Well, it's here at last--Intro to Baking Final!! I spent the days prior practicing the recipes at home. We are supposed to individually make Cream Pies...and while I have the cream filling down, I know I need to work on the pie crust; my last several attempts have resulted in tough, chewy, almost-leathery crusts.
So I strictly followed the recipe--kept the butter cold, the flour cold, the water cold; cut the butter into the flour, mixed the water into the mixture, being EXTREMELY careful NOT to overmix it; rolled it out, put it the pan, and baked it.
After about 10 minutes at 400F, I carefully removed the pie weights. The crust looked fine at this point. So far, so good. I put it back in the oven to bake it for 7 more minutes.
At the end of 7 minutes, I peeked in through the window of the oven.
HOOOOOOOOOLY SHIITAKE!!!
The bottom part of the crust was foaming. Seriously. There was a layer of froth covering the bottom. I took it out of the oven then, and put it on the rack to cool...I was a bit relieved when the foam subsided as the crust cooled...but one taste and I knew I screwed up big time. It was just like my previous attempts, tough and leathery. I had to toss that out and start over.
Second time, I followed the recipe again, this time even more carefully, and baked it.
........It foamed again.
I was baffled. What was I doing wrong?? I still had the next two days to figure this out, so I emailed my classmate who had made the crust for the Apple Pie a few weeks earlier to find out what she did to make that lovely crust. Did she use a pastry cutter? Added more liquid? Less liquid? We emailed back and forth, to no avail. All she told me was, "I just followed the recipe...I don't know what I did..."
What can I do but keep on going? I decided to just wing it this time. Apparently that's what my classmate did, and the crust came out perfect. Feeling rather sad, I took another stick of butter and started rubbing it into the mound of flour. One and only thing I hate about baking is that, unlike cooking, most of the damages and mistakes that occur are generally irreversible and unrepairable. If the product is a failure, it must be started all over again--in other words, it must be done right the first time, or I would've wasted a whole batch of ingredients. That's what I really hate--wasting food.
This time, I rubbed the butter into the flour a lot more than I've done previously--if I keep repeating the same procedure, I'll end up with the same disastrous result. I worked the dough, rolled it out, put it in the pan, and baked it.
........HOOOOOOOOOOLY SHEET PAN!!!
The crust came out perfect. Flaky, tender, and buttery. Wow. That was my problem. I was so zealous in preventing the overmixing of the dough that I've been undermixing it. So, the way to the perfect flaky crust is: "Mix it like a biscuit." (say that ten times very fast)
*SNIFFLE* After three tries, finally, a flaky crust...I've wasted two sticks of butter and 3 cups of flour at this point. Thank you Mom, for sending me encouraging smiles without saying a word to my failures and growing pile of pie dough carcass... Sorry, no pictures of the foiled pie crusts; I couldn't bear to take such gruesome, grotesque pictures.
Now that the perfect pie crust is baked....what to fill it with? My eyes rested upon the huge box of organic peaches purchased at the farmer's market just a few days earlier.
We've left them to ripen a bit, and they were now at the peak of their flavor, juiciness, and aroma.
....Peach Pie.
I saved a few for the pie and canned the remaining peaches. I peeled the ones I've saved, sliced them, and tossed them in a sugar syrup thickened with cornstarch and flavored with almond extract. The filling was poured into the pie shell, and chilled.
Fresh Peach Pie. Using good peaches is a must. It made a delicious, refreshing dessert.
Then later the same day, I baked cookies for my sister's birthday.
Sesame wafers, Lemon-Poppyseed, and Mocha Cookies. My sister loves mocha, but is currently staying away from caffeine for the baby (she's due in three months!!!). So I used decaf coffee for the Mocha Cookies. They were packaged and shipped that day!
So those were the days leading up to the Baking final. To be continued...
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