Cardamom Custard Fruit Pie

Let me tell you a secret (yep, if I say a secret, its usually about whats on my mind and it is often silly); I have been always a big fan of berries and back then when I was little (yes, I was little once, long long time ago), and was still living in Indonesia, I used to think that this berry fruits were on the verge of extinction because it was very rare to find, even in the stores and it was super expensive. I adored anything made out of berries or berries flavoured, from cakes to toothpaste. I thought that my land was a super fertile land and you should be able grow anything on the soil, so why berries were rare? Extinction must be the answer!! Apparently back then I was not only small but also rather innocent minded, I didn't know berries aren't tropical fruits. D'oh!

Only until I moved to Quebec, which was only few years back that I found out that berries are okay, they are not on the verge of extinction like at all. In summer you can find strawberries, blueberries, raspberries at any park and they grow as wild bushes and yep, I went berserk the first time I saw this and I still does. Only now I don't pick as much, it is not fair for the birds and other animals to compete with me for food. Especially they can not go to grocery stores and shop. 

Summer berries are the best, they are much more flavourful. Perhaps because they are grown outside in the sun instead of being grown inside of a green house garden. I bought a basket full of juicy strawberries the other day and made a fruit pie before I finish them as a snack at work. I posted a fruit pie recipe before, here. All I did in the recipe today is a tiny tweak on the custard. It might be a tiny tweak, but it does give one heck of a big difference in flavor! 

Pie crust ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of flour

1/2 tsp of salt

1/2 cup butter, cut into small dice (make sure its room temperature soft)

1/4 cup sugar 

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

Cooking steps:

1. In an electric mixer bowl, mix butter and sugar until it becomes creamy and pale,
2. Add egg and vanilla extract, and continue mixing on medium speed, 
3. Once egg and vanilla is well mixed, add salt and flour gradually. Continue mixing until everything nicely blended,
4. Form the dough into a ball shape. The dough might be a bit soft to work with so you might want to put it away in the fridge for 30 minutes, (or in my case I didn't have time to put it away so I floured my working table and put the dough on top and roll it flat),
5. Shape the dough onto the pie tray, make a few slits on the pie bottom and bake on 350 for 5 minutes 20-25 minutes or until the crust turns golden. 

PS: Do not play (when rolling it flat) with the dough too much or it will be hard when its cooked. The dough will shrink when its cooked so make sure that you don't make the pie edges too short.

While the pie crust is cooling, lets prepare the custard!

Custard Ingredients:

2 cups of milk

1/4 cup of sugar

1/2 tsp of freshly ground cardamom, sieved

2 egg yolks & 1 egg white

1/4 cup corn starch

1/3 cup sugar

2 tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 sachet of jelly glazing

Cooking step:

1. In a small pan, boil milk, 1/4 cup of sugar and ground cardamom,
2. In a bigger pan, whisk egg yolks, egg white, corn starch and 1/3 cup of sugar until well blend,
3. Drizzle the boiling milk mixture into the egg mixture on a small stream, whisk constantly to avoid curdling,
4. Put the bigger pan with the custard mixture on medium heat and whisk constantly. Continue cooking until it boils and thickens then remove from heat,
5. Add butter and vanilla extract and whisk until the butter melted and blended well.  

Decorating:

1. While waiting for the custard to cools down, prepare any fruits you like. I used strawberries (cut in half), golden kiwi, peach and few mint leaves,
2. Layer the crust with butter ( apply with brush) and spoon the custard into the crust,
3. Decorate the pie surface with your fruit pieces,
4. Prepare the jelly glazing according to the package and pour it generously and evenly on the fruits and let it set and seal the pie.

PS: when cooking the custard, once it starts to boil, be prepare to remove it from heat, do not wait for too long till it becomes too thick. The custard will get thicker once its cold.

Happy cooking!