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About Applegater. (Jacksonville, OR) 2008-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 2023)
Applegater Winter 2023 Peach pie perfection A pie flop Raven Brault shares the secrets to her award-winning pie BY DIANA COOGLE 21 BY CHRISTINA AMMON Entering a pie contest isn’t something Applegate resident Raven Brault normally would do. But at the urging of a friend (me!), she decided to enter the Jacksaphine Count(r)y Fair contest. In case you missed it, the count(r)y fair was a fundraiser for A Greater Applegate. Local musicians, food vendors, and community groups Raven Brault won the pie contest at gathered to celebrate AGA’s Jacksaphine Count(r)y Fair with her peach pie. all things Applegate— See recipe below. Photo: Tim Daw. including pie. Raven’s peach trees were overloaded Dave Dotterer, author Paul Fattig, and with ripe fruit, so a peach pie seemed like the Applegater Editor in Chief Barbara a good bet! The choice also fit her own Holiday—described it as “old-school preferences for desserts that are humble, peach perfection.” One said he’d never had beautiful, and showcase the best fresh a pie like it before. fruit available. Friends sometimes urge Raven to Aside from sourcing great peaches, open a bakery in the Applegate, but she she employed other tricks as well— hesitates. “I like to stay flexible to travel,” such as keeping the dough cold, she says. “Having a pastry shop really not handling it too much, and even takes up your life. You have to get up at 2 using vodka in the crust, which keeps or 3 am in order to open by 7 am. Then the glutens from over forming. These are you’re closed by 2 pm, but have to start all strategies she picked up in her long planning for the next day, accounting, experience working at restaurants around managing staff…” the country. So, for now, she’ll stick with the joy of “I love the science of baking,” she says, baking for family and friends. If she needs opening an illustrated recipe booklet she to feel the rush of baking professionally, used in a kindergarten class. She has been she contents herself with watching The experimenting with making cookies, Great British Bake Off. cakes, and pies her whole life. “I love the Her main advice to aspiring bakers? art of it too.” Have patience, drop the stress, and keep Raven’s baking efforts paid off—she perspective. “If you screw up, don’t worry walked away with the blue ribbon at about it. Try again…it’s just pie!” the fair. The judges—food writer Sarah Christina Ammon Lemon, Jackson County Commissioner christina@footlooseintheapplegate.com Raven’s First-place Peach Pie Recipe Makes one 9-inch pie Preheat oven to 400 degrees Combine in a large bowl: 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 cup brown sugar 4-1/2 cups sliced peaches (you can peel if you want) Cover and leave alone for 1 hour. Roll out pie dough of your choice and place bottom in pie plate and top on a cookie sheet and put in refrigerator to keep cold. If you are doing lattice strips, cut and place on cookie sheet and put in refrigerator. After an hour, drain peaches and save the juice. Put peaches in large bowl. You should have about one cup of juice. Combine in a small saucepan: 1/4 cup of cornstarch 1/4 tsp cinnamon (no more!) 1/8 tsp salt Juice from peaches Whisk to combine. Bring to a boil and simmer for two minutes, constantly stirring (mixture will be very thick). Add 2 tsp lemon juice and 1 tbs butter. Fold this mixture into the peaches, pour into bottom crust, put top dough on and crimp sides (or create a lattice top), then cut 4-6 vent slits into top. Sprinkle top with granulated or very coarse sugar (Sparkle sugar). Bake for 40-50 minutes or until internal temperature is about 200 degrees. Cover edges with foil or pie-baking shield to prevent burning. Best baked in a glass pie dish for even cooking. Enjoy! • • • Visit the “News & Stories” section of Applegate Valley Connect (applegateconnect. org) for recipes of the other pies in the contest: Kevin Adamson’s apple-peach- pecan pie with pear-jam glaze, Michael Golden’s Reese banana cream pie, and Janeen Sathre’s plum pie. I perked up at hold together news of A Greater and was doughy Applegate’s pie contest besides. I salvaged for the Jacksaphine the raspberries and Count(r)y Fair last threw the crust into September. I have the garbage. There entered baking would be no Diana contests before, and Coogle razzle- I’m pretty good at dazzle raspberry pie pies, I thought, so off at the Jacksaphine I went, determined to Count(r)y Fair. win or at least to make The second pie I tossed a similar-looking failure a good showing. turned out better. of a pie crest in the trash. Pies had to The crust rolled into be fruit pies, and the pie pan in one each contestant had to bake two of the piece, and the pie looked good when it same kind, one for the judges and one came out of the oven, except that it was to be auctioned off. Besides taste and too dark, not because it was overdone but appearance, pies would be judged on use because the cinnamon sprinkled on top of local products. blended into the darker flour. It wasn’t I decided to make a razzle dazzle pretty, and, anyway, I had already blown raspberry pie, which I had made before, to my chances at the pie contest with the great success. Ingredients included six cups kitchen failure of the first pie. of raspberries and a half-cup of amaretto I had raspberry-amaretto topping on besides the obligatory sugar, flour, and yogurt for breakfast the next three days. I butter. Cheryl Bruner, in Williams, sold froze the second pie. me raspberries from her bushes. I didn’t Two months later, I thawed the pie know where I could get local butter, and to share with friends when we went wine I didn’t know anyone who made amaretto, tasting at Guzzo’s. Too nervous to trust but I figured I would get a lot of points if my culinary talents anymore, I ate a slice I used a locally made flour. Unfortunately, before I left. It was delicious. And when my first choice was no longer making flour, I served it to Barbara and Jeanette, they so I went to another source, just outside declared it a great pie. the Applegate. Even though the flour It wouldn’t have won, though, even if wasn’t Applegate local, it was a whole lot I had had two pies for the contest. The more local than wherever Gold Medal or crust was too heavy for the filling, and Pillsbury flour comes from. though the raspberries were razzle-dazzle This source, however, didn’t make a brilliant, the uncut pie was not pretty. I nice, light white flour, so I bought their was reminded of losing a pie contest years whole wheat pastry flour instead. ago because I had made my pecan pie with The day before the fair, I began making honey instead of sugar to be healthier. my pies. I made the raspberry-amaretto Now I had lost even the possibility of filling, then turned to the crusts. entering a pie contest by using local flour, To my dismay, the whole wheat pastry to gain favor with the judges, even though flour wasn’t working, even combined with it was whole wheat pastry flour instead white flour. I just could not make the first of pie-crust-reliable, though not local, pie dough roll out in a nice, stretchy circle, supermarket white flour. and it fell apart when I tried to lift it into The winning pie of the Jacksaphine the pie pan. In despair, I pushed it into the Fair, that great peach pie, sold for $200 at pan, filled it with the raspberry-amaretto the auction. Next year we’ll see how much mixture, and baked it, anyway. a razzle-dazzle raspberry pie, with Gold It was a flamboyant kitchen failure. Medal flour for the crust, will bring in. The whole-wheat-heavy crust didn’t Diana Coogle • dicoog@gmail.com Free journalism writing class Sponsored by the Applegater Newsmagazine Do you struggle with the articles you send to the Applegater? Do you often want to send something to the Applegater but are intimidated about the writing part? Do you wonder how to make your writing fit a newspaper style? Do you just simply want to improve your writing for the Applegater and other publications? Diana Coogle, former journalism instructor at Rogue Community College, JPR commentator for 20 years, and current head copy editor for the Applegater, will teach a workshop in journalism writing at Ruch Library from 1-5 pm Saturday, February 10. The emphasis will be on journalistic form—how to find a lead, how to organize the material, how to interest the reader, how to incorporate pertinent information, and how to write concisely, correctly, and engagingly. The format will be lecture- practice-discussion, in workshop style, with breaks and refreshments. This free class is open to all interested participants. Contact Diana Coogle at diana@applegater.org for more information or to sign up for the class.
