So, this past week, I made a number of pies in anticipation for…………… PI DAY, which is arguably one of the most important days of the year. Cutting to the chase, I’ve made three pies:

• The classic banana cream pie
  • if this pie were a person, they would be that solid, dependable friend who’s there to lift you up when you’re down. Can’t go wrong with this one.
  • No specific recipe used for this one but I did use Claire Saffitz’s pastry cream from her book, Dessert Person.
• The dark, rich, silky smooth chocolate pie
  • if this pie were a person, they would be dark and mysterious, the casanova, the breaker of hearts, the one who can knock you out with one punch.
  • Recipe taken from Stella Parks’ BraveTart, but can also be found on SeriousEats here
• The quiche
  • This would be the breakfast person.
  • Recipe for filling taken from here

Pie Crust

Before I talk about any of these pies, first, I gotta ask the question: what makes a pie, the filling or the crust? Obviously, the crust. Good crust or bust. For all three pies, I did use the same pie crust recipe from Stella Parks, and her book, BraveTart, which can also be found here. This is a really good pie crust recipe and I refuse to try any other one. This week was also the first time where I feel like I really nailed it too.

I have tried this recipe before but this is arguably the first time I think I was actually successful in pulling it off. Historically, I was paranoid of working in too warm environments. I knew how particular pie dough was and wanted to keep it from getting too warm or greasy. So, I always worked with frozen butter and cut it down into cubes before tossing it into the flour and cutting it down further with a pastry cutter. The recipe doesn’t call for those things but I did so out of paranoia. My crusts in the past always ended with shrinking walls or looking a lot greasier than expected anyway when baked. Not bad, but not good either.

This time, I decided to follow the recipe to the T. To my surprise, it worked surprisingly well. The dough was easy to roll out and I was able to have enough dough to transfer onto a pie plate and make a fluted edges. I then chilled the crust in the fridge. When it was time to bake it, I used the technique that I learned from making the tart crust with Claire Saffitz, which was to lay the foil flushed against the bottom of the crust and the sides so it didn’t slump over or shrink. I did notice that chilling time did seem to play a difference. Longer chilling times seem to lead to more even baking.

I think the sweet spot for baking it though is at 350F, for 55 min, then checking it and removing the foil and baking it until golden brown, maybe an extra 10 min.

The crusts were golden brown, no shrinking edges, no cracks, not overly greasy. It was beautiful.

Quiche

Because I always like to dial things up an unnecessary good 20%, for my turn on bfast rotation, I made a quiche.

With an 6 eggs : 3/4 cup of milk ratio, I also added some fillings:

• 1 pkg cooked chicken sausage with sun dried tomatoes (sun dried stuff makes a HUGE difference in taste)
• 6 oz of stir fried spinach
• 2 oz grape tomatoes
• A sprinkle of Mexican shredded cheese

From personal experience, I learned that raw veggies release water when cooked and if you don’t precook the veggies, your frittata/quiche gets watery and soggy in some spots.

I made the crust the night before and let it chill overnight. Then, I woke up at 6AM to blind bake it for 15 minutes (no docking needed) before adding the filling and baking it for another 50 minutes, just in time for DT breakfast.

It was satisfying. The presence of a crust took this would-be frittata from good to great. The sun dried chicken sausage was goood. The only thing I wish I would’ve done was to add more filling. I was conservative because I was afraid the edges would shrink again but I was wrong. Anyway, this was a happy breakfast.

Banana Cream Pie

I’ve made banana cream pies before, not gonna lie. However, I never made banana cream pie using a classic, good pie crust. It was usually always a graham cracker crust. I also decided to transfer Claire Saffitz’s pastry cream recipe, which is slowly becoming a staple recipe.

I cooked the pastry cream a little bit more to make sure it solidified in the fridge when chilled overnight.

I made this pie twice–one for team meeting dinner, and one for celebrating Pi Day a day early with some of the youth students at a church I volunteered at.

Banana cream pie never fails and this one did not either. The second one, displayed below, cut beautifully and did not immediately disintegrate upon cutting. Everything stayed in tact, in place–filling, whipped cream (made from Stella Parks too), and the crust.

Chocolate Pie

One of my friends mentioned that the youth students at the church really liked chocolate. In response, I decided to focus on making a chocolate pie, also using Stella Parks’ recipe (this is really her week). I decided to make it whipped cream after making a meringue would have been too fussy for me to figure out so late at night.

I learned that there is more than one way to make a pastry cream, which is what I essentially made for the filling. Unlike Claire’s recipe which involves heating milk and then tempering it with the egg yolks, usually whipped with dry ingredients, this recipe called for the direct addition of egg yolks into the saucier without separation/tempering the eggs with hot milk.

Dude, this pie is really good. Like I don’t even like chocolate all that much, but this was really good. Like wow.

The chocolate is just so good and rich, like an elevated chocolate pudding.

I’m surprised by how good that pie was. It was definitely the favorite amongst the youth students. I will make this pie again, maybe the next time with meringue to do something about the egg whites I accumulated while making all of these fillings.

Well, that was my pi week. Ironic that these pies were all made in the week leading up to Pi Day, where i actually didn’t make any pies at all.

I’m pie’d out.