Instructions: MMMM ... PIE: Youve waited all summer, now bake your fruit harvest

One of the mouthwatering pleasures of a San Joaquin Valley summer is baking and eating pie made with fresh local fruit: berries, cherries, peaches, apricots, apples - you make the call.

Theyre all savory and succulent, with brilliant color, heady perfume and intense flavor, whether from your back yard or an orchard on the edge of town or a farmers market downtown.

Fruit pie and its cousins - tarts, cobblers and crisps - bring even the crustiest folks out of their shells.

If youre a beginner, try the following tips.

Crust
You cant have a good pie without a proper crust, often described as flavorful, tender, light and flaky.

Crusts can be made using cracker crumbs or ground nuts, but its the basic flour-and-shortening or butter crust, crisp and golden, that springs to mind when you think of pie.

Bleached or unbleached all-purpose flour will give the best results.

Whole-wheat pastry flour can be used, but regular whole-wheat flour makes a very heavy crust. You can substitute regular whole-wheat flour for a quarter of the white flour and still get satisfactory results. The flour doesnt need sifting; simply measure by lightly spooning it into a dry measuring cup, then leveling it off with a straight-edged spatula.

Vegetable shortening, butter, margarine, lard and vegetable oil can be used to make pie crust. Vegetable shortening and butter are the most commonly used fats. They create a flaky texture and have replaced lard as the pie fat of choice.

Some cooks use a combination of shortening and butter. Butter gives the best flavor, but shortening is added to make the crust flakier. Real butter is best, but real stick margarine can be used. Avoid lower-fat vegetable oil spreads because some of the fat has been replaced with water, and crusts do not turn out as flaky. For best results, chill the butter or shortening at least 15 to 20 minutes before using. Crusts made with vegetable oil have a mealy texture.

Ice water is the usual choice for added liquids, but any thin, cold liquid can be used. A mixture of half orange juice and half water makes a flavorful crust for certain pies like rhubarb and blueberry. Milk is used with vegetable oil crusts.

Thickeners
Fruit-pie fillings need to be thickened. You can use flour, quick-cooking tapioca, cornstarch or my favorite, Clear Jel, which produces a more translucent look than cornstarch.

Clear Jel is a modified cornstarch. There are two kinds, regular and instant; both work well, but I prefer the regular. However, if you wish to freeze the pie, use instant because the regular breaks down.

Tapioca is a good thickener to use with fruit, because it has no flavor of its own and cooks quickly; however, you must mix it well with the fruit and let it stand 5 minutes to prevent clumping. Granules are gritty if undercooked, but are clear and soft when fully cooked. Tapioca is not recommended for a lattice-top pie or other open fruit pie because it remains hard when exposed to the hot air of the oven.

Cornstarch is often called for as a thickener. If flour is substituted for the cornstarch or tapioca, use twice as much flour.

Method
Before assembling the ingredients, make sure they are cold. You want the shortening or butter to remain as solid as possible so that the dough consists of tiny balls of fat the size of small peas that are surrounded by flour. Thats what makes the crust flaky.

A pastry blender with arched wires or blades works well for cutting fat into the flour. Holding a table knife in each hand and then cross-cutting through the flour also works. Cooks who can work very quickly use their fingertips to combine the fat and flour.

Add the ice water a tablespoon at a time until the dough begins to hold together. Place dough on a floured surface and work as quickly as possible to shape it into a disk. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

If you have a food processor, you can make a crust very quickly. Many recipes give instructions for making crusts with a processor. Use it to combine the fat with the dry ingredients, processing just seconds, until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Add cold water, one tablespoon at a time, while the machine is running.

Process only until dough begins to hold together; do not process until it forms a ball. Over-processing will cause the dough to be tough.

Refrigerate the dough at least one hour, or up to 24 hours, before rolling it out for easier handling. Some dough recipes say to allow the dough to sit at room temperature 10 to 30 minutes before rolling; other recipes can be rolled out directly from the refrigerator.

A floured pastry cloth is a real plus when rolling out the crust, but any floured surface will do. Roll the dough using small strokes, from the center toward the edge. You want to get it about an eighth of an inch or quarter of an inch thick. Roll the dough large enough to fit into the pie pan and extend about an inch over the edge. For a 9 inch pie, the dough should be 12 to 13 inches in diameter, depending on the depth of the pan.

Pie pans
Pies made in glass or black steel pie pans make the best crusts - crisp and evenly browned. The worst choice, contrary to what many people think, is a shiny metal pan. Measure the pan from inside rim to inside rim to get the correct size.

Baking a two-crust pie
Make vents in the top crust with a fork or knife and make a slit in the center. Bake in a preheated 450-degree oven for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake 30 to 45 minutes, depending on the size of the pie. The pie is done when you can see the filling bubbling in the vents.

To protect the outer crust from getting too brown, use a pastry shield, or tear strips of aluminum foil and cover it.

Recipes usually call for a tablespoon or two of butter for fruit fillings.

Dont eliminate this: It helps keep the fruit mixture from boiling over.

Freezing pie
Freeze fruit pies before theyre baked. On two-crust pies, do not cut the steam vents. Wrap pie in plastic wrap and encase in aluminum foil to prevent the crust from drying out and picking up other flavors in the freezer. A 2-gallon freezer bag may be used instead of foil.

Bake frozen pie in a preheated 450-degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes to set the crust. Lower the heat to 350 degrees and continue baking 45 to 60 minutes longer, depending on the size of the pie.

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