Probably a One Off

The sons did a GORUCK Challenge last night. I had planned to shadow (follow, with camera) it, but after three straight days of migraines and one 3:00 a.m. walk in a pouring rain because the dog had not been walked before bedtime, I stayed in. I asked younger son if he wanted a post-Challenge pie, and he requested strawberry and apple. Interestingly, I found lots of recipes for said combination, and made one using honey in place of the sugar. Voila!

I'm fairly sure I will never make another of these because, at least to me, it was not all that good. I couldn't really taste apple or strawberry in the filling; it simply tasted bland. Even younger son gave it a somewhat blah reaction. The upside is that my pie crust seems to be flakier with each and every pie. Practice, practice, practice. Will that get one of my pies to Carnegie Hall?

A Honey of an Apple Pie

I only have one photo, but I've actually made three of this pie. Older son and I are doing a 90-Day Nutrition Challenge, part of which is not eating anything containing refined sugar. I replaced the sugar in this apple pie with honey, and the family actually prefers it to the same recipe made with sugar.

The filling on the pie above came out a bit watery. For the one I made today, I added a bit more flour to the filling, and it's pretty much the consistency of the pie done with sugar. I expect I may be making another one tomorrow since I don't think any of the one I made today will be around after older son has breakfast. 

PiePalooza

It's not every day that I make six pies; two is more the norm. But the party following last weekend's black belt exam in Myo Sim Karate and Kendo called for potluck pies. There is also the tradition of presenting one of the master instructors with his own pumpkin pie to take home. I planned on four for the party and one for the master and ended up with those plus one for the family. I started with key lime since the crust

and the whole pie

each only bake for short periods of time. The meringue topping comes later.

After the key lime, it was on to the two pumpkin pies. Unfortunately, I got distracted and forgot to turn the oven temperature down after the first 15 minutes. This resulted in two slightly overdone pies.

Since I didn't think an overdone pie was a fitting gift for a master instructor, especially the one who was getting it, I made a third one.

Fortunately, I had made extra dough for the crust and had extra ingredients (chiefly pumpkin, condensed milk, and eggs), so whipping up one more was not at all difficult.The wife of the karate master names apple pie as her favorite, so I did that for her and the other fruit-filled pie lovers.

I actually may have over-filled this, but the more, the merrier, eh?

I did the mocha pie last because it requires no cooking at all. Unfortunately, with no into and out of the oven, I forgot to take any photos of the mocha in progress. I did get a shot of all six, though the key lime still lacked its meringue and the mocha lacked its espresso whipped cream topping.

I added those right before leaving for the party.

The pies were a huge hit at the party; the key lime was particularly praised. One person added some of the hostess' extra-jalapeno guacamole to the mocha pie and suggested we combine the two and go into business. Another person added the guacamole to the dregs left in the pie plate and agreed that the two went quite well together. We brought home empty pie plates and just a small portion of pumpkin. The husband has been doing his best to get rid of that and the slightly overdone pumpkin pie I kept for the family. Older son and I are doing a 90-day nutrition challenge, under which we stopped eating processed sugar the day after the exam and party. Yeah, somewhat sucks to be us right now on National Donut Day, but there are some benefits. Perhaps I'll blog about those elsewhere.

A Is for Apple ... M is for Mother

I'm having my mom over for dinner tomorrow, Mother's Day, and asked her what kind of pie she wanted for dessert. She said whatever the men in my house wanted, though preferably not something crunchy given her dentures. The husband wanted apple, and older son had no objections, so apple it was, made a day in advance since tomorrow is one of those busy days. I used a mixture of Granny Smith and golden delicious apples, and brushed the top crust with egg white and sprinkled sugar. I do like the way it turned out; it may, in fact, be one of the most beautiful pies I've made. Here's hoping it tastes as good as it looks.

New Year, New Look

My blog, my rules. The pies have it, at least for now. Before the advent of the new year, I made my first lemon meringue pie, to mark younger son's being home for the holidays. I also made the usual two pumpkin pies for Christmas and was somewhat dismayed that it took almost a week for both of them to be consumed. Older son offered the excuse that Christmas morning's homemade cinnamon rolls were too filling and satisfied his appetite for sweets.

The first pies of 2013 will be served at tonight's dinner party. I am not good at hostessing such things, despite the fact that they offer a handy reason to clean that portion of the house the guests will see. Tonight's gathering is a sukiyaki dinner. Our senior kendo master instructor will do the cooking at the table. I'm doing appetizers (a vegetable tray and a cheese and cracker tray), rice in the rice cooker, and desserts. Thinking of a pie to go with Japanese food was a disaster, so I settled on key lime since it is at least a bit exotic and apple, for an American  contrast.

Here's the key lime (meringue tips highlighted by older son using a blowtorch).

 And here's the apple.

I will admit to having cheated on these in that I did not prepare the crusts for either. What with the picking up and cleaning, I opted for store-bought graham cracker and frozen crusts. The reason that the top of the apple pie looks so ghastly is that I followed the directions on the crust packaging rather than followed my instincts. The directions said to cut off the fluted edges of the top crust before putting it atop the filled bottom crust. I did despite thinking there wouldn't be enough crust there, and guess what. I was right. It was quite difficult to get the edges sealed which explains the rather large cracks. Live and learn. Next time, I will trust my instincts or make my own crust.