Thanksgiving Pie(s): Week #5

My apologies for the delay in posting this week.  I have no real excuse, so I'll go with, "I was distracted by the holiday."  It's not really true, but anyone already bored with the first two sentences might skip this one, and I come off looking better.

I have a lot of different topics worth writing about this week.  First, there's the poll question about rolling pins.  Also, I've got this whole pie crust thing going on since this is my first week of making actual crust.  Finally, there's the process and result of this week's pecan pie.

I'm going to skip over some of those and promise to provide more detail in a future post.  In particular, I've gotten several extremely informative emails regarding pie crust making.  I've also spent more time than I could have conceived possible on researching the process of making a "good" crust.  Believe me, there is more information available online than can be consumed and collated in a mind this feeble on the tips and tricks for making the perfect crust.  I found myself following rabbit holes into the chemistry water and flour, flour protein contents, etc., etc., etc.  It's worth a full post and I'll be devoting that time to it once I've come up with my own wildly flawed theory.  Suffice to say that might not be for a couple weeks; in the meantime I'm loving the research and experimentation.

Rolling Pins

Possibly only those who know just how disturbed I am will appreciate this, but as can be seen, the final results of this week's poll are 7/9 for classic, 2/9 for French, and 0/9 for bakery.  I'm so very pleased to announce that I had already bought a rolling pin prior to posting the poll and it was/is...

This stupendous Vic Firth Bakery Rolling Pin 

So far, I couldn't be happier with it.  This is another moment where judgment must be suspended and if you try to find any logic, you'll pull a hamstring, or maybe worse.  I just liked the way it looked -- ask my wife, we looked at many! -- and that's it.  Imagine how happy I was to notice on the next episode of Ace Of Cakes that everyone's favorite cast member Geoff uses one.  Okay, fine!  It appears that everyone there uses one, but Geoff's our favorite, right?  Right?

So, there I was with my fine new rolling pin (and a new glass pie plate, not pictured) in need of a pie to bake.  Luckily for me, I had this blog to motivate me and keep me accountable.  Pecan pie, fit for a Thanksgiving feast was the objective of the week.

Here's how I got there...

(to a pecan pie; whether it was fit for the feast -- which was universally wonderful, by the way, Emily -- is for others to decide)

First, I found that it is absolutely vital when making a pecan pie that you learn how to pronounce it (notice I didn't end that sentence with the word correctly).  I had this scene

from When Harry Met Sally (particularly 0:30-0:40) stuck in my head.  Watch it at your own risk.  You might find yourself walking around like an idiot saying "peeee-can pieeeee!"  Not that I know anyone who would do anything like that.

I got my recipe from a new resource.  As always I don't know if it's any better or worse than others, but I was attracted in particular to the assertion that it wasn't quite as sweet as some others.  Despite my relentless sweet tooth, some pecan pie that I'd had in the past had been a bit much, so I figured I'd give this a try.  In my research I also came across several recipes that were adamant about roasting the pecans prior to making the pie.  My recipe didn't even mention it, but I'm starting to feel slightly more adventurous, so I roasted them first, using these instructions.  

Once I had picked a pie recipe, I spent who knows how long trying to figure out how I wanted to make a crust.  I solicited multiple opinions and got a variety of opinions.  I've even had a few responses that were basically, "you just mix all the stuff together and roll it out, you big baby!"  Due to a deepseated genetic character flaw (thanks Mom and Dad), that isn't nearly good enough for me.  So a day later I had finally decided what to do.  But, since I've gotten such a variety of responses, and still want to try a bunch of new things out, I'm not going to point to any specifics yet.  It'll be coming, but not yet.  I'll divulge a few tidbits below, but I really want a few more trials before I publish any thoughts or real results.

Here's a picture of the pie crust

It didn't go horribly, but didn't go quite right.  The two biggest mistakes that I made...

   1) bought a 9.5" pan, and made a 9" pie crust and filling.  Pictures further down will show that the filling didn't make it to the edge of the crust.  I managed to stretch it out to cover, so that aspect turned out okay, especially compared to...

   2) using whole wheat pastry flour.  A total amateur mistake.  I couldn't find any of the "right" flour, and so I just substituted the whole wheat.  I'm certain that my mother will be happy because undoubtedly the whole wheat is better for you.  

An aside for mom only... Seriously, everyone else, stop reading!  Mommy, I see where you're coming from, but if this blog, etc. had anything at all to do with health, it'd be called 52branmuffins.com or something.  

Continuing...

So, health be darned, We're going for taste, taste, taste,  Slather on the lard!  Bring on the MSG! The bottom line is that whole wheat flour didn't make the taste cut, at least for this pie.  I'll continue with the baking description and my usual foibles and follies, but be warned that this pie did not make it to Thanksgiving.  I made a replacement (along with a pumpkin) for Thanksgiving.  My standards may be low, but they are standards!

Here's the final result of my official pecan pie for the week

The filling was really pretty easy to put together.  My idiot tip of the week is that if a) you only have one set of measure spoons, and b) there are several ingredients, both wet and dry, that require measuring out in the same amount it works a whole lot better to do the dry ingredients first and then the wet.  For example, it's tough to get a good tablespoon of flour with a spoon that's just been used to measure out molasses.  For those of us who take the order of the ingredients on the recipe to be some kind of mandate, this can be difficult.  But, I think it's a great place for the inflexible to show off their newfound flexibility.  Here's another tip.  If you're ever making a pecan pie and find yourself putting two tablespoons of butter in the microwave to melt, go right ahead and put the melted butter into the mix.  Don't wait until three hours after you've baked the pie, eaten some of it, and put the remains in the refrigerator before discovering the butter still in the microwave.  Thanks heavens for this blog, or I might have forgotten that one already.  That was really the only screw up of any note in the filling, and I claim to have learned from it.

At least I didn't make the same mistake with round two.  In both cases, the filling actually tasted quite good, although the local pecan pie connoisseur thought it wasn't sweet enough.  It's my pie, though, and I liked it. :P

The short story on the replacement pie is that things went similarly, except no whole wheat flour in the crust, the correct sized pie plate, and all of the ingredients in the filling.  It did do this odd bubbling thing in its center in the last 10 minutes of baking and when we cut it, the very center had a layer of filling at the bottom, then the crust and finally another layer of filling.  Not sure what happened there, but it tasted okay and no one complained too loudly.  If they had, they'd be mentioned my name here.  Keep that in mind, all future guinea pigs.

I failed to post my pie of the week on Wednesday night, but rest assured that I had already picked one out long before.  Melanie is in town and this blog, and my first pie, weren't even cool when she started whining for a "pie like a peanut butter cup," so a Peanut Butter Cup pie it is...

Rolling pins, rolling pins

I need to buy a rolling pin since I'm going to have to make a pastry crust from scratch next week. What is your preferred rolling pin style?

To answer, make a selection in the poll on the right.

Classic Rolling Pin

Bakery Rolling Pin

French Rolling Pin

Poll Results

Final results for the question: Should I include meat pies?

Yes = 7 votes (43%)

No = 9 votes (56%)

So, no meat pies will be a part of the next 52 weeks.

I'll have a new poll question up shortly...

Pie of the week - Week #5

Pecan

We're eating Thanksgiving dinner at some friends' house.  I'm responsible for baking the pies, so I'm making a new one (the pecan) and an additional pie that I've already made for blog purposes, the classic pumpkin (pumpkin pie is a classic; my execution of the recipe will be decidedly othewise, no doubt).

Last hour to vote on the poll question...

Sour Redemption: Week #4 (November 16, 2008)

This week's pie was key lime.  My original intent was to follow this recipe, but ever the tightrope walker, I switched out the prescribed crust for this one.  I even did some additional crumb crust research here.  I'm sure you're wondering how anyone can survive the adrenaline rush of making such a wild change; let me tell you that we pie makers are a crazy bunch.  Bungee jumping, hah!  Sky diving, alligator wrestling?  Please!  You haven't lived until you've switched out a pie crust recipe in the middle of the baking process!  After all of that work -- it must have taken me ten full minutes --  how could anything go wrong?  Foreshadowing?  Stayed tuned...

Given that I made up a bunch of rules last week, I was really trying to follow them this time around.  In particular, I was committed to making the crust from scratch (to quiet the sniping from the peanut gallery, if nothing else) and to not asking questions of superior bakers/cooks in the house.  

So, the crust...

This went surprisingly well.  Not perfect, but pretty darn well considering that I didn't have any real idea what I was doing.  Of course, I had my ten minutes of reading.  Somehow I don't think that's sufficient to be any good at this, but it allowed me to fake it.  Also, I have a feeling that making a graham cracker crust is simpler than a good pastry crust (I don't even know if that's what it's called, but that's what I'm going with, at least for now).  There were a couple of things that I'll change/concentrate on doing better the next time.  The crushing of crackers went okay.  I probably could have crushed them smaller, which I suspect would have made the final product hang together a little bit better.  The only variation that I threw in was that the recipe called for a glass pan, which I didn't have.  So, I used one of those Pampered Chef stoneware deals.  I think that worked out okay.  Anyone know what deal is between baking a pie in glass, a pie tin, one of the stone pans?  I'm going to just wing it for now and see what I learn.  The stuff I'd change:

1) I should have worked harder to really compress the crust at the top edges.  They didn't end up really sticking together very well.

2) The bottom outside edge of the crust ended up being pretty thick and dense.  I would have been better off if I'd tried to keep a more consistent thickness throughout.  On the other hand, I kind of enjoyed eating the thick crunchy edges, so maybe I'll just leave well enough alone.

Here's a picture of the crust after it had baked

Filling

This pie lands somewhere in between the coconut cream and pumpkin that I'd made before because 

a) I actually baked the crust before putting in the filling :), and 

b) You bake the filling in the crust, but for a relatively short time.

I was informed in a blog comment that I had to use the real thing (key limes), so I was definitely concerned about avoiding the wrath of Glen.  I managed to scrounge up some at the grocery store and so didn't have to use bottled juice.  Whew!  It turned out that I rather enjoyed juicing the limes.  I used one of those wooden reamers for the juicing and I think it worked pretty well.  You can see what I'm talking about to the right here and a picture of some of the limes and juice below.  After juicing, I just strained the juice through a little strainer and ended up with enough juice for the recipe.

Other than the juice, there wasn't a whole lot to the filling.  I've finally given in and succumbed to separating the egg yolks and whites with my hands.  I've got to admit that I stole the idea from Iron Chef America (c'mon, who doesn't love the chairman?), but it's proving to be a lot easier than other methods I've tried.  Sometimes I even wash my hands before doing it.  Some might have me sweeten and condense my own milk, but I took the easy way out and used a can.  I'm sure the purists will be down my throat about that, but what are sisters for if not to critique your baking protocols?

Here's the lime squeezing mess

Baking was straightforward this week.  Even I couldn't screw this up, I don't think.  Then again, I'm sure I can come up with a way, but it didn't happen this week.

Overall, this was a successful pie experience.  You can see some pictures below.  It isn't the most beautiful thing, but it isn't hideous either, IMHO.

Interesting (maybe only to me) outcomes:

* I took this pie to work and shared it with some co-workers who are aware of my adventures (and misadventures) in pie-making.  They either enjoyed it or were too nice to tell me that it was horrible.  Either way, I got rid of a pie without having to eat it all myself.  Small victories!

* My wife, it turns out, doesn't like "real" key lime pie.  I think it wasn't fluorescent green enough for her, although she claimed it was too sour and a little bitter.

* My daughter claims that this is now her favorite pie, passing up the butterscotch from week 1.

* Every time I turn around, somebody is forwarding this blog on to a friend or relative.  I'm finding that makes it even more fun, and hopefully will keep me motivated for the duration.  Hopefully I can keep it entertaining for all of you as well!

More pictures...

One hour left on this week's poll. A new one will come out tomorrow if I can think of a decent question.

Next week's pie comes out tonight.

I had one blog follower suggest that I switch to 52 cakes, but I'm too far down this path now. No turning back now, but maybe next year :)

Pie of the week - Week #4

Key Lime

Potentially interesting facts, especially considering the "new" rules...

1) If available, I'll be squeezing actual key limes

2) I'll be constructing my very first graham cracker crust (bake it idiot, bake it!)

3) No help from more intelligent members of the family.  That includes the one-year-old

Oh, Crap! Week #3 (November 9-10, 2008)

All right!  Time to finally get caught up with the early pie-making blogs here.  On to week three, but first...

By the time I got around to making my third week's pie, I had a ;pretty good idea that I was going to be both 

   a) attempting the 52 pies in 52 weeks thing, and 

   b) blogging about it.  So, some preliminary rules.  

Readers, please feel free to chime in with your own thoughts and ideas, rules you like, dislike, think should be added/removed, etc.  I'll ignore all of your submissions (it's my blog, for crying out loud), but it will give you a warm feeling inside to think that you've contributed.  Ok, I'm only kidding.  Having never blogged before I'm finding that I actually really enjoy reading the thoughts and ideas in the comments.  I'd like this to be as interactive as possible, thus -- hint, hint -- the current poll question that everyone who visits should be answering.  So, some preliminary rules:

1) The "pie week" runs from Saturday through Friday

2) Next week's pie will be selected on the preceding Wednesday.  I'll do my best to do a mini-blog entry every Wednesday night

3) No more leaning on my wife for any of the work, and questions should be kept to the bare minimum.  She had no idea what she was in for when she said, "I do," so no fair piling on now.

4) No repeating pies.  

5) Recipes must be procured either

   1) online, or

   2) through contact with a real person (recipe card, recited from memory)

No cook books.  Why?  I have absolutely no idea.  Logic is not required for this project.

6) No "instant" pies like the Jell-o pudding recipes or anything like that.

7) I was informed by my wiser, much older sister that "In fairness to pie-bakers around the globe, and to make this a true challenge, I believe you need to make the crusts from scratch as well."  So from now on, crusts from scratch...

If I get a lot more from user comments, I'll make the list a more prominent part of the blog somehow.

Back to the title of this entry...

Week 3 - Coconut Cream

I used the recipe here.  I decided that I'd spend some time upfront really trying to understand the recipe and the order that I could/should do things, and I think that helped --but only to a certain extent.  An amateur is an amateur for a reason, and I'm exhibit A.

I thought that making the filling for this pie was probably slightly more difficult than the French Silk, but since it wasn't a pie that you baked, it was less time consuming and difficult than some of the earlier pies that had to be assembled and then baked.  I like coconut a lot and was looking forward to this one.  Toasting the coconut for the topping made any longing for completed pie even tougher because it made the whole house smell awesome.

Other pie making items of note for the coconut cream:

   1) I didn't make it until late afternoon on Sunday and it requires at least an overnight to set up, so I didn't actually finish it (with the whipped cream and sprinkled coconut) until Monday night.

   2) What exactly does bring milk and coconut to simmer mean?  I know I'm supposed to be leaving my wife out of this, but that doesn't mean I can't rely on helpful, experienced readers to fill me in, right?  Anyway, I thought that simmer was something where you brought something to a boil (i.e. bubbling) and then brought the heat back down until it was no longer bubbling.  So, then, how do you just bring something to a simmer?  Any help is greatly appreciated :)

   3) I had a frozen deep dish pie crust that I used for this pie, and so I doubled the recipe to fill the extra space.  Very adventurous of me, huh?  Who knew I could multiply by 2?  I think all of that turned out okay.  There was nothing glaring anyway.

Enjoying...

So, here's the finished product.

Almost looks edible, doesn't it?  Almost.

My lovely wife takes one look at it and says, "that looks like one of those pies that you throw in someone's face."  I should have just cut my losses and found out right then and there if she was right.  Unfortunately, I didn't.

Instead, I asked her to cut a piece for each of us.  As she's getting ready to cut she says, "So, how long did you have to bake the crust?"  Uhhhh.... this is where the Oh Crap comes in.  For the unintiated (that would be me), you have to bake the frozen pie crust before you put in the filling (if you don't bake the pie post-filling I suppose).  I started to write about how unbelievable that it is that I screwed this up, but it's actually not unbelievable at all.  Pathetic, yes, but far from unbelievable.  I hope, however, that it's a mistake you won't be reading about again.  We tried to salvage some of the filling and eat it, but it was a colossal mess and didn't end up being worth the time.  Oh well, there's always next week.  That's the great thing about this mess I've gotten myself into.  I always have another opportunity to redeem myself.  We'll see how that goes...

Don't forget to vote in the poll!

For Public Consumption?: Week #2 (November 1, 2008)

Week two was the week that ideas for this little adventure really started to come into focus. I had enjoyed last week's pie making and was starting to entertain some thoughts of really getting into the nuts and bolts of making a decent pie.

It took my daughter exactly one week (probably less) to realize that her father had lost his mind. Ok, maybe it didn't take her a week, she was already well aware that I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. So, after a single excursion together, I was already without a baking partner. It's just as well, she was holding me back with her calm demeanor and rational approach. Everyone knows that a genius pie maker has to be at least a little bit off-center. Now she won't be cramping my style I can really... rely on my wife's advice for every move that I make in the kitchen.

Seriously, you would think that by the time you reach my age I'd be able to make a decision for myself. Let's just agree to pretend that I like to bounce ideas off of other people, collaborate to acquire the best available information, and weigh my options before making any rash decisions. But, deep down inside we'll also acknowledge that I'm an inveterate coward. Apparently my cowardice extends to the culinary arts. Maybe baking pies will turn me into Gordon Ramsey (I doubt that he's been accused recently of lacking confidence), but I have my doubts.

On to the pie.

We were having Sunday lunch over at a friend's house and needed to bring something with a a contribution to the meal. Brilliant! A perfect opportunity to make and share this week's pie.

This week turned out to be French Silk week (see the recipe here).  I cheated on the crust for this one (I've already heard about how important that making the crust is to the integrity of the process, so don't pile on.  I'm working up to it) and used a pre-made graham cracker crust.  The filling preparation was actually pretty easy I thought.  I was a little bit disappointed when all was said and done that the filling was kind of thin (not thin in consistency, but thin in lining the crust), but after garnishing with some whipped cream I think it actually turned our reasonably well.  

I'm not a huge chocolate freak (I know, what's the matter with me blah, blah, blah.  Chocolate = Heaven, blah, blah, blah), so I can't say that I loved this pie.  I did, however, enjoy making it.  I hadn't really thought too much about the variety of techniques employed in making something that in the end we categorize as pie.  There are pies served warm, cold, frozen.  There are pies with a double crust, single crust, different types of crusts, and even more variations.  Some pies you bake the crust only and allow the filling to set, others you bake both together, etc., etc.  This particular pie was interesting to me simply because it was a departure from last weeks, if for no other reason.  Both of those pies had to be baked, while this one, all of the preparation was done up front and then assembled to set up over night.  Just as interesting, and fun, but different.

Good things:

• I got to learn some new techniques, including for melting baking chocolate.
• No Cool-Whip.  Real whipped cream made with heavy whipping cream no matter what some people may think
• I had a great time making it

Not so good things:

• I still leaned really heavily on my wife for direction.  I think I'll learn more by just experimenting and taking some chances and I'll try to do that in the future
• The granulated sugar didn't seem to completely dissolve in the preparation and so the filling tasted good but was a bit "gritty"
• Used a purchased crust (loser!)

All in all it was an edible pie (that's a win in my book).  My ex-partner ate two pieces, so it couldn't have been too bad -- she's as fussy as they come.  More importantly, this week convinced me that I could have a really good time with this and put me on the path to not just baking pies, but creating the blog you're reading right now.

On to the next...

Genesis: Week #1 (October 26, 2008)

Here we go...

Week one, I had no idea that I was even embarking on this project.  Just another lazy Sunday afternoon with nothing important to do, so I decided that my daughter and I should try baking a pie.  Of course, we couldn't agree on what type of pie to make, so... we decide that we'll try to make two.  Great idea!  As noted in the prologue to all of this, I have little (no) idea what I'm doing in the kitchen, but how hard could it be, right?  Wow, am I clueless.  

We managed to decide on the two types of pie that we wanted to make.  I chose pumpkin, my daughter went with butterscotch.  I thought it would be fun to just try to pull a recipe off of the internet and go with it.  That's what we did for the butterscotch pie (the recipe can be found here), but for the pumpkin we used a friend's recipe.  Of course, since this pie making was going to be so easy, I thought we should make it a challenge by attempting to do as much from scratch as possible.  The only significant concession that was made was that we bought premade crust dough.   Other than that, the intent was to create the pies from scratch.  For the pumpkin pie, that included purchasing a baking pumpkin and making our own pumpkin puree.  Who wants to just dump your pumpkin out of a can, right?  Did I mention what an idiot I am?

I have to admit that it was really nice to have an extra set of hands for this first round at least.  Some things (like getting the rolled out pie crusts into the pie tin) were a lot easier with someone else to help out.  We didn't really split up the pie making in any organized way.  We both helped with aspects of each pie.  That made it pretty fun for me, although we each had our moments of frustration to be sure.

In theory, my wife wasn't "involved" in this pie making.  In practice, she answered all of our stupid questions, lent a helping hand a few times, and generally made it possible for us to complete two pies in an afternoon.  I'm pretty sure I'd still be standing in the kitchen with flour all over my shirt staring at the floor if it weren't for her.

All in all, this first week was pretty successful.  We ended up with two edible pies.  From now on I'll try to get a picture of the finished pie(s) to post here, but since this first week happened before I committed to this foolish endeavor, there's nothing to show, only the extra two pounds I put on since I ate 3/4 of the two pies.  I'm going to have to come up with a plan for what to do with the output, but that's for another entry...

So... that's the origin of my 52 pies project.  I'm still not sure how I got here, but now that I've told people about it I suppose I'd better follow through.  This blog, and hopefully questions and comments from readers will keep me honest as I improve my skills in the kitchen, and maybe even enjoy myself in the process.

Late-breaking news flash:  A picture of the butterscotch pie has been located and is shown here ...

The 52 Pies Project

So, two weekends ago I decided to bake a pie (or maybe two).  I have absolutely no experience or skills in the kitchen, but was in an adventurous mood.  That afternoon eventually turned into the 52 pies project (this blog!).  So, I'll be "post-blogging" my experiences from the past two weekends, and then hopefully creating a new pie (and writing about the experience) every week for the next year.

Wish me luck!