Cake Student

Peach Pie fit for a president… seriously… I’m not kidding… why? I’ll tell you why. This pie dough recipe is from Roland Mesnier’s book Dessert University. Roland Mesnier was the former White House executive pastry chef for almost 25 years. He made cookies and pies and everything sweet for Rosalynn Carter, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Laura Bush’s tea parties, their family dinners, and state dinners.

My mother met him in person at a cake convention and gave me his autographed cookbook a few years back for Christmas. I will admit, that although his book has some pretty fancy schmancy things in there, the instructions are fairly easy to understand. I have only tackled the simpler recipes like pie dough, fruit salad, and cookies. One day when I’m braver, I might try pulled and spun sugar techniques.

Roland Mesnier’s “All-American Pie Dough” recipe has never let me down, and it is what I use in this peach pie. It has a very nice flaky texture and it is very easy to make. The dough can be frozen for up to 3 months, simply defrost in the fridge overnight.

Peaches are in season now, so this pie is perfect for your next summer potluck picnic. I used my leftover blueberries as well, it gave the pie a nice tartiness to balance the sweet peaches, as well as a beautiful color combination. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Peach Blueberry Pie

adapted from Tyler Florence

• Double crust pie dough (see below for recipe)
• 10 peaches
• Roughly 1/3 cup blueberries
• 1/4 cup sugar
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 1 1/2 TBSP flour
• 2 TBSP butter
• 1 egg beaten with a splash of water for egg wash

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Slice peaches (you can peel them if you like but I didn’t. My husband would have preferred the skin off though.)
3. Toss fruit with the sugar, lemon and flour.
4. Roll out on of the divided pastry dough. The technique I like to use: sprinkle dough with flour on both sides. Sandwich the dough inside 2 sheets of plastic wrap, then using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a circle. Lift off the top plastic wrap, then gently flip onto the 9″ pie pan. Pull off the remaining plastic wrap.
5. Spoon the fruit mixture into the pan. Dot with the butter.
6. Roll out the remaining pie dough and place on top of pie. You can keep it solid, or do strips, whichever you prefer. Make sure there are slits on the top.
7. Brush top with egg wash.
8. Bake for about 50-60 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream!

Tip: I usually put foil around the crust about mid way through to prevent the crust from burning.

All -American Pie Dough

from Roland Mesnier’s Dessert University

• 3 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups solid vegetable shortening
• pinch of salt

1. Combine all ingredients in bowl of electric mixer, mix on low with paddle attachment until dough is smooth.
2. Divide dough into two equal pieces, wrap them in plastic wrap, refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Makes enough for 1 double crust 9″ pie.

Last week I tried to make a dinner with phyllo dough, my first time working with the stuff, and it really wasn’t anything noteworthy. It was a baked dish and the phyllo just tasted like paper. I was quite unimpressed, especially considering the preparation was confusing to me and therefore time consuming. So back into the fridge went the remaining unused dough to be used at a later date or just left to age so that I can find it acceptable to throw it out. (It has a 10 day expiration date once thawed).

Last night, I looked in the fridge and saw that I had unused whipped cream cheese (with no bagels), an overabundance of sweet summer berries, that lemon curd jar that we found to be too sweet for our liking, and of course the phyllo dough. So I went online, found various recipes, and then experimented. I made the phyllo cups the night before, and the cheesecake filling. I left the phyllo cups out on the counter, and the filling I put back into the cream cheese container and returned to the fridge for the next day. The next day… spoon the filling into cups, top with sweet berries… heaven!

The cups were light, sweet, crispy, and made a surprisingly loud crunch sound when bitten. The filling was rich and worked so perfectly with the fruit topping. This would be an easy dessert to serve for company since it could be prepared the night before (with very little effort). Once the cups are filled with the cheesecake filling they have about 1 to 2 hours before the bottoms start to get a little soft.

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Whats better than a cinnamon bun? Cinnamon bun donuts.. shaped like Easter Eggs!

These couldn’t have been more easy to make. All you need is 1 can of the refrigerated Cinnamon Roll Dough that comes with the icing. Not only is the dough and icing already prepared for you, but the dough is also divided into perfect sized portions. The donuts can be made quickly so you can spend less time making the donuts and more time decorating them.. turn it into a fun decorating project with your kids!
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