Pie of the week - Week #11

I'm running out of time in the holiday season, so I'm trying to smash in all of the classic and near-classic holiday pie recipes that I can.  To that end, I'll be making a sweet potato pie this week.  I've never eaten, much less made, a sweet potato pie before, so this will be a new experience all the way around.  While it's obviously possible to make a sweet potato pie using canned sweet potatoes, I wouldn't be the glutton for punishment that I claim to be if I did so.  So, I'll be peeling and mashing sweet potatoes this weekend.  

Happy New Year!

Christmas Pies - Week #10

There was a lot of pie making going on for me this week.  As I mentioned in last Wednesday's Next Week's Pie post, my plan was to make two pies for our family holiday get together.  I will admit to feeling some pressure to perform, given the audience (see rule #7).  But, despite the impression that this blog gives, I do have a modicum of pride, so it was not merely fear of my sisters that motivated me.  I also wanted to feel good about what I was serving up to my family during the holidays.

I can affirm that I accomplished the goal of making two pies.  The rest, well... you be the judge.

Pie #1 - Grasshopper

I made the two pies at different times (this one was technically during last week's timeframe, last Friday night, but I thought it was worth writing about anyway).  The Egg Nog pie I made on Saturday morning.

There were a lot of different grasshopper pie recipes, but I eventually settled on this one, using the basic crumb crust found here (the recipe calls for a prepared crust, and we all know rule #7), with an assist from the recipe for the crust of the grasshopper pie here.  Believe me, it sounds more complicated than it is.  If it wasn't simple, someone named Simple Simon couldn't possibly pull it off.  It ain't just a nickname folks, it's a way of life -- Simon the Simpleton would be as accurate.

I was fired up about making the grasshopper pie.  Just the thought of it takes me back to drinking grasshoppers after Christmas dinners at my grandparents' many years ago.  

The recipe seemed simple enough.  If anything, I was a little bit worried about how melting a metric ton of marshmallows would go.  I had made a chocolate crumb crust once before, for the peanut butter cup pie, and so I wasn't too worried about that.  The only real modification that I made was that I stole the idea of incorporating coffee into the crust from third recipe linked above and again here.  I just reduced the amount of butter by one tablespoon and replaced it with a tablespoon of water/instant coffee, which seemed to work out just fine.  I'm not a coffee drinker, and I'm not sure in the end if adding the coffee to the crust was or wasn't a good idea, but I wanted to try it.  Since this entire escapade is about just that, trying it, I did.

The Lesson Learned?

As with the great majority of the pies I've constructed so far, this one provided me with a good lesson.  I could spin off into some mildly incoherent digression about pie and the meaning of life here, but I'll save those insights for another day.  Instead, I'll just say that as in life, patience in pie making can indeed prove to be virtuous.

I will preface by stating that I originally did not think that the recipe itself was clear enough about the proper technique and timing for combining the whipped cream with the mint/marshmallow mixture.  After looking again, I think that the problem was simply that I didn't (don't) follow directions very well and let my impatience get the best of me.  Regardless, I will continue under the plausible assumption that anyone who either a) can read, or b) knows what they are doing wouldn't experience the problem that I did.

Here's what it boils down to (bad pseudo-pun intended, I suppose).  I failed to let the marshmallow mixture cool sufficiently before folding the whipped cream into it.  As I started the process this did not appear to be an issue, but by the time I was ready to put the filling in the crust, I had a congealed, coagulated chemistry experiment gone bad.  My long list of Duh! moments grows ever longer with the addition of this kitchen nightmare.  How hard can it be?  Just read and follow the simple instructions!  Simpleton hardly covers it.   

I could actually see the components separating as I poured/scooped the grasshopper filling into the pie shell.  Here's a look at the strange resulting texture/consistency.  In addition to the lumpiness, there was a noticeable separation of solid from liquid.

The looks of the pie didn't give me a warm, fuzzy feeling.  However, I decided to let it set up over night and if it seemed to have set would take it to along.  If it did not set, I planned to feed it to some neighborhood dog and whip up a new one in the morning.  It is probably worth noting that I was pretty sure that I knew what I had done wrong almost immediately.  Some things, like the mystery of the bubbled pie crust are just that, a mystery, to me.  The cause of this, however, was quickly apparent.

Saturday morning arrived, and the filling had set up, or at least seemed set enough to try to eat.  I decided that even if it didn't really turn out, I should still take this pie to show my family.  I'm exposing pictures and descriptions of pies, both good and bad, here in this blog anyway.  In the end there is no hiding, no secrets.  No reason to be anything but transparent with my own family.  "I come bearing pies, some more edible than others..."

Saturday evening we decided to try this pie out with my parents.  As long as the lights were low, you didn't look too closely, and I sprinkled the top of the pie with peppermint candies, it didn't actually look all that bad.  

Oh, but what lurks under the surface!  The top set up, despite the strange texture and consistency, but it definitely separated.  The bottom of the pie, which you can see below, was very runny, and actually leaked into the bottom crust, making it really soggy.

This was definitely not the pie that I had hoped for.  But, it was the pie that I made.  No sense hiding from it, it's just pie.

Despite this pie's deficiencies, I actually thought it tasted pretty good.  There were some who thought the mint/creme de menthe flavor was too strong (again, my lead taster with her delicate palate), but others who've had a grasshopper mixed up by my paternal grandfather thought it was just about right.  I really wish that I would have done a better job in making it so that it would have gotten a fair assessment.  Maybe another week.

Pie #2 - Egg Nog

I am not a fan of egg nog, so this pie choice was completely driven by a request from my younger sister.  I was actually quite pleased with how this one turned out.  I hope that she enjoyed eating it as much as I enjoyed making it.

I found the recipe that I used for egg nog pie here.  I was enthused about a few things regarding this pie:

1. It calls for a prebaked crust and so I would be able to
   
   1. further experiment with crust making
   2. finally use the ceramic pie weights that I had purchased (see a picture below)
      
2. It uses a similar process to the grasshopper pie for the filling (an opportunity for redemption)
   
3. It was my second pie of the weekend that contains alcohol as an ingredient.  Even I know that a baker's pies are better received if the recipient has had a nip of the sauce.
   

Crust

I'm starting to really settle into a groove with the crust making.  I didn't alter the standard recipe very much.  I stuck with butter and vegetable shortening, but used an even ratio of vodka and rum for the liquid, hoping that the rum flavor would accent the egg nog.  As it turned out, those who tasted the pie didn't think that you could taste the rum in the crust.  Oh well, I guess I will just have to try again on some future as-yet unknown pie.

The most exciting thing about the crust was the opportunity to bake it without filling -- in other words, use the pie weights!

Ready to bake -

Pie weights -

I bought these ceramic weights about a month ago and hadn't had a chance to use them yet.  I'm not sure they work any better than dry beans or rice, as I've seen recommended in other places, but I sure felt cool using them.

Baked - 

The weights did their job well.

The Learned Lesson!

The similarity in the process of making the filling for the two pies for this week were that in each case a thickening agent is made through a heating process and then whipped cream is added to that thickening agent to produce the final product.  So, I really did think of this pie as an opportunity to make amends for my mistakes on the grasshopper pie.

I learned my lesson and took plenty of time to let the thickening component cool before folding in the whipped cream this time and it resulted in a really nice, fluffy filling.  Apparently I don't always make the same mistake over and over until I'm asked to leave the kitchen.

I stated earlier that I don't love egg nog, and I found that I don't love egg nog pie either.  However, I do think that this was my best constructed pie so far.  The crust was good, maybe even very good and the filling turned out very well.  My family said that they enjoyed the taste and consistency, and I thought it turned out to be quite aesthetically pleasing.  All in all, I thought it was really a step in the right direction and an affirmation that I might eventually get the hang of all of this!

Here is a picture of the finished pie

and, a profile of a slice

Additional stupid/weird pie-related things that I did this week and left out (until now):

• Despite bets being taken in my living room that it would take somewhere between 15 and 20 years for me to complete, I whipped both pie's whipped cream from heavy whipping cream using a hand whisk.  As with many things that I do, especially when it comes to pie making and this blog, there wasn't any compelling reason to whip it by hand, I just thought it would be interesting.  By the way, it did not take even 15 years to finish, although I admit that it's a good workout.
  

I received several wonderful pie baking accessories as Christmas gifts.  They'll be appearing as the weeks progress.  Stay tuned.

Egg Custard Pie - Week #9

This was a largely uneventful pie baking week.  I had never eaten (or, of course, made) an egg custard pie before, so I wasn't really sure what to expect.

Recipe

Picking a recipe took quite a while.  There are tons and tons of recipes to choose from.  Although there aren't many ingredients in this pie filling (generally eggs, sugar, milk, and vanilla), there are a wide variety of proportions to assemble them in.  I finally settled on this one -- who can go wrong with Grandma's Egg Custard, right? -- but I have to admit that I really considered one that used a staggering 10 eggs for a single pie.  I can't imagine what that would've been like, and I am pretty sure that I don't want to know, but it undoubtedly would have been interesting.

Unlike some weeks, there were not too many interesting issues or tips that I ran into with this pie.

Nearly every custard pie recipe called for a quantity of scalded milk.  Since I did not know what scalded milk even was, I had to do some research.  What I found makes me think that virtually every  recipe for custard pie must have been passed down for generations.  The bottom line from numerous sources is that scalding milk for custards or similar purposes isn't really necessary with pasteurized milk (therefore I'm thinking that the recipes were originally conceived prior to pasteurization becoming commonplace).  

Scalding serves three purposes: it kills harmful bacteria that may spoil the food being prepared, it destroys enzymes that may affect the way the milk performs in the recipe, and it raises the temperature of the milk to speed up results. 

from Kitchen Savvy

The effect on milk performance refers mainly to killing some enzymes that will prevent the custard from setting up.  So, I didn't scald the milk, but I did heat it up before mixing it in with the other ingredients since that was recommended in several places that also noted the lack of necessity for actual scalding.

Crust

I made some slight variations on my standard crust recipe including using vegetable shortening instead of lard.  The crust making is getting easier, but since I'm really still experimenting and making adjustments each time, it's not old hat by any means.  One thing that I did notice is that I preferred making the crust with lard instead of the shortening.  I didn't have the shortening very cold and so it really didn't stay in a good solid form as I mixed it in.  I think that I'll try freezing it next time.  It's all pretty much trial and error within some reasonable boundaries at this point.  I just want to have a good solid "go to" recipe and method in another couple of months.

Baking

The baking time for this recipe was 30-35 minutes, but I ended up baking for significantly longer than that.  I checked it after thirty minutes but the custard was still very runny.  By then the crust was starting to get pretty well baked, so in order to prevent burning it I tented some tin foil over the crust.  Overall the pie ended up baking for an extra fifteen minutes or so before it set up well.  I think that the tinfoil trick worked because even with the extra time the crust edge didn't end up overdone.

Oddities

The most interesting thing that happened with this pie was the strange baking behavior that can be seen in the picture below.

As I was monitoring the pie, especially when the bake time was extending beyond the recipe timeframe, it started to really bubble up in one area, and eventually the area that bubbled started to get overdone.  It didn't really end up burned, but it was pretty heavily caramelized (not sure if that's the correct term) and was significantly more well done than the rest of the pie. 

Once we cut into the pie, it was obvious what had happened.  Interestingly, it was the same bubbling crust issue that happened in week five.  In this case, the bubble had left the filling in the bubbled area extremely thin and so of course it cooked more quickly and left the overdone spots as a result.  The first time this happened I had chalked it up to the fact that I had failed to poke holes in the crust prior to baking it with the filling.  In this case, however, I had very thoroughly poked holes, so that apparently is not the golden ticket.  I'm not sure what strategy to employ to prevent issues in the future, but I am definitely open to suggestions from the peanut gallery...

I took a close-up shot of the bubbled crust, and you can see pretty well in this photo that some of the custard ended up below the crust.

Eating

This entry originally had a parenthetical Scrambled Egg Pie in its title, but I felt like that was divulging too much too soon, so I took it out.  However...

The original requester of this pie swears that it tastes spot on and brings back (dredges up?) memories of custard pie from her childhood.  I, however, have no such memories to fall back on nor get all nostalgic about.  I did have a notion of what I thought this custard pie would taste like -- as well as the texture, etc., etc.  The actual pie did not meet those expectations.  My ultra-fussy daughter and I both thought that it essentially tastes like sweetened scrambled eggs.  Not my idea of a great pie, but I'm still no connoisseur.  Too each his or her own, I guess.  All that I know is that it's slowly been disappearing all week, so it must be good -- to someone.

Finally

After this boring week, I'm sure there will be some wishing for a huge flaming disaster this coming week.  I promise to do my best.  Since I'm making two pies, absolutely anything is possible.

On a high note, Simple Simon got a pie-related call on Christmas Eve day.  A (devoted?) reader was looking for some pie crust tips.  I hope that I was of some assistance, and thankfully it sounds like it turned out well in the end.  Always happy to be of service and especially to pretend expertise where none actually exists.

Only 43 weeks left...