My guest this week is Erin Jeanne McDowell with “The Book on Pie – Everything You Need to Know to Bake Perfect Pies” A New York Times bestseller!
Erin Jeanne McDowell, New York Times contributing baker extraordinaire and top food stylist, wrote the book on pie, a comprehensive handbook that distills all you’ll ever need to know for making perfect pies. The Book on Pie starts with the basics, including ways to mix pie dough for extra flaky crusts, storage and freezing, recipe size conversions, and expert tips for decorating and styling, before diving into the recipes for all the different kinds of pies: fruit, custard, cream, chiffon, cold set, savory, and mini. Find everything from classics like Apple Pie and Pumpkin Pie, to more inspired recipes like Birthday-Cake Pie and Caramel Pork Pie with Chile and Scallions.
Erin also suggests recommended pie doughs and toppings with each recipe for infinitely customizable pies: Mix and match Pumpkin Spice Pie Dough and Dark Chocolate Drippy Glaze with the Pumpkin Pie, or sub in the Chive Compound-Butter Crust for the Croque Madame Pielets . . . the possibilities are endless. With helpful tips, photographic guides, and inspirations—pie-deas—it’s almost like having Erin in the kitchen baking pies with you. www.erinjeannemcdowell.com
ERIN JEANNE MCDOWELL is an author, recipe developer, and award-winning food stylist with specialized focus in baking. Her first book, The Fearless Baker, was named one of the Best Baking Books of 2017 by The New York Times. She’s a regular contributor to New York Times Cooking, Food52 (where she also serves as Baking Consultant at Large), and PureWow. She hosts weekly baking classes on Food Network Kitchen and the series “Bake It Up a Notch” for Food52. Erin has been featured in The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Food and Wine Magazine, Food Network Magazine, and Rachel Ray Magazine. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Better Homes and Gardens Magazine, Fine Cooking Magazine, Bake From Scratch Magazine, and Sift Magazine. She lives and works in North Bergen, New Jersey.
Follow Erin on Facebook and Instagram 🌻 KS gal ➡️ now NYCish
No Virtual Wine Tasting this week, next VT is March 27th; Benziger Family Wines with Chris Benziger!
Good Life Guy’s Wine of the Week:
2019 Ollivier Frères Oysterman Melon de Bourgogne
Muscadet – Loire Valley France
The name of this simple, young and very drinkable bottling evokes the perfect food and wine partnership. Crisp with plenty of lemon acidity as well as a touch of minerality, the wine is ready to drink. ABV12%
Melon de Bourgogne is the grape that produces Muscadet, Loir’s most prevalent white. DNA analysis has revealed it to be a crossing between Pinot Blanc and Gouais blanc (Weisser Heunisch). Muscadet pairs beautifully with oysters and lobster. Muscadet wines are almost always light bodied and very dry. Fresh and crisp, they will sometimes also show efflorescence from the bottling process and yeasty notes from aging on the lees (“sur lie”). Muscadet is a natural oyster pairing, to many in the Loire valley the best amongst still wines. While in France wines are generally named after the region, or in the case of Alsace after the variety, Muscadet is the exception in that this wine is named after what some have called musky aromatics.