Misstropolis

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Got Pie?

by Andrea Pyenson

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"We weren’t trying to be cool. We’re just making what we like,” says Ellen ("Elli") Kaplansky, owner of Pie Bakery & Café, explaining the rationale behind her new venture in Newton Center. Kaplansky and executive pastry chef Paige Retus love pie and wanted to share their passion, fashioning dough-encased delicacies for breakfast, lunch, dinner and, of course, dessert.

“Almost every culture has something enclosed you could call a pie,” explains Retus, a Culinary Institute of America graduate and accomplished pastry chef whose experience includes several years with the Todd English empire and, most recently, at the Metropolitan Club in Chestnut Hill. Kaplansky graduated from the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts and worked for Retus at Figs in Chestnut Hill and the Metropolitan Club, and the two became friends. “Over the years, we chatted about ‘wouldn’t it be nice if…,’” Kaplansky says.

Two Thanksgivings ago, when the women and their families spent the holiday together, the idea came together over dessert – a selection of pies. “Everybody loves pie,” Kaplansky notes, but “there’s no place to go for just pie.” So the two friends set out to change that. “We didn’t want just a bake shop,” Retus adds. “We decided to make it a café. We wanted everything to be familiar, but our ‘best of.’”

The bakery-café serves savory, as well as sweet pies, along with sandwiches, soups, take-out dinner fare, and breakfast and dessert pastries. There is an open pastry kitchen, and Kaplansky says on weekends young children line up at the counter along the window, mesmerized by what’s happening on the other side.

Whole dessert pies are available daily ($22) or by special order ($25). People can also buy individual “Sweetie Pies” ($5.50) or a slice of pie ($3.95; $5.95 with ice cream). Signature offerings include roasted chicken and apple compote pastie ($5.95), a closed, hand-held pie inspired by the British tradition of baking a savory filling at one end and sweet at the other – a whole meal in a pie; Greek spinach and feta pie (($4.95) and egg pie ($5.50 per slice), which is Retus’ version of French quiche. There are 15 standard flavors of dessert pie (subject to seasonal availability), but Retus says her apple pies – each of which houses two-and-a-half to three pounds of apples – fly out the door.

Chef Ryan Costigan handles a lot of the savory items. Everything, from his soups to bread to the salad dressing and onion marmalade in the roast pork sandwich ($7.95), is made from scratch. On the sweet side, in addition to pie, there is a full array of breakfast pastries, from coffee cake ($2.50 per slice) to muffins ($1.95) to scones ($2.25); cookies, bars, biscotti, cakes and brownies. The Boston Cream Pie cupcake ($3.95) is pretty impressive.

Since the café opened, in late December, “the neighborhood has been very responsive. We hit a nerve that we didn’t know we were hitting,” Kaplansky notes. In the early morning (Pie opens at 7am weekdays; 8am Saturday and Sunday), many people stop by on their way to work. Mid-morning, mothers hang out together with their young children. The reduced fat bran muffins, morning buns and oatmeal, served with brown sugar and raisins on the side, have already earned groups of devotees. And more people than you might think eat pie for breakfast.

The dinner menu, intended for takeout, includes roasted chicken with spinach pie and mixed green salad ($15.95), meatloaf with a potato knish and mixed green salad ($14.95) and pot pie of the day ($6.95). People can eat there if they choose, but most of the evening business is for pie and coffee, the proprietor says.

“We’re learning with our guests and we’re eager to hear what our guests want,” she adds. So far, just about everybody seems to want a piece of the pie.

Irish Soda Bread
Makes 2 loaves

Paige Retus loves pie, but she is a full-service pastry chef. In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, which is just around the corner, she offers this recipe, based on one her mother used to make.

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup (5 1/3 tablespoons) cold butter, cut into bits
1/2 cup currants
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
3/4 cup buttermilk

1. Heat the oven to 350o. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone liner.
2. In a bowl, stir together the flour, oatmeal, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt.
3. Using a fork or pastry blender, cut in the butter.
4. Stir in the currants and caraway seeds.
5. Add the buttermilk and mix until just blended.
6. Transfer the dough to a floured board and knead with 12 strokes.
7. Cut into 2 portions and shape into rounds. Flatten each one slightly and cut an “x” halfway through the top.
8. Place the rounds on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes.

Adapted from Paige Retus

Photos by Amy Braga