Chocolate Pecan Pie

It’s not about what I know, it’s about what I don’t know.

When we started this blog, my wife sat down and wrote out a schedule of pies to make. I brainstormed 52 topics, she typed them up and fit them into a calendar that would make sense from a seasonal standpoint.  That way, I wasn't making Strawberry Pie in December and Apple Pie in June. And this week’s topic was Chocolate Pecan Pie.

It starts with a completely pre-baked crust. I wanted to try out a new crust, so I made it up, carefully followed the finicky directions about temperature and cooling the ingredients and letting the crust rest. I rolled it out, fit it into the pie pan, docked the crust, let it cool more in the fridge, and put it into a hot oven to bake.  Then I sat down to write a blog post about how much stuff I knew about pie crust. It was going to be great.

After ten minutes, I looked in the oven to find disaster. Despite the docking, the crust had inflated in the middle and slipped down the sides of the pan. This wouldn't do, this wouldn't do at all. I tried to poke holes in the middle and maybe stretch it back, but I've been down this road before and knew that it was over before I started.

It’s not about what I know, it’s about what I don’t know.

Pumpkin Pie

Every year at this time, some people ask me if I roast my own pumpkins for my pumpkin pie. Then they look at me like they expect me to say something half-crazy.

In their minds, roasting your own pumpkin is close to killing your own chickens, curing your own corned beef, or canning your own applesauce. They think it's too much work, they invariably mention that you can buy these items in the store, carefully sanitized and wrapped in plastic.

I haven't killed my own chickens, yet. I've never made my own corned beef, but I have made my own applesauce.  And I can tell you that homemade applesauce is hands-down better than anything I can buy in the store.  And yes, I do roast my own pumpkins.

Lori's Apple-Cranberry Pie

In the list of human failings, soggy pie crust is probably not the worst. Compared to child exploitation, nuclear proliferation, or suicide terrorism, it doesn't really rate. It’s totally a first-world problem.

But soggy pie crust is its own horror. One of the great characteristics of pie is that the crust has the potential to introduce texture into a dessert.

Texture isn't talked about much with desserts, but it’s very important. While you can make a pretty great dessert with only one texture, such as chocolate pudding, different textures elevate dessert to the sublime, the wonderful, maybe even artistic. I think that one of the driving factors behind the cupcake craze of the last decade has been the ease that cupcakes introduce texture to dessert. Beyond the cake, there was always a frosting (another texture,) often a topping (another texture,) and sometimes a filling (you get my point, right?)  Pie has similar possibilities: a well executed pie already has different textures built in.

Thus, my revulsion with soggy pie crust. When given the opportunity to create texture in an otherwise fine dessert, the creator of the pie instead chose a path that resulted in a crust that absorbed moisture and slowly became one with the filling. Where the filling ends and the crust begins is hard to determine. Furthermore, pie can be wonderful finger food, just pick up a piece and carry it back to the football game if your wife isn't watching. But you can’t do that with soggy crust.

Election Special - Hypocrite Pie

It began with an invitation to Thanksgiving dinner. I invited my future wife to join my family at the day-after-Thanksgiving meal and euchre tournament that has been held at my cousin’s house for as long as anyone can remember. I probably said something along the lines of: “We ought to make something to take along, huh?”

We were young. I was twenty-three and she was twenty-two. We hadn't lived a lot of life yet, hadn't had a ton of time to learn to cook. I had just graduated from college and was just starting to find my way into the kitchen. We had no clue, on so many levels.

My future wife being the woman that she is, she went to Borders and bought the biggest dessert cookbook she could find, “Classic Home Desserts,” by Richard Sax. We made the apple pie recipe as a test, called it good (it still is) and made it to take with us to this family gathering. The cookbook went back on the shelf.  We had no idea how much of an influence that book would have on the rest of our lives.