Blackberry Frustration

There are some recipes that I make in my kitchen where the size of my workspace never seems to affect the process. However, there are some others that make me accutely aware of how tiny my kitchen really is.

So, one of my best friends, Morgan, offered up some inspiration for this blog in suggesting I make a blackberry pie. I had never made one, so I was instantly interested in tackling the idea. After searching for blackberry pie recipes, I was a little frustrated because all the recipes I could find were for a mixed fruit pie, like Peach Blackberry Pie, which sounds amazing, don't get me wrong, but wasn't what I was looking for. Then I stumbled upon a recipe for Blackberry Handpies. Pretty much a blackberry turnover, but with pie crust instead of puff pastry. I decided to try it out.

First, I made the pie crust. Pie crust is something that intimidates a lot of people, including myself up until a few years ago. I vividly remember a Thanksgiving when I was younger, watching my mom try to make pie crust about 4 times in a row, only to throw out each attempt and get more and more frustrated with each try, finally giving up and going and buying a premade store bought pie crust. I've made pie crust by hand, and I have to say that nothing made it easier than when I finally got my KitchenAid food processor. It almost makes it too easy! So, anyway, back to the blackberry handpies.....pie crust was made in a snap and I put the disks of dough in the fridge to chill. Next, I made the fruit filling. Extremely easy too! I was, at this point, feeling very confident and excited to make this new dessert. So, after the dough was sufficiently chilled, I began to work on assembling the handpies. And that's where it got interesting. So, you are supposed to roll out one disk of dough at a time, make a large rectangle of dough and then cut the dough into 5x5 inch squares. Well, I had just turned on the oven to preheat and at first, everything was working out. The first problem was that the board I have to roll out the dough is pretty much exactly the size of the rectangle I was needing. So, I decided to roll out the squares in sections. First two, not too difficult, but challenging. By the time the first two were put together, they almost didn't want to come off the board because it had gotten so warm in my kitchen. So, I floured the heck out of my surface and my rolling pin and began to work on the next couple of pies. All I could do was one at a time, because the dough was sticking to the board and to my pin, no matter how much I floured them. After my 4th pie was on the sheet, I threw in the towel. I wrapped up the remaining dough, put the fruit mixture in some tupperware, and conceded in trying to finish the rest another night. So, I baked the first 4 and they actually turned out delicious. The fruit filling is wonderful and the pie crust is great too.

Next time, I think I will assemble all the pies PRIOR to turning on the oven!!!! I think this recipe wouldn't be as difficult if you have a large working area to roll out the dough and an air-conditioned house, so try it out, because they are very delicious!

Recipe for these Blackberry little devils can be found here. :)