Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Thanksgiving Twofer Pie - Tuesdays with Dorie


Vibi of La Casserole Carrie made this week's pick - it looks like a wonderful choice for Thanksgiving dinner. Vibi has the recipe on her blog, in French first and then translated into English.

However, for me not a very happy evening. I had such great plans to make individual 4" tartlettes, each decorated with a rosette of stabilized cream. But this was not to be. I made a double portion of the "Good for Almost Anything Pie Dough" which was sitting nicely chilled in the fridge when I got back from my physical therapy session (for a conked in knee).

Quite fulfilling - this time my dough rolled out pretty well, with the help of a King Arthur Flour silpat that has circles drawn on it. So feeling confident I cut out nine 4" rounds and placed them carefully in the tartlette pans. While watching how they were doing at 400 degrees I realized the pans were too large for the pastry - I had simply formed dough pancakes.

Attempt no. 2: Rolled out the next batch of cold dough and placed it in a 9 inch Pyrex pie plate; no trouble. I sprinkled some dried navy beans over the base and did the 10 minute thing again. After 10 minutes I was dismayed to see part of the sides had fallen in and then I spent quite a while digging out navy beans from the base as I forgot to cover it with foil. I hope I didn't miss any beans or someone might break a tooth. I really don't know why my dough shrunk in the glass plate; it hasn't happened before.

Another 20 mins. will tell if I have made something halfway edible or not but gone are my visions of producing little French looking tartlettes. There will at best be a crumpled pie. But onward and upward - this Pollyanna says it's a good learning experience and to forge ahead with making Christmas mincemeat pies from Dorie's pie dough.

The taste test remains but it took almost an hour for my pie to bake at 300 degrees. It looks, well, just like a rather ordinary pie.

10 comments:

Cristine said...

Sorry the mini's didn't work out! Hopefully it tastes great, though!

Danielle said...

I am sorry to hear your minis didnt turn out like you expected.
I made some changes to my 2nd attempt at it and it was rather tasty the 2nd time around!
Have a great Thanksgiving!

vibi said...

I'm sorry this turned out to be more labor than success for you, but contrary to what you think... the big pie still looks great and I'm sure is just as tasty.
Just so you'd know and would perhaps still have the courage to try the dough again, if you read the directions carefully, you'll notice Dorie's dough is not one to roll out, but simply to press in... and only once pressed in, does it then go in the freezer, and from the freezer directly to the hot oven (with aluminum buttered sheet). I promise... it is the easiest crust to make, really!
With all that effort, I must truly thank you Sherry, for participating with me this week!
and if it still can be... a very happy Thanksgiving to you!

Engineer Baker said...

Tasty is worth more than pretty, right? Freezing this pie crust definitely helps, as does tweaking the butter : shortening ratio more towards the shortening end of things. I hope you like it!

pinkstripes said...

Taste it! The taste will make up for any of the aesthetic disasters.

Kayte said...

I love this blog business for TWD...I learn so much here...thanks for sharing your experiences and I had a bit of trouble with the crust also...I am going to try it again Thursday morning and see if I can fine tune it with the things I learned. Happy Thanksgiving!

Rosie said...

Oh I am sorry to read your minis didn't turn out :( I am sure though the taste is just wonderful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Rosie x

TeaLady said...

Ah, well. Hope you like the flavor even tho the pie was trouble.

Rigby said...

I also had some interesting experiences with the pie dough. Hope that Thanksgiving was good! :)

Jaime said...

sorry you had so many problems w/this one!