didally.com
Of Food and perhaps a little about me
November 30, 2008 at 10:45 pm
· Filed under TWD, Recipes: Dessert, Recipes: Baking
Finally! I have joined the fun group, Tuesdays With Dorie. I read about great reviews of this book, Baking from home to yours by Dorie Greenspan and had wanted to buy it since. I got it for only SGD20.00 after a 20% discount with the addition of a $20 voucher.
I’m already late with this entry. Although we do not celebrate Thanksgiving, I don’t mind trying out the recipe as this will be the first time I’m making a pumpkin pecan pie. Sounds delicious, isn’t it? Vibi from La Casserole Carrée, is the host this week. Check out her site for the recipe.
The recipe asks for shortening and I didn’t managed to buy them, so I just skipped that totally by adding more butter. With no food processor or a pastry cutter, I went ahead to make the pie dough using my fingertips, the rubbing-in method. I knew that I had to work fast. But it seemed that there wasn’t enough flour for me to work with and the butter starts to melt a little. The whole dough seemed so greasy and wet and I’m not sure if I was doing it correctly.
The dough was to stay in the refrigerator for an hour for it to harden up before rolling. The rolling was tough with a new rolling pin, although I made sure I rolled the dough on a floured kitchen counter. First roll out, and the dough cracked. Gee.. was the dough too hard? This is really tough for me! The rolling was so frustrating with the dough sticking to the rolling pin which I’ve floured it as well. With the help of B, we managed to place the pie crust onto the foil tin, with holes, of course. We patched up the crust with the remaining dough. Whew! Ugly, but finally done. After all, it’s my first pie! If only I knew earlier, I could just use a stand mixer to help me out on the dough.
With a badly done crust, it might not hold the filling well after I cut the pie. Will it just crumble? This has to be the most challenging and time-consuming bake I’ve ever done. And I’m glad I managed to come out with a decent looking pie. Oh yes, it’s ONLY decent looking from the outside.
Being the first attempt, everything looked and tasted so wrong!! Just as I cut the pie, it feels so soggy. The pie was already baked for 60 mins but the pumpkin filling didn’t firm up. What went wrong? I’ve no idea. Can someone enlighten me on this? The pie crust is no better. There’s just oil oozing out as I cut the pie. It seems under-baked. Did I used too much butter? Or was it the mishandling of the pie dough in the initial phase?
Ok. The pie can’t be eaten, it’s just too greasy. I’m glad that I tried. At least, I have gain some experience making my first pie. No, I’m not showing my unsuccessful bake this time round. LOL
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Piggy wrote @ December 1st, 2008 at 1:22 am
For the pie crust, I suggest that when the butter starts to melt, the dough should be put in the fridge to chill immediately. Once the butter firm up, then you can continue to work on it again. The other reason could be, you’re using your hand to knead it, so the butter tends to melt faster since our hands generate heat. Back in SG, I used to work on pie crusts only at night, because that’s when the weather is cooler. 
I had the same prob when I first started making pie crusts as well, so after a few times, I’m sure you can get a hang of it. 
Vibi wrote @ December 1st, 2008 at 5:08 am
Welcome to the club, Didally! …and thank you so much for participarting with me this week! You have indeed, every reason to be proud of your accomplishment, as after all this work… the final results are there to speak for themselves: Beautiful!
noobcook wrote @ December 1st, 2008 at 9:42 am
It still looks great to me =D Hope you succeed the next round =) what a nice pastry idea for thanksgiving.
ovenhaven wrote @ December 1st, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Oh it’s such a pity it didn’t go well! I’m baking stg from BFMHTY today, and after having read discouraging feedbacks from TWD-ers, I’m beginning to wonder if I should’ve just sticked to my go-to recipe. But at the very least, we all have our ups and downs in the kitchen, right? I’m glad you gave the pie a try
terri wrote @ December 1st, 2008 at 9:02 pm
hi thanx for checking out my blog. u have a great blog here! and i love pecan pies, yum!
Yay! an updated post. lol! and didally showing a failed pie? haha. not a bad idea, to show a failed experiment instead everytime so beautiful. like the imperfect flaws made your beautiful creations shine out more : )
I made nutella cupcakes that day, and yeah it rise in the oven, and sink when i brought it out. I was so sian i didn’t take any photos of it man. haha.
but your photos this time round looks kind of dark? or is it intended this way?
Hannah wrote @ December 3rd, 2008 at 4:20 am
Aw, sorry this pie didn’t work out for you- Crusts can definitely be tricky. At least you’ll know for next time and perhaps be happier with the results, right? It’s all a learning process…
Sihan wrote @ December 4th, 2008 at 1:31 am
welcome to the club! anyway. i don’t quite get it, you mean the filling was soft or the crust? cause from the looks of it, the prebaked crust looked pretty fine to me?
Eunice wrote @ December 4th, 2008 at 2:50 am
Really now, your pumpkin pecan pie atually looks REALLY GOOD! And you say it wasn’t fit to eat!? Reading your post helped understand a little. But I am outraged. A good looking pie, not fit to eat? SACRILEGIOUS!
Hehe, I hope your linzer cookies turn out fabulous though!!!
didally wrote @ December 16th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Piggy: Terrible mistake I’ve made!! I used the wrong amount of butter. Argh… It’s ok. It’s an experience indeed. Shall try making tarts again. Thanks for the tips!
Vibi: I would hope they taste good too. Oh well, better luck next time.
noobcook, ovenhaven, hannah: Thanks for the encouragement!
terri: Thanks for dropping by!
LIC: The photos are taken at night with my compact cam. The lightings are not good but I needed to post it fast. So yeah, i was tired to do a proper shot. lol
Sihan: I thought the tart look ok too, until I sliced it. It was SO greasy cos I doubled the amount of butter instead. hahah… The pumpkin filling was soft, didn’t harden.
Eunice: It sure looks much better than it tastes. Thanks for dropping by. I hope next week’s bakes will be better.
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