Summer to Finter Pie

Fall comes pretty late in Atlanta. It's nearly November and we're only now starting to see some really cold temperatures. This is fine with me, because as I've lost weight I become less and less tolerant of the cold. This translates over to my wardrobe and my cooking. Just as I'm loathe to hang up my awesome Hawaiian shirts, I hate having to stop cooking gazpacho, hot dogs and the other savory treats of summer.

When some friends came over recently, I decided to pay homage to the end of summer and bid a cheery "hello" to coming Finter (the Atlanta hybrid Fall and Winter season) by cooking up a transitional dessert. The two stars, nectarines and raspberries, are an odd pairing, but I was betting that I could meld the two into some kind of fruity dessert.

At the same time, I wanted to try and make the dessert compatible with a calorie-conscious lifestyle. Not easy when I'd planned on making some kind of "rustic pie". I'd seen something similar on Party Line with Dan and Steve (one of my favorite new cooking shows). They used a pie crust without a pie tin, blind baking or any of the other complications of traditional pie making. I thought this would yield a pretty cool dessert, something a little different.

So I was off to the races, making the filling by dicing the nectarines and cooking them with a reduced calorie "syrup". The picture below was taken after the addition of the raspberries. I added them a bit too soon and they disintegrated while heating up.

No bother, since they lent a fantastic kick to the filling, and this late in the season the nectarines are firm enough to give the filling the necessary chunks. I used corn starch to thicken the mixture, stirring well to incorporate. It's easier to mix the "sugar", cornstarch and water together before adding them to the pan, but I was tasting and making the filling up as I went along.

I made the pie crust according to Alton Brown's method, substituting light butter for the real stuff and using low cal "butter spread" instead of the lard (that sound you hear is Julia Child rolling over in her grave). Big mistake. The whole mess got soft really quickly, and the spread gave the whole thing a wierd "butter-like" taste. To make matters worse, I overpulsed the mixture in my food processor yeilding a tougher crust than I'd desired. The finished pie was still delicious, so let's just call my first experiment with making my own crust from scratch a draw - saved by the filling.

I created a sort of "mega turnover" with most of the filling and popped it into a 350° oven for 30-40 minutes. I brushed a little egg wash (1 beaten egg + 1 tbsp. water) over the top halfway through baking (I forgot) to give it some color.

The finished product leaked a bit, but was incredibly tasty. The whole tart is about 6 servings at 6 points apiece.

In final analysis, I think the effort to reduce the calorie content in the crust was a little misguided. The whole tart is 36 points, 29 of which are in the crust. The filling was awesome, but I needed a better (and lighter) delivery method. If I had to do it over again, I'd make the same filling and the "full fat" version of the crust. Instead of using the crust as shown, I'd roll it out and cut circles in it using a ramekin as a cutter. That way I could fill the ramekins with filling and have a perfect mini-crust to cover the top. Call it a fruit pot pie. I'd get all the flavor and texture of the crust without the billion points it adds to the dish.

I'm sure with more practice I'll get better at crust-making. Until then, I've got a dynamite filling recipe for pies, tarts and cobblers, or just scooped on top of ice cream. Maybe Finter won't be so bad after all...

Nectarine-Raspberry Tart Filling

3 firm Nectarines, peeled and cut into a 1/2" dice
8 oz. Raspberries, cut in half
Approx. 2 tbsp. Lemon Juice
3 tbsp. Equal SugarLite (Equal/sugar mix)
1 1/2 tsp. Corn Starch
1/3 cup Water

Toss freshly diced nectarines in lemon juice to coat to prevent browning. In a non-stick pan saute nectarines over high heat until they begin to soften. Mix the equal, cornstarch and water until dissolved and add to pan. Reduce heat, add the raspberries and simmer gently until the sauce starts to thicken.

The batch is 7 points.