Pumpkin Pie With Brandy Sauce

With Brandy Sauce

Braided Edge









Well I finally got around to making another pie.




I had to visit my diabetes doctor, Dr. Orr, this week and told her about my pie challenge and asked her what her favorite pie is. She told me it was pumpkin. So I made a couple of pumpkin pies, one for her and one for having Scott and Susan over for Thursday night.
In the normal course of events when I make a pumpkin pie I buy Cool Whip® because that is the way The Wife ‘o My Life enjoys it. In keeping with my challenge I needed to make the recipe for the brandy sauce, which is how Irma says it should be served. The brandy sauce starts with ¼ cup or 2 ounces of brandy or cognac so I had to go to the state controlled liquor store. The first task I had: find one. I found one downtown and was surprised how quiet and neat it was. The little “airline” bottles, I was told by the liquor store worker bee, hold 1.7 ounces. Since I needed only two ounces I thought it would be fine to just buy two bottles at $1.50 each and make two batches of sauce; one for us and one for Dr. Orr. As it turned out we used very little of the brandy sauce I made for us because we did not like it, so I just put the remainder in a jar and took it to Dr. Orr this morning. Her receptionist was surprised, but it was not the regular receptionist…I was hoping she would be there, she is really nice and always has an encouraging word.

This recipe called for more pumpkin than there is in a can of pumpkin so I had to buy two cans. I froze two cups of the remainder and will enjoy the other small portion with my dinner tonight. I like to put a little butter and some fake brown sugar on it and heat it in the oven or the microwave, yum!
The pie did not turn out looking like the pumpkin pie I usually make; it was darker and had deep cracks in it after cooling completely. I am not sure if that was due to the recipe or to the fact that I tried to save a little and bought store-brand pumpkin instead of Libby®. In either case Sues and Scott really liked the pie and Scott even liked the brandy sauce. I liked the pie and could take or leave the sauce. Scott’s Susan tried neither as she does not like pumpkin pie and instead had some pizza that we had left from dinner.

Did you notice I tried to make my first "braided" edge on a pie. It did not work a easily as I thought it would. It is hard to make the strands to braid and imposible to braid them...it was a twist not a braid, but it did give the pie a nice look so I guess it was worth the trouble!

There are two more pie crusts calling me from the refrigerator so I will likely be building another in the next day or two…

Winter Peach Pie and Cornish Pasties

Today I made Winter Peach Pie in the morning and took it to Sues, the wife o’ my life, at work and all her co-workers really enjoyed it!

It was interesting that I was just saying yesterday how I was having such a hard time with rolling out the crust and so I went back and re-read the instructions that Irma had written. The thing that intrigued me was that I was always trying to use as little flour to roll out the crust as possible and she said that experienced bakers use very little while a novice should start out by using more, so I did. She also said (did I miss this before?) that when you roll out the dough you should not roll all the way to the edge of the dough, but stop short a little and turn the dough not the pin to roll out even round crust. Today my crust rolled out with an ease that made me literally smile out loud!

The pie itself had an interesting combination of raisins and canned peaches with tapioca and the usual spices. I was surprised that the pie came out as solid as it did, not as solid as the apple, but it was very fluid when I put it in the oven.
Like I said the crust gave my no trouble at all and one of Sues’ co-workers said that she makes really good crust, but mine was better. I guess I will stow that away for when it gets really frustrating.

For dinner tonight we had Pasties. I spent a few years in Butte, Montana and it was always a mining town and the Cornish came to The Midwest and then to Butte and brought this wonderful dish with them. It is a sort of a turnover filled with beef stew. It is a crust like pie, but with a little vinegar and an egg in the dough. You are suppose to make the crust real thick where it comes together so that you can eat the “pie” and then toss the crust-handle that has all the coal dust on it because you can not wash your hands to eat lunch while you work n the coal mines. They did not have coal mines in Butte, just copper and silver. But the pasty still was very popular, in fact when I lived there you could order a pasty at almost any eatery in town and since you could they all had gravy, because you would not serve it to some folks without gravy, while others enjoyed theirs with catsup. All of this gave birth to one of the strangest food combinations I have ever seen…French fries and gravy, not my first choice.

Beyond all that I had a very hard time with putting the pasties together according to Irma’s recipe. I mixed up the ½-inch cubes of beef steak, potatoes, turnips and carrots and the chopped onion. Then I rolled the dough (nice soft malleable dough) out into 6 8-inch circles and I had enough filling for about two more pasties and when I tried to assemble them the dough proved quite fragile. I did preserver through it and baked then to a golden brown and they were very tasty. In order to get the full effect I had half of mine with catsup and half with gravy. I can not decide which I liked best…I could have eaten three of them, but only ate one.

Apple Pie I

Cooled and ready to eat

Well I guess that's all folks!

The Apple Dumpling is not in the book, I just made it up











It is a slow, late start because it is a little scary to make pie and have folks eat it and compare it to the whole world of pie.

The Crust: I made the Flaky Pastry Dough. After reading about how different fats (butter vs. shortening) and the amount of water and the degree of blending and the ambient temperature and humidity can all affect the gluten in the dough and therefore affect the flakiness of the crust. I decided to use the alternative of half butter and half shortening and to cut the fats in with a pastry blender and not use the food processor.

The crust, after being in the refrigerator for a day was rather difficult to roll. I had a very hard time and after some frustration gathered the dough and smashed it all into a ball again. I then repented of my foolish behavior, stopped yelling at the dough and attempted to roll it out again. It went OK, but I need to work on getting a basic round shape to my crust as I roll it...I am sure this will come with time and practice.

The Filling: I started with a recipe for apple pie that is titled Apple Pie I. I noticed that Apple Pie II has a filling that starts out on the stove top, but we will get to that at another time.

I have determined that I will not let any preconceived ideas into the process of going through this book, so I am reading all the notes and hints and when Irma wrote about the different kinds of apples I almost skipped that because I know that apple pie calls for Granny Smith Apples, by golly! Well I went ahead and read her recommendations and she went on about texture and sweetness and how fluffy a Rome Beauty is when it is cooked, the tenderness of the Jonagold and how thick the Newton Pippin’s applesauce is, then she said the Golden Delicious is among a few splendid varieties that are suited to both eating and baking. She also said that smaller apples will be less mealy than large ones, I remember my grandmother saying that as well.

So I went to the market (I use “market” because it sounds cooler than “store”) and chose the nicest looking smallish Golden Delicious apples in the bin; two and one-half pounds or about seven apples. When I cut the apples on my Pampered Chef® Apple Peeler Corer Slicer (APCS) it turned out that I had about two extra apples since I was suppose to have six cups. I always cut my apples with the APCS because I have been told, from different sources such as Irma and also the America’s Test Kitchen that when you bake you should have all your fruit, meat, vegetable or whatever very close in size and it will cook more evenly. If you have never used an Apple Peeler Corer Slicer you should have or attend a Pampered Chef show and get one or at least see one used. They are amazing.

Let us get back to the pie. I have always made apple pies by putting the recommended sugar, cinnamon and flour or corn starch in with the apples and then mix it up and plop it into the crust. Not this time, Irma said I should mix the sugar, etc. with the apples and let it “stand for fifteen minutes, stirring several times, so that the apples will soften and better fit into the crust.” I was glad I did, because at the end of fifteen minutes the apples were softer. I did not think it would make a difference, but it did.

Baking: The instructions were pretty simple after I assembled the pie I put it in the oven for 30 minutes at 425 degrees and then slide a cookie sheet under it and turn it down to 350 for another 30 to 45 minutes. Well, I screwed up and forgot to turn the oven down. Luckily I did put the sheet under it and it needed it. So I checked the pie after about 20 minutes with the sheet under it and the top crust was starting to burn a little in one corner. I have a hot spot in the back right corner of my oven which causes me to have to turn all my baking halfway through to get even cooking. So I tested the apples with a knife and they were done so I took it out to cool.

I must be rolling out my crust too thin because when I was done with the pie crust I had a lot of dough left. So I took one of the extra apples and since the APCS leaves the apple whole and kind of like an apple slinky I did not cut this one into thirds like the ones for the pie. I left it whole and stuck a small pat of butter in the core hole and then a tablespoon or so of brown sugar a little flour and some cinnamon and then plugged it with another piece of butter. I then rolled out enough of the dough to wrap the apple and brought the dough up like a gift bag around the apple, pinched it around while still leaving an opening in the top, sprinkled it with sugar and cinnamon and placed it in an oven proof saucer and baked it along with the pie. It was fabulous.

I also took the last remaining dough and made cinnamon and sugar crisps like my mom used to. Oh, my word they were great. I could hardly stop eating them and when the wife o’ my life came home from work she hovered over them for a good while herself!

I have never seen an apple pie that held together like this one. When you cut a piece it stayed as a piece, not wandering all over the plate like a puddle. The taste of the filling was the best I have ever had. I do not know if it was the Golden Delicious apples or the resting time before assembly or what, but it was great.

The wife o’ my life was going to take the pie to work, but she waited a day and my kids took care of it for her. Oh, well I am going to make the Winter Peach Pie next and she can take that one!

Inspiration and Motivation

I recently was asked by Sues, the wife o' my life, after making a pie, "Is this your pie crust, or did you buy it?"
Of course I bought it, because two years ago I was living in a fantasy land of thinking my pie crust was great. All flakey and wonderful and enjoyed by all who tasted it. Then my wife told someone, in my hearing, "Oh, Lewis' pie crust is O.K., passable, but not nearly as good as my mom's." Needless to say I have not made a pie crust since. It is a lot of work to go to for mediocrity.

In our recent pie crust conversation the wife o' my life told me, "You should make your own crusts, they are better than these store-bought ones."

How do you like that, a pie crust compliment and a challenge at the same time?

It has been a goal of mine for, well as long as I can remember to be really good at something -- anything.

For a little more background on the inspiration and motivation of this endeavor I was recently, along with Sues, invited to a party. The theme was "Julie and Julia." Each of the guests were to bring an appetizer to share and we watched two or three episodes of old Julia Child cooking shows and then we watched the movie "Julie and Julia." I loved the party. The food, fellowship and the movie were all great.

One more piece of the puzzle: I decided to make a pie every week in order to perfect my skills and also because I am currently not working and it gives me something to look forward to; a challenge. So in week one I made a cherry pie from scratch. Cherries are not in season so I used canned cherries, not pie filling. As a side note, I will never buy cherry pie filling again. It is so easy and the result is far superior. The second week I thought I would try a different fruit so I thought my son David said his favorite was blueberry, but he actually said blackberry, oh, well we are having blueberry pie this week.

I was perusing the cookbooks at the public library while the wife o’ my life was looking at the various magazines and found an interesting book titled “Joy of Cooking; All About Pies and Tarts” by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker and Ethan Becker. When we were married back in 1984 we received the Joy of Cooking as a wedding present and that is how I learned to cook. What a great book. So I had to check out this small volume in the All About series of Joy of Cooking.

So here is the challenge. Based on all I have just told you I am going to attempt to make every recipe in Joy of Cooking; All about Pies and Tarts. There are about 61 dessert pies and 13 savory pies in the book so if I double up a few weeks and make the savory pies for dinner I should be able to finish the book in a year. So my goal will be to finish all the recipes in 2010.

I do not pretend to be as good a cook or as good a writer as Julie Powell, but I will be better at both, I hope as a result of this project.