This morning I woke up with my twisted foot aching at 5:30am so I thought it would be a good idea to get up and make some tiny pies. Obviously, if I had thought that all the way through I would have realized that my foot would be aching even more after standing on it for three hours making my first batch of tiny pies. But instead I was thinking that I had seen the cutest recipe here at Not Martha that I want to try out for my life group on Wednesday night but I should do a practice run on the family. And I was also thinking - how nice for them to wake up to warm strawberry pie on their Labor day (because I'm a thoughtful wife/mom like that) .... (Okay - I'm partially lying. What I was initially thinking was that would be an awesome breakfast for me - the rest of them totally an after thought.)
But let me just point out - pie crusts are another bane of my existence. I can make homemade bread in my sleep, I'm a pretty darn good cookie maker and I can bake a cake just fine. I'll also mention though that I do not bake or cook pretty - I'm all about how a thing tastes, not how a thing looks. I'm suspect of too pretty food - I want delicious and I don't care a wit how it looks. But all that to say, I can not get a pie crust right! I've thrown more food-related temper tantrums over pie crusts than any other food I can think of. Most often I end up tossing my lump of gluey, overly crumbly mess of crust in the trash and making my too kind husband go to the grocery and pick me up a frozen one. But it drives me bananas that I have to do that! My grandma made the most gorgeous perfect pie crust and my mom makes the same one and I'm using the same recipe - so WHY WHY WHY can't I get it right??!! Well, I'm determined to master it this year. DETERMINED!
So this morning I made the tiny little pies with my sucky pie crust - but I did not give up. And by the end I felt like I had a much better grasp on my pie dough. It is an ugly pie crust! But it's yummy to taste and I think that this is a pretty good way to make a pie crust because you can't really roll it out and make it work when you're making a pie in a tiny jar - you have to sort of smoosh it in there and pinch it all together. And just to bring things full circle - I made such a disaster of my kitchen it took me over an hour to clean it up. The dog was happily licking up all the flour I spilled on the floor. I ended up having to change my clothes because I was covered in flour - couldn't even brush off - nope, it was that bad. I had two counters and the island covered and both sides of my sink filled with dirty dishes. It was a mess - I was a mess. But the pies are tasty and adorable - not pretty - but maybe my next batch will be a little nicer looking .... though not too nice! I certainly want to avoid suspicious food.
I am of the savory school of cooking - not sweet. My food is good AND pretty, but that is a function of my overly type A personality!
ReplyDeleteWhen turning to pie crusts - I give you two references. One, hurts me to say, is found at the Food Network - Alton Brown. I like him because he uses science. And Lard!
The second is Ohio's own Michael Ruhlman. It works for both baking and "cooking" but he has an iPhone app called Ratios. Plainly put, you need a food scale if you want to get your pie crust (or anything else) just right.
I'll trust you that your food still tastes good Gina - because I know what a foodie (snob, dare I say. :-P) you are. Let's just be honest, I'm suspicious of pretty food because mine isn't!
ReplyDeleteThanks for these references. I actually do use a food scale - but I use it mostly when I buy meat in bulk size and need to split it up for the freezer. I like Alton Brown too - because, like you mention, he uses science - and not that I need that much science in my life - but I do like to know why something works the way it does. I'll check these out - thanks again!