It’s amazing what you can discover while you are putting off doing more important things. Toodling around online for anything related to pie, I came across a 1997 column in the Orlando Sentinel by a guy identified only as “Commander Coconut.” He must have had some kind of clout in the pie world, since the American Pie Council was asking him to help decide what to put on the organization’s official bumper sticker (this is high-stakes work, y’all). They also wanted hi
I really wanted to tell you about this pie yesterday, but I couldn’t, because I was making it as the surprise dessert in a birthday dinner for one of my inner posse, LegalPie. Since she subscribes to the blog, the post would have ended up in her inbox and wrecked the surprise. Now I’m free to blab about it all I want. So you can imagine what we’re talking about, here’s a slice from CurvyMama: I chose buttermilk pie for this occasion because LegalPie started fixating on it
Any good pie has to start with a great crust. Recipes are as simple as they come: flour, salt, icewater and fat. But which fat you use depends on what you’re after, and what you’re willing to put up with.
I spent part of my sunny, cold Sunday morning making a dessert that reminds me of my years in Los Angeles. The early 1980s was when Wolfgang Puck opened his iconic restaurant Spago above the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. What Puck was doing then seems run-of-the-mill now, but in those days, wood-oven-fired designer pizzas were a revelation, and the place became a sensation. Few associate him with desserts, but he turned out some lovely ones; a nut, caramel and chocolate tart was among them. Pu
I want to post some step-by-step pictures of making a lattice top for a pie, since some folks have asked for this. So here is how you do it: As I mentioned yesterday, you start by rolling out your top crust, then sliding it onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and chilling it for 15 minutes or so. Then you take it out and use a pastry cutter to make nice ziggy-zaggy-edged strips.
Yep, they both worked out great! Remember yesterday, when I was trying to get the filling texture just right on the lemon meringue pie? And when I was trying out a new way to make a glossy, intensely cherry-ish cherry pie? All indications were positive last night, but today was the real test, since that is when they were to be eaten. I am happy to report that both pies worked out wonderfully. I was delighted to see that when the lemon pie was sliced in half, the filling held its shape admirably.
YES! We’re on a pie high! CurvyMama came home sadly from her pie-making week in New York, but perked right up again when drafted to make more pies. You watched yesterday as I made a lemon meringue pie. When we left off, I was going to bed with my fingers crossed that the filling would be firm enough to hold its shape when sliced. This morning, I placed a clear dome over the pie and took it to work, where I presented it to Techie Pie. She ate a couple pieces, proving what a Real Woman she i
CurvyMama may have sadly left the Big Apple Pie, but was immeasurably cheered today by the best news of all: someone to bake for. Yep! On my very first day back in Policy Town, I have two pies on my agenda. One is for my colleague Techie Pie, whose Web acumen helped me get this blog going when I exhibited a less-than-stellar command of WordPress. She troubleshot for me on the promise of free pie, and today she perused my menu and made her choice: lemon meringue. The other baking project on my ag
CurvyMama’s back in home territory, having finished her pie-making week in Bubby’s kitchen in New York. Never fear, however, that the pie adventures will end just because we’re back in Policy Town. A major pie fixation led us to email a total stranger to begin with, begging to work in his kitchen; that same obsession will take us down new avenues in the months ahead. Already today, I’m suffering from pie withdrawal. For the first time in days, my hands haven’t touch
From the Jersey Turnpike CurvyMama’s on her way home to D.C., watching the New York City skyline fade from view in the bus window. We’ve still got traces of pie dough under our fingernails from our morning’s work at Bubby’s. We can hang onto it for just a few more hours, to stretch out the experience of pie immersion we’ve had here for the past week. But then the bus will drop us off in reality, and we’ll have to scrub it all away and return to our regular Pla
