Happy Pi Day!

Pi Day 2011: PIgnoli Punition Pie from Michele Hays on Vimeo.

Some time ago, Sparky and I were watching CBS Sunday Morning when Dori Greenspan suddenly appeared on our screen, along with a magical video of a man making simple cookies with only one hand and no other equipment but a table.  Sparky watched intently, and immediately after the video finished, he breathlessly said "I want to do that!" We resolved to try Lionel Poilâne's feat ourselves.

Sparky did a terrific job making a Punition crust for this year's Pi Day pie: Pi-gnoli Punition pie, adapted from a recipe on Epicurious.  Don't miss out on the Rosemary whipped cream - it's a fantastic accompaniment.

I hope you've enjoyed the past year on Quips, Travails, and Braised Oxtails as much as I have.  The new year will bring a few changes to the blog...one being that I will change my weekly posting schedule to a twice-monthly schedule, so please tune in next week to see what we're up to!

I've certainly enjoyed having you as a reader, and look forward to hearing what you have to say about food!

Pi-gnoli Punition Pie

1/2 recipe Punition dough

1 3/4 cups pine nuts
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup honey (I like wildflower) or agave nectar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
zest from 3 small clementines
3 eggs

1 1/2 cups heavy cream
3 sprigs rosemary
4 tablespoons granulated sugar, for garnish (optional)
Confectioner's Sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350. (Though for Pi Day, it really should be 360, right?)

Roll out your dough to somewhere between 1/4 and 1/8 inch thick and fit into your 9 1/2 inch tart pan (if you have a springform pan, it will make cutting your tart that much easier.)  Prick your crust with a fork, cover with aluminum foil and weight with dry beans or pie weights.  Cook for 10 minutes with the beans, remove beans and foil and continue to cook until just set, but not browned.  Cool.

Melt the butter over high heat until it stops fizzling and turns golden brown. Remove it from the heat and set it aside to cool.

Whisk together the brown sugar, orange zest, honey and salt. Add the eggs and butter and whisk until everything is fully incorporated (do not add too much air)

Pour the pine nuts into the cooled piecrust and drizzle the filling over the top of them so that all the nuts are covered; use all the filling. Bake about 45 minutes, until the filling puffs up slightly in the center but doesn't leave a well when touched (be careful, it will be hot!) Cool thoroughly.

Heat 2 tablespoons sugar with 2 tablespoons of water and stir to dissolve.  Add the rosemary sprigs.  Immediately fish them out and dust them with the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar, leaving them in a pile of sugar until the pie is ready for the garnish. Dust the cooled pie with confectioner's sugar. Shaking excess sugar off each sprig carefully, reserving the sugar, use the rosemary to garnish the pie.  

Whip the remaining rosemary-flavored sugar into the cream until it reaches soft peaks.  Serve with slices of pie.