Christmas: Almond-Amaretto Pumpkin Chiffon

I cannot really say what my pie baking inspiration was this week. But, I was inspired. And, while there were some bumps in the road, the final product was, for me at least, worth it. I made two pies for our family's Christmas meal. Egg Nog, due to its popularity a couple of Christmas's ago, and a pumpkin variation, based on a couple of recipes that I found particularly inviting. There were some tense moments (one might assume that I would know what I am doing by now, but no... apparently not), and the pumpkin turned out somewhat less than perfect, but despite the difficulties and minor snafus, I really liked both constructing and eating the pie.

I don't remember making many pies where the solidifying agent was gelatin. There must have been at least one because otherwise I do not know why we would have plain gelatin packets around -- and we do.

You may already be able to tell where this is going.

There are steps in the recipe(s) -- and therefore in my bastardization of those recipes as well -- where you have to heat and stir (heat and stir!) until slightly thickened. What does slightly thickened mean? A little bit thicker than I went with is my new and improved answer.

There I was on Christmas, slightly thickening, cooling, adding other ingredients, allowing to set up... and it just did not appear to be happening. Perhaps the fact that several hours of set up time were in a styrofoam cooler in the back of an SUV did not help matters?

Once the pie was mercifully allowed to rest in an honest-to-goodness refrigerator things improved, but were still a bit on the shaky side (both figuratively and literally in this case). Nearly 24 hours later, it at least resembled an edible dish, and actually looked kind of nice. Topped with some toasted almonds and amaretto whipped cream it was not too bad.

If I had to do it all over again (I believe we have firmly established that I do not), I would make a couple of adjustments.

1. Slightly more thickened
2. Reduce the sugar in the pie (the Amaretto is soooo sweet, with the sugar it is a bit much)
3. I would not sweeten the whipped cream at all, but would just infuse it with a little Amaretto (same reason)

Even with some adjustments to be made, I still liked it a lot, particularly the toasted almonds as a nice texture change.

I am not making a pie this week due to the holidays and corresponding lack of people around to eat whatever I concoct. I expect that I will compile something over the weekend for the work crowd next week.

The chocolate pie to end all (of my) chocolate pies

If you're looking for a dessert to spike your blood sugar, do I have the pie for you!

I have made so many chocolate pie variations over the past couple of years that I can not even recall them all. Let's see... there are eight (at least) on the list where chocolate could be considered the main ingredient/flavor component. Number nine, if not the piece de resistance, was my latest, greatest, and final attempt. Far from original, I realize, but I am calling it Death by Chocolate pie.

This venture was at least partially inspired by a co-worker's request. Since I have some experience now with chocolate pie of all sorts, I went out on my own and made up the "recipe" on the fly. As I have mentioned before here, I am not a great lover of chocolate. So, for once, my intention was not to make the pie that I was most interested in eating, but to make a pie for the chocolate lovers. The result was no light snack, but an incredibly sweet, gooey amalgamation of cacao flavors fit only for the truly committed choco-phile.

Some Nitty-Gritty Details

My intention with this pie was to infuse every aspect, from top to bottom, with chocolate of one variety or another. Therefore:

The Crust

I had hoped to make a graham cracker crust using chocolate graham crackers. Unfortunately, our local grocery store did not have any in stock. They did, however, have these. A quick, even replacement and off I went. Other than that substitution, the only addition to a standard graham cracker crust was to add a tablespoon of cocoa powder to the mix before baking. The end result was thick, quite hard, and frankly not the greatest, but in the final analysis, it served its purpose as a receptacle for layer upon layer of chocolate.

The main flavors/textures in each of the layers, from the crust up, were as follows:

Layer 1

• Unsweetened Chocolate, Walnuts

Layer 2

• Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache

Layer 3

• Semisweet Chocolate Ganache

Layer 4

• Milk Chocolate Ganache

Layer 5

• White & Milk Chocolate Ganache - this layer ended up being more of a gooey, sticky layer than a ganache. Perhaps because of the makeup of white chocolate (yes, I know, it is not even really chocolate)?

Layer 6

• White Chocolate Cream

It took forever. I'm not the fastest of bakers (or anything else for that matter) and am easily distracted. But, it was totally worth it. It was the most fun I have had making a pie in quite some time. The work crowd seemed to like it, and the family crowd did not complain either. It turned out to look like this:

That, by the way, is a colossal piece. Anyone but the most diligent sweet-tooth would be hard pressed to finish a slice that large. Like I said, it was anything but light.

Christmas pies next... It is looking like an old favorite and perhaps something a little bit new.

Accounting error(s)

Up until a few short minutes ago, both the "Pies Thus Far" and the "Rankings" sections to your right over there enumerated forty-two pies. The problem was: the rankings included two pies for which there are no pictures (Pumpkin and French Silk), and the pictures included two pies for which there was no ranking (Lemonade Pie and Chocolate Chip Pie). The upshot of all of this being that... I have actually made forty-four pies as a part of this years-long effort to acquire a useful skill.

So, even fewer than I thought remain. A mere eight to go. What will I do with my copious free time then? Suggestions are always welcome -- although they do tend to be acknowledged and then ignored.

Nauvoo Rhubarb Cream Pie

The last of this summer's rhubarb crop has been burning a hole in my pocket (okay, the freezer) for quite a while now. I was happy to stumble upon a recipe during my weekly search that would finish it off, hopefully in high style.

I have had the Pie of the Month Club site bookmarked for a long time, but hadn't made it around to actually making one from their archives. There are a bounty of strange pies to be found there: beet, vinegar, prune, sauerkraut? But, the Nauvoo Rhubarb Cream was about as exotic as I thought I was up for this week.

If you are interested -- I guess that I was, at least enough to gather some minimal information -- Nauvoo, Illinois has a fascinating history, including elements of Mormon history (which I was aware of) and the Icarians (of whom I knew nothing). For the purposes of this blog, the most important contribution of the Icarians is introducing rhubarb to the Midwest. For all other purposes, there are many elements of far greater import.

Of course, this is supposed to be about pie, not mediocre historical research on Google and Wikipedia. So here it is...

Rhubarb Cream Pie.

I made it. I served it. I ate it. And, I am still not exactly sure what to say about it. I'll start by openly wondering what about it caused someone to call it a cream pie. Relative to what that designation connotes, at least in the pie world, it pales. I will simply say that it was interesting. And strange. And, I will not be making it again. Reviews were mixed, including an emphatic thumbs down on the home front (not the high style I was hoping for). With a now long list of pies, including some actual successes -- even success with rhubarb -- I don't see why this one would leave my own archives any time soon.

Black Bottom Butterscotch Pecan

I failed to have a selection ready for Pie Club Monday at work last week. And, I am happy to report that I received a bit of a guilt trip, and I think I know why... No names, no names. The guilty will remain semi-, ok, not really all-that-anonymous. I am choosing to delude myself and believe that the pies are so good that people spend their weekends pining for Monday and an opportunity to taste a slice. In reality, it's free dessert. What more is required?

Come Thursday night, I decided I had better whip something up as a special Friday edition of the Pie Club, and eventually came up with a Black Bottom Butterscotch Pecan. Black bottom implies a stiff layer of chocolate between the crust and filling. I ended up with too much chocolate layer, but it was fun, and edible, nonetheless. I combined the recipe that I started with with this one, and I think the end result was actually quite good. No one complained, at least not loudly. Again, free dessert, etc., etc.

Here's a picture of pie #41.

Only eleven more to go. Any suggestions of pie that I just have to make before my mission is complete?

Peanut Butter Pie

Running up against my Sunday night pie deadline a couple of weeks ago, I once again found myself scrounging around the kitchen for pie ingredients. I have previously made several peanut butter-based pies, but wanted this one to be simple with the filling focused entirely on the peanut butter.

Somehow, despite my simplistic intentions, I nonetheless ended up with plenty of chocolate elements in this pie. I am not the chocoholic that many are. Perhaps my mind simply can not get past the indoctrination that chocolate and peanut butter belong together?

So, the final version of the pie was the standard crust, infused with cocoa powder (and some additional sugar). By infused, I mean that I dumped a couple tablespoons of cocoa powder in with the dry ingredients. I just thought that "infused" sounded very foodie of me. To finish the crust, I melted a quarter cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and spread that concoction on the blind baked crust and allowed it to cool before pouring in the filling.

I made a basic cream filling, adding 1/2 cup of natural peanut butter near the end of the process. Here's a picture.

The most noteworthy aspects...

• You can see a partial discoloration of the filling in the above picture, near the edge of the pie. That was caused by my failure to make sure that the entire filling was covered with plastic wrap while it set up. That edge was exposed to some air, which caused a skin of sorts to form, and the color change
• The addition of cocoa powder caused the crust to become much more dense, hard, and less appetizing
• The two chocolate elements tended to overpower the peanut butter flavor. Several eaters noted this. If I had it to do over again (and I suppose that I do), I would focus entirely on the peanut butter and make a simple pastry or graham cracker crust.

Thanksgiving Pies (Family Edition)

During my sabbatical from organized pie making I managed to forget how easy it is to fall behind. It is easy to fall behind in the making of pies and even easier to fall behind in blogging about the pies that were made.

So, here I am briefly posting about pies that I made several weeks ago for our family Thanksgiving and hoping to get caught up soon.

I made two pies for our family Thanksgiving celebration, neither of which turned out to be very good. If I did not know any better, I would have thought that they were both made by someone who had never baked before. I hated them both and in retrospect am embarrassed to have served them. But, they were what they were, and I can not do anything about it now.

First, a decidedly mediocre "Fudgy" Chocolate Cream Pie. I skipped the meringue and went with whipped cream instead. I really doubt that it would have mattered.

And, a truly dreadful Banana Rum Cream. I really thought that I was going to like this one. Unfortunately, it sucked.

I am really hoping for a big weekend where I get caught up on this blog (I have two pies that have been made and consumed but not blogged about). Wish me well (or not, if you had the misfortune of having eaten either of these two pies)...