Rhubarb Pie

Today, I made a rhubarb pie.  I don't think I made one last year.  I planted three rhubarb plants last year that are still languishing; so yesterday when I was up in Kenosha, I picked two pounds of rhubarb from my sister's garden.

I used the recipe that I used two years ago: adding 1 1/3 cups of sugar and 6 tablespoons of flour to the rhubarb.  This is a great recipe, if you want rhubarb soup in a crust.  There is not enough thickener to bring the filling together.  I think that 6 tablespoons of cornstarch would do the trick, or maybe 5 tablespoons of minute tapioca (if you don't mind the look of it in your pie)

However, as always, rhubarb pie is delicious.  I just fear that I am losing a lot of the flavor in the juice and that it could taste way better than it already does.  Oh well, there is always a next time.  And now I have a reminder that this pie needs more thickener than the recipe says, or I should just use the Rhubarb Pie recipe from the Four & Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book.

Piece out!
Justin

Autocrat Pie

Autocrat is a coffee syrup from Rhode Island, or a ruler who has abolute power.  The former is a regional product usually mixed with milk and drank by children as a caffeine free coffee substitute (which apparently has a huge market in Rhode Island), but it is also delicious drizzled over David Lebovitz's gâteau Thérèse.  I decided to make a pie with it, because that's what I do.  If you do not live in Rhode Island, you can get Autocrat here.


I followed a recipe for a chocolate syrup pie.  I also decided not to make the filling in the microwave.  I mixed the egg yolks with the cornstarch and a little salt, and brought the milk and syrup to a boil.  This was not a great decision.  It turned out very clumpy and I think I lost about a whole egg yolk when I passed it through a strainer.  Then it wasn't thickening properly, so I had to add another two tablespoons of cornstarch to get it to come together.  This could also have been due to Autocrat having different ingredients than chocolate syrup.  I dunno.  Anyway, it did not work out how I'd planned.

I wanted to make a chocolate graham cracker crust, but apparently chocolate graham crackers are the culinary equivalent of the panda.  So I bought a pre-made Oreo crust.  I will never buy another pre-made Oreo crust. 

Even after sitting in the fridge for about twenty hours, the filling still did not entirely come together.  When cutting, the pre-made Oreo crust crumbled at the edges, and when serving half of it remained stuck to the pie plate.  The flavor however was right on the mark.  It tasted exactly how I imagined it in my head.  If you like iced lattes, you will fricken love the flavor of this pie.

After I hunt down the elusive chocolate graham cracker, I will try this pie again with the following modified recipe:

Crust:
12 chocolate graham crackers
7 tablespoons of melted butter
Assemble like a graham cracker crust
Bake for 10 minutes at 350oF.

Filling:
3 eggs yolks
1/4 cup of cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of Autocrat coffee syrup
1 3/4 cup of half and half
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Whisk together eggs yolks, cornstarch, salt and Autocrat.
Bring the half and half to a boil in a medium sauce pan.
Add a half of the half and half to the egg mixture.
Pour the egg mixture back into the sauce pan.
Heat until it thickens.
Remove from heat and add the vanilla.
Pour into crust and refrigerate overnight.

I think that the additional egg yolk and the substitution of half and half for milk will greatly improve the texture of the filling of this pie.  I think.  We'll see.

Piece out!
Justin

Peach Pie at Bonzfire Grill

I do not make peach pies.  I like to plan when I am going to make my pies.  You cannot plan to make a peach pie, you have to wait until the peaches are ready for you.  So, usually if I want to eat peach pie, I will go to Bakers Square and buy a peach pie.

This past weekend, I was in Southern Illinois visiting my mother-in-law.  We took her out to dinner at a new restaurant in Benton called Bonzfire Grill.  The food was awesome.  I probably had the best steak I have ever eaten at a restaurant.  But, of course, I saved room for pie.  Though they had several pies in the case, I went with the peach pie.

The peach pieces were nestled in a custard that gave the pie a "peaches and cream" feel. It was light and balanced.  It wasn't overly sweet, but it was fresh and clean. The crust was flaky, yet crunchy.  All in all, it was an amazing slice of pie.  It was definitely the highlight of my weekend.

Dare I say what I am about the say?  

It was better than the peach pie at Bakers Square.  Keep in mind that the peach pie at Bakers Square won Best Peach Pie in the Premium Commercial Category at the 2015 American Pie Council National Pie Championship.  So that says something about this pie.  

I cannot wait to go to Bonzfire Grill the next time I am in Southern Illinois, but I can definitely wait until I go to Southern Illinois again.  So until I find myself south of the giant cross in Effingham, I'll be going to Bakers Square.  But if you go to SIU or find yourself visiting the AATF National Office, make the drive to Benton for this pie.

Piece out!
Justin

One step closer...

http://www.sj-r.com/article/20150520/NEWS/150529932

Ginger Strawberry Pie

I made this pie to use up the strawberries I had bought for yesterday's Strawberry Balsamic Pie.  This recipe is very similar and the directions are practically identical.  The recipe actually calls for wild ginger.  I have no idea where to even look for wild ginger, so I used regular ginger.  Since you already have the box grater out for the apple, do yourself a favor.  I was three quarters of the way through mincing my ginger when I realized I could just be grating it.  I also think that grated ginger would blend a little bit better into the filling instead of having occasional mini-chunks of ginger in your bites of pie.

Again, this pie is messy.  Today, I was smart and put aluminum foil down on the baking sheet to avoid scrubbing the sticky mess off of the sheet afterward.

Yesterday, I made the analogy that the Strawberry Balsamic Pie was more a bassoon solo than a clarinet solo.  To continue my strawberry-pie-is-just-like-a-musical-instrument-solo series of analogies, this pie is like a cornet solo.  The flavor is just as bright as a clarinet, but a little bit brassier.  It's a fun pie, with an unexpected flavor.  I'm not sure which of the two pies I prefer.  They are both so good, and yet so different.   I think that this pie would be more of a general crowd-pleaser; however, the other would be more likely to impress your foodie friends.

Or just do what I did and buy four pounds of strawberries and make both.

Piece out!
Justin

Strawberry Balsamic Pie

Yesterday, I decided to make the Strawberry Balsamic Pie from The Four & Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book.  Today, when I went to Costco I bought a lot of strawberries.  Twice as many as I actually needed.  So I will be making the Ginger Strawberry Pie from the same cookbook tomorrow.

I thought it was odd that I had to macerate the strawberries and then pour out the liquid.  But this must be necessary to keep the filling from being too watery.  Another interesting part of the recipe is adding a box-grated apple to the filling. But I trust this cookbook like a Boy Scout handbook.

It is not a clean pie.  You want to make sure that you put the pie plate on a cookie sheet to keep the filling from oozing all over the bottom of your oven.  Unless you like the smell of oven cleaner; in that case, by all means...

It was also fairly warm in my house today (especially after running the oven at 425oF and 375oF), so although the filling had cooled it hadn't completely set.  So, maybe tomorrow I will get a cleaner slice to show you.

The pie itself is fantastic.  It isn't as bright as other strawberry pies.  It is still as sweet; however, it has a deeper and more complex flavor.  To best describe this:  imagine a bassoon solo instead of a clarinet solo.  You also don't notice the balsamic until the end of each bite.  Then it comes through and adds yet another note to this intricate symphony of flavors.

After sitting in the refrigerator over night, the filling did set up and created a "nicer" slice.  You don't need to wait to eat it, but stick it in the fridge if you plan on sharing with friends, or your husband's co-workers.

Piece out!

Justin

Fortune Cookie Pie

I set out to make an Hong Kong egg tart in a fortune cookie crust.  I made the crust using the same technique used for a graham cracker crust (20 cookies, 4 tablespoons of butter, and 1/4 cup of sugar baked for 5 minutes at 400oF); however, due to the difference in texture of fortune cookies it did not work out how I had planned.  If I try a fortune cookie crust in the future, I will try using a whole stick of butter instead of just half.

For the filling, I found a recipe for ginger egg tarts and substituted the water for orange juice.  I did this for three reasons: 1) I think orange and ginger go really well together. 2) I wanted to up the complexity of flavor without destroying the balance. 3) I love orange chicken, so it is one of my favorite Chinese takeout flavors.  Making the filling was easy:

3/4 cup of orange juice

1/3 cup of sugar

handful of chopped ginger

4 eggs

1/2 cup of evaporated milk

You heat the orange juice, sugar, and ginger until the sugar dissolves.  Let it cool a bit before straining it into the four beaten eggs.  Then add the evaporated milk and strain into the crust.
I then sprinkled a little Chinese five spice over the top.  Almost immediately, pieces of fortune cookie began to float to the top.

By the time it had baked at 350oF for 20 minutes, been rotated, and baked at 250oF for another 25 minutes, much more fortune cookie had come to the surface.  I honestly thought that the pie was ruined and was going to be one big mushy mess.

About half of the crumbs floated all the way to the top, making a kind of top crust, and the other half stayed on the bottom.  Plus, I still had the soft delicate custard filling on the middle.  It was not what I had planned, but it turned out awesome.  I would definitely make it again, hoping that my happy accident repeats itself.

Piece out!
Justin

Apple Rose Pie

Three years ago, I bought my mom two rose bushes for Mother's Day.  I did a whole rose theme: roses on the giant gift bag, roses on the card and roses made out of apples on the pie.  I had seen a video someone posted on Facebook and figured I could do it.  And I did.  Since then, this has become my tradition for Mother's Day.

Early May is not the best time to work with apples.  So, only make this your Mother's Day tradition if you hate yourself and enjoy swearing in the kitchen.  You need to use a peeler to slice the apples, since an apple peeler doesn't slice them thinly enough to make them in to petals.  This would be three million times easier if you had fresh apples in the autumn, but in early May apples tend to be mealy and fall apart easily when you slice them so finely.

I set the "blooms" made from 3 to 4 red delicious apples into an easy yogurt custard.

3 eggs

1/2 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of plain yogurt

1/4 cup of flour

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

Then, I bake them at 400oF for 40 minutes.  I tried doing a layer of salted caramel under the custard last year, and it just turned into a soupy, gross mess that fell apart on the plate.  So now, I keep it simple.

This pie doesn't pull a lot of flavor from the apples, so almost all your flavor is going to come from the custard.  I really like how this custard recipe firms up and holds together, other smoother custards would most likely not hold the "blooms" once you slice it.

Piece out!
Justin

Bananas Foster Praline Pie

My favorite praline from Aunt Sally's in New Orleans is the Bananas Foster Creamy Praline.  If you have never had one, they are freaking amazing.  I love anything with Bananas Foster.  I used to get it all the time at Culver's, before they discontinued it.  Then, when I was in New Orleans over the summer, if a restaurant had Bananas Foster anything on their menu, I ate it.  Originally, I considered a Bananas Foster Cream Pie; however, I came to my senses and made this pie instead.

So, the recipe:

2 sliced bananas

1 cup of toasted pecans

3 eggs

1/2 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of brown sugar

1/2 cup of corn syrup

4 tablespoons of melted butter

3 tablespoons of cornstarch

1 teaspoons of cinnamon

3 tablespoons of dark rum

Toast your pecans and let them cool.  Melt your butter and let it cool slightly.  Beat the eggs.  Add the sugars, corn syrup, and melted butter.  Then add the cornstarch, cinnamon, and rum.  Chop your toasted pecans and fold them in to the filling.  Slice the bananas and lay in the bottom of an unbaked pie crust. Pour the filling over the bananas.  Bake for 10 minutes at 375oF, then reduce to 350oF for another 40 minutes.  Let cool completely on a wire rack before serving.

The flavor of this pie is just what I hoped it would be.  The filling didn't come together as I had hoped, but probably would if I were to refrigerate it.  However, this did come out better than my regular pecan pies, which tend to be a little runny.  That being said, the texture was not unappealing and added a slightly creamy quality to the pie.  Definitely something I would make again, and definitely something that would be very good with vanilla ice cream.

Piece out!
Justin