Bootleg Pie recipe

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created with lierdumoa

Bootleg Pie
- the alcohol without the being drunk -

The trick to this pie is the alcohol, most of which is burned off during baking. Not only does the alcohol make the filling taste richer and more savory, but strangely makes the pie feel lighter as well. Clearly, booze makes everything better.


Ingredients and Equipment
(per 9 inch deep dish pie)

3 to 4 cups of Fruit - fresh or frozen (without syrup)
3 cups if you like a thin pie, 4 cups if you like it a little higher. We used a combination of blueberry, strawberry, and peach. Feel free to experiment!

1/3 cup miniature Tapioca
Binding agent/Thickener, may be replaced with 7 TB Corn Starch

roughly 6 Tablespoons water (or grape juice), may be considerably more depending on the tapioca

roughly 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
For coloring and taste, if you dislike lemons and don't mind discoloring replace with equivalent amount of water

1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon Allspice
Optional, but recommended


Sweetener:
2/3 cup granulated (ordinary table) Sugar
OR
1/3 cup sugar and 1/3 cup Splenda (Splenda works in pie recipes, but not by itself. The pie turns out heavy and with much less flavor).

One 9 inch pie crust (made and ready for filling) in one 9 inch Pie Plate (metal recommended) SITTING IN THE FREEZER; the cold will help prevent soggy pie bottoms.
For my pie crust recipe go here.


1. Oven
Preheat to 400 degrees F, removing stuff from the oven first if you keep things in there.

2. Fruit

Wash fruit of choice and if needed cut so that the width is no larger than a large blueberry.

For blueberries, they're easiest to wash in a large bowl of water and gently run your hands through the berries as they float. With your fingers slightly apart, you will easily feel any soft or mushy berries get caught in your fingers.

Pile the berries into a bowl and add enough brandy (or alcohol of choice) to cover them. Set aside for about half an hour.

3. Make the Pie Topping
You have three options here, pie crust similar to the pie bottom, a modified superflaky crust, or crumb topping.

My recipe for pie crust will make enough dough for the top as well, simply expand the disk of dough similar to how you expanded it for the pie bottom and then stick it back in the fridge until later.

Crumb topping:
1/4 cup sugar (OR 1/8 cup sugar and 1/8 cup Splenda)
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup butter or margarine
Mix until like cottage cheese and then place in the fridge until later.

Modified superflaky crust:
1/2 cup sugar (OR 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup Splenda)
1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter or margarine
~1 teaspoon of a super light syrup made from the fruity brandy

The dough should just barely holds together (ie. not sticky at all) and you can barely mold it because it wants to fall apart, and it should be impossible to handle when thin. The reasoning behind this crust is basically the same as in the pie crust recipe; ie. pockets of butter and very little gluten formation. To get the crust shape, ball up the dough and plop it in the middle of a piece of plastic wrap, and then gently form the pie top with your fingers, gently squishing closed the cracks. (Later, when you're placing this over the pie, simply upend the plastic over the filled pie crust)

The syrup is made by simmering the brandy that's been pickling the fruit on super low heat with 1/3 as much sugar (ie. 3 parts brandy and 1 part sugar) until it's thicker than vinegar but slightly thinner than maple syrup. Goes great on ice cream.

Because the superflaky crust requires the syrup made from the excess berry brandy, I would prep the initial crumbs now and then make/add the syrup in-between step 6 and 7.

4. Mix the dry filling ingredients.

If using corn starch:
Combine the
2/3 cup sweetener
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Allspice
and 7 TB corn starch.

If using tapioca, leave out the cornstarch.

5. Prep tapioca (so that there's no hard tapioca balls but you still get the binding)

In a sauce pan over low heat add half the water to all of the tapioca and gently stir. Add water if it ever looks dry (ie, stops glistening with liquid).

It's done when the tapioca looks almost BUT NOT COMPLETELY clear and has the consistency of jelly; ie. liquidy but kinda wanting to hold it's shape. It should be still mostly opaque.

Add the 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice, and chop up the tapioca with a spoon until it's more liquid.

6. Combine!

Put prepped tapioca in a large bowl.

Add the dry ingredients to the tapioca, mix thoroughly and chop up any tapioca that tries to hold it's shape

Remove the fruit that's been sitting in the brandy from the fridge and add only the fruit to the bowl. Mix well so that everything is covered and keep at room temperature.

Make the syrup from the remaining brandy if you're so inclined. (3 parts brandy to 1 part sugar simmered over low heat until slightly thickened.)

7. Enter the Crust

Prep your pie topping for landing on the pie, keep it close at hand.

The oven should be 400 degrees F

Have ready, close at hand:
- a egg, beaten (makes the crust beautiful, and gives the sugar/spice a place to stick)
- a brush
- sugar (makes crust tasty and shiny)
- allspice/cinnamon (optional)
- a fork
- a knife (optional, you can just use the fork in a pinch)
- the pie filling
- oven mitts

Remove the pie crust from the freezer.

QUICKLY
- Pour the topping into the crust
- Plop on the top of the pie
- Crimp edges with a fork
- Brush egg on the top
- Sprinkle sugar on top, then the cinnamon/allspice
- Cut at least 4 air holes with knife

Stick it in the oven ASAP. The speed is to prevent the pie bottom from being room temperature; this is to prevent seepage of the filling into the crust (Thus, SOGGY PIE BOTTOM) before the alcohol burns off and some of the water has a chance to evaporate and the tapioca to thicken.

8. Oven details

Bake for first 30 minutes at 400 degrees F. Set a timer and keep a knife next to your oven mitts.

Then decrease the temp to 350 for the remaining 30-40 minutes. This will prevent the crust from browning too much. Cut open the air holes again or you'll have pie innards seeping from the edges, then put away the knife.

Set timer for 15 min, and check the pie. If everything looks fine, set another 5 min, and repeat until top is nicely golden brown. If the top of your pie ever starts separating from the crimped edges, your pie is DONE. Otherwise, don't go past 40 min.

9. Eat!

The pie is awesome right out of the oven, or cooled down. Vanilla ice cream with the pie is awesome. =D

Comments

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

You can find it boxed with the rest of the dry baking goods. Make sure not to get pearl tapioca, though. It's not good for baking (but great for bubble tea!). It gives the pie filling a more gelatinous texture.

[myniamh.livejournal.com]

Google has uncovered that (other than it having about ten different names) it's probably just available boxed in Asian groceries here, although I have seen the pearl stuff in bubble tea/Japanese cafes. =D
Thank you too!