French Potato Pie

 25 September 2021

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, March 2021

I was intrigued by this recipe when I found it in the CI magazine. We like potatoes and we like pie so why wouldn't a pie with an all-butter crust and a filling made with potatoes in a cream sauce be good? It's sort of a scalloped potato pie. There was one good way to find out if this is a dish to make regularly, or not, and that's to make one and eat it.

Salt and flour, combined in a food processor, were processed with cubed butter forming a smooth paste. Flour was added and the mixture pulsed forming small pieces of dough. This was transferred into a bowl and tossed with frozen grated butter. Ice water was sprinkled over the mixture and tossed to combine. The dough was divided into two equal portions, shaped into disks, wrapped in plastic, and chilled in the refrigerator. This process took 40 minutes.

Several hours before serving, the filling was prepared. Thinly sliced onion was salted and set aside. Sliced potatoes and baking soda were added to boiling water, cooked for 1 minute, drained, and returned to the Dutch oven. Cream, garlic, pepper, nutmeg, and the salted onion were combined and and simmered until the cream thickened. While the filling cooled, the pie dough was rolled out; one half was placed in a pie pan and the other on a backing sheet. These were placed in the refrigerator to chill. Chopped parsley was added to the potato mixture and spread in the pie plate. The top crust was added, the edges were trimmed and crimped with a fork. A round hole was cut from the center of the top crust which was then brushed with an egg wash. The pie was baked at 450° for about 20' then at 325° until the potatoes were tender. Total time to prepare was 7 hours, but much of this was hands off and the time could be shortened if needed.

We enjoyed eating this pie. My favorite part was the crust which was crispy, flaky, and buttery. Diane preferred the filling of tender creamy potatoes. We had the pie mostly has a warm side dish with ham where it was still good but the crust was no longer crisp. While this pie was very good it did seem like a lot of work for something we served primarily as a side dish.