Monday, November 22, 2010

What else for Thanksgiving week, but pumpkin pie?

I'd like to start this week's blog by wishing everyone a very happy Thanksgiving. I know that I have a lot to be thankful for this year, including all the support that I've gotten from everyone reading this blog! I'd also like to thank all of my family and friends for supporting me in whatever I do and being there for me. And what a better way to thank people than to bake and let them try everything for free? I hope all my taste testers have enjoyed everything so far and are looking forward for more to come.

If anyone is wondering how my second attempt at the Italian custard cream went... it didn't, and neither did my third. It's frustrating me so much that something that should be so simple is giving me such a headache. I think I'm going to put it on the back-burner and attempt to retry it between my trip to DC and trip to Israel this winter break. I'll just have to find baked goods that don't use the cream to bring with me on those trips.

So since this week is Thanksgiving what better dish is there to make than pumpkin pie? I was originally planning on baking one and bringing it to my family dinner on Thursday, but my mom kept on telling me that no one would really eat it, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from making it at all. I decided to start the Thanksgiving spirit a little early on campus and bake it for today. I brought the pie to my office, the student union, class and let anyone who wanted have a piece.

I guess I should give a little background on my experience with pie. I've never made a pie before, let alone make the crust (which has a strange reputation of being so difficult.) The amount of times that I've eaten pie could probably be counted on one hand, and I don't like pumpkin so this week was presenting a challenge of it's own. The challenge was that I was not familiar with what I was baking and how things should look or taste. Despite not being a pie connoisseur, I found Buddy's recipe to be very user friendly and accessible.  Don't believe what you read and hear about making a pie crust, because I can tell you that after you make one on your own, you're going to wonder why you would ever buy one. I also worked with spices that I've never touched before and this recipe really took my level of baking up one notch. Overall the reviews of the pie were positive. The average grade was an A-/B+ and some of the comments I received were...
"I love pumpkin and it was delicious."
"Perfect balance of spices." "All-spice and clove were a little overpowering."
"Delicious! I like the texture of the crust; it seemed to have a great balance between the moisture and the crispiness."
"Crust=perfection!"

Even though I don't eat pumpkin pie, I think it turned out pretty well!




I've been asking the question, what would Buddy do? a lot when seeing new situations and not having things turn out like I think they're supposed to. This time I had some extra dough when I put the crust in the pan, so I asked myself, what would Buddy do? and I came up with a solution. I don't know if he would approve of my solution, but I did what worked for me, and I think it all turned out right in the end. I'm learning that a lot of baking is about trusting your instincts while also following the rules, which I think is a good lesson in life. Happy thanksgiving everyone!


Any comments, suggestions, requests, etc. would be greatly appreciated! I also changed the restrictions on comment posting so anyone should be able to post now. Sorry for the inconvenience before!

2 comments:

  1. I can't believe I missed the pumpkin pie in the office! I can actually eat a little bit of pie! :( Oh, well, I'll have to wait for the next one--and be there on days other than Wednesdays and Thursdays.

    -Your favorite PR office work-study

    ReplyDelete
  2. MMMMMmmm. I like pumpkin pie. Would've liked to have tried it. Be sure to let us know if/when you have something for us to taste when you're in Yardley, PA!
    Amy W.

    ReplyDelete