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Dutch Oven Jumbleberry Pie

July 5, 2014 by Lynnae

Dutch oven Jumbleberry Pie I recently had the privilege of sitting in on a hands-on Dutch oven cooking demonstration by 2-time Dutch oven world champion, Matt Pelton. Traditionally, the Dutch oven has been a “regional” cooking tool. Those of us with pioneer ancestors have been using them for outdoor cooking for generations. Just this weekend, when the family gathered to celebrate the 4th of July, we broke out our own collection of Dutch ovens and enjoyed barbecued spare ribs and peach cobbler for dinner the first night, with Dutch oven hash browns and an amazing sausage/bacon/egg scramble prepared by my brother, Scott. It’s pretty tough to beat the aroma of a Dutch oven meal underneath the blue skies beneath the shelter of pine and aspen trees. It’s even better when the men are doing the cooking while the ladies sleep in!

Dutch oven cooking is not common outside of the Western United States, and anything approaching “international” notoriety is just in it’s infant stages. I expect that we will see Dutch ovens gain popularity worldwide, but for now, they are still a well-kept secret.

Matt Pelton’s job at any cooking demonstration is a 3-pronged endeavor. His audience is there to learn about and taste his award-winning recipes, but Pelton knows that if his students are to succeed, they’ll need more than a recipe. They’ll also need a history lesson, and some instruction in the “science” of cooking, particularly the concept of the chemistry and physics that are involved in heating cast iron to the perfect temperature using nothing but a few charcoal briquettes. Without understanding the details of how to care for and use a Dutch oven, students are much less likely to succeed at making that first batch of peach cobbler, let alone the perfect lasagne or artisan bread. Pelton has been devoted to outdoor cooking since he was a youngster, and even packed  a ten-inch Dutch oven into his luggage the first time he left home as a 19-year-old missionary. He used that opportunity to acquire more recipes from cultures around the globe. He has authored several cookbooks, and has distinguished himself as one of the nation’s finest Dutch oven chefs.

Here’s his procedure for a mouthwatering Dutch oven pie:

1. Start with a beautifully-seasoned Dutch oven. The seasoning refers to the process of preparing the iron with a non-stick surface. It turns a beautiful glossy black when the iron patina is properly seasoned and ready for baking.

seasoned dutch oven

 

Next, prepare your pastry dough. We recommend Grandma Joyce’s favorite “No Fail” Piecrust Recipe.

Never Fail Pie Crust
 
Print
This basic pie crust recipe can be used for anything from savory pot pies to miniature tart-sized pies. It's a simple recipe that always turns out well if instructions are followed carefully.
Author: TableForFifty.com
Recipe type: Dessert
Ingredients
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup shortening
  • 1 Tablespoon white vinegar
  • 5 Tablespoons cold water
  • 1 egg
Instructions
  1. Mix together flour, salt and shortening. Mix with pastry blender until quite fine. The shortening will be separated into pea-sized, flour-covered bits.
  2. Bead together vinegar, cold water and egg, and add to the flour mixture. Stir with a fork while adding. Do NOT over mix. Stir until flour is barely moistened and then gather the flour mixture into 3 balls.
  3. Makes one single and one double crust. Use in any recipe calling for pie pastry and cook according to recipe instructions. Dutch oven Jumbleberry Pie
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2. Press a ball of pie pastry dough onto a well-floured cutting board.
pie crust pastry rolled pie crust pastrt 3. Roll until  pastry is thin. Use a spatula to gently loosen and fold pastry for transfer into the Dutch oven.

lifting pie crust pastry with spatula 4. By carefully folding the pastry, you can lift it easily into the Dutch oven. This prevents “stretching” the pastry, which will cause it to shrink again during cooking. One key to great pastry is to add no more water than is absolutely necessary, and to handle it as little as possible.

Pie crust pastry folded 5. Next, gently press the pastry into the bottom and sides of the Dutch oven.
Dutch oven-lined pie crust
6. Fill in any large gaps or holes with leftover pieces of pastry dough, or cut excess from one edge to add to another edge that doesn’t sit high enough in the Dutch oven.

Dutch oven lined with pie crust 7. Add your favorite variety of prepared pie filling. You’ll find a recipe for a “jumbleberry” filling similar to the one used here by scrolling to the end of this post.

dutch oven pie crust with filling 8. Prepare the top of the crust just as you did the bottom. For a lattice crust, use a pizza cutter to slice the pastry into one-inch-wide strips.

pastry strips ready for lattice 9. Lay the pastry strips across the top of the pie filling.

laying strips for dutch oven pie lattice 10. Start with 3 vertical strips, and add horizontal strips by folding back pieces of dough to create a “woven” over-under pattern.

Dutch oven pie lattice step 4 11. Continue adding strips until entire lattice-work is complete. You’ve been doing this since fourth grade. Don’t be intimidated. Weaving with pastry dough is fun! Just handle it GENTLY to keep it from breaking.

Dutch oven pie lattice 12. Your completed lattice will look something like this:

Dutch oven pie with completed lattice 13. Next, trim off the excess, leaving a one-inch edge above the top of the pie filling.

prepared Dutch oven pie with trimmed edges 14. You can go ahead and crimp the edges together as you would for any other pie, but a simple option is to simply fold over the edge of the piecrust onto itself.

bend down edges - Dutch oven pie 15. A wash of whisked egg with a little water added will help the crust brown and give it a beautiful sheen. Sprinkle on a little granulated sugar if desired. putting egg wash on Dutch oven pie

16. In Dutch oven cooking, the coal pattern is important. Matt Pelton recommends that the coals underneath the oven rest only halfway under the edge to prevent the pie from burning on the bottom.

well-seasoned Dutch oven 17. After baking, you’ll lift the lid to expose your masterpiece:

Dutch oven Jumbleberry Pie Now, it goes without saying, that there is probably no better way to wow a crowd than to show up at an outdoor cookout and produce something like this. But a Dutch oven pie doesn’t need to be cooked out-of-doors, and it doesn’t need to be a recipe you save for a special occasion, although you might want to make this one a tradition. It’s just that delicious. Ice cream is recommended if you are at a location where you can keep the ice cream cold and the pie warm.

Jumbleberry Pie Filling
 
Print
A delicious gathering of seasonal fruits that you can make with fresh or frozen berries.
Author: TableForFifty.com
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups sugar
  • 3 Tbs. cornstarch
  • 3 Tbs. quick-cooking tapioca
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • 9 cups of your favorite berries, including blueberries, blackberries, boysenberries, raspberries, and even a few strawberries (quartered).
Instructions
  1. Toss together all ingredients and pour into a prepared Dutch oven pie crust. If making regular 9-inch double-crust pies, this makes enough filling for 2 pies.
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Posted by Lynnae

 

 

 

Filed Under: Desserts, Pies Tagged With: dutch oven jumbleberry pie recipe, dutch oven pie procedure, how to make a Dutch oven pie, outdoor cooking

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Why Table For Fifty?

For 70+ years, Grandma Joyce has been perfecting her own recipes and training a second and third generation of great cooks, All of us cook, and garden, and do-it-ourselves. It’s the way we were raised. At this writing, if you count children, children’s spouses and grandchildren, there are exactly FIFTY of us. Thus, TableForFifty is a collection of second and third generation recipes we have shared with one another.

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The family home, built in 1901 has been a place for family gatherings for five generations. Today, Grandma Joyce and Grandpa Jim maintain the home, a large vegetable garden, and enough flowers that the two of them have instituted a "don't ask, don't tell" policy with regard to the nursery and bedding plant budget.

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Grandma Joyce has 9 children and 30 grandchildren and has raised every one of them on her "home cooking."

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