Um, wow, so I'm kind of a fail. Things got so crazy at work after my last post that I honestly forgot all about the blog. Which isn't a good thing. Sorry!
So, yeah, I've completed the Year of Pie!!! How crazy is that? I managed to follow through and bake one pie each week for a year. That's not a bad accomplishment, in my opinion.
It's been quite a year too! Sometimes the project was frustrating (when I didn't have time to get a pie done and had to scramble to put something together, when I didn't have the money for expensive pies, or when they were complete failures), but overall, it was an extremely rewarding project! First of all, I accomplished something that even my family didn't think I'd follow through on (I'm notorious for quitting things I get bored with). Second, I've become a pretty good baker (possibly to the point where it could be a career choice for me). Third, I came out of the project with a lot of recipes and stories under my belt, which was one of my primary goals to begin with.
I learned stories from other folks about the recipes they gave me... some were their grandmothers' recipes, some were favorite birthday treats; and I made up my own stories as I went along... both with baking sucesses and failures.
One of the things I'm most excited about now, though, is just how much I've come to love baking. Pies, cookies, cupcakes... I'm in love with it! The baking aisle is my favorite in the store, and I'm constantly perusing websites and magazines for new recipes. When I'm bored, I whip something up... it's become almost second-nature to me. Granted, I've gained a lot of weight, but baking has become a passion of mine, and I think that's a pretty cool thing.
So to those of you who stuck with this blog and read, THANK YOU!!! And to those who ate all of my pies (even the disgusting ones), THANK YOU!!! To those who sent recipes and didn't complain when I butchered them, THANK YOU!!! You all mean more to me than I can say... this project wouldn't have been a smashing success without you!
Unfortunately, it's been awhile since my last post, and I can only remember 2 of the pies I baked... Key Lime Cheesecake and Cherry Pie.
The Key Lime Cheesecake was kind of a disgusting fail, but I don't think it was my fault. First of all, the crust was accidentally awesome... I added a cup of sugar to my graham cracker crumbs rather than the tablespoon it called for (oops!), and it wound up being super crispy, but almost cookie-like in taste, so that was pretty delicious.
The cheesecake itself was uber tart and left a horrible aftertaste. We all picked around the pie and ate just the crust after a few bites. Blech! I actually gave a slice to one of my co-workers and just stared at her, waiting to see the aftertaste reaction, and boy, was it a goodie! She started out going, "this isn't bad!" and then after a few more chews, her entire face fell and she almost gagged. It was hilariously fantastic.
And like I said, my final pie was Cherry Pie. I apparently missed fresh cherry season (oops!), so I had to use frozen ones. The pie turned out looking beautiful... I made a lattice top that was just gorgeous. Unfortunately, the cherries had almost no flavor... I thought that apart from the crust, it was pretty blah. Which was disappointing for my final pie. But that's the beauty of this project... some pies were awesome and some weren't. You just never knew what you were going to get!
So that's all I can remember as of now... if I think of the others, I'll come back with the stories. Maybe.
So thanks for reading, eating, and being downright awesome!
Much love, and much pie :)
Laura
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
Succeeding and Failing, Peaches and Chocolate
Figuring out one's future is a funny thing. And by "funny" I mean a combination of excitement, stress, and fear, repeated simultaneously.
Trying to decide what to do with my life once my AmeriCorps position is done hasn't been easy for me. For the past two years, I had been planning on going to grad school for publishing and editing, but now that I've worked a bit in the Real World, I'm not so sure. Devoting 2 years of time, energy, and money into grad school when I'm not 100% sure it's the right thing for me seems like a bad plan.
Especially when I've enjoyed baking so much this year. But I'd never thought of baking as a seriously viable option. Sure, I joke about opening my own pie shop(pe), but never with much of a tone of seriousness.
That is, until my super awesome boyfriend stopped by with a stack of papers he had printed out with information on baking and pastry classes at a local community college! Seriously! After only 4 classes, I can get my baking and pastry certification, enabling me to work in a bakery! How cool is that?!
I'm waiting to get more information about possibly enrolling in a class this fall, but if I do just 1 class a semester, I can have this done in 2 years. SWEET!!!
And if I hate the classes, I hate them. So be it... no harm, no foul. But if I love them, then I may just have a new vocation path! Which I think is a pretty fantastic option. I'm super excited about this idea. I LOVE baking, and I think I'm pretty darn good at it, so what the hell, right? Why not?
:)
So now that I've shared that tidbit of my life with you... on to the pies!!!
For the Fourth of July, I kind of neglected to make a patriotic pie, but I made up for it the following week! I baked a Strawberry Blueberry Blackberry Pie, which isn't all that patriotic-sounding, except I made the top crust look like an American flag, so WIN! I laid stripes of crust across half of the pie, and then above that I scattered crust-stars. I swiped the idea from Martha Stewart, and it was adorable!
As almost all fruit pies are, this one was pretty tasty. With minimal ingredients added, you could really taste the natural flavors of the fruit. I LOVED it! Yum :)
The next week I headed home to the great state of Michigan to visit my fam and attend a friend's wedding. I had a GREAT time and got to hit up my favorite summer eateries... if you ever get to Grand Haven, you must try some Ray's, Pronto Pups, and Fricano's! I also got some Marge's Donuts and Olga's snackers... my sister and I named the weekend "Food Fest 2010" for good reason :)
And whilst at home enjoying some much-needed family time, I baked them a pie... they've only gotten to try a handful of my pies, so I didn't want to disappoint!
I made a simple Blueberry Pie. Of course, when I say simple, I mean I used 3 pounds of blueberries! It was heaping, or as my sister and I like to call it, "Pushing Daisies-esque."
The blueberries themselves were a bit tart, but I sprinkled enough sugar on top of the crust prior to baking (to give it a shine) that the sweetness of the crust balanced out the tartness of the berries. And my crust was awesome! Although it was kind of funny... the berries shrank as they cooked, but the crust didn't shrink with them, so there was a huge gap between the bubble of the top crust and the berries themselves. So it didn't slice well, but it was tasty!
The following week things got a little hectic, and my boyfriend's friend was getting married the next weekend, so I was cut short on pie-making time. So I made a quick and easy pie instead... Layered Chocolate Pudding Pie.
I purchased an oreo crust (I was seriously short on time!) and filled it with a few delicious layers. The bottom layer was chocolate pudding (made with half the milk), followed by a layer of chocolate pudding mixed with cool whip, followed by a layer of cool whip. Simple!
It was quite tasty, and while I always feel like I'm cheating a bit when I make easy pies, I think it's a good thing to have some fast recipes handy for any last-minute desserts. Much better than just pudding in a cup, but made without breaking a sweat! How can you lose?
Last weekend some friends of mine came to visit and I made Peach Pie! I've never really had peach pie before (peaches aren't my favorite), but as they're in prime season right now, I couldn't resist.
I bought what I thought was a sufficient amount of peaches (7), but wound up being about half of what I like in a pie, and had an awful time peeling them. They kept slipping out of my hands and mushing and the juice went everywhere! This is the exact reason I don't like eating them, by the way... mush and juice dribble. Yuck.
But anyway, I got them peeled and sliced and mixed them with some sugar, flour, lemon juice, cinnamon, and (most importantly) nutmeg. I poured them into a crust, sealed it with a top crust and baked it.
We couldn't wait for the pie to cool, so we ate it warm out of the oven with scoops of ice cream, and HOLY DELICIOUS, PIE MAN! Wowza, it was GOOD! The nutmeg seriously made that pie... it brought out all the right spices within the peaches... they tasted a bit like spiced peaches, actually, which are amazing. So anyway, I devoured my slice, and we still had about a third of the pie left, so we just scooped some ice cream into the pan and ate it family-style right out of the dish! Nom nom nom!!!
I really want to make some cup-peach-pies soon... it was so good!
The final pie I have to write about is Paula Deen's Kentucky Pie. I don't know why I tried another Paula pie when the last one was so terrible, but I did. And I shouldn't have.
This was promised to be a "brownie in a crust" which I figured was an absolute WIN. Except it was an absolute FAIL. So basically it was eggs, sugar, butter, chocolate, and flour all mixed together and poured into a crust to bake. I was supposed to get "self-rising" flour, but didn't see that line in the recipe, so I just added a bit of baking soda instead to make up for it.
Anyway, the mixture went into the oven to bake, and when I went to check on it, a bunch of the batter had spilled over the edge as it rose. Still, I figured it would work out. So I went to poke it with a fork to test the "done-ness" of the inside. The top crust was solid as a rock, and when I finally broke through, the inside was pure goo.
So I baked it a little longer and then took it out so it could set up on its own. It did not. I ate it warm, and it was like eating warm brownie batter with burnt edge bits mixed in. I wasn't a fan, even with the added help of ice cream.
I stuck it into the fridge and brought it into work today so everyone could at least sample it (yes, I allow others to sample my fails. It helps the learning process, I think.), and while it was better than it was (it now just tasted like a slightly crispy brownie), it was still a fail. I pretty much hated it.
Dang it, Paula! You're supposed to be my BFF!
Alright, folks, less than a month to go in this project!!! CRAZY!!!
Elizabeth and Mrs. Salisbury, please note that I stayed after work to finish this blog, just for you! On a Friday, no less! I owed you both :)
Trying to decide what to do with my life once my AmeriCorps position is done hasn't been easy for me. For the past two years, I had been planning on going to grad school for publishing and editing, but now that I've worked a bit in the Real World, I'm not so sure. Devoting 2 years of time, energy, and money into grad school when I'm not 100% sure it's the right thing for me seems like a bad plan.
Especially when I've enjoyed baking so much this year. But I'd never thought of baking as a seriously viable option. Sure, I joke about opening my own pie shop(pe), but never with much of a tone of seriousness.
That is, until my super awesome boyfriend stopped by with a stack of papers he had printed out with information on baking and pastry classes at a local community college! Seriously! After only 4 classes, I can get my baking and pastry certification, enabling me to work in a bakery! How cool is that?!
I'm waiting to get more information about possibly enrolling in a class this fall, but if I do just 1 class a semester, I can have this done in 2 years. SWEET!!!
And if I hate the classes, I hate them. So be it... no harm, no foul. But if I love them, then I may just have a new vocation path! Which I think is a pretty fantastic option. I'm super excited about this idea. I LOVE baking, and I think I'm pretty darn good at it, so what the hell, right? Why not?
:)
So now that I've shared that tidbit of my life with you... on to the pies!!!
For the Fourth of July, I kind of neglected to make a patriotic pie, but I made up for it the following week! I baked a Strawberry Blueberry Blackberry Pie, which isn't all that patriotic-sounding, except I made the top crust look like an American flag, so WIN! I laid stripes of crust across half of the pie, and then above that I scattered crust-stars. I swiped the idea from Martha Stewart, and it was adorable!
As almost all fruit pies are, this one was pretty tasty. With minimal ingredients added, you could really taste the natural flavors of the fruit. I LOVED it! Yum :)
The next week I headed home to the great state of Michigan to visit my fam and attend a friend's wedding. I had a GREAT time and got to hit up my favorite summer eateries... if you ever get to Grand Haven, you must try some Ray's, Pronto Pups, and Fricano's! I also got some Marge's Donuts and Olga's snackers... my sister and I named the weekend "Food Fest 2010" for good reason :)
And whilst at home enjoying some much-needed family time, I baked them a pie... they've only gotten to try a handful of my pies, so I didn't want to disappoint!
I made a simple Blueberry Pie. Of course, when I say simple, I mean I used 3 pounds of blueberries! It was heaping, or as my sister and I like to call it, "Pushing Daisies-esque."
The blueberries themselves were a bit tart, but I sprinkled enough sugar on top of the crust prior to baking (to give it a shine) that the sweetness of the crust balanced out the tartness of the berries. And my crust was awesome! Although it was kind of funny... the berries shrank as they cooked, but the crust didn't shrink with them, so there was a huge gap between the bubble of the top crust and the berries themselves. So it didn't slice well, but it was tasty!
The following week things got a little hectic, and my boyfriend's friend was getting married the next weekend, so I was cut short on pie-making time. So I made a quick and easy pie instead... Layered Chocolate Pudding Pie.
I purchased an oreo crust (I was seriously short on time!) and filled it with a few delicious layers. The bottom layer was chocolate pudding (made with half the milk), followed by a layer of chocolate pudding mixed with cool whip, followed by a layer of cool whip. Simple!
It was quite tasty, and while I always feel like I'm cheating a bit when I make easy pies, I think it's a good thing to have some fast recipes handy for any last-minute desserts. Much better than just pudding in a cup, but made without breaking a sweat! How can you lose?
Last weekend some friends of mine came to visit and I made Peach Pie! I've never really had peach pie before (peaches aren't my favorite), but as they're in prime season right now, I couldn't resist.
I bought what I thought was a sufficient amount of peaches (7), but wound up being about half of what I like in a pie, and had an awful time peeling them. They kept slipping out of my hands and mushing and the juice went everywhere! This is the exact reason I don't like eating them, by the way... mush and juice dribble. Yuck.
But anyway, I got them peeled and sliced and mixed them with some sugar, flour, lemon juice, cinnamon, and (most importantly) nutmeg. I poured them into a crust, sealed it with a top crust and baked it.
We couldn't wait for the pie to cool, so we ate it warm out of the oven with scoops of ice cream, and HOLY DELICIOUS, PIE MAN! Wowza, it was GOOD! The nutmeg seriously made that pie... it brought out all the right spices within the peaches... they tasted a bit like spiced peaches, actually, which are amazing. So anyway, I devoured my slice, and we still had about a third of the pie left, so we just scooped some ice cream into the pan and ate it family-style right out of the dish! Nom nom nom!!!
I really want to make some cup-peach-pies soon... it was so good!
The final pie I have to write about is Paula Deen's Kentucky Pie. I don't know why I tried another Paula pie when the last one was so terrible, but I did. And I shouldn't have.
This was promised to be a "brownie in a crust" which I figured was an absolute WIN. Except it was an absolute FAIL. So basically it was eggs, sugar, butter, chocolate, and flour all mixed together and poured into a crust to bake. I was supposed to get "self-rising" flour, but didn't see that line in the recipe, so I just added a bit of baking soda instead to make up for it.
Anyway, the mixture went into the oven to bake, and when I went to check on it, a bunch of the batter had spilled over the edge as it rose. Still, I figured it would work out. So I went to poke it with a fork to test the "done-ness" of the inside. The top crust was solid as a rock, and when I finally broke through, the inside was pure goo.
So I baked it a little longer and then took it out so it could set up on its own. It did not. I ate it warm, and it was like eating warm brownie batter with burnt edge bits mixed in. I wasn't a fan, even with the added help of ice cream.
I stuck it into the fridge and brought it into work today so everyone could at least sample it (yes, I allow others to sample my fails. It helps the learning process, I think.), and while it was better than it was (it now just tasted like a slightly crispy brownie), it was still a fail. I pretty much hated it.
Dang it, Paula! You're supposed to be my BFF!
Alright, folks, less than a month to go in this project!!! CRAZY!!!
Elizabeth and Mrs. Salisbury, please note that I stayed after work to finish this blog, just for you! On a Friday, no less! I owed you both :)
Thursday, July 8, 2010
How do you spell success? L-E-M-O-N
No, no, your eyes are not deceiving you. Yes, you read that title right. I know what you're thinking... "But Laura, you've never had a successful lemon pie! You even spelled "fail" l-e-m-o-n months ago! Could it be true?
IT IS TRUE!!! Snap your fingers and do a jig, folks, because after 3 failed attempts, I have finally succeeded in the pain-in-the-ass art that is lemon pie.
And not only was it successful, it was probably one of the BEST pies I've made so far! I couldn't believe it either. It's to die for.
It was a rather tricky and time consuming recipe... first I baked a pie crust (I tried "twisting" the edges this time... a new method that wasn't as pretty as some of my other methods) and let it cool.
Over the stovetop, I made a mixture of sugar, corn starch, water, lemon juice, lemon zest, lemon extract (LOTS of lemon) and let it cook down until it was thick. These types of custard-y layers require a lot of stirring... they always make me nervous. They can very quickly go from under-cooked to over-cooked with just a few extra seconds, so the process is slightly stressful.
All looked okay to me, so I let that cool to room temperature, then added it to the crust and put it in the fridge for a half hour, until it was solid.
While that was cooling, I made a lemon pudding mixture (which also had powdered sugar and cream cheese mixed in... yum), which then went on the top of the custard layer and cooled again for 30 minutes.
While that was cooling, I mixed cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth, then folded in cool whip and spread it over the top and refrigerated the pie again.
The whole process took about 2 1/2 hours with just a little bit of down time. There were a lot of ingredients that went into it too (I may have missed a few in my description), so I honestly was expecting the worst. After all, that's what I've come to expect with lemon! And lime for that matter... heck, the whole citrus family has been pretty awful to me in this project.
But man-oh-man, did this surprise me! The lemon flavor wasn't over-powering, but the slight tang combined with the rich texture and creamy sweetness made for one glimmering plateful of heaven! The layers complimented each other, both in flavor and in texture, the whole thing was cooked perfectly, and there was no part that was "too much"... the balance was perfect.
I loved, loved, loved this pie. The best part was that I had just had a slice of lemon pie at Perkin's a few weeks prior and this beat it hands down. As an overly self-critical cook, that statement packs some serious punch. Just outstanding!
I've got to say, I've had a series of home runs lately! Good recipes or just getting better at baking? Hmmm...
Next on the list is a baked strawberry and raspberry pie! I'm making it patriotic looking, since I didn't bake a pie for the Fourth. An American crime, if you ask me!
Enjoy some of the best pies that summer has to offer! Later gators :)
IT IS TRUE!!! Snap your fingers and do a jig, folks, because after 3 failed attempts, I have finally succeeded in the pain-in-the-ass art that is lemon pie.
And not only was it successful, it was probably one of the BEST pies I've made so far! I couldn't believe it either. It's to die for.
It was a rather tricky and time consuming recipe... first I baked a pie crust (I tried "twisting" the edges this time... a new method that wasn't as pretty as some of my other methods) and let it cool.
Over the stovetop, I made a mixture of sugar, corn starch, water, lemon juice, lemon zest, lemon extract (LOTS of lemon) and let it cook down until it was thick. These types of custard-y layers require a lot of stirring... they always make me nervous. They can very quickly go from under-cooked to over-cooked with just a few extra seconds, so the process is slightly stressful.
All looked okay to me, so I let that cool to room temperature, then added it to the crust and put it in the fridge for a half hour, until it was solid.
While that was cooling, I made a lemon pudding mixture (which also had powdered sugar and cream cheese mixed in... yum), which then went on the top of the custard layer and cooled again for 30 minutes.
While that was cooling, I mixed cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth, then folded in cool whip and spread it over the top and refrigerated the pie again.
The whole process took about 2 1/2 hours with just a little bit of down time. There were a lot of ingredients that went into it too (I may have missed a few in my description), so I honestly was expecting the worst. After all, that's what I've come to expect with lemon! And lime for that matter... heck, the whole citrus family has been pretty awful to me in this project.
But man-oh-man, did this surprise me! The lemon flavor wasn't over-powering, but the slight tang combined with the rich texture and creamy sweetness made for one glimmering plateful of heaven! The layers complimented each other, both in flavor and in texture, the whole thing was cooked perfectly, and there was no part that was "too much"... the balance was perfect.
I loved, loved, loved this pie. The best part was that I had just had a slice of lemon pie at Perkin's a few weeks prior and this beat it hands down. As an overly self-critical cook, that statement packs some serious punch. Just outstanding!
I've got to say, I've had a series of home runs lately! Good recipes or just getting better at baking? Hmmm...
Next on the list is a baked strawberry and raspberry pie! I'm making it patriotic looking, since I didn't bake a pie for the Fourth. An American crime, if you ask me!
Enjoy some of the best pies that summer has to offer! Later gators :)
Monday, June 28, 2010
Helloooooo, summer!
Summer = fresh fruit. And fresh fruit = delicious pies. Particularly strawberry pie. Yummmmm.
But I'll get to that in a second. First, I need to tell you about the most awesomely awesome Breakfast Pie that was consumed in one sitting last week. Between two people. It was THAT good (and also low-calorie!).
I got this recipe from my friend Kelsey, and it's basically a quiche. A delicious quiche. Yes, I did quiche back in December, but this was a very different recipe in a lot of ways. My mom's quiche didn't have a crust. This one did. Plus, a few of the ingredients and the baking process was a bit different. Also, this one is technically called "Breakfast Pie" and not quiche. :)
So it was a combination of eggs, cheese, milk/cream, broccoli, ham, salt, and pepper that went into a crust and baked into pure deliciousness.
The boyfriend and I sat down to have this for dinner, and we each started off with a large slice (equaling half of the pie between the two of us). It was so savory and salty, and all around awesome that we quickly gobbled up the rest of it as well. Super, super good.
I think that pie actually kicked off my recent egg obsession. I've always liked eggs (scrambled eggs were one of the first things I learned to cook as a kid, and I used to make them for a snack all the time), but lately I've been making them a LOT. Awhile back I made some poached eggs (a first for me), and my new obsession is omelets. I've never made a successful omelet before, because I usually get bored waiting for it to cook and wind up scrambling it. However, I've picked up a little patience somewhere, and I'm now an omelet fiend! I can't get enough of them. Nom nom nom.
Okay, back to the pies!
The other pie I have to update you on is a Strawberry Pie, the recipe for which came from my friend Sara. Strawberry pies always look so so so good in pictures, but I've always been afraid to try them and have it be disastrous.
Anyway, I gave this one a shot. The crust was different than most... a combination of flour, pecans, sugar, salt, and melted butter. Combined, it forms a dough, which is then spread into a pan and baked.
Then whole strawberries are added to the cooled crust, stems trimmed and pointing up. I cut up a few extras to squeeze in between the larger ones, just to make it look full.
Then a glaze is poured over the top... the glaze is water, sugar, corn starch, and mashed strawberries, which are boiled together in a pot for about 10 minutes. Once the mixture is thickened (it smells delicious, by the way), it's poured over the top of the pie.
Finally, I piped whipped cream around the edges. It was the most beautiful pie I've made so far... the cream looked perfect around the edges, and the strawberries had that super fresh and super shiny look to them (thank you, glaze).
Thankfully, it tasted just as delicious as it looked! Holy yummy! The glaze made the strawberries taste incredibly sweet... it really enhanced the strawberry flavor. I think I might make just strawberries and glaze as a treat in the future! Scrumptious.
It didn't slice well at all, but as I've said many times before, those are usually the best pies. The crust was also fantastic, and though I never would've thought to use pecans before, the nuts really offset the sweetness of the fruit and gave it an overall balanced flavor.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
The other bonus to the pie was that I had all of the ingredients except the strawberries! I love cheap pies :) I'm hoping to keep them cheap for the rest of the summer... the bonus to fruit pies is that other than crust, the only necessary ingredient is fruit!
Many more pies to come! I can't wait :)
But I'll get to that in a second. First, I need to tell you about the most awesomely awesome Breakfast Pie that was consumed in one sitting last week. Between two people. It was THAT good (and also low-calorie!).
I got this recipe from my friend Kelsey, and it's basically a quiche. A delicious quiche. Yes, I did quiche back in December, but this was a very different recipe in a lot of ways. My mom's quiche didn't have a crust. This one did. Plus, a few of the ingredients and the baking process was a bit different. Also, this one is technically called "Breakfast Pie" and not quiche. :)
So it was a combination of eggs, cheese, milk/cream, broccoli, ham, salt, and pepper that went into a crust and baked into pure deliciousness.
The boyfriend and I sat down to have this for dinner, and we each started off with a large slice (equaling half of the pie between the two of us). It was so savory and salty, and all around awesome that we quickly gobbled up the rest of it as well. Super, super good.
I think that pie actually kicked off my recent egg obsession. I've always liked eggs (scrambled eggs were one of the first things I learned to cook as a kid, and I used to make them for a snack all the time), but lately I've been making them a LOT. Awhile back I made some poached eggs (a first for me), and my new obsession is omelets. I've never made a successful omelet before, because I usually get bored waiting for it to cook and wind up scrambling it. However, I've picked up a little patience somewhere, and I'm now an omelet fiend! I can't get enough of them. Nom nom nom.
Okay, back to the pies!
The other pie I have to update you on is a Strawberry Pie, the recipe for which came from my friend Sara. Strawberry pies always look so so so good in pictures, but I've always been afraid to try them and have it be disastrous.
Anyway, I gave this one a shot. The crust was different than most... a combination of flour, pecans, sugar, salt, and melted butter. Combined, it forms a dough, which is then spread into a pan and baked.
Then whole strawberries are added to the cooled crust, stems trimmed and pointing up. I cut up a few extras to squeeze in between the larger ones, just to make it look full.
Then a glaze is poured over the top... the glaze is water, sugar, corn starch, and mashed strawberries, which are boiled together in a pot for about 10 minutes. Once the mixture is thickened (it smells delicious, by the way), it's poured over the top of the pie.
Finally, I piped whipped cream around the edges. It was the most beautiful pie I've made so far... the cream looked perfect around the edges, and the strawberries had that super fresh and super shiny look to them (thank you, glaze).
Thankfully, it tasted just as delicious as it looked! Holy yummy! The glaze made the strawberries taste incredibly sweet... it really enhanced the strawberry flavor. I think I might make just strawberries and glaze as a treat in the future! Scrumptious.
It didn't slice well at all, but as I've said many times before, those are usually the best pies. The crust was also fantastic, and though I never would've thought to use pecans before, the nuts really offset the sweetness of the fruit and gave it an overall balanced flavor.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
The other bonus to the pie was that I had all of the ingredients except the strawberries! I love cheap pies :) I'm hoping to keep them cheap for the rest of the summer... the bonus to fruit pies is that other than crust, the only necessary ingredient is fruit!
Many more pies to come! I can't wait :)
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
So it's been awhile...
Hey! Hi! How's it going? Uh... ha ha *nervous chuckling*... it's, uh, been a little while, hasn't it? *scratches head sheepishly* Yeah, uh, sorry about that. The start of the summer just kind of distracted me a wee bit. In case you hadn't noticed.
I really do apologize to my faithful reader(s). Though I'm pretty sure I have just one. Hello again, Mrs. Salisbury!
So this lack of updating my blog has not meant a lack of pie baking, trust me! I've been a baking fiend these last 7 (seven?!) weeks! Seriously, I've done a LOT of baking.
Okay, so since I waited so long to update, I'm a bit hazy on what happened all those weeks ago, so some of these little pie-tales may be short and to the point. But with 7 pies to tell you about, there's hardly going to be a lack of reading here.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaay back on May first, I baked a very special birthday pie for my good friends Karley and Kristine. We had a nice little celebration for them, and I made Karley's mom's Apple Pie. Though I've done apple pie a few times, this one was new, because not only was it a new recipe, but it was a very different recipe from the one I had used before.
Rather than combine the apples with the sugar and cinnamon prior to adding it to the crust, this time I dumped the apples into the crust, then sprinkled the sugar, cinn., and butter over the top. And rather than top it with a traditional crust, I mixed up some butter and flour and sprinkled that, much like a crumble topping.
Overall, it was a really good apple pie! I'm always nervous baking family recipes, since those tend to be the most critically judged, but it was a hit! Hooray! And now I know that if I ever get lazy with making crust, a good crumble topping will work just fine :)
The following week I made something I had been really excited about for quite some time... PIE POPS!!! Basically, they're bite-sized pies on a stick!!! Adorable, right?
After much hunting, I found the proper sucker sticks that could also be baked and set to work. I didn't have an actual recipe for these, I just saw a picture and made it work.
First, I used a drinking glass to cut out 2-inch circles of crust. I then laid those circles on a baking sheet and placed a sucker stick in the middle of each one. These were Blueberry/Blackberry Pie Pops, so I mixed blueberries, blackberries, sugar, cinnamon, and tapioca together, mashing it all up slightly, and then scooped a small bit of the mixture onto each round. I topped with another round and used one of the sticks to seal the edges. They baked for about 15 minutes.
To be honest, they were a pain in the ass to make. The problem with pie crust is that if it starts to warm up before baking, it gets hard to work with and isn't as flaky in the long run. So I had to take small portions of crust at a time, and even then got stuck trying to seal warm dough together... it didn't always work so well.
As for taste, it's a lot of crust and not much filling, so while they were good, I'm more of a filling gal, so they weren't outstanding to me. However, pie pops are really more about the novelty of the thing, and these were darn cute! So I vote them an all-out win.
The following week was my birthday (hooray!), but in all honesty, I should say that the entire month of May was my birthday celebration... my awesome friends threw me a surprise party the week before my actual birthday (which was amazing), then for my actual birthday my super wonderful boyfriend took me to Chicago for the weekend (my favorite city in the world!), and then 2 weeks after my birthday my family came to visit me and we celebrated then, and THEN I received my final birthday present a week after that! Whew! What a month!
So anyway, I didn't make a pie specifically on my birthday (I attempted a carrot cake, but it was absolutely awful... I guess I should just stick to pie), but I made one right before, so it still counts as my birthday pie. It's called Chips Ahoy Pie, and I got the recipe from my sister, Sarah.
Originally, it wasn't a pie... just a dessert in a baking dish, but I made a crust for it and therefore count it as a pie. Basically, the recipe goes like this: combine Chips Ahoy crumbs and butter and form a crust... the warm butter will melt the chocolate in the cookies, and the crust will solidify into more of a chocolate crust. Still very yummy. Then dunk whole cookies into milk and layer on top of the crust. Spread a layer of Cool Whip, then repeat, topping the final layer with more cookie crumbs.
This pie doesn't last longer than a day, as the milk will make it waaaaaaaay too soggy. But also don't serve it right away... the cookies need time to get a little mushy. I know, it sounds weird, but holy mother of pie, it's AMAZING. Basically, it's cookies and milk x 100... purely delicious guilty-pleasure pie. Yum.
Okay, so after that pie came a Chess Tart. My boss gave me this recipe, and it's right up her alley. Back in January, I made her a signature pie... Pecan Pie Minus the Pecans + Meringue. This Chess Tart was very similar to that, so it's easy to see why she picked it.
It was a vanilla wafer crust, which I hadn't yet tried, with a filling that was basically a whole lot of butter, sugar, and eggs. Upon baking, it got a nice brown caramelized crust. This was a pie that could only (and should only) be eaten in very small portions... holy sugar! It was just about the sweetest, gooiest pie I had ever had... it pretty much tasted like pecan pie minus the pecans. Good, but very rich.
Next on the list was a Strawberry Cream Freeze. I got this recipe from my friend Kelsey, and it was the first pie she ever made as a wife! I think that's pretty cool and sweet :)
This one was whipped cream, strawberries, milk, vanilla pudding, and vanilla wafers all mixed together, then swirled with strawberry syrup and garnished with more strawberries. It was made in an oreo crust and then frozen overnight.
I should've let it thaw a bit more, but it was pretty darn tasty! It tasted a lot like strawberry ice cream, and went well with a side of brownies! It was a great summer treat, especially since it didn't take any baking to make. I'd love to make it again... I love simple baking like that. Kind of like no-bake oatmeal cookies. I remember making those all the time as a kid in the summer when it was too hot to turn on the oven. Yum Yum Yum.
Next on the list was another birthday pie, this time for my friend Kelly. We had a big cookout, and I offered to bring desserts... pie pops, cake balls (or cupcake truffles), and Banana Cream Pie were my picks. Yup yup, Banana Cream Pie.
I had to find this recipe online, and I've definitely learned that when using online recipes, it's best to read the comments and reviews and tweak the recipe based on the often unanimous recommendations. It saves you time, money, and experimenting!
So based on the suggestions for the recipe I found, I used a vanilla wafer crust instead of a regular crust or a graham cracker one, didn't bake it (as the recipe suggested), and swapped out a few ingredients for other ones. Basically, I lined the crust with sliced bananas, then topped with a homemade pudding mixture, and then finished off with whipped cream.
I decided to try and get fancy with my garnishes, and bought a piping gun to put the whipped cream on it. Well, I don't know how bakeries and restaurants get such stiff whipped cream! Mine just came out goopy (like it usually does), even after refrigerating overnight! It's really tasty, but just not suitable for decorating. So what do I need to do? Anyone know? Add cream cheese? Freeze it? What?! HELP!
That minor complaint aside, the pie was amazingly good... just about everything a banana cream pie should be! I don't know what all to say about it, but I loved it and can't wait to tweak it a bit in the future.
The final pie I have to tell you about today is one that influenced the Year of Pie way back last August. I've mentioned Julie and Julia a bit in this blog before, and it was really the thing that got this all going. So you know the part towards the beginning of the movie when Julie talks about cooking and how relaxing it is after a long day's work? Well, as she's discussing why she loves cooking (saying something along the lines of, "no matter what goes on, you know that you can come home and add chocolate to milk and eggs and it will get thick."), she's making a chocolate cream pie... Julia Child's Chocolate Cream Pie, to be precise.
So that's what I made last week! And boy oh boy, Julia Child was not about making everything easy. Sheesh.
This was also the exact opposite of the Strawberry Cream Freeze Pie... this one required a LOT of cooking over the stove. And my air conditioning is broken, so 30 minutes over a pot of steam means a LOT of sweat. It was disgusting.
So basically, this pie was to be made over a double boiler. Each step required 10 minutes of stirring over said boiler. And that meant a lot of steam and heat. Urgh.
I also learned something about double boilers... basically, don't forget to check the water level from time to time! In my last few minutes of cooking, I noticed a lot of steam coming out from the bottom of the pot... not the bottom of the bowl, like before. Apparently I had let the water run out and was now scalding my pot! Oops! Thankfully I caught it in time and no permanent damage was done, but yikes!
So anyway, the chocolate mixture went into a baked crust, and was then cooled before being topped with whipped cream. I brought it into work that morning and the entire pie was finished off in one sitting! It was creamy, but not too rich (only 2 squares of chocolate went into it), and just delightful. Bravo, Julia, bravo!
Alrighty, so! Less than 3 months to this project... and I feel like I have more recipes than I need! I plan to continue baking after this, so that's not a complaint, but I'm just trying to decide which recipes are going to be included in the Year of Pie and which aren't. Hmmmm....
Hopefully I won't let so much time go between postings... I sincerely apologize!
Now enjoy some summer pie... I'm getting really excited about all the fresh fruit and endless possibilities this brings!!!
I really do apologize to my faithful reader(s). Though I'm pretty sure I have just one. Hello again, Mrs. Salisbury!
So this lack of updating my blog has not meant a lack of pie baking, trust me! I've been a baking fiend these last 7 (seven?!) weeks! Seriously, I've done a LOT of baking.
Okay, so since I waited so long to update, I'm a bit hazy on what happened all those weeks ago, so some of these little pie-tales may be short and to the point. But with 7 pies to tell you about, there's hardly going to be a lack of reading here.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaay back on May first, I baked a very special birthday pie for my good friends Karley and Kristine. We had a nice little celebration for them, and I made Karley's mom's Apple Pie. Though I've done apple pie a few times, this one was new, because not only was it a new recipe, but it was a very different recipe from the one I had used before.
Rather than combine the apples with the sugar and cinnamon prior to adding it to the crust, this time I dumped the apples into the crust, then sprinkled the sugar, cinn., and butter over the top. And rather than top it with a traditional crust, I mixed up some butter and flour and sprinkled that, much like a crumble topping.
Overall, it was a really good apple pie! I'm always nervous baking family recipes, since those tend to be the most critically judged, but it was a hit! Hooray! And now I know that if I ever get lazy with making crust, a good crumble topping will work just fine :)
The following week I made something I had been really excited about for quite some time... PIE POPS!!! Basically, they're bite-sized pies on a stick!!! Adorable, right?
After much hunting, I found the proper sucker sticks that could also be baked and set to work. I didn't have an actual recipe for these, I just saw a picture and made it work.
First, I used a drinking glass to cut out 2-inch circles of crust. I then laid those circles on a baking sheet and placed a sucker stick in the middle of each one. These were Blueberry/Blackberry Pie Pops, so I mixed blueberries, blackberries, sugar, cinnamon, and tapioca together, mashing it all up slightly, and then scooped a small bit of the mixture onto each round. I topped with another round and used one of the sticks to seal the edges. They baked for about 15 minutes.
To be honest, they were a pain in the ass to make. The problem with pie crust is that if it starts to warm up before baking, it gets hard to work with and isn't as flaky in the long run. So I had to take small portions of crust at a time, and even then got stuck trying to seal warm dough together... it didn't always work so well.
As for taste, it's a lot of crust and not much filling, so while they were good, I'm more of a filling gal, so they weren't outstanding to me. However, pie pops are really more about the novelty of the thing, and these were darn cute! So I vote them an all-out win.
The following week was my birthday (hooray!), but in all honesty, I should say that the entire month of May was my birthday celebration... my awesome friends threw me a surprise party the week before my actual birthday (which was amazing), then for my actual birthday my super wonderful boyfriend took me to Chicago for the weekend (my favorite city in the world!), and then 2 weeks after my birthday my family came to visit me and we celebrated then, and THEN I received my final birthday present a week after that! Whew! What a month!
So anyway, I didn't make a pie specifically on my birthday (I attempted a carrot cake, but it was absolutely awful... I guess I should just stick to pie), but I made one right before, so it still counts as my birthday pie. It's called Chips Ahoy Pie, and I got the recipe from my sister, Sarah.
Originally, it wasn't a pie... just a dessert in a baking dish, but I made a crust for it and therefore count it as a pie. Basically, the recipe goes like this: combine Chips Ahoy crumbs and butter and form a crust... the warm butter will melt the chocolate in the cookies, and the crust will solidify into more of a chocolate crust. Still very yummy. Then dunk whole cookies into milk and layer on top of the crust. Spread a layer of Cool Whip, then repeat, topping the final layer with more cookie crumbs.
This pie doesn't last longer than a day, as the milk will make it waaaaaaaay too soggy. But also don't serve it right away... the cookies need time to get a little mushy. I know, it sounds weird, but holy mother of pie, it's AMAZING. Basically, it's cookies and milk x 100... purely delicious guilty-pleasure pie. Yum.
Okay, so after that pie came a Chess Tart. My boss gave me this recipe, and it's right up her alley. Back in January, I made her a signature pie... Pecan Pie Minus the Pecans + Meringue. This Chess Tart was very similar to that, so it's easy to see why she picked it.
It was a vanilla wafer crust, which I hadn't yet tried, with a filling that was basically a whole lot of butter, sugar, and eggs. Upon baking, it got a nice brown caramelized crust. This was a pie that could only (and should only) be eaten in very small portions... holy sugar! It was just about the sweetest, gooiest pie I had ever had... it pretty much tasted like pecan pie minus the pecans. Good, but very rich.
Next on the list was a Strawberry Cream Freeze. I got this recipe from my friend Kelsey, and it was the first pie she ever made as a wife! I think that's pretty cool and sweet :)
This one was whipped cream, strawberries, milk, vanilla pudding, and vanilla wafers all mixed together, then swirled with strawberry syrup and garnished with more strawberries. It was made in an oreo crust and then frozen overnight.
I should've let it thaw a bit more, but it was pretty darn tasty! It tasted a lot like strawberry ice cream, and went well with a side of brownies! It was a great summer treat, especially since it didn't take any baking to make. I'd love to make it again... I love simple baking like that. Kind of like no-bake oatmeal cookies. I remember making those all the time as a kid in the summer when it was too hot to turn on the oven. Yum Yum Yum.
Next on the list was another birthday pie, this time for my friend Kelly. We had a big cookout, and I offered to bring desserts... pie pops, cake balls (or cupcake truffles), and Banana Cream Pie were my picks. Yup yup, Banana Cream Pie.
I had to find this recipe online, and I've definitely learned that when using online recipes, it's best to read the comments and reviews and tweak the recipe based on the often unanimous recommendations. It saves you time, money, and experimenting!
So based on the suggestions for the recipe I found, I used a vanilla wafer crust instead of a regular crust or a graham cracker one, didn't bake it (as the recipe suggested), and swapped out a few ingredients for other ones. Basically, I lined the crust with sliced bananas, then topped with a homemade pudding mixture, and then finished off with whipped cream.
I decided to try and get fancy with my garnishes, and bought a piping gun to put the whipped cream on it. Well, I don't know how bakeries and restaurants get such stiff whipped cream! Mine just came out goopy (like it usually does), even after refrigerating overnight! It's really tasty, but just not suitable for decorating. So what do I need to do? Anyone know? Add cream cheese? Freeze it? What?! HELP!
That minor complaint aside, the pie was amazingly good... just about everything a banana cream pie should be! I don't know what all to say about it, but I loved it and can't wait to tweak it a bit in the future.
The final pie I have to tell you about today is one that influenced the Year of Pie way back last August. I've mentioned Julie and Julia a bit in this blog before, and it was really the thing that got this all going. So you know the part towards the beginning of the movie when Julie talks about cooking and how relaxing it is after a long day's work? Well, as she's discussing why she loves cooking (saying something along the lines of, "no matter what goes on, you know that you can come home and add chocolate to milk and eggs and it will get thick."), she's making a chocolate cream pie... Julia Child's Chocolate Cream Pie, to be precise.
So that's what I made last week! And boy oh boy, Julia Child was not about making everything easy. Sheesh.
This was also the exact opposite of the Strawberry Cream Freeze Pie... this one required a LOT of cooking over the stove. And my air conditioning is broken, so 30 minutes over a pot of steam means a LOT of sweat. It was disgusting.
So basically, this pie was to be made over a double boiler. Each step required 10 minutes of stirring over said boiler. And that meant a lot of steam and heat. Urgh.
I also learned something about double boilers... basically, don't forget to check the water level from time to time! In my last few minutes of cooking, I noticed a lot of steam coming out from the bottom of the pot... not the bottom of the bowl, like before. Apparently I had let the water run out and was now scalding my pot! Oops! Thankfully I caught it in time and no permanent damage was done, but yikes!
So anyway, the chocolate mixture went into a baked crust, and was then cooled before being topped with whipped cream. I brought it into work that morning and the entire pie was finished off in one sitting! It was creamy, but not too rich (only 2 squares of chocolate went into it), and just delightful. Bravo, Julia, bravo!
Alrighty, so! Less than 3 months to this project... and I feel like I have more recipes than I need! I plan to continue baking after this, so that's not a complaint, but I'm just trying to decide which recipes are going to be included in the Year of Pie and which aren't. Hmmmm....
Hopefully I won't let so much time go between postings... I sincerely apologize!
Now enjoy some summer pie... I'm getting really excited about all the fresh fruit and endless possibilities this brings!!!
Friday, April 30, 2010
Chicken pot, chicken pot, chicken pot PIE!!!
David Cross explains...
Now we're onto one of my favorite dinner pies! I remember growing up and painstakingly waiting for the individual frozen ones to cook in the oven (30 minutes?! Who are they kidding?) before diving in and scalding my mouth on the delicious chicken lava that erupted from this metal tin of goodness.
And then they introduced the microwavable ones, and it only took 5 minutes before joy was at my fingertips.
And then I ordered a chicken pot pie for dinner at Perkins right before a soccer game in high school and thought I was going to be sick as I ran around with 2,000 calories of chicken and cream and crust rolling around in my stomach.
And then it was back at Perkins two weeks ago that I saw a waitress carrying a pie to a nearby table and it dawned on me to cook up a chicken pot pie for myself!
Seriously, I LOVE the stuff. It's the perfect comfort food.
So I set to work on finding a recipe, this time learning from my mistakes on the last pie and reading the comments section for each recipe. I found one that looked great and got great reviews, and after tweaking the recipe a bit based on suggestions from the readers, I set to work.
It's a basic set of ingredients: crust, chicken, chicken stock, cream, flour, butter, onion, celery, carrots, peas, and garlic. I purchased a rotisserie chicken, rather than cook it up myself, and for a few good reasons. Rotisserie chickens are the most delicious time-saver ever. They're juicy and packed with flavor, so you don't have to worry about the chicken being too dry if you were to cook it yourself, and they're extraordinarily cost-efficient. I only used about 1/3 of the chicken in the pie!
Also, this time I decided to measure out all of the ingredients ahead of time and set them out in front of me. I completely get why cooking shows do this. I tend to be a frazzled cook, and I often overcook things as I scramble to mince the garlic I forgot about or sift the flour. With everything pre-chopped and pre-measured, baking this pie was smooth sailing!
Basically, you melt a shit-ton of butter in a pot, then sautee in the onions and garlic, add the flour, chicken stock, and cream and simmer that until it thickens. Then add in the veggies and chicken and pour the whole mixture into a crust. Put on the top crust, bake it, and voila! Chicken Pot Pie!
Holy pollo, it was awesome! Just as good as any pot pie I've had before, if not better. And it was so remarkably easy, I can't wait to try it again. I'll just have to remember to make twice as many pies next time... we gobbled this one up quick!
With the leftover chicken, stock, and veggies, I made a pot of chicken soup (look at me go!), which was also quite good, especially considering the only seasonings I had were garlic powder, salt, pepper, and oregano. And I still had leftover chicken! Seriously, rotisserie chickens are fantastic.
So anyway, that's that.
Now, in the last post I mentioned the possibility of a Laura/Paula project, which could've been cool had my boyfriend not come up with something that's roughly 1,486 times better.
Get this: Cooking Across the U.S.!!!
I'm going to spend next year cooking a dish (or a meal) from each of the 50 states! How cool is that? That way I either get 2 weeks off, or I use those 2 weeks for Thanksgiving and the 4th of July (U.S. holidays don't get more American than that).
But anyway, I'll cook by region and start up a new blog to get ideas from people across the country on what dishes I should cook. Appetizers, salads, main courses, fish, meat, desserts, drinks... everything is up for grabs. And I'll share the stories of that food and that state and hopefully learn (and provide) a bit of insight into the history and culture of the U.S.
Now, I just need a name. Pans Across America? The United States of Food?
However it turns out, here's to another year of yummy goodness. :)
Now we're onto one of my favorite dinner pies! I remember growing up and painstakingly waiting for the individual frozen ones to cook in the oven (30 minutes?! Who are they kidding?) before diving in and scalding my mouth on the delicious chicken lava that erupted from this metal tin of goodness.
And then they introduced the microwavable ones, and it only took 5 minutes before joy was at my fingertips.
And then I ordered a chicken pot pie for dinner at Perkins right before a soccer game in high school and thought I was going to be sick as I ran around with 2,000 calories of chicken and cream and crust rolling around in my stomach.
And then it was back at Perkins two weeks ago that I saw a waitress carrying a pie to a nearby table and it dawned on me to cook up a chicken pot pie for myself!
Seriously, I LOVE the stuff. It's the perfect comfort food.
So I set to work on finding a recipe, this time learning from my mistakes on the last pie and reading the comments section for each recipe. I found one that looked great and got great reviews, and after tweaking the recipe a bit based on suggestions from the readers, I set to work.
It's a basic set of ingredients: crust, chicken, chicken stock, cream, flour, butter, onion, celery, carrots, peas, and garlic. I purchased a rotisserie chicken, rather than cook it up myself, and for a few good reasons. Rotisserie chickens are the most delicious time-saver ever. They're juicy and packed with flavor, so you don't have to worry about the chicken being too dry if you were to cook it yourself, and they're extraordinarily cost-efficient. I only used about 1/3 of the chicken in the pie!
Also, this time I decided to measure out all of the ingredients ahead of time and set them out in front of me. I completely get why cooking shows do this. I tend to be a frazzled cook, and I often overcook things as I scramble to mince the garlic I forgot about or sift the flour. With everything pre-chopped and pre-measured, baking this pie was smooth sailing!
Basically, you melt a shit-ton of butter in a pot, then sautee in the onions and garlic, add the flour, chicken stock, and cream and simmer that until it thickens. Then add in the veggies and chicken and pour the whole mixture into a crust. Put on the top crust, bake it, and voila! Chicken Pot Pie!
Holy pollo, it was awesome! Just as good as any pot pie I've had before, if not better. And it was so remarkably easy, I can't wait to try it again. I'll just have to remember to make twice as many pies next time... we gobbled this one up quick!
With the leftover chicken, stock, and veggies, I made a pot of chicken soup (look at me go!), which was also quite good, especially considering the only seasonings I had were garlic powder, salt, pepper, and oregano. And I still had leftover chicken! Seriously, rotisserie chickens are fantastic.
So anyway, that's that.
Now, in the last post I mentioned the possibility of a Laura/Paula project, which could've been cool had my boyfriend not come up with something that's roughly 1,486 times better.
Get this: Cooking Across the U.S.!!!
I'm going to spend next year cooking a dish (or a meal) from each of the 50 states! How cool is that? That way I either get 2 weeks off, or I use those 2 weeks for Thanksgiving and the 4th of July (U.S. holidays don't get more American than that).
But anyway, I'll cook by region and start up a new blog to get ideas from people across the country on what dishes I should cook. Appetizers, salads, main courses, fish, meat, desserts, drinks... everything is up for grabs. And I'll share the stories of that food and that state and hopefully learn (and provide) a bit of insight into the history and culture of the U.S.
Now, I just need a name. Pans Across America? The United States of Food?
However it turns out, here's to another year of yummy goodness. :)
Friday, April 23, 2010
The Laura/Paula Project?
I love Paula Deen.
If you've read this blog, you should be well aware of that. I watch her show just about every day after work, and everything she makes looks like buttery, creamy, thigh-expanding heaven.
It dawned on me the other day that Paula Deen is, in some senses, the Julia Child of our day. She really loves food and the comfort and joy behind it, and is never one to skimp on the ingredients that truly make it soar.
I've realized more and more just how much I love this style of cooking. I buy only whole milk for my baking, and often switch to cream if I think it'll make the recipe tastier. I'm the exact opposite of "light" recipes. And yes, my stomach, thighs, and hips are proof of this. For the most part, I'm okay with that.
I wish I could've counted the sticks of butter I've used in this pie project, because it's the ingredient I buy the most of. With pie, there's just no way around it. There's no such thing as a light pie... or there shouldn't be. Every single pie recipe calls for butter! And I love it!
So anyway, this Paula/Julia comparison got me thinking. My pie project ends in September, and I've been thinking about what next year's project will be. Crazy, I know. This project has been expensive enough... I don't know why I want to tack another year onto it! For the most part, my consensus has been to spend the next year improving on my favorite pies from this year. It wouldn't be as intensive as this project has been, and I won't have to make one a week if I don't want to, but I think it would be great to really get good at this.
But then a crazy idea popped into my head the other day, inspired by my reading of Julie and Julia. What if I started the Laura/Paula project? I could call it something else, of course (Operation Butter?), but what if I got one of Paula's cookbooks and tried to cook my way through it? Is that 100% insane?
Granted, Julia wrote one of the greatest cookbooks of all time. It's been revered for years as one of the classics, along with the Joy of Cooking. Paula, on the other hand, has numerous cookbooks with significantly fewer recipes. It would be a different sort of project.
But if I picked the right one, it could be kinda cool. Yes? No? Thoughts?
Anyway, I bring up Paula Deen because I made one of her pies. I saw it on her show and I'd been looking forward to it for weeks.
However, it was a downright fail.
:(
I couldn't even finish my slice! So I guess that's a pretty bad omen to Operation Butter, but I won't be daunted. Because this was PAULA'S fault! Not mine AT ALL!
Here's the scoop.
I decided to bake Paula's Key Lime Mousse Pie, which sounds absolutely devine, were it perfectly executed. It was full of my favorite things: cream cheese (3 sticks of it), key lime juice, white chocolate, and cream. Lots of cream.
I melted cream, key lime juice, and the white chocolate on the stove, and then added unflavored gelatin. I thought it was weird, but whatever. Paula knows best!
Except she didn't.
Here's where the pie went wrong. I'm copying this line from the recpie verbatum: Add 1 1/4 ounces (1 envelope) package unflavored gelatin. Okay, unflavored gelatin comes in 1/4 ounce packages. So even though the recipe said 1 envelope, it CLEARLY also stated 1 1/4 ounces. NOT one 1/4 ounce package. So I added 4 envelopes (the box only had 4... I didn't feel like buying more). FOUR.
Anyway, I finished the recipe and it was tasty and creamy and looked perfect. I poured it into the crust and froze it for 24 hours, as instructed. However, when I went to slice into the pie, it was hard as rock. Virtually impossible to cut, no matter how much I ran the knife through warm water.
I finally got a few slices plated, and holy cow, was it awful! It wasn't at all creamy like it was supposed to be... in fact, each bite kind of separated in my mouth and crumbled. It's hard to describe, but as Brianne put it, "My tongue doesn't want to touch it!"
Blech.
The lime flavor was barely there too... it basically tasted like curdled, frozen cream cheese. Horrible. We all threw our slices out and I began to investigate. I learned something from this... always read the comments on recipe sites! Not only do you get tips on how to improve recipes, you get comments on HOW THE RECIPE WAS WRONG AND IT'S TOTALLY NOT YOUR FAULT!!!
Apparently, Paula did in fact mean one 1/4 ounce (no "s") package. But she worded it so terribly, I didn't feel at all bad about screwing it up. And I wasn't the only one... quite a few people did the same thing.
Kristine tried to be optimistic and thought perhaps it would taste better if it were thawed a bit in the fridge. Wishful thinking. It's still awful.
3/4 of a pie was thrown out.
Tragic.
So anyway, now what do you think of Operation Butter?
If you've read this blog, you should be well aware of that. I watch her show just about every day after work, and everything she makes looks like buttery, creamy, thigh-expanding heaven.
It dawned on me the other day that Paula Deen is, in some senses, the Julia Child of our day. She really loves food and the comfort and joy behind it, and is never one to skimp on the ingredients that truly make it soar.
I've realized more and more just how much I love this style of cooking. I buy only whole milk for my baking, and often switch to cream if I think it'll make the recipe tastier. I'm the exact opposite of "light" recipes. And yes, my stomach, thighs, and hips are proof of this. For the most part, I'm okay with that.
I wish I could've counted the sticks of butter I've used in this pie project, because it's the ingredient I buy the most of. With pie, there's just no way around it. There's no such thing as a light pie... or there shouldn't be. Every single pie recipe calls for butter! And I love it!
So anyway, this Paula/Julia comparison got me thinking. My pie project ends in September, and I've been thinking about what next year's project will be. Crazy, I know. This project has been expensive enough... I don't know why I want to tack another year onto it! For the most part, my consensus has been to spend the next year improving on my favorite pies from this year. It wouldn't be as intensive as this project has been, and I won't have to make one a week if I don't want to, but I think it would be great to really get good at this.
But then a crazy idea popped into my head the other day, inspired by my reading of Julie and Julia. What if I started the Laura/Paula project? I could call it something else, of course (Operation Butter?), but what if I got one of Paula's cookbooks and tried to cook my way through it? Is that 100% insane?
Granted, Julia wrote one of the greatest cookbooks of all time. It's been revered for years as one of the classics, along with the Joy of Cooking. Paula, on the other hand, has numerous cookbooks with significantly fewer recipes. It would be a different sort of project.
But if I picked the right one, it could be kinda cool. Yes? No? Thoughts?
Anyway, I bring up Paula Deen because I made one of her pies. I saw it on her show and I'd been looking forward to it for weeks.
However, it was a downright fail.
:(
I couldn't even finish my slice! So I guess that's a pretty bad omen to Operation Butter, but I won't be daunted. Because this was PAULA'S fault! Not mine AT ALL!
Here's the scoop.
I decided to bake Paula's Key Lime Mousse Pie, which sounds absolutely devine, were it perfectly executed. It was full of my favorite things: cream cheese (3 sticks of it), key lime juice, white chocolate, and cream. Lots of cream.
I melted cream, key lime juice, and the white chocolate on the stove, and then added unflavored gelatin. I thought it was weird, but whatever. Paula knows best!
Except she didn't.
Here's where the pie went wrong. I'm copying this line from the recpie verbatum: Add 1 1/4 ounces (1 envelope) package unflavored gelatin. Okay, unflavored gelatin comes in 1/4 ounce packages. So even though the recipe said 1 envelope, it CLEARLY also stated 1 1/4 ounces. NOT one 1/4 ounce package. So I added 4 envelopes (the box only had 4... I didn't feel like buying more). FOUR.
Anyway, I finished the recipe and it was tasty and creamy and looked perfect. I poured it into the crust and froze it for 24 hours, as instructed. However, when I went to slice into the pie, it was hard as rock. Virtually impossible to cut, no matter how much I ran the knife through warm water.
I finally got a few slices plated, and holy cow, was it awful! It wasn't at all creamy like it was supposed to be... in fact, each bite kind of separated in my mouth and crumbled. It's hard to describe, but as Brianne put it, "My tongue doesn't want to touch it!"
Blech.
The lime flavor was barely there too... it basically tasted like curdled, frozen cream cheese. Horrible. We all threw our slices out and I began to investigate. I learned something from this... always read the comments on recipe sites! Not only do you get tips on how to improve recipes, you get comments on HOW THE RECIPE WAS WRONG AND IT'S TOTALLY NOT YOUR FAULT!!!
Apparently, Paula did in fact mean one 1/4 ounce (no "s") package. But she worded it so terribly, I didn't feel at all bad about screwing it up. And I wasn't the only one... quite a few people did the same thing.
Kristine tried to be optimistic and thought perhaps it would taste better if it were thawed a bit in the fridge. Wishful thinking. It's still awful.
3/4 of a pie was thrown out.
Tragic.
So anyway, now what do you think of Operation Butter?
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Pie is Champion
It's true, folks. In a polled competition, pie has won victory over cake! That's wonderful news for pie lovers like us, is it not?
Read the full article here: http://jezebel.com/5510811/pie-vs-cake-pie-is-champion
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