Alpha Bakers -- Cherry Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Cherry Sweetie Pie. I have tried to make this pie, which is supposed to be comprised of sweet cherries and plums, twice now, and I can't seem to do it by the book. First of all, while cherries are in season, plums just aren't, and rhubarb and strawberries are everywhere. Second, while sweet cherries are one of life's greatest joys, they are just not the world's greatest pie ingredient. Pie is the achievement for which sour cherries were born. I prefer a pie of canned sour cherries to a sweet cherry pie, especially when I start thinking about how I could have just eaten all of those lovely cherries out of hand.

 

In the end, I ate a few too many of the cherries to make my pie an all-cherry pie, and I didn't even try with the plums, but my cherry rhubarb strawberry hybrid was a big hit, and Rose's cream cheese crust, which I sometimes find too bland, was flaky and lovely and got raves.

 

I served the pie after April Bloomfield's swiss chard cannelloni from her book A Girl and Her Greens, a dinner party recipe I'd been eyeing for a while, and which paid off in subtle, delicate deliciousness.

 

It was a good dinner party.

 

 

Alpha Bakers - Posh Pie

Oh dear. I just realized that I uploaded these photos but almost entirely forgot to post. Posh Pie, as Rose calls it, is one of those fun recipes that reverse engineers a convenience food type dessert into something fancy and yet retaining echoes of the Jell-O pudding box. 

Many of my fellow Alpha Bakers found the multi-step process frustrating. I made the pie over several days (dough, pause, cookies, pause, crust, pause, bavarian cream, pause, ganache) and found that it fitted well into my schedule, but clearly the timetable got pushed to a point where I forgot to post an account. 

Posh Pie begins with a chocolate cookie crust. One is supposed to cut the cookies out into shapes but since I was planning to crush them up with melted butter in a food processor, I just rolled out a sheet and baked it. The photo above is butter and sugar glurping around in the mixer. 

Next step is a chocolate Bavarian cream (fancy analog to the Jell-O pudding, of course). I had actually made this recently for Libby's birthday cake, incorporating Ovaltine, which made the mixture just ever so slightly grainy. This time the texture was perfect, and I slipped in a bit of creamy chai leftover from a Thanksgiving party for part of the dairy, giving it a bit of extra bite. 

The final step is a shiny (or, in my case, not all that shiny) ganache topping. The pie is, of course, delicious, and as I mentioned has not-unpleasing shades of supermarket snack foods. V. Posh.

Alpha Bakers -- Pecan Pumpkin Pie

I've never hosted a Thanksgiving dinner, and for the first 20 or so years of my life, I wasn't even present at the creation of one, arriving as a guest just in time for appetizers. Nonetheless, every November my general predilections combine with the larger media input to prompt an almost subconsciously motivated flood of sympathy cooking. My usual dinner is a quesadilla with a cucumber nearby, or a few handfuls of whatever is lying around, but suddenly and suspiciously I start roasting chickens and root vegetables, over-buying butter, and tripling my oven output. This makes Thanksgiving more of a seasonal eating fad than a single meal, but seems to work out for everyone involved. I like pumpkins, puddings, panades, and roasted things, and at least it means more variety in the fridge.

I've given up on the notion of ever truly cooking for one. Even when I can manage food that will feed only me, or at least be appealing over a week of leftovers, I simply can't manage shopping for one. Abundance is my natural state, and as long as it's abundance of reasonably cheap ingredients, the Yiddishe mama in me surrenders to it. Yesterday, I tried immersion therapy, buying two pounds of butter and a pile of dried fruits and telling myself that the day's only task was to stay in and bake whatever I wanted from the piles of books in the living room. I'm particularly taken with The Violet Bakery Cookbook, by Claire Ptak, this month, and will be messing about with it some more soon.

On the list, though not at the top, was this week's Alpha Bake, Rose's Pecan Pumpkin pie. Essentially two fillings baked on top of one another in the same crust, a classic pumpkin pie on top of a classic pecan pie. Not entirely necessary, but why not? This week I played it straight, making the recipe more or less as written. Rose's flaky cream cheese pie crust, rolled out with a heavy lip to prevent early shrinkage (no par-baking in this one). The pecan filling is a simple treacle-y custard, made with corn syrup as I couldn't find the golden syrup that I thought was in my cabinet. It's probably in there somewhere. After that, a classic pumpkin filling is layered on top. I used an organic pumpkin puree, frozen and drained, mixed with some not very flavorful but nicely textured cubes of roasted cheese pumpkin. I baked the pie for a few minutes over the recommended baking time, which I worried was going to be too much for the pumpkin custard, but I really wanted to see some browning on the bottom crust. What's the point of a bottom crust if it's just going to be a layer of cardboard wax?

In the event, the pecan underlayer lent moisture to the pumpkin and there was no harm done, although it was a bit firmer than I might have cooked a plain pumpkin pie. The one co-worker who has tried it so far ate a slice very quickly and announced 'That was great!' Hopefully he and everybody else will take some home, as my freezer is filling up and I have tomorrow off as well...
although I'm already out of butter.

Alpha Bakers - Luscious Apple Pie

Labor Day weekend was lazy. There was tubing. There were photo shoots. There were fires in the backyard at my parents' house and an abundance of tomatoes in all stages of ripeness. There was an Alpha Baker apple pie.

When I say lazy, I mean that I was lazy and went tubing, and while I drifted along wondering idly why the weirdos with the American flag on the bank were inquiring if I loved America and freedom, and calling me hipster scum when my enthusiasm didn't measure up to their beery standards, my hardworking mother and sister were shopping all over the Pioneer Valley for the pie ingredients. Rose's version of a classic apple pie includes apples, of course (we went with Empire and MacIntosh, given what was seasonally available), but also apple cider, preferably unfiltered. Even the apple haven that is Western MA couldn't provide us with unpasteurized cider (not freedom-loving enough?) but after a few stores my mother turned up some more pedestrian cider, which was then boiled down with some cornstarch to enhance the apple flavor in the pie. She also grabbed a half-bushel of peach seconds, which were so ripe they began to fall to pieces as soon as they got home, so I threw in a few of them as well.

For a crust, I used Rose's flaky cream cheese, despite my usual preference for a butter crust. I sliced the apples thinly and piled them in. My father asked 'how do you get it not to fall and leave a space?' I thought about it and then said 'I guess I don't. What's wrong with space?' Not to be cavalier, but some of NYC's most acclaimed pie makers, Bubby's included, leave big cushiony spaces in their apple pies.

I didn't actually wind up tasting the pie, as I left it for my Mother to take to a pot luck the next day, but she took this photo of the slice. Her verdict was that the filling was better than the crust, but I think this could have been addressed by a longer initial bake (always always take pie farther than you think you should...) or a re-warming before serving. Realistically, I am probably not going to make a boiled cider solution to thicken all of my future apple pies (I'm more likely to drink the cider), but it's a nice trick to know when faced with lackluster apples.*
 
 *Of course, I live in NY and am extremely unlikely to be reduced to lackluster apples at any time. But I do like cider.

Alpha Bakers -- Sour Cherry Pi

Adventures in pie this weekend. March 14 was Pi Day (3.14), always a fun day to celebrate. The Alpha Bakers were making Rose's Sour Cherry Pie, and since that is one of my favorite pies in the world, I was completely on board. I even knew exactly which Russian grocery to visit for my frozen cherries. Of course, it was all the way out on Kings Highway, and before I knew it I had just gotten lazy, and was scouring my local fancy bodegas for jarred cherries. Didn't find them, although I know about forty places where they can be found, so I changed things up and bought frozen sweet cherries and a plum or two to make Rose's Cherry Sweetie Pie. Despite uninspiring plums and a potato starch that thickened a bit too much, the pie was a more than reasonable stopgap for Pi Day. My co-workers, volunteers, and the kid who'd ventured out early for tutoring were pleased.

I had made two batches of crust--one of Rose's cream cheese crust and one of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds butter crust. To fill the second one, I used the bodega blueberries and a peach or two. Out of season fruit. Less than inspiring. Still, I had a bit of crust left, and so I finally caved, picked up a jar or two of sour cherries in syrup, and made two little Sour Cherry Pies, reducing the sugar to 50 grams. Those I ate all by myself. See that flakiness in the pie crust? Now I just want to keep on making pie forever. This always happens. One pie is just not enough.

Alpha Bakers -- Black & Blue (& Bloody) Pie

Why do I bake so much? The pursuit of attainable goals. I am in all things a procrastinator. Like Mr. Bennet, I'm "dilatory in undertaking business, [but] quick in its execution." I have trouble stirring myself to do things other people consider basic. I don't hang pictures on my walls. I rarely dust. Half of my furniture is broken. Once I begin a project, I am happy to have begun it, but it is terribly hard for me sometimes to begin even the simplest-seeming things. For this reason, I love structure. I love step-by-step guides and challenges and deadlines. And I love baking--quickly executed projects that use skills I enjoy, that produce tangible and pleasing results in a minimum of time. Low commitment, quick execution, ephemeral decision. It's not the only reason I love baking, but it does seem to be the one discipline I have where I am quick, decisive, and good at planning out my time. Baking gets me out of bed better than anything else--I will lounge if required to shower but happily hop up at 4am to preheat an oven--which has made bread baking a great structure to hang things like writing articles or papers, as the time constraints marry nicely. 

Add on the domestic goddess aura and a sexy if slightly nuts whiff of Little House self-sufficiency, and it becomes clear why this happens so much. Also, pie is delicious. 

This week's pie was the Black & Blueberry pie, a mixed berry with a cream cheese crust. Unlike some of the Alpha Bakers, I make a lot of pie, and I love it. I don't find pie crust daunting, and I like to make it with my hands. I don't mind runny fillings, (John Thorne says they're the way to go, and he's always right), and yet pie always carries with it a certain anxiety that doesn't come up in most other baking circumstances. 

Pie is more than a set of instructions. It's a skill. A physical skill. Because of this slightly mystical truth, pie gets a lot of reverence and a lot of fear. It's not hard, it's just not easy to get right. Pie can turn and bite you in the ass. Every pie is different. I realize that to the true baking personality (or the true librarian) this unpredictability can be painful, even destabilizing. Luckily, I'm more the kind of baker (and librarian) who is caught up in the story and careless of some details, so pie is my kind of game. Also, pie is so, so delicious. I would rather have pie than cake any day, but that's another story (never mind).

It's a story about fruit. We can talk about it when it is not winter any more.

Black & Blueberry pie. A fairly straightforward double-crust pie, made with Rose's cream cheese enriched pie dough. I like this pie dough, but it hasn't become my one and only. An all butter crust still has my heart. The cream cheese crust is very friendly, though, and holds a very nice shape without getting too tough. I can't bring myself to put it in and out of a bag and the freezer as Rose instructs (sorry Rose, I know your detailed instructions really do get unexpectedly perfect results, I just can't be perfect about pie. Talk to me when we're back to wedding cakes), but my hands-in technique yielded some quite acceptable pie crust action. Substitution alert: I misread the amounts I would need so the final product had subbed in mascarpone for 1/3 of the cream cheese (richer, but not devastatingly so), and I used leftover coquito (condensed milk, evaporated milk, coconut milk, and rum) for the three tablespoons of heavy cream. Alcohol is good in pie crust--some people swear by vodka.

I also mis-read the filling amounts a bit so the final mix was 12oz frozen blackberries and the rest frozen blueberries, with a handfull of cranberries and strawberries thrown in, making this a Black & Blue & Bloody pie (Black & Blue & Bloody new band name I call it). I didn't change the ratio of other filling ingredients because I judged it close enough, and so it was. I added the berries to the cornstarch (all right, it was tapioca), sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest straight from the freezer, then let the pie rest filled for roughly the recommended hour and had no problems. There were plenty of juices but it wasn't runny at all. I would have possibly opted for a runnier pie and a slightly less thick tapioca twinge, but that's a personal preference. It did run enough to resemble a very satisfactory crime scene.  

We had it for brunch, along with a very excellent quiche. My friend 'BeeBo,' below, is a big fan of blueberries.

Alpha Bakers -- Frozen Pecan Tart

I don't do pecan pies. I just do not. Despite my love of caramel and nuts and pie crust, pecan pie is one of those things that people are yes or no on, and I am no. Why exactly? Can't say. But I don't make them and I don't eat them. There are so many good pies out there, why play around? Also, pecans are expensive.

It's just too early to bail on a bake-through now, though, so I made that Frozen Pecan Tart and now it is frozen and it is awaiting the first day of the new year, when it will be consumed with (presumptive) joy by the assembled crowd at my house. Here's how it went.

The crust: a food processor cookie-style dough, with turbinado sugar (I used raw). The dough was easy to work with, so easy that I didn't go through the elaborate pan-lining strategy outlined by the book, but just lined my tart pan as I always do, and was very satisfied with the results, especially the lack of puffing up in the par-baking. This may be my new go-to tart crust for sweet tarts. I'll probably stick with Dorie Greenspan's savory tart crust, but they're not that different.

The filling is a quick custard with egg yolks, sugar, butter, and golden syrup. I was glad to strain it because there were definitely a few egg bits, but the final product came out delicious. Can't I just eat that with a spoon and skip the whole dreaded pecan pie thing? Whatever.

My pecans were on the small side, so they didn't line up into the prettiest patterns, but otherwise the bake was uneventful. My only quarrel was with the instruction to un-mold the tart then slip it into a freezer bag once cooled. I had left the bottom round on instead of switching to a serving plate, and was glad I did, because the outer crust was too fragile to bag unsupported, and started crumbling off right away as I tried to get it in (cook's treat). I re-molded the tart into the tart ring and froze it that way. If I need the tart ring before we eat it it will come off easily, and the tart will be much sturdier now that it is frozen.

No comments on taste at this time, will update once we sample it on New Year's Day. 
UPDATE: The tart sliced beautifully, as promised. The filling had more stability to it than I expected, though, and remained reasonably firm even at a warm room temperature, rather than becoming a mess of goo, making it a perfect party dessert.

The pecan pie aficionados were loud in this tart's praise. 'Special,' 'good texture,' and 'delicious' were bandied about, and in general it was popular. I tasted it for authenticity's sake, and while I didn't love it, I think if the filling had been taken to a slightly deeper caramel stage and made into chewy caramels, I would have. Perhaps my pecan pie issue is more of a texture issue, in the end. It was a complete success of its kind.

We Will March on a Road of Your (Turkey) Bones

I'll start off by admitting that the reason this post is two weeks late has everything to do with a bit of sulking. There's no question that had I won even an honorable mention at the Brooklyn Kitchen's Daisy Flour Savory Pie Contest you would have heard about it before now. Still, the competition was worthwhile.

Pictured are only about two thirds of the gorgeous pies ultimately assembled. Because I know you're wondering, the one on the cake plate is a pork and cranberry pie, served with mustard and pickles, baked by a genuine Brit.

The competition was fierce, and the fiercest competitor of all was Stacey (look left), who was actually overheard telling a judge that it didn't matter if she won, as long as she beat me. She put up a pretty good fight, braising DiPaola turkey thighs in Six Point Righteous Rye for her hipsterish galette (look right).

Guidelines and restrictions were few--home made crust, containing at least 50% Daisy WW Pastry flour. Beyond that, it was a free-for-all. I toyed with tomato tart recipes for a while, but ultimately went with a version of these pasties. I hewed pretty closely to the filling design, but substituted walnuts for pine nuts, and threw in a bit of walnut oil.

Stacey and I colluded back and forth on our pie plans for the week or two before the contest. Tempers occasionally got heated, and an unnamed husband did suggest that perhaps my well-meaning suggestions were a vicious sabotage, but in the end I think we were both pleased with our entries. Stacey's sported whales, mine bears. No one else had cut-outs of any kind, so I'm not sure what's wrong with us.

The judges went at their judging, and pie flew everywhere.The grand prize went to a Deli Pie, with honorable mention for a truly astonishing Chicken and Waffle Pie. Matt, who went above and beyond in his quest for perfect pie photography, was so struck with the Chicken and Waffle, that he talked about it for days.

The maker of the Deli Pie, whose blog is named Ugly Food Tastes Better, was nice enough to mention that my pie looked very professional, but clearly the judges agreed with her basic philosophy (although her pie was far from ugly), and gave no points for presentation. Critiques included the over-crumbliness of my crust, the the spill factor of my unbound filling. A bit of cream or egg to bind the whole thing together, or a bit more mashing of the squash cubes, is in order for the next attempt, and a better crust seasoning also seems warranted.

But we fought the good fight, the pies went down kicking and spitting, as you see, and we will be back. We will win! We will march on a road of your bones. Just wait for sweet pie season....

Tuesdays with Dorie: Eat MORE Pie

Back on the pie crust train. We had a bag of 'utility' Macouns on the counter and a butter/margarine crust ready to go. And go we did.

I actually took this pie down to Libby and Rob's, re-living the time when my wonderful testers lived right here in-house. Full of butter, apples, vietnamese cinnamon, and not much else (ok, ok, I threw in a pear), this was pie at its purest.

The next evening, Rob, who hadn't been there for dinner, put it to me thus: "I was reading my horoscope, and it said I would be finding a new love and beginning a new relationship. And I now know that it was true--your pie."

Tuesdays with Dorie: Pie for Breakfast

Pie for breakfast is a solid New England tradition. It's hearty, easy to eat, sweet without being cloying, and full of fruit (or squash, in this case). A small side benefit is that it makes me feel pleasingly rustic. A large side benefit is eating pie for breakfast.

My pie of choice for this activity, which I would classify less as a habit than a response to pie being in the house at all, was Dorie Greenspan's Caramel Pumpkin Pie. A classic pie in most ways -- milk, sugar, eggs...the main twist here was that half the sugar is caramelized prior to being added to the other fillings, making a darker and more complex pie. I have a vague memory of making this pie a few years ago, and not being overly impressed, but this particular version was one of the best pumpkin pies I've ever made. I kept the caramel a little on the light side, and used mashed squash from a mix of squashes that I happened to have recently roasted.
The crust was also standout, and here is where the confession comes in--I fear that I may owe its awesomeness to the addition of a nasty margarine/baking goop/can't believe anyone would think this is butter product, which I used quite a bit of. As normally a fan of the all butter crust, I do have to say that the few crusts I made recently using said product were memorable. Also, because the pumpkin pie crust spends quite a bit of time in the oven at a gentle heat waiting for the custard to firm up, it gets baked to a crispness that fruit double-crusted pies rarely achieve. I remember Emily of Four and Twenty Blackbirds describing a similar phenomenon in the creation of the deeply caramelized crust of her Salty Honey Pie, and she was right. Mine didn't make it to quite such long-cooked glory, but it was one of my better crusts for sure.

Although I did eat several slices of this pie for successive breakfasts, I didn't eat it all--I took the last few slices to the ladies of Polybe + Seats, who seemed pleased that I'd made such a sacrifice. One eater was in fact heard to remark, "But this is better than pumpkin pie!"

It was pretty great. Not better than pumpkin pie, because what could be? But a pretty great pumpkin pie. I hope to make many more. Next week's TWD continues the pie love with the all-American classic apple.

CSA #3 - Working the Late Shift

Last Thursday I tried something new at the CSA pickup--I worked the closing volunteer shift. As was predictable, the shift was not only low-stress (I cleaned up a bunch of spinach leaves), but laden with extra perks. A local soup kitchen comes by for the bulk of the leftovers, but I didn't do too badly, coming away with about a pint of strawberries, a dozen eggs, a loaf of pugiliese-style bread, and an extra bunch of spinach, in addition to my usual share.

The regular distribution this week was green chard, french breakfast radishes, garlic scapes, lettuce, arugula, bok choi, spinach, a basil plant, kohlrabi, and scallions.

Having a pie shell in the freezer, I went Moosewood with some spinach ricotta pie.

Pie Frenzy

Last weekend, Stacey of BKFarmyards, a "decentralized urban farming network" that I've done some data entry for, invited me to represent Lily & Fig at a pie bake-off fundraiser at Jimmy's No. 43. Jimmy's is a basement bar, though a well-lit one, and the pie-off was in a back room, giving the whole affair an interestingly ilicit aura.

Pssst...back here...you want some pie, little girl...?

In fact, there was even a little girl, Jimmy's outgoing daughter Georgia, who, despite proclaiming her general indifference to pie, fell in love with the kosher salt garnishing Four & Twenty Blackbirds' 'Salty Honey' version, so I guess we did some mild dealing and corrupting of youth.

The event was one of my first forays into the wider world of Brooklyn foodie-ism, and my pie was in some very good company.  I didn't get to taste everything, but I did get to meet some seriously accomplished pie bakers and urban gardeners, including, in addition to Emily and Melissa of the aforementioned Four & Twenty Blackbirds, Allison Kave of First Prize Pies, Betty Brooklyn (whose individual Short Rib and Stout pies carried off the People's Choice Award), Kat of Piety Bakery, Brooklyn Honey, Rooftop Farms (winner of the Best Savory), the SCRATCHBread team (who filled hollowed out bread with an incredible combination of orange cauliflower puree, mushrooms, greens, and grapes), Lauren of Pie in the Park, and many more, including the makers of some truly unforgettable goat meat pies dribbled with savory jus.

And my pie? Well, it was good. Knowing what I know now, I might have gone in a different direction, but for my rookie bake-off, it was a good effort. I went savory, and created a new recipe that I'd never tried before.

Over a bed of roasted Vidalia onions, I layered red and Chioggia beets in a concentric pattern. A savory custard filled out the pie, and I scattered toasted pine nuts and goat cheese on the top.

 In retrospect, I would have mixed the goat cheese right into the custard, but all in all, it was a success. I think, though, that things would have gone even better if I had played to my strengths, made a custardy or fruity pie that I could love to pieces, rather than a very pretty beet pie that I couldn't be totally sure of (and I am kind of indifferent to beets, except that I do like cooking them). Still, this is all hindsight. I was proud of my pie, though it won no awards.

The bake-off did bring out my latent competive pie streak though--now I just can't wait to enter MORE BAKE-OFFS. And WIN. Or, you know, bake some more pies. Like I did this week. Seeing all those beautiful pies filled me with so many ideas, and so much desire to perfect my crust and crimping technique. Tough to do on such a hot an humid week, but I did manage two more pies, a double crust rhubarb pie and an old fashioned custard pie from the Joy of Cooking.

 The rhubarb pie was good, but the custard pie was the real star. I cannot stop eating it. It is like those little egg tarts from Chinatown bakeries except better because I put cherries in. It is really irresistable. Matt, for some unaccountable reason, has been very able to resist both of these perfect pies. More for me.

Happy Pi Day

Mathematicians! Freeze!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Cottage Cheese Pufflets

First turnovers, now pufflets. These desserts appear in the cookie section of the book, but they are pretty much turnovers by another name, a very soft, flaky, deeply sticky dough. The chilled product seemed more like a very thick cake batter than a full on pie dough, but I underchilled it a bit, so perhaps the fact that it wasn't that easy to work with was my fault. The final product was turnover-like in feeling, but actually better than the flaky turnovers (at least this time--such temperamental doughs probably take a while to sort out to the point where they're consistent).

For the filling, I used gooseberry jam that I bought out of curiosity. Deeply ingrained associations ensured that most of the people who ate them referred to them as 'apple' turnovers regardless.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Flaky Apple Turnovers

Mini apple pies.
These were mini apple pies.
There is nothing wrong with that at all.

Just, were they supposed to be different? I guess they were flaky? I loved eating them. I love apple pie. But flaky apple turnovers does imply something slightly different to me. Maybe it's because I used watery yogurt instead of the sour cream that was supposed to make them so flaky. I'm very interested to see other people's pictures of these.

In the meantime, little apple pies are all right in my book. Although I did think that the crust might have had too much butter.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Lime Cream Tart

Just a quick stopover on the way to cupcake roundups and campfire cooking, and our return to Brooklyn.

I'm getting odd about my Tuesdays with Dorie--I worry if I don't make it by Tuesday, but don't seem to have any ethic about actually posting it once it's made. Now that we're back from summer vacation, I'll work on that.

Theoretically I was on vacation hiatus, but last week's TWD was irresistible: a graham cracker crust filled with lime cream. Lime cream, like the lemon cream that went into the Mother of the Bride Cake featured a few months ago, is Dorie's challenge to the lemon/lime cream lover. 'Like decadent?' I can imagine her saying. 'Like tart? Well try this one...and add ginger.'

Lime cream is to lime curd what vichyssoise is to potato leek soup. More of everything. It's buttery, puckery, and eye-buggingly good. So, by the way, is the old fashioned graham cracker crust, which Liana could tell was good without even sneaking a taste as it cooled out of the oven. Or, so she said.

The recipe in the book came with meringue, but I think meringue is best in its other uses, and would have used whipped cream instead if the cream and crust weren't quite enough on their own.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Banana Cream Pie

I'm behind, I'm bewildered, I'm bothered and busy. I barely made banana cream pie. But I love banana cream pie. Only crazy people and custard-phobes don't love banana cream pie. And, I suppose, a few people who unaccountably abhor bananas. But for me, banana cream pie is just great. Cream. Banana. Custard. Pie. This particular pie, which I'd made once before for the great pie extravaganza of 2008, is exceptional in every way, from the cinnamon pastry cream to the sour cream whipped cream. Cream cream cream. Of course, since we're trying pretty hard to eat like normal people and less like pastry chefs, who needs all that cream in the house? And when I'm trying to write five papers in one month and Matt's trying to be in a play, even the time to properly make and admire the banana cream pie is lacking. And it's Pesach. Still, it was banana cream pie.
So I made it. That lumpy thing above is the crust, with some buckwheat subbed in for some of the flour--buckwheat and bananas are a very good thing. I made it in a tart pan because I don't have any adorable little six inch springforms or pie plates. This is something I'm thinking about investing in, though, because seriously, what is the sense of making a nine inch pie for a family of two? Also, I was out of tin foil, so the prebaking was a little haphazard. (Are you getting a sense of what kind of week this was yet?)

I also managed to undercook the pastry cream and not care enough to take the two minutes to fix it, so the bottom layer was runny. After that, I lost patience and fixed the rest by cooking it a little longer, then dumped it on. I like this best a few hours after assembly, so the banana has time to permeate the pastry cream fully. It was a mess, but tasted wonderful.
Some time soon, banana cream pie, I promise to make you with proper attention and love, because you're a wonderful dessert. As it is, I might be scaling back on TWD this month, which is a lot of cakes and cream pies. Next week I may just make the Amaretti for the Chocolate Amaretti Torte. We'll see. As I said, it's going to be a busy month, but I'm still here. When Pesach is over, we'll see what we can do about the next step in the gingerbread project (hint, no one has shared any recipes yet...), and about more thoughtful blogging as CSA season and our rooftop garden get started up.
Meanwhile, there's sponge cake and matzo toffee crunch somewhere around here. Excuse me.

Nigella-Inspired Potato Vegetable Pies

Hopefully, recession cooking is creative cooking, ways to make what you have on hand delicious and interesting. What I had on hand last night was a large selection of root vegetables, some leftovers, and Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess, an uneven but appealing early addition to my cookbook collection that has been overdue for a revisitation. What Nigella had in mind for me last night was comforting and just classically British-little filled pies.

I adapted her crust by subbing in neufchatel for some of the abundant butter (cream cheese makes every dough better), and then improvised a refrigerator filling: potatoes (yukon gold and purple), turnips, kale, peas, carrot, salt, a little butter, a lot of buttermilk, scallion tips, a little minced garlic, onion powder, leftover braised cabbage, salt pepper. I cooked anything hard until it was less hard, and then mooshed it all together and added a lot of Parmesan cheese, filled little pies, and baked them. The buttermilk was a great substitute for the usual bechamel-like sauce in a pot pie, which this basically was.

They were nothing special, but they were good and simple and easy to take for lunch. Thanks, Nigella. I think this book is still amusing me, so look out for a few more Nigella recipes in the near future.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Double-Crust Blueberry Pie