Oh, Pie!

"When you die, if you get a choice between going to regular heaven or pie heaven, choose pie heaven. It might be a trick, but if not, mmmmmmmmmm boy!" -Jack Handy


At my third Williams Sonoma cooking class last night, we delved into the adventurous and tasty world of pies. I have always been intrigued by the intricacy of a good pie crust. I've never attempted the highly technical lattice crust top, but I have made several turkey cut outs from dough to place on top of my pumpkin pies. Sprinkled with a bit of cinnamon sugar, these adorable gobblers got rave reviews.

My very favorite pie of all time, however, is lemon meringue pie. But, oddly, not just any Lemon Meringue...it has to be my own.

Growing up, I had a neighbor who was a fantastic baker. Her name was Viola, and my dad always, always, after eating someone else's lemon meringue pie, would say "It's not as good as Viola's." I took that challenge and ran with it.

I got Viola's recipe and have been making it ever since. I still have a few things to perfect, one of which I learned last night. My custard always stuck to the bottom of my pan, no matter how I stirred, or what level the heat was on, so I asked about that last night. Turns out, I just need to be using a double boiler. No one else ever knew that I had custard issues, but I knew, and it always bothered me that is wasn't perfect. (OCD much?)

My crust on the Lemon Meringue Pie is a bit unorthodox, and not a typical roll out and trim kind of crust. It's from the old Azar's Strawberry Pie recipe and is a little on the sweeter side, and very flaky. Also, only requires 5 ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, milk and oil) that I mix right in my pie plate. I prefer it for my lemon pie, because it balances out the tartness from the lemons.

But, last night we made pie crust from scratch, and she demonstrated several crust techniques. I finally learned the lattice top, which isn't nearly as hard as I imagined. And, we did some leafs to place gently around the edge, which looked fantastic.

We made a total of 4 kinds of pies, and guess what? I sampled each and every one. That's right, 4 slices of pie. God, they had to roll me out the door. But, yum. It was worth it. Well, at least two of them were worth it.

Deep Dish Plum was the most ridiculous pie I have ever had. It is seriously edging out Lemon Meringue as favorite, but I'm going to have to make it myself to be certain. Not only did this pie have a glorious slightly tart, just perfect taste, but it also had the most beautiful red filling. The chef said the plums were standard purple variety, but somehow the cooking of them just brought out a deep crimson. Most people thought it was cherry. A plum pie is unusual, so I look forward to bringing this one to a backyard party soon, and hopefully impressing people with my handy lattice work too...

Wild Blueberry Peach was my second favorite of the night. We began the night mixing fresh blueberries and chopping the juiciest peaches and tossing them with a bit of sugar and cinnamon. The combination of the two fruits was brilliant and the juiciness was just right. I will make this one someday too.

Lemon Meringue Pie. Okay. This was a bit of a let down. When I walked in and saw that we would be doing Lemon Meringue, I was obviously overjoyed. My favorite pie, and we'd get to learn how to make it and get to eat it! I wouldn't even have to stand and stir all day to reap the rewards. Hello Heaven. But, once I took a bite, I was a bit disappointed. The use of the fresh lemons was very nice, I tend to use the bottled variety (gasp!) which I won't be doing anymore. However, the custard was, in my opinion, a bit freaky. It was much more whitish colored, maybe the word is opaque? Mine is so much more bright yellow with almost a see through look to it. More gelatinous, I guess. But this one had almost a texture to it, but yet I couldn't detect any actual texture with my tongue. It just had a thicker, more grainy without actually being grainy feel to it, and I didn't like it. My mom, who actually came with me for once, said she liked mine better, but everyone else in the room raved about it. Hmmm..I think I smell a cook off!

The one ego boosting part of this pie is that the chef said that Lemon Meringue Pie is considered the hardest pie to make. People are afraid of the meringue top I guess. But, I love making meringue, and I love making Lemon Meringue Pie. Does this make me a genius baker? Ummm..no. But, it does make me a serious Lemon Meringue Pie lover.

Cherry Almond. This one was probably my least favorite, and only because I can't do that to my beloved Lemon Meringue. Perhaps they should tie for last. This pie utilized the dark "Bing" cherries, and some finely chopped toasted almonds. I adored the almonds in this, but I would've preferred my cherries on the tart side. The ones used just had too much of a deep sweetness to them, and it kind of made for a sickeningly rich pie. Don't get me wrong, I like rich foods, especially in the dessert variety, but this just didn't add up. My mommy agreed, so there.

Overall it was a fabulous evening, and worth all the calories and miscellaneous non candida diet ingredients. My next class is on Monday, and we'll be discovering techniques to homemade pasta....that's going to be fun to look forward to.