Monday, November 06, 2006

The winter challenge

Okay, it's official.

Summer was all about ice cream making. I made everything from classics like strawberry and chocolate to more unique flavors like peach-basil and pumpkin. Even though it's been a while since I was making ice cream on a weekly basis, I'm sure I'll keep it up into the cold months. After all, why should a little wind and rain prevent me from indulging my cravings for chocolate pudding ice cream?

But it's time for a new challenge. And that, my friends, is pie.

I love pie: pumpkin and peach being at the top of the list. And making a pie from scratch seems fairly straightforward and easy -- until one considers the crust. I've made attempts at making a crust from scratch in years past, and the results were less than memorable, as evidenced by the fact that I can't quite remember how they turned out. Once, out of complete desperation, I was reduced to making crust from a boxed mix, with, as was expected, similarly poor results. The last time I made a pie (pecan, for a Thanksgiving potluck), which was nearly two years ago, I bought the crust in the refrigerated section at Trader Joe's.

No more of that, I say! It's exactly the right time of year to learn to perfect a crust, what with the holidays coming up and all. I think I'll start with single-crust pies, like the aforementioned pumpkin (and all the different ways one can jazz that up, including using non-canned pumpkin). Then I'll move on to double-crust pies, like apple. I'm even planning on tackling a savory mushroom pie for Thanksgiving -- with a lattice top crust, no less!

There you have it. On my mark, get set... go!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm currently too lazy to make pie crust, for all the reasons you said. I'd like to learn, though, because many of the frozen and prepackaged crusts have animal fat of some sort.

But I applaud your efforts - pie rules! If you're not giving up making ice cream, though, you should try some interesting pairings - apple pie with carmel ribbon ice cream, perhaps?

Teresa said...

Sher - I'll definitely keep you posted!

Mike - Awesome idea. I'm totally going to try exactly what you suggested.