Pie of the week - Week #15

I'm hoping for something at least a little lighter than the dense chocolate and banana cream pies from last week.  Plus, I thought I would try another fruit pie.  Since local fruits are not in season (any fruits) right now, I'm going with something more tropical that is not ever in season around here.  So, I will be attempting some version of a mango pie this week.

National Pie Day - Week #14

As advertised, I force-fed two pies to my co-workers on National Pie Day. Hopefully they were not all forced, but I did end up peddling the last few pieces in the hallway after our scheduled "meating." You never know for sure around here where Minnesota Nice runs rampant, but both pies seemed to be well received and I would venture to say were enjoyed by all. Although I did offer a slice of banana cream pie to someone who is allergic to bananas, there were no known casualties. That has to count for something.

Banana Cream Pie

Crust

This pie had a strikingly unique crust recipe. It was certainly new to me. The key differentiating component was the fact that there was about a half of a banana smashed up and included in the graham cracker crust. Prior to baking (and even after baking), this made it considerable more moist than other crumb crusts I have worked. And, the end result was a pleasantly chewy crust underneath the custard filling. I, for one, loved that aspect of the pie and thought it made it really stand out.

Filling

Ever the novice, I assumed that a banana cream pie must have banana flavored something in the custard/pudding that made up the bulk of the filling. As such, I was very surprised to find that this pie had nothing of the sort. Somewhere in my head, I think I was imagining a Jell-O pudding "banana cream pie." Having now made and eaten this from-scratch version of a banana cream, I assure you that the quotation marks in the Jell-O version are well warranted. It would be difficult for me to go back now and call a flourescent yellow, pudding filled, frozen pie crust a banana cream pie. This, undoubtedly, was what our founding fathers intended when they first dreamed of National Pie Day.

The only modification that I made to the recipe was a concession to what might be called frugality, but in my case might better be described as being cheap. I could not bring myself to spend the money on a genuine vanilla bean. Having found this article, in which the author claims that even my favorite snobs at Cook's Illustrated don't object to substituting extract, I just made the substitution and lived with the consequences. I am sure that there is a palate out there capable of discerning the difference, but it is not mine. So, extract it is. The only other thing that I was really very worried about was the condition of the bananas that I used. I tend to like green bananas to eat, but I knew that the flavor of this pie would be better served by using ripe bananas. I spent a laughable time in the produce section of the local Cub Foods trying to differentiate between various shades of green and yellow. Believe me, this is no mean feat for someone who is color blind. But, despite this -- yet another in my long list of inadequacies -- the bananas that ended up in the pie were just about perfect. Not too green, yet not too ripe and mushy.

Here's an overhead shot of the banana cream pie (note the highly creative banana slice pattern on the top. Inspiring, huh?)

And, a cool shot (thanks jp for this and the following semi-professional photos) of a slice. You can see the layers of banana and custard. My mouth is watering just thinking of it. If yours isn't that is just because you weren't there. I am telling you...

Chocolate Cream Pie

Crust

The usual. No modifications, other than going back to the metal pie plate. I won't be going back to the glass for the pastry crusts. This turned out as expected, unlike the last two in the glass plate, neither of which I was happy with.

Filling

Who knew? I suppose I should have, but I did not know that Walmart would have pie recipes. They have everything else, why not pie? In this case they even had a recipe good enough for the chocolate fiends at work (and at home). I accidentally ran into this recipe, and after looking at it, I was really glad that I did. It is very simple, is built on a pastry crust, which seems to have become my passion in this pie-making escapade, and sounded like it would taste like chocolat, chocolate, and nothing but chocolate. That is what the choco-philes in my life love. Do not dilut with any extraneous flavors!

The filling was as easy to make as it sounds from the instructions. I did not use the microwave, but used a DIY double boiler with a pyrex bowl over water boiling in a sauce pan. The melting and mixing process went fine with that setup. I knew from previous experience that it was important to let the chocolate mixture cool sufficiently before attempting to fold in the whipped cream. With that knowledge in hand, the recipe was really simple to implement. I probably spent as much time waiting for things to cool down as I did actually making the pie. This would have been a good pie to make earlier in my journey, although I was able to make a much better crust now than I ever could have then.

An artsy shot

And, a good shot of the decadent truffle-bottom. I found that to be a nice touch that didn't really add any significant complexity, but gave it a nice visual and textural constrast.

Since this one turned out so well for work (and it was relatively easy to make), I ended up making a second chocolate cream pie over the weekend. Half of it was eaten by our family (I am not a big chocolate fan, but I enjoyed a slice anyway) and the other half was delivered to some friends of ours who are expecting twins in the spring. It is vital to get those kids started out on the right foot in terms of nutrition. It is never too early, and I am glad to have contributed. I hope that they enjoyed it.

Until Wednesday, do not forget to indulge in the four food groups.

1. Candy,
   
2. Candy Canes,
   
3. Candy Corn, and
   
4. Syrup
   

And, keep eating pie, it must fit in there somewhere...

UPDATE: The Chocolate Cream recipe linked above is no longer available. The same recipe (copyright issues?) can now be found here.

It's Both...

and so much more...

Pie(s) of the week - Week #14

In honor of National Pie Day, I'm moving up the pie week (they are my rules, I can change them to fit my mood) and making next week's pies this Thursday night.  That way, I can share them at work on Friday.

Two pies.

1) Chocolate Cream

2) Banana Cream

I'm not sure if I'll blog about one, both, or just the joy of National Pie Day.  In any case, enjoy the happiest day of the year.

Sour Cream Raisin - Week #13

Every week, I feel greater and greater pressure to get this blog updated on time.  On time, however, has slipped further into the work week until it has found a steady home on Wednesday night.  That isn't where the pressure comes from though.  It's the reader(s) of this blog that keep(s) me up at night.  

Here's how I know that I should be feeling the heat.  This week I added two new features that are interesting only to me (okay, and to you too, S.M.) to the blog.  I added Google Analytics, which tracks site hits and activity, and I added a Feedburner feed so that I could track what kind of activity the blog is getting through the RSS feed.  Imagine the pressure of confirming that there are literally one's of people reading this foolishness every week.   It's cool, I suppose, to have added these additional data points.  But, only for me.  I can imagine my wife's eyes rolling as she reads this paragraph, and I haven't even published it yet.  All right, already...  On with the pie.

As I mentioned last week, this week's pie was prepared expressly for the pleasure of my lovely wife -- I have to do some sucking up this week as some portions of last week's post did not go over so well; I have no idea why.  Sour Cream Raisin pie apparently brings back some pleasant memories of her childhood, and so I was pretty excited to take a pass at it.  

I'll skip the usual crust discussion -- nothing thrilling on that front -- other than to say that I am finished with the glass pie plate for the pastry crust.  Every one that I've made has shriveled up and turned out hard and dry.  I am all to eager to blame that on the plate.  It certainly couldn't be me with my myriad skills in the kitchen, right?  Right?

The filling and meringue were easily the most interesting parts of this pie.  Believe me, that is a pile of sour cream in there.  I followed the recipe right down the line.  I did have some golden raisins lying around (remember the Cranberry Pie?) and so used a mix of those and regular raisins.  I don't think there is any noticeable difference between the two varieties other than appearance, but am happy to be contradicted if someone knows something I don't (about raisins, I mean -- back off smarty pants).  Anyway, I think that it all went fine.  Everything mixed up well and thickened as I expected.  Here's a picture of the pie after what I'll call phase one.

 

Meringuing (it's a word) for the second week in a row was just as much fun this go-around.  I followed the recipe pretty closely for that as well.  Once again, unfortunately, I did not have the intestinal fortitude to try to make meringue manually and pulled out the electric mixer.  One of these days.  I have got to admit that I assumed that the brown sugar meringue would look quite a bit different from last week's, but that wasn't the case.  In the end I think it looked almost exactly the same.  Last week I was pretty judicious with the meringue, but based on the picture from this recipe, it certainly appeared that you are supposed to be anything but with this pie, so I layered it on.  It has to look like the picture, right Grover?  Please, someone has to remember, or I really am getting that old.  So, I piled it on, and piled it on.  I did do a little bit of reading about the weeping meringue and the key apparently, is to really seal it to the pie crust, so I glued them together with a touch of super glue.  That stuff is edible, right?  Here.  Take a look.

I really slopped it out there to the edges.  Seemed to works since the meringue didn't shrink noticeably and I didn't notice as much of the weeping.

And, baked.

A slice - a little weird looking, I suppose, but I liked it a lot and was told that it was "just like" she remembered it.  That's the best complement I could have gotten.  My life is full.  At least for this week.

I have decided that I like these little things, whatever they are, that show up after sitting overnight on meringue.

I am calling it a success, and #3 in the rankings for overall texture, flavor, and execution.

Weekly notes

Still no decent rankings gadget/widget.  I finally took the time to read about how to create your own.  Now, I just have to do it.  Some day.

Enjoy National Pie Day everyone.  Undoubtedly you all have big plans.  Mine is to accelerate my pie week a little bit and make next week's pie(s) this Thursday night to be shared at work on Friday.  A post in a few minutes will include the flavors.

How could I have lived this long...

and not have even heard of the most important national holiday ever conceived?

A loyal reader sent me a link today, that led me here.  It put a smile on my face.  I'll have to start preparations quickly, there's only one week left.

Pie of the week - Week #13

Birthday pie:  Sour Cream Raisin

Clementine Meringue Pie

Who has ever heard of Clementine Meringue Pie?  Well, be assured that I spent plenty of time searching the entire internet (even the dark, hidden parts) and did not find many references to a clementine pie.  Perhaps the results from my weekly pie experiment should indicate the reason for this lack of information.  All in all, it was a reasonably interesting week.  I got to try a couple of new things, and continue to refine some that are becoming near second nature.  Most importantly, perhaps, I managed to give away the entire pie without having to eat any myself.  I did, however, get an opportunity to taste the finished product (sans crust), so I still consider myself knowledgeable enough to include it in the rankings.

Following the usual pattern...

Crust

After last week's didn't turn out quite as nicely as I wanted, I regressed back to the usual standard recipe.  I suppose that I'll continue to experiment as time goes on, but I really was just looking for a good result this week and knew that if I didn't do anything stupid, I could always trust the old reliable.

Recipe

As alluded to above, I did some real searching for a clementine pie and didn't really find much specifically about clementines.  I did find a reference or two that implied that clementines are a type of tangerine (not sure if that's true, and amazingly I'm just going to let that go and not spend the next twenty-four sleepless hours researching clementinian origins).  As a result of that potential revelation, I narrowed down to this recipe for tangerine pie.  I did manage to find a few reviews of clementine/tangerine and orange pies that discussed the sweetness of said pies.  In particular, I took a cue from this orange pie recipe to include additional sour juice (lemon in the case of the recipe, lemon and lime in my case) to the mix.

Filling

Does anyone want to hazard a guess as to how many clementines it takes to yield one cup of freshly squeezed juice?  Me neither, but I can tell you that the total number might surprise you.  It did me, whatever it was.  I split up my pie making efforts this weekend into three phases because I am so very organized

• crust, which I made in the morning -- and pre-baked in the early afternoon
  
• citrus squeezing (this was a glorious mess -- I regret not having taken a picture of the cup of clementine juice in particular; it is an exquisite color), and 
  
• filling preparation/meringue making.
  

I ended up using the juice from a lemon (about four tablespoons), plus some lime juice from some key limes that were laying around -- still from the Key Lime Pie, I think.  Those amounted to another two tablespoons or so.  Obviously I exceeded the recommended two tablespoons total that were in the recipe, but given some of what I had read I figured what the heck; I didn't want the end result to be too sweet anyway.  

Other than the modification with the amount of sour juice, the filling went pretty much to form.  I did not put the sectioned clementines at the bottom of the pie, as is mentioned in the recipe.  That was out of pure, unadulterated laziness.  I didn't feel like it, so shoot me!  

The use of corn starch as the thickening agent was new (I think... the weeks are starting to meld into one long mass of new experiences), but did not turn out to be an issue one way or another.  The ingredients thickened up like the recipe said, yada, yada, yada.  There was meringue on the butterscotch pie from week #1 (wow, does that feel like a long time ago), but I didn't make it, since I had a sous chef way back then.  She, however, is no longer with the team and so this time I got to do it.  I was really, really tempted to try it by hand, what with my fascination with whipping cream the old fashioned way.  But, alas, I chickened out and used the hand mixer.  Maybe another time.  The meringue, too, went well.  I'm not sure how the experts get it to look decent on the pie, what with all the curliques, etc.  I did my best but make no claims of artistry.

With the additional juice that I added, and a slightly shrunken crust, there was an abundance of filling and meringue, so I ended up filling a couple of ramekins part way with the clementine filling, the rest of the way with meringue, and then baking those along with the full-blown pie.

Here's a picture of the finished product

My complaints visually were that

1. the crust shrunk quite a bit during the baking.  I used my pie weights, and they did their job, but I didn't fold over enough dough around the edges, and
   
2. this didn't happen until after this picture was taken, but over time the meringue pulled back from the edges of the pie and either the meringue or the filling "wept" so there was a miscellaneous liquid layer between the two.  Any ideas, bakers out there?
   

Eating

I'm proud to say that I gave away this whole pie at work and no one spit any of it out in my presence -- how's that for a qualifying statement?  Actually, most seemed to enjoy it.

Anonymous, derogatory blog comments will be recognized and investigated to the full extent of my powers.  Keep that in mind those who spit it out behind my back.  

My experience eating this pie was only the small ramekins of "pie" that were separate from the real thing.  I liked it, although I really thought (as did the senior principle tester) that it tasted very much like lemon meringue.  The comments from the menagerie at work tended to be that the clementine was a distinct flavor, but that it was most evident either upon first bite, or as an aftertaste.  Perhaps the full pie experience was necessary to get the complete taste.  I can live without it for the opportunity to offload the eating of some of this pie, even if it is only for a week.

Here's a professionally crafted photo from work

photo by jjames, courtesy jpederson, enterprises.

Next week is taste tester number one's birthday, and so she will be receiving a lump of coal and her favorite pie from yours truly.  I might have to make a dozen of them, but this one has to turn out right.  Believe me, you do not want to be on her bad side.

I still haven't gotten around to locating a decent ordered/numbered list for the pie rankings.  Apparently you can make your own widgets, and there is a rumor afoot that this is what I do for a living, so I suppose I could just build my own quick.  On the other hand, I am invariably lazy and that almost always takes precedence.  Either way, I'll have something better available soon.

-20 degrees forecast for tonight here in the balmy Twin Cities.  Enjoy the beautiful weather wherever you are!

Still looking for a rankings widget

I've been informed that the rankings section doesn't make sense without some explanation.

The rankings are just my personal ordered ranking of the pies that I've made so far.  I haven't found a good widget that will put numbers next to the pie names; that would probably help.  I'm hoping to find one that would do so and even better to find one that will allow readers to rank their favorite pies themselves.  I'm not sure if that exists or not, but will try to find one soon.

Cheesecake is...

Cheesecake!

I am sure that there are certain readers of this blog -- I won't mention names, but we all know who you are -- who will refuse to acknowledge this week's poll results.  I, on the other hand, am happy to bow to the wisdom of the masses.  Cheesecake is neither pie nor cake.  It is simply cheesecake.

Perhaps next year will bring 52cheesecakes.com, but until then, I humbly remain your purveyor of a pie a week.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Pie of the week - Week #12

Turtle Cheesecake


Not a chance! 
 I've been holding off on most fruit pies because I want to try to make them when the given fruit is in season.  Then I was thinking that citrus fruits don't have a season around here.  So... lemon meringue, but that isn't terribly adventurous, and a pie blog is nothing if not an adventure.  Also in the citrus family, orange meringue sounded interesting.  There are some recipes out there.  But, I mentioned to a devotee of this blog my intentions, and he mentioned clementines, and so there it is.  Pie of the week for week twelve is Clementine Meringue.  We'll see if anyone is willing to taste test this one.

Sweet Potato Pie - Week #11

I had strong intentions of starting this post with a line to the effect of, "I've eaten my last pumpkin pie!"  After having done my usual research of sweet potato pie recipes, I really thought that I was going to love this week's pie and that it would replace pumpkin as my favorite holiday pie forevermore.  Alas, it wasn't to be.  Not that I disliked the pie that I eventually found myself eating on Saturday afternoon, but it wasn't the magical moment I was hoping for either.

I am still uncertain whether to blame my disappointment on the recipe, or perhaps on some of the mistakes that I know I made.  I have a feeling that eventually I'll give this one another try although I am not in a hurry.

Shopping

I know nothing about sweet potatoes (-os, oes...?, where's Quayle when I need him?).  Then again, a mere 11 weeks ago I knew absolutely nothing about baking or pie making, and now I... know slightly more than absolutely nothing about baking and pie making.  Anyway, how am I supposed to pick the right sweet potato from amongst the multiple varieties when all of the recipes just call for n cups of cooked and mashed sweet potatoes?  What's the difference between a yam and a sweet potato?  Anything?  They look pretty similar to me.  As I'm sure you can guess, my fatal flaw might have been virtually my first move this week.  I had to pick something, so I ended up buying a couple of pounds of Red Garnet Yams.  They looked like sweet potatoes to me.  Someone more knowledgeable than I can choose this moment to comment about how I had already passed the point of no return down the road to hell with my choice of yam/potato.  Believe me, I'm listening.  

Crust

As per usual, I made slight modifications on the standard crust recipe.  My modifications this time were to reduce the overally amount of fat -- I used roughly 2/3 the amount in the recipe -- and to use half vodka and half water -- I have been pretty consistent with using only the vodka the last few crusts.  Nothing too exciting happened, although I did think that the dry ingredients reacted a little bit differently with the water than the alcohol; it seemed to be absorbed more quickly and completely.  The end result was a flaky, but slightly more dry and tough crust.  I'll keep experimenting.

On a far more exciting note than crust recipes, this week was my first opportunity to use one of my new pie making toys.

This pie shield (thank you, big sister):

Filling

As instructed, I was sure to bake and not boil the taters.  That process went pretty seamlessly if I do say so.  Not unlike watching paint dry, this watching sweet potatoes bake.  The peeling and mashing I managed to pull off without incident either.  It was not harder than it sounds.  A reasonably bright monkey could do it.  In this case, a moderately bright monkey did.

I chose to use this recipe, and since many of the other recipes recommended adding a couple of tablespoons of brandy or bourbon, I did that too, using the two tablespoons mentioned here.  If I am to try this pie again in the future, I won't be adding the liquor.  Everyone who tried the pie (ok, that is a sample size of two) thought that it added a "bite" of sorts, but didn't add any meaningful flavor.  In fact, it kind of stood apart from the other flavors of the pie and was a distraction rather than a nice complement.

I watched this pie baking closely because I was concerned about how the additional liquid (the brandy) would impact how long it took to set properly.  In the final analysis, I think that was a mistake.  It would have been better if I hadn't been so on top of this pie, pulling it out of the oven as soon as it seemed finished.  5-10 extra minutes of baking would have done it some good.  I wouldn't say that it turned out undercooked, but I just think it would have been served well to have baked off a little bit of the excess moisture.  Keeping with my recurring theme:  live and learn.

On a high note, I think that the pie shield did its job exceptionally well.  As you can see in the pictures that follow, the exposed crust did not burn although the pie was in the oven for nearly an hour.  Hooray for the pie shield!  It's some kind of Festivus miracle.

Pictures

Sweet Potato pie and her best friend, pie shield

An evenly baked crust

I forgot to mention that I whipped up some whipped cream as well (by hand again.  I think I'm committed -- or should be committed).  Dedicated readers will note that I spiced up the whipped cream with a little nutmeg and cinnamon as suggested long, long ago.  Very good!

I suppose that I would be remiss if I failed to mention the ongoing feud over cheesecake that is happening on my precious pie blog.  Please feel empowered to vote your conscience, but remember that the poll question does not offer an option for voting based on some perceived torture of poor, simple Simon.  I'm saving my lowly vote in case I need to break a last minute deadlock.

I'll be posting again shortly with next week's pie.

Ok, I give up

So that we have a final, definitive answer... 

Please vote on the cheesecake related poll question by the end of the day on Friday, January 9th.