Lake County Fair Results

I entered three pies in the Lake County Fair pavilion competitions: Amaretto Sour Custard Pie, Bananas Foster Pecan Praline Pie, and Pumpkin S'mores Pie.

After baking all day on Saturday, when it was in the high 80s, I dropped off all three pies on Sunday, the 26th.  I dropped them off fairly early, so none of my competitors in the pie division had dropped theirs off yet, but I was hopeful after seeing some of the entries in other division.  I then had to wait until Wednesday, the 29th, to see the results.  

Amaretto Sour Custard Pie: First Place

Pumpkin S'mores Pie: First Place

Bananas Foster Pecan Praline Pie: Second Place

This means that next year, I cannot enter the Pumpkin or Custard classes.  However, I think I will also enter the Chocolate Chip Cookie and Snickerdoodle classes, as I think the recipes I inherited from my mother would do very well in those classes.  

Until then, I get to look at this:

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

Happy Pi Day

I baked my first pie on December 29th, 2010, in the middle of binge-watching Pushing Daisies.  I used no recipe, an 8-inch cake pan, and the Anjou pears that had come in a fruit basket for Christmas and were about to go bad.

A lot has changed since then.

In 2011, I started a blog that can be found at http://justinpieman.blogspot.com .  It is a collection of recipes that I used that spring and summer.  (I have no idea which e-mail address I used or what the password was for this account, so here I am starting over.)  I started in a kitchen that had two 18” sections of countertop.  I now have about 10’ of counter top and a 3’x5’ table; so, not only do I have enough room to make a pie without putting a cutting board over the sink, but I also have a place to put the pie after I make it.

Since the first pie, I have bought or acquired actual pie dishes, tart pans, a rolling pin, pie weights, a lattice cutter, and pie cutters.   I now own more than 10 pie cookbooks and have over 200 more recipes pinned on Pinterest.

I have now made over 75 pies:  from American staples, like apple or strawberry-rhubarb, to the unique, like avocado, and from family recipes, like pumpkin chiffon, to ethnic fares, like tarte au riz or today’s μελόπιτα.  And, as of today, I am an Amateur Lifetime Member of the American Pie Council.

To celebrate Pi Day, I give you two different pies:

Pecan π

Lemon Meringue πr2

And later today, I will serve you up a π-sized piece of μελόπιτα, which is a Greek honey pie.  The choice of μελόπιτα is to honor Archimedes, the Ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer from Syracuse, Sicily, with a traditional cheese-based pie from that part of the world.

Piece out!
Justin