Is your mouth watering looking at that picture? Mine is, and I just had leftovers of this a few hours ago! What’s there, you ask? Well, a biscuit kind of piecrust, sharp cheddar cheese, a mayo/lemon juice/green chile layer, fresh corn off the cob, basil, chives, and a bunch of thinly sliced tomatoes. And on the bottom of the crust is a light cream cheese layer to keep the juices from soaking into the crust. Invisible in this picture, but it worked like a charm.
The tomatoes were beefsteak, thinly sliced and drained on paper towels to remove as much liquid as possible from them. Two layers were put in of the tomatoes, corn (yes, fresh off the cobs) and cheese. The mayo layer goes on top with cheddar on top of that.
The dough was really very easy to handle. The original recipe came from Gourmet Magazine, August of this year, 2009. I read about it over at the Smitten Kitchen blog, but I’d already clipped the recipe out of the magazine anyway. However, I made some changes – I added the cream cheese layer – and I added the green chiles to the mayonnaise just because it sounded good. You can eliminate them if you’d prefer. Anyway, the dough – I made it in the food processor with no difficulty. And rolling it out on the granite countertop was very easy. My only caution is this: you don’t want to make a thick edge – since this dough is more biscuit like than piecrust like, you don’t want a thick biscuit edge. So once you put on the top crust, cut off any extra crust that doesn’t need to be there. You do roll the top edge over the edge already there, but just thin it out as needed.
Here’s the chronology:
There's the raw crust with cream cheese layer on the bottom
With one layer of tomatoes, corn and herbs
Another layer of the filling went in, then it was topped with the 2nd crust, spread with some butter on top and ready for the oven
Oh, nice. Just out of the oven.
There's a pix of the side view
Tomato and Corn Pie in a Biscuit Crust
Recipe: Adapted from Gourmet, August 2009 via Smitten Kitchen blog
Servings: 8
BISCUIT CRUST:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt — divided
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
3/4 cup whole milk
MAYO LAYER:
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons chopped green chiles
CREAM CHEESE LAYER:
4 ounces cream cheese — at room temperature
TOMATO FILLING:
1 3/4 pounds beefsteak tomatoes
1 1/2 cups corn — (about 3 ears), shucked
2 tablespoons finely chopped basil — divided (skipped this, no harm was done)
1 tablespoon finely chopped chives — divided
1/4 teaspoon black pepper — divided
7 ounces sharp Cheddar cheese — coarsely grated, divided (1 3/4 cups)
2 teaspoons unsalted butter — melted (to brush on finished crust before baking)
1. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and 3/4 tsp salt in a bowl, then blend in cold butter (3/4 stick) with your fingertips or a pastry blender until it resembles coarse meal. Add milk, stirring until mixture just forms a dough, then gather into a ball. (I used the food processor for all of this.)
2. Divide dough in half and roll out one piece on a well-floured counter or between two sheets of plastic wrap. Either fold the round gently in quarters, lift it into a 9-inch pie plate and gently unfold and center it or, if you’re using the plastic wrap method, remove top sheet of plastic wrap, then lift dough using bottom sheet of plastic wrap and invert into pie plate. Pat the dough in with your fingers trim any overhang.
3. Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. If your kitchen is excessively warm, put the second half of the dough in the fridge until you’re ready to use it. Whisk together mayonnaise, lemon juice and green chiles.
4. Separate the cream cheese into small, flattened pieces (makes it easier to spread) and gently spread it into the bottom of the unbaked pie shell. Make sure it completely covers the bottom with nary a single, solitary hole anywhere. Any excess cream cheese you can try to spread slightly up the sides. Be gentle as you do not want to make the pastry crust any thinner or break it.
5. Cut an X in the bottom of each tomato and blanch in a large pot of boiling water 10 seconds. Immediately transfer with a slotted spoon to an ice bath to cool. Peel tomatoes, then slice crosswise 1/4 inch thick and, if desired), gently remove seeds and extra juices. (Or, use a serrated peeler and gently peel the raw tomatoes.) Lay tomatoes on paper towels to drain for about 20 minutes. Pat top with additional paper toweling to extract as much juice as possible. Arrange half of tomatoes in cream cheese covered crust, overlapping, and sprinkle with half of corn, one tablespoon basil, 1/2 tablespoon chives, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper and one cup of grated cheese. Repeat layering with remaining tomatoes, corn, basil, chives, salt, and pepper. Pour lemon mayonnaise over filling and sprinkle with remaining cheese.
6. Roll out remaining piece of dough into a 12-inch round in same manner, then fit over filling, folding overhang under edge of bottom crust and pinching edge to seal. Do not make a thick edge – if anything keep it thin and cut off excess. Just make it secure enough that juices won’t leak out of the crust. Cut 4 steam vents in top crust and brush crust with melted butter. Bake pie until crust is golden and filling is bubbling, 30 to 35 minutes, then cool on a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
7. Do ahead: Pie can be baked 1 day ahead and chilled. Reheat in a 350°F oven until warm, about 30 minutes.
Per Serving: 474 Calories; 32g Fat (59.5% calories from fat); 13g Protein; 36g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 74mg Cholesterol; 790mg Sodium.
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