The Practical Hitty Newsletter
Editors: Hitty Henrietta and Charlotte Hitty

Good, Plain Cooking from Mrs. Plum's Kitchen

Harvest Pie Medley

Perheat your oven to 425°. Prepare the pastry by cutting the shortening into the flour. Now, you'll want to use a real cold bowl for this, stainless steel or crockery if you have it. You know what I do? I put the bowl and utensils in the icebox for about an hour before I make the pies. To cut in the shortening, use two stainless steel knives in a scissors motion. Never touch the dough with your hands if you can help it, because it's gonna be flakier if you keep it cold. Cut in the shortening until it's about the size of a new pea. Sprinkle in the icy cold water a spoonful at a time, tossing the dough with a fork. Usually I do this until the dough and flour is mostly cleared from the sides of the bowl. You'll be tempted to use your hands to knead the dough together. Don't.

Run your hands under the cold water tap for a minute. Then, shape the dough into two balls. Set one aside in the icebox in a covered bowl. Put the other ball on a lightly floured surface like the top of your table, or one of those marble rolling boards if you're lucky enough to have one. Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough. Be careful not to add too much extra flour or the crust will be tough. If you don't have a rolling pin, you can use a tall glass. I've done it lots of times. When it's as big as your pieplate, carefully lift the dough and press it into the pie tin.

Next, you need to make your filling. Now, I've given you exact ingredients for this Harvest Medley Pie, but you can use most any fruit that goes good together. I don't like bananas in mine, but some do. Apricots are good, as well as perhaps raisins. Strawberries go with any fruit. Whatever suits your tastes best!

Peel the apples and peaches, and slice or chunk them into small bits. Put them in a bowl with the cinnamon, flour, and brown sugar. It's ok to substitute white sugar if that's all you have, but brown is much better, and will give a richer flavor. Mix this all together until the sugar and flour has coated the fruit. Put it into your pie tin. Now, I know what you're thinking--whoa! What about the blueberries? Calm down, they come next. Gently spread the blueberries across the top of the pie filling in the pie tin. You don't stir them in because blueberries are a fragile fruit. If you planned to add strawberries, you would add them last like the blueberries.

Take your chunk of butter and dot it around the top of the fruit filling.

Finally, roll out the other ball of dough, just like the first. Put it over the fruit pie and crimp the edges. I use my Grandmother's ivory pie crimper. If you don't have one, just use a fork. Trim off the remaining dough from the edges. You can put these trimmed pieces on a cookie sheet, sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar, and bake for a tasty little snack. Or free-hand cut shapes and place them on top of your pie crust. (If you put them on the pie crust, brush a bit of milk under them to help hold them in place.) With your fork, prick a pattern into the top of the pie. I like to make an apple. This is very pretty, and it also lets out steam as the pie bakes. If you are into fancy pies, you can brush milk onto the whole pie crust before baking. I haven't got the time, but there are some that like that extra touch. My pies are gobbled up too fast to even notice the shiny crust.

Cover just the edge of the pie with aluminum foil (don't press hard!) and bake for 25 minutes. Open the oven and carefully remove the foil. Continue baking until the pie is done, about 15-20 minutes more. The juice will bubble right out of the top when it's done, and the crust will be a golden brown. I always cook my pies on top of a cookie sheet to catch any filling that might bubble out. Way easier to clean than a burned mess in the oven.

If you can't wait, eat the pie warm with vanilla ice-cream. Refrigerate the pie after it cools, if any is left.