ladies and gentlemen, we have pie

i baked my first pie today.

not counting the one that wanda and cheryl and i baked, but that one sort of came out funny and runny and we forgot to put any sugar in so it was also a little tart. but not literally.

it certainly took me long enough, but you know, the first time, you can’t quite rush things. after poring over the primer chapters (different kinds of flours, fats, 50 kinds of apples, etc) in carole walters’ great pies and tarts, i finally went out and blindly bought some apples and some fresh flour yesterday. only to come back and realize that i didn’t have any vegetable shortening. or a rolling pin. effort expended, i called it a day and fell asleep.

but today, with the two last items obtained, i bravely started out on my culinary quest, making my “flaky pie pastry #1” by sifting the flour, sugar, and salt, and then working in the butter and crisco (although isn’t that bad? i thought everything hydrogenated is bad for you?) with the very handy pastry blender (which hmc had long ago told me was a very ineffective potato masher, indeed), and then adding water, eventually making two disks of dough.

then came the pie, made from some granny smith apples (good) as well as the kind i randomly picked (bad! bad ed! bad!) at rainbow, which i think were winesap apples, which it turns out seem very similar to red delicious apples, which are not at all good for pies, as they tend to get mushy and are better suited for applesauce. caveat emptor. the thing that took the most time was the peeling, coring and cutting of apples into nice slices. man, what a chore that was. not until i was 2/3rds done did i remember that hmc had received an apple corer/peeler for xmas ‘02, which had never been used and i had in fact stored unopened in the box down in the garage. i ran down and got it, and blam! instantly cored and peeled apples. tools are genius!

ok, so at the end of the day, i ended up with a very respectable looking pie. it looked like a pie, it didn’t collapse, it had a golden brown top (and not burnt edges, thanks to the special edge protector! you know, this is a lot like how i ended up learning to snowboard— having all the gear first, to the point where you’re like, “well, i might as well learn how to use all this crap.”) which was nicely domed. and as for the taste test, it’s really not bad at all. good filling, good taste, crust respectably flaky, although i’m not sure how well the bottom held up, since i don’t have a pie serving thing i end up mashing the bottom trying to serve it with a knife. but all in all, quite acceptable for a first pie ever.

the cats like it too!

Posted at January 11, 2004 9:40 PM