Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Beautiful Pie

Made a Lemon Meringue Pie for dessert tonight.  Got the highest compliment on my crust I have ever had, an amazed utterance from my husband saying, "It's not terrible!"  And then he said it could actually qualify as "good".  Wow!  Pie crusts just aren't my thing - I make a great filling, but never mastered the art of the crust.  When John's mother was alive, that was no problem because she made the best crust anyone has ever eaten.  (Seriously - every single person who ever tasted one of her crusts agreed that there was none better.  She had a trick where she would wrap wet muslin strips around the top edge, since her crust was so flakey that that was the only way to keep it together until it was done baking.)  So she would always whip up a crust and I would fill it.  What fun it was to serve a pie and not have everyone just scoop out the filling and leave the crust like a sectional view of the Coliseum.  I'm sure you all wonder what made me even attempt a crust - well, I hadn't planned on it.  I bought a ready made crust in it's own pan and whipped up the filling.  Just before I was about to pour in the lemon curd, I noticed that this crust was particularly lively,  At least 10 tiny bugs were racing around on the surface.  Do you think it must have been "organic:?  


10 comments:

  1. Sounds like you are on a roll with the pie crust and the lemon meringue looks delicious. I gave up years ago on the pastry thing, so am very impressed! Do you have a special recipe?

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  2. Hi Patricia - I didn't think it was going to be edible, so I just took 1 1/4 cups flour and cut in a cube (1/2 cup) butter until it was crumbly. Then added ice water until it was ready to roll. Same proportions as I have used to make awful pie crust in the past - I have no idea why it worked this time.

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  3. I love pie! Especially pie with great crust. I've only made crust a few times and never enjoyed it. I would prefer to eat someone else's well made pie.

    Bugs are added protein, lol. I guess maybe a good addition to a savory sort of pie, however the thought is unsavory.

    Pie is infinite!

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  4. Oh yuk, how annoying to find bugs! But hey, it made you practice something you haven't mastered, though it does sound as though you've come along. No idea about making crusts, but they tend to be my favourite part of the pie. Bill makes incredible savory pies with crust to die for. Here in Britain they talk about 'rubbing in' fat rather than 'cutting in'. I've not tried that yet, but it's on my list of 'granny skills' to work on. Your pie is/was truly beautiful to look at.

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  5. Hi Bella - In Washington, the town of George was famous for its Cherry Pie. One thing about living in Seattle, there are less bugs in the food. Cute bit about the protein!

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  6. Hi Shelley - I love savory pies! My mother-in-law used her crust on Quiche, but my favorite have some type of hash filling. Pasties, I think they're called.

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  7. I think the store bought deep-dish pie crusts are great. Have you tried the Pillsbury kind in the refrigerated section (not frozen). They are rolled up so you can place them in your own pie dish and no one is the wiser! Your pie looks great!!

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  8. The pie looks delicious! Beautiful meringue too.

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  9. Hi Sanda - I have never tried a store bought crust. This would have been my first and it was one of those crumb types. I'll try the other type, since it really is a lot of trouble to make crust from scratch.

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  10. Hi Terri - I was proud of the Meringue. It tasted great too. Used fresh lemons, although I remember there used to be a pretty good pie filling mix which tasted almost as good.

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