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...