Where did June go?

I tried making the rhubarb pie again with cornstarch.  The filling was just as watery, but it had a cornstarchy residue this time.  For rhubarb pies, neither flour nor cornstarch are cutting it.  You will need to use minute tapioca or one of the new thickeners I have been trying.  

I spent a day in Chicago where I went to seven different bakeries and ate seven pieces of pie.  Here is the post I made on BuzzFeed with more information about the pies and the bakeries.  I meant to review all of the pies that I ate that day, but after the fourth piece I was just focused on not dying.

I sent in my entry forms for both the Lake County Fair and the Illinois State Fair.  I got my entry tags for the state fair in the mail, and need to go in to pick up my county fair tags later this month.  I will be entering the Blackberry Mint Julep pie and the Pumpkin S'mores pie in the state fair and the Amaretto Sour pie, Bananas Foster Pecan Praline pie and the Pumpkin S'mores pie in the county fair.

I made the Blackberry Mint Julep pie for Father's Day, this time increasing the pastry cream and decreasing the blackberry stove-top filling.  The stove-top filling still didn't set up as much I would have liked, but the flavor blend was perfectly balanced.

I learned that crusts blind-bake a lot faster in disposable pie plates than they do in Pyrex.

I bought tapioca starch and used it in the Bananas Foster Pecan Praline pie, instead of flour, and it worked amazingly.  The filling did not slump at all, and it preserved the bananas a bit better.  The filling was a little too boozy, so I will need to flambé the rum before I put it in the filling.  

I bought marquee letters that spell "pie."

I bought this awesome sign at Cost Plus World Market.

I bought a Pushing Daisies promotion pie server on ebay.

I bought three thickeners from King Arthur Flour: Instant Clearjel, Pie Filling Enhancer, and Signature Secrets.  

Today, I used the Instant Clearjel in the Blackberry Mint Julep pie to see if I could get a sturdier stove-top filling.  And I did.  It held together very nicely, the mouth-texture was a little gluey-er than when I used cornstarch.  I guess that is the trade-off.  Also, I think I am going to need to buy and freeze blackberries because they are getting harder and harder to find in grocery stores and I am afraid that I won't be able to find them at all in a month.

Here is the new recipe for the Blackberry Mint Julep pie:

Crust:

250g of flour

125g of room-temp butter

1 packet of vanilla sugar

125g of sugar

1 egg

Pastry Cream:

7/8 cups of milk

3 egg yolks

3/8 cup of sugar

3 tablespoons of cornstarch

pinch of salt

3 tablespoons of bourbon

3 tablespoons of room temperature butter.

3/4 teaspoon of mint extract

Blackberry Filling:

24oz of blackberries

1 cup of sugar

3 tablespoons of Clearjel

Piece out!

Justin