Peaches & Cream Pie

With only two entries for peach pie at the Illinois State Fair this year, I figured I should start making peach pies to find a good one to enter next year.  I'd be guaranteed at least third place, right?

I decided to try Four & Twenty Blackbirds' Peaches & Cream Pie with a double crust (peach pies must have a double crust for the state fair).  This was a terrible idea.

Out of the oven, the pie looked beautiful.  However, the recipe warns against over cooking as the custard will separate.  It did.  It got clumpy and gritty.  The taste was still amazing, but the texture was rather off-putting.

Back to the cutting board...

Piece out!
Justin

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

Gypsy Tart

I recently ordered Tart It Up! by Eric Lanlard on Amazon.  The book has over 100 recipes for both sweet and savory pies.  The collection of recipes is unique and offers a lot of recipes not found in other cookbooks.  The majority of the recipes are complicated and require a shopping list, as opposed to "hey, I need to get some blueberries and a lemon."  The one thing I love about this book is that it includes a tip for most of the recipes for how to make the pie go from great to outstanding.  I intend to make a lot of these recipes once berries come in season.  Order your copy here, so you can make his baked raspberry and basil tart once raspberries aren't $4.99 for a little container.  These majority of these are pies to impress, and not weekly "oh hey, I felt like making a pie" pies.

From this cookbook, I made the Gypsy tart.  It was the only pie that did not require me to go out to the grocery store again after the mail came.  Other than the crust, the only other ingredients are evaporated milk and brown sugar.  After following the recipe and letting it chill for the two recommended hours, the pie did not set.  I think I over-whipped the filling, going the full fifteen minutes even though it came to the described consistency after about nine minutes.  I tried baking it for another 10 minutes.  Still no good, so I stuck it in the freezer.  After three and a half hours in the freezer, it still had not come together.  I was able to cut a piece, but the hole filled with liquid.

However, after sitting in the freezer for 24 hours, I was able to cut a slice that kept its shape.  I was nice as a cold pie.  Like eating caramel gelato in a pie crust.  So if you try this pie and it doesn't set, you don't have to throw it out.  You can freeze it and eat it that way.

I will try this pie again and trust my instinct on the filling:  when it thickens to almost soft peaks I will stop.

Piece out!
Justin