We’ve had a busy fall! If you’ve stopped by the flea to grab a slice, you may have noticed I haven’t been at the booth, but some fantastic people have been cutting slices of pie for you. It’s so great to have wonderful friends who love selling pie! Big thanks to Meryl Louise Friedman, Kat Savage, Bev Wilson, Akemi Martin, Victoria Harrison, and my parents Kevin and Lindell Gladfelter, who are selling pies at the Flea today. They got in to Brooklyn last night with a truck load of just grown Cushaw and Neck Pumpkin up from the farm for your Thanksgiving pies!
Yesterday, I drove up to Fishkill Farms in Dutchess County, NY to get some more fresh peaches for Saturday at the Fort Greene Flea. If you’ve never been before, definitely get up there. It’s a family owned farm which has a CSA, if you’re interested, and does pick-your-own everything, during harvesting seasons. You can check their site to see what is ready for picking each week.Peaches are nearing the end of their season, but apples are just starting to ripen, and they have a number of apple types ripening over the next few months. They also have a great pumpkin patch, and sell apple cider and apple cider donuts, my favorite! It’s about a 2 hour drive from Brooklyn, but worth it, and overall a pleasant drive - especially with the windows down and a little Townes on the stereo.
I picked as many peaches as I needed in the first 15 minutes, so I spent the rest of the time wandering around the farm and then headed to nearby Cold Spring where I sat on Main Street reading Edith Wharton, sipping a fresh lemonade and eating some delicious lunch. The view of the Hudson is gorgeous.
It couldn’t have been a more pleasant day. I didn’t even feel the earthquake.
View of the apple orchards from the barn.
Peaches!
View from Cold Spring
The lovely Meaghin Kennedy, who we met at the Flea on opening day in Fort Greene, has a great site: Cheery Observations and we were honored to be the subject of one of her Artisan Profiles. She joined us both in the kitchen and at the Flea, and I think she enjoys the pie!! Check out the profile and learn a bit more about Rachel’s Pies!
Chocolate Cream Pie with Dulce de Leche Pretzel Crust
Photo courtesy Meaghin Kennedy at Cheery Observations
As a young gal growing up on the farm in PA, I used to always get the first strawberry from the patch each year (or so I was told). Just found out, my pops was sneaking them in! He deserved it, of course, after doing all of the work and teaching us how to take care of the patches. There is absolutely nothing like a sun-warmed juicy strawberry right from the patch.
My cousins, brother and I would get together and churn vanilla ice cream, until it was too hard to turn, or our patience quickly wore off. Then, the gracious parents would take over. By the time it was ready, my mom would have cleaned and sliced strawberries all ready to put on top. Absolute perfection. So, it is with great pleasure that I now head to the NYC farmer’s markets and pick up pints of fresh strawberries.
I’d like to introduce my strawberry pie with a very light cinnamon graham cracker crust. Served with fresh whipped cream on top - divine!
I’ll be serving these on Saturday at the Fort Greene Flea- come early! Last week they sold out very quickly!
It’s been busy! We started the spring off by selling a few times with the Brooklyn Flea, and we’re going to be regularly at the Flea starting Memorial Day Weekend- on Saturdays at Fort Greene, and we might show up a few other times as well!
We also launched an official website, Rachel’s Pies, thanks to our amigas Angie Moramarco and Meg Moorhouse, and are keeping busy taking orders online. We have been baking the overnight shifts at a fantastic community kitchen incubator, Mi Kitchen Es Su Kitchen, which helps up-and-coming food industry businesses develop a business plan, structure food production on a larger scale, and all of the little things in between.
We’ve also been fortunate to have had some incredible press, thanks to the Flea. My Dad was generous enough to drive my two Grandmothers up to Brooklyn for a New York Daily photo shoot- check it out: NY Daily, Refinery 29, WNYC, and NY Times.
I can’t tell you how much incredible support I’ve had from my wonderful boyfriend Erik, incredible friends who volunteer their time and many talents to the Rachel’s Pies cause, and of course my ever supporting family. Thank you to all, it really is incredible to feel so loved and supported!
Here’s one I’ve been testing out for summer:
Fresh Blueberry Lemon Pie with Cardamom
Classic Apple Pie!
It’s official! I’ve started a website and am taking orders for pickup or local delivery for Thanksgiving! Check out my site at: rachels-pies.com!
A big thank you to the talented Erik Blair at theerikblair , Meg Moorhouse at Love and Victory, and Albert Dungca for all of the help and design in getting this going! And of course, my Mom and Grandmas for all of the baking help in the kitchen:)
In honor of my little brother Seth’s 25th birthday, I made cupcakes and sent him a photo for his eyes to enjoy. Mean, some may say, but it’s the thought that counts, right? I let him know how very tasty they were. It was also our cat Ollie’s 1st birthday, so we had to do something. Crazy? Yes.
Happy birthday Seth! And Ollie!
Seth and Grandma Laird
Ollie
At any rate, here’s the recipe, from Ina Garten:
Makes 10 cupcakes 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I added 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves) 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature 1 cup canned pumpkin purée (8 ounces), not pie filling 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed 1/2 cup vegetable oil Maple Frosting (recipe follows) 1/2 cup coarsely chopped Heath bars, for serving (2 1.4-ounce bars) - Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Brush or spray the top of 10 muffin tins with vegetable oil and line them with 10 paper liners. - Into a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. In a larger bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin purée, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vegetable oil. Add the flour mixture and stir until combined. -. Divide the batter among the prepared tins (I use a level 2 1/4-inch ice cream scoop) and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool completely. - Spread the cupcakes with the Maple Frosting and sprinkle with the chopped toffee bits. For the frosting, I followed Martha Stewart’s Maple Cream Cheese Frosting recipe, but divide this in half for 10 cupcakes, and you’ll still have some left over: - 1 package (8oz) cream cheese, room temperature - 1/2 c (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature - 1 Tablespoon pure maple syrup (I would recommend adding more) - 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract - 2 c confectioners’ sugar In a bowl, beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Add maple syrup, vanilla and confectioners’ sugar. Continue beating until well combined and smooth.
So the pie was delicious. I highly recommend it. The combination of dulce de leche and pretzel created a toffee-like taste which paired quite well with the delicious chocolate creme.
For the dulce de leche, simply pour sweetened condensed milk in the top of a double boiler, and keep the water in the bottom constantly at a low boil. Add a pinch of salt, if you like the salty sweet combo. Stir every 15 minutes for 2 hours, or until sweetened condensed milk turns brown and caramel colored. Remove from heat, and brush onto prebaked pretzel pie crust (or eat). It will cool onto the crust and set. Spoon in chocolate creme, then add fresh whipped cream to top!
Unfortunately, I didn’t get a final photo of the pie with fresh whipped cream - but I do have a couple of assemblage shots:
Close-up of dulce de leche covered pretzel crust.
And on that note, sadly, my camera broke- so forthcoming photos will not be of great quality, until I get it fixed…www.sadtrombone.com Till next time!
