fresh cherries, halved

2 Tbsp cocoa butter

Melt the cocoa butter over low heat or in the microwave, and brush a thin coat of the oil onto the interior of the baked pie crust. Allow the fat to solidify at room temperature, and then fill the crust with cold pastry cream. Smooth the surface of the filling with a spatula, and refrigerate the pie until it becomes firm, at least one hour. Top the pie with the crumbled caramelized almonds and cherry halves. Serve it cold.

 

DOUBLE ALMOND PIE CRUST

3-1/2 tablespoons (50 g) blended egg yolks (from 3 to 4 eggs)

1-1/2 cups (200 g) all-pupose flour

¾ cup (165 g) unsalted butter, very cold

¾ cup (80 g) powdered sugar

3/8 cup (30 g) almond flour

1 tsp (4 g) salt

¾ tsp (2.5 g) almond extract

½ tsp (2 g) baking powder

baking beads or dry beans, as needed 

Fill a large stock pot with hot water, and preheat it to 153 F. Clip a digital thermometer to the rim of the pot, with the tip well submerged, to monitor the temperature. Place the blended egg yolks in a zip-closure bag, and slowly lower the open bag into the preheated water until the top is nearly at the surface of the water, and then seal it. The goal is to use the water pressure to squeeze as much air as possible out of the bag. Once sealed, the bag should sink.

Submerge the bag of yolks, and let them cook in the 153 F water for 45 minutes. Keep an eye on the thermometer and adjust the heat as needed to keep the temperature at or near 153 F.

While the yolks cook, dice the chilled butter, and combine it in a food processor with the flours, powdered sugar, salt, and baking powder. Pulse the food processor until the mixture takes on the texture of cornmeal.

Add the almond extract and cooked egg yolks gradually, while continuing to pulse the food processor. Continue processing until the dough starts to bind. Although it may look quite dry, it will cohere eventually.

Shape the dough into a ball, flatten it into a thick disk, and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap. Put the wrapped dough into the refrigerator and let it rest for an hour. As it rests, the butter in the dough will harden and the gluten will grow more elastic. While the dough rests, you can make the pastry cream and caramelized almonds from the recipes below.

Preheat an oven to 375 F. Roll the rested dough into a circle that is about 1/8 inch think and about 2 inches larger in diameter than the pie pan. If you find that the dough is too sticky to roll, either chill it again or place it between two pieces of plastic wrap or parchment, and then roll it. 

Line a 12 inch pie pan with the dough; do not trim off the excess. Instead, let the edges drape over the sides of the pan. Press the dough firmly into the pan interior. If you don’t need to use the crust right away, cover the unbaked crust in plastic wrap and store it in the refrigerator. For longer-term storage, vacuum seal it, and stick it in the freezer.

To prepare the crust for baking, prick it with a fork all over, and then press parchment paper over top to protect it during baking. The fill the pan with baking beads or dry beans, and press them against the walls so that the dough doesn’t droop while it is in the oven.

Put the pie pan on a baking sheet, and bake it in the preheated oven until it turns golden brown, about 12 minutes. Midway through the baking, rotate the pie pan a half turn so that it browns evenly.

Carefully remove the beans and parchment paper. If the crust still looks a little wet, return it to the over for another 2 to 3 minutes. 

Cool the crust to room temperature, and then use a knife or vegetable peeler to trim any excess crust from the edges of the pan.

 

AMARETTO PASTRY CREAM

¾ cup (200 g) egg yolks, blended (11 to 12 yolks)

½ cup (110 mL) heavy cream

½ cup (100 mL) whole milk

¼ cup (50 g) unsalted butter, softened

5 tablespoons (64 g) sugar

1¼ tsp (6 mL) amaretto liqueur

pinch of salt 

Fill a large stock pot with hot water, and preheat it to 176 F. Use a thermometer clipped to the pot to monitor the water temperature. 

In a saucepan, combine the cream, milk, sugar, and salt. Whisk the mixture over medium-low heat until the sugar and salt have completely dissolved. 

Strain the blended egg yolks into a zip-closure bag. Remove the air from the bag by slowly lowering it into the stock pot until the surface of the water almost reaches the seal, and then close it. The bag should sink into the water. Allow the egg yolks to cook in the water bath for 35 minutes; adjust the heat as needed to keep the temperature at or near 176 F.

The yolks should now be firm and fully set. Transfer them immediately from the bag into a blender, and puree them at low speed. Do not allow the yolks to cool before blending, or the pastry cream will become grainy.  

While the blender is running, gradually add the amaretto and the warm cream mixture. 

Increase the blender speed to high, and gradually add the softened butter. Blend until the mixture becomes smooth and creamy.

If you will not be using the pastry cream right away, press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the custard to prevent a skin from forming, and store it in the refrigerator.

 

CARAMELIZED ALMONDS

½ cup (50 g) sliced almonds

2-1/2 tablespoons (25 g) sugar

2-1/2 teaspoons (10 g) egg white, blended

pinch of salt 

Preheat an oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix the almonds, sugar, egg white, and salt well, and then spread them evenly across the paper. 

Bake until golden brown, about six minutes. The color of the almonds can change quickly, so keep an eye on them. 

Cool the almonds to room temperature, and then crumble them into large pieces. If you will not be using them immediately, store the almonds in an airtight container.

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Photo credit: Melissa Lehuta, Modernist Cuisine, LLC

 

5 Dessert Tips from Modernist Cuisine at Home

The last chapter in Modernist Cuisine at Home is devoted entirely to custards and pies, and is comprised of 55 recipes, including more than 40 variations. Here are some of our best tips for turning out delectable desserts every time this holiday seasons. Follow our advice to not only save but enhance your sweet creations.

  1. Give Your Eggs the Sous Vide Treatment: Just as we suggest cooking eggs for omelets and scrambles in controlled temperatures in order to achieve the perfect viscosity of this fickle ingredient, we believe that egg-based desserts need the same treatment. We fill ramekins with crème brûlée, seal them, and cook them in a water bath to a core temperature of 80 °C / 176 °F. When making a pastry cream, crème anglaise, lemon curd, or sabayon, we first cook the egg yolks sous vide (using different temperatures, depending on the dish) to fully pasteurize them, avoiding the fuss of double boilers and curdling. In Modernist Cuisine at Home, we propose eight variations of our pastry cream alone, like Amaretto, cheese, and pressure-infused coffee. Trust us, you’ll never face a boring cream pie again.
  2. Calculate Your Gelatin: Reviving the Jell-O wreath or planning a fancy panna cotta this holiday season? We use Knox gelatin in our panne cotte, firm pastry creams, apple foam, and fruit jellies because you can find it in most grocery stores. Gelatins are measured by what is called their Bloom strength (usually labeled as bronze, silver, gold, or platinum). Knox brand has a bloom strength of 225. If you are making a recipe (not just one of ours, but any recipe), be it a Jell-O wreath or a pâté, you can use a different Bloom strength than what the recipe calls for, but you’ll have to do a little math. You can convert the recipe to use whatever gelatin you have on hand if you know the weight (MA) and Bloom strength (BA). For gelatin A, you can find the equivalent weight of gelatin B (MB) with a Bloom strength of BB by using the formula MB = MA × BA ÷ BB. For example, if a recipe calls for 2.6 g of Knox gelatin, you could use 3.7 g of silver gelatin, which has a Bloom strength of 160 (2.6 × 225 ÷ 160 = 3.7). To make a vegetarian panna cotta, we substitute 0.8 g agar and 0.65 g xanthan for the 4.3 g gelatin the recipe normally calls for.
  3. Keep Your Pie Crust Flaky: You can’t have a great pie if your crust is soggy, so we tested more than 40 versions before nailing down our Flaky Pie Crust recipe. But even the best crust needs a little extra help when acting as the foundation for a pastry cream. To keep your crust crisp, let it cool and then brush a thin layer of melted cocoa butter on top of it. Let the butter solidify at room temperature before filling the pie with pastry cream. This coating of cocoa butter creates a barrier between the crust and pastry cream, which will prevent the moisture of the cream from draining into the crust, turning it to mush.
  4. Make Freeze-Dried Raspberry Powder: A great way to finish any dessert is with freeze-dried raspberry powder sprinkled on top. Pulse store-bought, freeze-dried raspberries (or any other freeze-dried fruit) in a food processor, blender, or coffee grinder until a powder forms. This powder has myriad uses. You can blend it into your pie crust, mix it with a little sugar and rim a cocktail glass with it, or sprinkle it over lemon curd, just to name a few ideas.
  5. Microwave a Cake: If you are stymied by unexpected visitors, skip our Custard and Pie chapter and thumb back to the Microwave chapter. Making individual cakes is a snap with a whipping siphon and a microwave. Siphon the batter into paper cups and microwave them for 50 seconds until thoroughly cooked. To watch Scott demonstrate this technique in a CHOW Tips video, click here.

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Our Favorite Recipes: I Can’t Pick, But the Pie Crust Is Great!

Modernist Cuisine at Home author Nathan Myhrvold

All week the kitchen team has been taking turns describing their favorite recipes from our new book, Modernist Cuisine at Home. But for me, picking a favorite recipe is like picking a favorite child. I love them all.

So instead, I’ll introduce Larissa Zhou, our newest addition to the team, and our first professional food scientist. Larissa joined us after the new book went to press, so her opinion is a little bit different than everyone else’s. Instead of testing the recipes inside the Cooking Lab, she took her new copy home and started making recipes there. Here’s what she has to say:

“The pie crust would be a great addition to anyone’s kitchen repertoire. I recently moved and made this pie crust in my bare-bones kitchen. I baked it with blackberries picked just along the running trails here in Seattle and took it to a potluck. It was the first to go. The right amount of almond flour and butter make the crust incredibly flaky and irresistible.”

Food Scientist Larissa Zhou

I have to say, the pie crust is pretty damn good.

All week we’ve been telling you about our chefs’ favorite recipes from Modernist Cuisine at Home! Visit our blog for more photos, stories, and tips.

– The Modernist Cuisine Team