"Cooking is at once one of the simplest and most gratifying of the arts, but to cook well one must love and respect food."

Last night I did a test run with the religieuses.  It was a pretty basic test run, mostly to make sure I have a good solid recipe for pâte à choux.  I had some trouble mixing the eggs into the paste, but a little help from an electric mixer and I was good to go.  Instead of using a pastry bag (all of mine are in California) I used parchment paper.  It worked pretty well, but the downside to using parchment is it's hard to refill it, so you end up using more than one bag.  Piping the dough out resulted in slightly odd shaped puffs, so I think when it comes time to make the actual religieuses, I'm going to forego the piping and just spoon the dough onto some parchment.  I think that will help them maintain a better shape for filling them.


I had all the intentions of making pastry cream for this test run, but I ended up making whipped cream instead.  The cream puffs turned out delicious and relatively easy.  They weren't as filled as I would have liked them to be, as a result of the odd shape, but that's what test runs are for.  Ideally, I'd like to use manufacturers cream for the filling since it's heavier than the cream you can get at the grocery store, but I haven't the slightest idea of where to get that out here.  


Sometime I think my roommates and I are going to make a ton of cream puffs together and freeze them.  Then we can have those delightful treats all throughout the winter without the process of making them (which is a relatively easy process, but we're lazy college students.)  


Overall, the test run was a success.  I realized that for the larger portions I'll have to have a longer baking time; the ones I made last night fell as they were cooling due to being undercooked.  The taste of the dough is light, but eggy, just like I hoped.  I like the taste of pretty sweet cream in the center to offset the savory flavor of the dough.  


I think sometime soon I'll try my hand at some swans.

“Promises and pie-crust are made to be broken.”

Why do I like pie so much?

I've been obsessing over Pinterest lately.  It's a neat way to collect visuals of the things I like.  One of my favorite boards is a collection of pies and tarts I've come across.  There are some classic ideas, innovative ideas, savory, ultra sweet...  It's a variety of delicious treats with the same basic structure.

I love pie. It's no secret, I really love pie.  Something about the rustic appeal just draws me in.  It's the combination of flaky, buttery crust and sweet, but slightly tangy fruit.  If I could drop out of school and just bake pies all day, I would.

I find that making my own dough, making creative crusts and preparing the filling with love is therapeutic.  It's something that takes my mind off things and I get lost in the process.  It's hard to explain why it's so lovely to me, it just is.  I think my calling in life is to be a pie baker.  And so today I made a pie.

“Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction"

I wasn't scheduled to work this week on account of my being hired as a seasonal employee.  Because of that I've found myself being super lazy.  I'm not sure what it is about not having anything I have to do that makes me think it's okay to sleep until after 12, but that's what I've done.  I feel so lazy.  I relish the beautiful sleep, of course, but at the same time I feel like I ought to be doing more.

Today I woke up around 8 and found that I couldn't fall back asleep.   I got out of bed, prepped for the day, then went and made a cake.  A dear friend of mine just returned from his mission in Indiana and I figured it would be fun to welcome him home with a cake.  Really, it was nice to have a reason to bake.  I like baking so much but even more so I love baking for someone.  Seeing someone enjoy something I've made is one of the things that makes cooking so wonderful.  

Anyway, I made this cake.  The buttercream recipe is sweet, but delicious. 

I went and picked up my culinary certificate.  Now all I need is a frame so it can go on my wall.

I spent the entire evening at Sam's house playing card games.  It was a blast.

Best day I've had in a long time.  I should start getting up earlier and baking things.

Except I'll probably sleep in tomorrow instead.

Update:: I was up before 9:30 to go to Ikea with my sister.  That's like getting the best of both worlds

"Men may come and men may go.....but Pie goes on for ever."

The pie wars have started.  And ended.

Last night I prepared three different pie crust recipes in order to try them side by side and judge which was best.

First was the original crust recipe that my mother has been using for ages.  It's simple and easy, just flour, salt, water, and shortening.  Only problem is sometimes it's almost too dry, resulting in dough crumbling everywhere while you're trying to roll it out and press it into the pie pan.  This one I baked into a cherry pie.  My mom and I used this neat little cookie cutter things to create a bunch of leaves to cover the top instead of the traditional cover over it.  The filling didn't quite fill it as much as I anticipated, so it looked a little funny, but the leaf top turned out great.

Second was one recipe dubbed as foolproof by Cooks Illustrated.  This one has flour, sugar, salt, butter and shortening, water, and vodka.  The vodka is the secret ingredient that enables the dough to be pliable enough to be easy to roll out and prepare, but then bakes off and leaves a dry, flaky crust.  This one I baked into two pumpkin pies.  Now, this dough is really wet.  Almost too wet.  I had a lot of trouble rolling it out and putting it in the pans.  It might have made a difference if I had chosen to roll out the dough the way most people do, but I follow my mother's method.  I put the dough in a 2.5 gallon ziplock and roll it out in the bag.  With a dough that's less sticky, the bag is easy to cut off it.  This one just stuck to the bag and came all apart in a big doughy mess.  One pie I ended up pressing the dough into the pan, the other I practically froze solid.  Before putting the warm filling in them, I put the crusts in the oven for a blind bake.  When I took them out of the oven and removed the pie weights, I saw that the dough had slid down the sides of the pan and was sticking to the base of my pie.  There was no winning with this dough, so I did my best to press it back up the sides and get it in the oven.  Only one pie turned out pretty looking.

 

Third is the supposedly Perfect Pie Crust recipe that The Pioneer Woman raved about. This one is comprised of flour, salt, water, vinegar, and an egg.  It took a little more time than the other two and it smelled a little funny because of the vinegar, but it's apparently awesome.  I let this dough chill in the fridge over night and it's a good thing because even after about 3 hours of chilling, it was still soft.  This one ended up sticking to the ziplock bag, but not as much as the previous (this time I floured the bags lightly, so that might have been the reason.  I baked it up into a gorgeous apple pie.  On top of the crust I gave it a nice light egg wash (using the whole egg, beaten with a little water) then topped it with turbinado sugar.  This pie is a contender for the prettiest pie I've ever baked award.  The only picture I got, however, has poor lighting and has the pumpkin pie in the background.

So which pie crust was the best?  Simple, foolproof, or perfect?  The first was the best tasting with the right amount of flake.  This goes to show that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.  Mom's recipe is the best recipe.

And, as a special sign off, here's the lemon tart I made in addition to the pies.  This is a fabulous recipe.  I love tarts.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!