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Pie Adventure
Nov. 14th, 2007 11:11 pmTomorrow there is a pie-making contest at my workplace and I am participating (as an honorary member of certifications) along with six others.
I started with a pie crust. That went fairly well, certainly better than last time.
Then I started peeling and coring apples. There were a lot of not-so-fresh-looking spots, but no worries, I peeled them off. But then I worried anyway and tasted one. Yuck. Bland, mushy, maybe that's good for pies, I don't know. I tossed them. So sad. Six cups of them. So very sad. (Plus all the unpeeled uncored apples.)
Time for plan B: pumpkin pie. I have all the stuff. But I made a pumpkin pie last time, and I use the ubiquitous Libby's pumpkin pie recipe, so I'd like to think of something a little more unexpected.
Plan C: a nap.
Wrong answer, thank you for playing.
So then I pulled out the Farm Journal's Complete Pie Cookbook and took it to bed. Where I was not napping, I was researching.
I didn't find anything I wanted to use in there, but it did remind me that I recently got a recipe for chocolate meringue pie from my mother. The chocolate tasted so dark that my mom decided to put more sugar in next time. Everyone else who tasted it said no, it was already perfect.
There were several possible snags.
1) Could I find the recipe? Yes. It's not in my cookbook yet, but it's in my e-mail folder.
2) Do I have all the ingredients, or does this require squares of baking chocolate? I have all the ingredients.
3) I've never made meringue before. Well, I've made whipped cream, and I've watched my mom make meringue a million times, so it shouldn't be a problem.
4) The big metal bowl that's perfect for whipping stuff up in is dirty. But it turns out I know how to wash dishes, so I can solve that problem if necessary.
5) I have only sugar in the raw. Will that work in meringue? Yes, it does appear to.
6) I have no idea how to transport such a thing. I guess I'll cover it with plastic wrap and throw it in a big shopping bag so it can stay flat.
Note: if you decide to organize a pie contest yourself--and I highly recommend it because, hey, seven kinds of pie!--you might want to look into defining pie. Our contest is really a dessert pie contest. So a qualifying pie will be sweet and have some sort of pastry. (The pastry part of the definition came from a dictionary.) This means cheesecake counts, cobbler counts, brownies on top of pie crust count, Boston creme pie doesn't count. (If I were in charge, the rule would be if you think it's a pie, it's a pie. If you think it might be a pie and you want it to be a pie, it's a pie.)
I started with a pie crust. That went fairly well, certainly better than last time.
Then I started peeling and coring apples. There were a lot of not-so-fresh-looking spots, but no worries, I peeled them off. But then I worried anyway and tasted one. Yuck. Bland, mushy, maybe that's good for pies, I don't know. I tossed them. So sad. Six cups of them. So very sad. (Plus all the unpeeled uncored apples.)
Time for plan B: pumpkin pie. I have all the stuff. But I made a pumpkin pie last time, and I use the ubiquitous Libby's pumpkin pie recipe, so I'd like to think of something a little more unexpected.
Plan C: a nap.
Wrong answer, thank you for playing.
So then I pulled out the Farm Journal's Complete Pie Cookbook and took it to bed. Where I was not napping, I was researching.
I didn't find anything I wanted to use in there, but it did remind me that I recently got a recipe for chocolate meringue pie from my mother. The chocolate tasted so dark that my mom decided to put more sugar in next time. Everyone else who tasted it said no, it was already perfect.
There were several possible snags.
1) Could I find the recipe? Yes. It's not in my cookbook yet, but it's in my e-mail folder.
2) Do I have all the ingredients, or does this require squares of baking chocolate? I have all the ingredients.
3) I've never made meringue before. Well, I've made whipped cream, and I've watched my mom make meringue a million times, so it shouldn't be a problem.
4) The big metal bowl that's perfect for whipping stuff up in is dirty. But it turns out I know how to wash dishes, so I can solve that problem if necessary.
5) I have only sugar in the raw. Will that work in meringue? Yes, it does appear to.
6) I have no idea how to transport such a thing. I guess I'll cover it with plastic wrap and throw it in a big shopping bag so it can stay flat.
Note: if you decide to organize a pie contest yourself--and I highly recommend it because, hey, seven kinds of pie!--you might want to look into defining pie. Our contest is really a dessert pie contest. So a qualifying pie will be sweet and have some sort of pastry. (The pastry part of the definition came from a dictionary.) This means cheesecake counts, cobbler counts, brownies on top of pie crust count, Boston creme pie doesn't count. (If I were in charge, the rule would be if you think it's a pie, it's a pie. If you think it might be a pie and you want it to be a pie, it's a pie.)