Hurray for Ann's January pie! It's so beautious!
Before I post about my January pie, I am going to list the pies I have made since October, when I started doing Pie of the Month.
I should re-title this post "America's Test Kitchen pies" because of my reliance on their expertise. Their "best recipe" style is mostly just helpful when you are making standard pies, and when I break off and start doing more unusual pies (not diner-style standard American pies), I'm obviously going to have to choose another source.
October pie: Key Lime Chiffon
Source: Silver Palate Cookbook
Result: So-so. This pie could have been delicious if I had had more pie making expertise when I made it. The Silver Palate ladies make great food, but they don't give a lot of instruction. For a novice pie maker, it was definitely tougher than the short directions made it look. Therefore it's tough for me to give this pie a true rating. The final pie had good flavor but a few chunkies. These were surely due to my newbie errors.
One part that I will NEVER do again is the garnish. They gave instructions for candied lime peel as a garnish. I followed the directions perfectly. It looked just like shaved pickles on the pie. When I say "just like" I mean JUST LIKE! Identical. My friends and I eventually scraped them off because it looked ridiculous, and no one could stop thinking about pickles when they were cutting into it.
My experiences with this pie was what gave me the idea to go with America's Test Kitchen instructions for a few months. I needed more help!
November pies: Pecan and pumpkin
Source: America's Test Kitchen
Result: Tasty. Ann helped me with the fillings for these. The directions were straightforward and my second ever attempt at pie crust was SOOO much easier than my first (back when I was 29) because of the America's Test Kitchen directions. Hurray for ATK!! The fillings were much yummier the next day, and next time I'll make the pies the day before. They both would have been better with light brown sugar instead of dark brown sugar. (ATK loves dark brown sugar. ) They were just too intense. And the pumpkin pie looked the exact color of dog poop. Jeff LOVED the taste (the next day) but could not look at the pie while he was eating it or he would get grossed out. Light brown sugar would have resolved this by giving it a better color.
December pies: Quiche Lorraine and Chocolate Cream
Source: America's Test Kitchen
Result: OUT OF THIS WORLD! Both were spectacular!! I ate most of the quiche by myself (I love quiche! and again, the easiest crust in the world, thanks to ATK) and the chocolate cream was unreal. Everyone was floored at the event I took it to. It had such a deep chocolate taste. This was no chocolate fluff pie! Highly recommended. Jeff only got one small slice. He keeps reminding me of that fact.
Soon I will post my January pie recipe and give my review!
2 comments:
I still want to try Key Lime Chiffon because it sounds so crazy good - maybe at the end of the year? Key lime pie is really easy to make on its own, but it's my favorite, so I'd be interested in a more complex version.
It's lame that we didn't take pictures of the November pies. I crave that pecan pie pretty regularly - even with the "depth of flavor" that dark brown sugar gives to it! :)
Jeff doesn't know that the reason the pumpkin pie looked so much like dog poop was because I put dog poop in it. Or maybe that's just how pumpkin pie always tastes because it's the nastiest food in the world.
I think Chiffon may be my new favorite word for the day.
I <3 PIE!!!
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