Week #23 & #24 - Pineapple/Chocolate Angel

Obviously, the posts here over the past few weeks have been few and far between. Unfortunately, other things have taken priority over writing about my trials as a pie baker. Hopefully, I will get back on track starting now.

The past two weeks have seen a very conventional pie, although a unique flavor -- pineapple --and a very common flavor -- chocolate -- with a very unconventional twist.

The pineapple pie was a response to a request at work. In passing, pineapple pie was mentioned, and so it was added to the list of prospective pies and bubbled up to the top two weeks ago. I used the filling recipe here, along with the usual crust recipe to make the pie seen below.

I was very happy with the way this pie turned out. After several weeks of rich, heavy pies, I was excited to make something a bit lighter. I was also ready to give a double-crust pie another shot. This one did not disappoint, as far as I am concerned.

The most interesting thing in preparing the pineapple pie was turning a fresh, whole pineapple into something resembling a 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple. Originally, I thought that I would simply be able to run chunks through the food processor, but that results in pineapple purée. So, I puréed about a third of the pineapple and chopped up the rest and mixed them together. The result at least resembled crushed pineapple, and in the end made for a nice pie.

The Chocolate Angel pie was a recommendation from my mother, and the recipe can be found at the bottom of this page. The filling of this pie is pretty standard chocolate cream recipe. It seems as though I am making some variation of it every week, so it has become pretty standard. The crust is the real kicker with this pie, and I had not even considered it before.

You can see the odd, pale color in the picture.

It is still odd, but no longer surprising, when you see that the "crust" is actually meringue. It makes for a really sweet, but light, pie. I liked this version, but I am even more interested in trying something like it out with fresh berries this summer. I think it will make for a really tasty, light, summer pie. Of course, I still don't really know what I am doing, so I could be wrong. We will all find out together because I am certainly going to give it a try.

I have fallen behind on the posting of pie selections as well, so I will just slam this coming week's into this post. I have a request from home for a specific pie. I'll be posting further details after I attempt to make the excruciatingly long recipe this weekend, but it is dark chocolate, peanut, caramel. If it turns out, I have a feeling it won't be shared outside the walls of our home. Then again, even if it does not turn out, I have a feeling it won't be seeing the light of day.

Until next time...