Open-Faced Double Strawberry Pie

Fresh strawberries in the middle of winter! Seriously, how spoiled is modern man?

The filling was two-tiered; a cream cheese-white chocolate base was slathered with strawberry goop!  Yum!

With the obligatory scoop of ice-cream (store-bought, as I’ve made my way through all the stand-alone ice-creams in the book!) 

I hosted a small potluck for my colleagues before we disperse throughout the globe. It will be very interesting to meet up again somewhere in the geographic middle, though I wonder where that would be? Somewhere in the Middle East, perhaps? Haha!

And some light custard rhubarb tartlets for those who couldn’t make it.

Completely redeemed rhubarb for me:)

Mini Pie Party

Happy New Year to all! Though my blog is still hopelessly stuck in 2013… Well, I am having the busiest month of my life, packing and unpacking and then repacking all my stuff, saying good-byes, getting immunized against diseases I thought were extinct, and just generally getting ready to move to Rwanda. (I guess I may have to change the name of my blog soon?) And of course I squeezed in as many pies as I could in my final month in the land of the morning calm. It was quite a challenge acquiring some of the ingredients here in Korea, but I’m thinking it’ll be even more so in the land of a thousand hills. Oy!

Apple Weincreme Chiffon Tart

Probably the most elegant pie I made. *Ever*

The apples were poached in Riesling, and the chiffon was lemon-apple-Riesling flavored.

It was garnished with the only newest buds of apple mint.

It tasted like a dream. One of the ones you never want to wake up from!

The second pie: fresh strawberry and rhubarb tart

It’s also achieved in two layers; a cooked rhubarb filling is topped off with fresh strawberries. And served with a scoop of pineapple ice-cream.  What a brilliant combination (suggested by the Pie Bible, of course)! It definitely stood its ground against the chiffon tart – less wistful and more confidently pie-like and good:)

What yummy times are these!

Honeycomb Chiffon Pie

One of my most glorious pies ever.

Almost looks like real bees working away in their hive:)

One of my friends instantly guessed how the “honeycomb” is made. 

Yup, it’s just bubble-wrap indentations. Quite ingenious of the Pie Bible! 

The bees are chocolate-honey ganache with almond wings.

The honey–apricot chiffon was a marvelous combo, which was complemented well by the vanilla–nut crumb crust. It had almost a healthy, earthy taste (well, comparatively speaking!). The occasional smoosh and crunch of the chocolate bees were a nice touch, too.

And it wasn’t even the star of the show. We had a little baking party featuring banana bread, peanut butter brownies, and butterscotch blondies! (Major sugar rush just looking at the picture!) Sweets, wine, and conversation… What a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I very well might miss Seoul when I leave!

Buttermilk Chess Pie

Now, this is the main buttermilk attraction.

I think most people would agree that the crust is the best part of any pie, never mind what the filling is. Just rolled-out or freshly baked – gorgeous, either way! I used a buttermilk crust, which requires buttermilk instead of ice water. It doesn’t really lend any flavor, but makes the crust extra tender and flaky. I could probably just finish off the crust like a huge cookie. Nomnomnom!

Is there anything so wonderful as pie cooling on the counter?

I want to call this picture, “Anticipation.”

It looked and tasted like a giant egg tart!

This is, after all, your most standard custard tart, with a slight citrus flavor from the lemon and just an afterthought-like hint of yogurt from the buttermilk. But otherwise, quite standard.

Just another morning at the office!

My Hundredth Pie: Baked Empanadas, Blackberry Pie, and Buttermilk Ice-Cream

I’ve just surpassed my 100th pie! This makes me about two-thirds done with the project.

For this momentous milestone, I made a blackberry pie and…

Empanadas in cheddar crust.

I got the stamp of approval from my friend and her hubby, who is from Colombia:) He said that empanadas are often fried, but they’re baked in places like Argentina. These “southern style” empanadas were gooood!

Blackberry pie with a scoop of buttermilk ice-cream.

This was my first time trying blackberry pie (perhaps trying blackberry, period). It was more tart than I expected, though less so than raspberry. And quite seed-ful, too. The buttermilk ice-cream was also definitely a first. Flavored with orange, it tasted like a citrus yogurt ice-cream. Quite a tart & tangy combo!

Buttermilk ice-cream and raspberry sauce is good too!

I think I may be developing a fondness for buttermilk…

Oh yes, with the extra buttermilk, I made biscuits again. 
This time I used a different recipe (Smitten Kitchen’s) and a scalloped biscuit cutter – to much better results.

And then I made a bacon-egg heart attack sandwich.

You bet it was good!

I sort of feel like I’m racing through the Pie Bible – and I don’t even bake everyday! A large part of the work is coordination (matching pies to people, scouting for and using up ingredients, etc.) and administration (organizing pictures, taking notes, blogging, etc.). And, of course, cleaning up. I think the actual baking accounts for less than a third of all the labor. But I guess that’s normal; it takes a huge amount of energy just too keep something afloat. So, here’s to chugging along at breakneck speed for the next 60 pies!

Profiteroles!

The exclamation mark should be a permanent addendum the word profiterole! They are simply delightful. For last week’s Sunday snack, I made petits choux and five types of pastry cream: chocolate, praline, orange, white chocolate, and coffee. Whheeee!

I can’t believe ‘chou’ means cabbage; these are much too adorable.

Maybe cabbages have a different reputation in France…?

Making praline powder with caramel-hazelnut.

The “triple vanilla” ice-cream with two types of vanilla seeds (Tahitian and Malagasy) and vanilla extract.  

Vanilla is an actual flavor and this ice-cream proves it!

I made a Do-It-Yourself profiterole bar.

The orange (made with orange zest and Grand Marnier) disappeared the fastest, followed by the chocolate. 

Surprisingly, the white chocolate and praline were not so popular.

And my ultimate favorite: the triple vanilla ice-cream with hot fudge sauce.

O!M!G! These were truly heavenly. 

If I, as the cook, didn’t feel an obligation to taste-test everything I made, I would’ve eaten these exclusively.

Everybody I know always points out that I have a very limited eating capacity. This is not untrue; I probably eat only a small portion of what I make. Instead, I usually ruin other people’s diets and resolve (not intentionally). But when I happen upon something super scrumptious, I really really wish I could eat more! Or at least as much as a normal person. Here are the top ten that have gotten a five-outta-five stars and made me curse my tiny stomach:

1. Profiteroles!

2. Un-Rugelach Mini Turnovers

3. Cherry-Rhubarb Lattice Pie

4. Strawberry Lover’s Chiffon Pie

5. Tiramisu Black Bottom Tart

6. Pure Passion Ice-Cream

7. Fresh Berry Tart

8. Pear Tart with Almond Cream

9. Mango Passion Tart

10. Apricot Tartlets with Almond Cream

Chocolate Oblivion Tartlets

A mini Sunday afternoon treat.

The tarts were made with just three ingredients – chocolate, butter, eggs – and were encased in tender walnut cookie tart crusts. They were like intensely chocolaty brownies on cookies:D

                                                                                                                               

This one is a chocolate “oblivion” tartlet with pistachio crème anglaise and raspberry sauce. Pistachio and raspberry are both natural flavor complements to chocolate, so of course I had to have both!

And this one is a chocolate “dependence” tartlet flavored with Grand Marnier and crème anglaise spiked with the same liqueur. Liqueur always seems to bring out flavors; I rather liked this one better. Yum!

I’m flying through these pies at a crazy rate. What normal people would have as a special treat, I have any day of the week. (I realize this book wasn’t meant to be read or made cover to cover, especially not with a time limit!) I sometimes think that perhaps pies are losing their value on me…? Not that I’m really complaining!