I have made pie crust from scratch maybe five times throughout my life. My family background was full of delicious pies, fruit, custard, pumpkin, etc. but homemade crust was not a part of that. The fillings to be sure were made from scratch, from fresh ingredients.
I make a mean caramel apple pie. Just not with homemade pie crust.
Growing up in the South, but being raised by New York transplants means I understand that making pie crust is an art, I just have no idea how to do it. Now, I’m sure my English grandmother could also whip up a mean pie, my father said she did, but she passed before I could learn the magic touch.
My Sicilian side of the family made cakes and cookies (although I know that those chocolate chips were Nestle Toll House, no fooling me now, Mom!), and used good old Publix brand pie crust. Its pretty good, gets nice and flaky.
Needless to say my handful of attempts have resulted in either a flavorless, brittle crust, or a melty soggy bottom mess that would make Mary Berry weep.
I tried, ok? I should use shortening, I know, I know, but butter just tastes better and I am BOUND AND DETERMINED to get it right one day.
So, yeah. Pie crust is on my list of arch-nemesis baked goods, right next to Pate a choux and macarons. And specifically chocolate loaf cakes for some reason….they just never turn out as well as expected….
Anyways…
This weeks challenge is caramel and since I accidentally made caramel last week, I decided on something a tad different. I found this gorgeous looking recipe on Saveur for a butterscotch custard pie with a dry method cracked caramel on top. It also has instructions for a homemade tart dough, so I figured why not. Let’s make a tart! Er, pie? Is it still a tart if you cook it in a pie dish?
What a fool I was.
And no, I could not bake this.
The definition of a hot mess.
In my defense, while the crust was a bit soggy, it actually was the most technically correct part of this pie. The custard filling was also perfect. But everything changed when the molten caramel topping attached.
The caramel melted my custard!!! Maybe?!?!?
Deceptively pretty~
It looked perfect when I first poured on the caramel…. But a small voice at the back of my mind did say “hey, won’t this melt the custard? It’s molten sugar.”
I should always listen to that voice.
I went back and triple checked, and nowhere in the recipe does Saveur say put back in the fridge or warn about this. There were no ratings or comments….I should’ve known… The whole custard went from solid to a melted mess! And the slice fell apart after being cut.
Oh well, perhaps I messed something up in the filling. Custards can curdle if when you mix it together and if over-cooked. It looked fine after I mixed it together and looked perfect when it came out of the oven though, still jiggly but set. But who knows, it can be hard to tell if a custard is curdled until you cut it, and my oven has been known to get too hot sometimes.
Also, the hard caramel was a bit hard to eat. I’d recommend really breaking it up if you out there in t.v. land try this one.
The filling tasted good though, just like butterscotch! And the crust wasn’t too bad, somewhat butter and did have a good flake to it~
(I also stashed it in the fridge but it separated overnight so now its a greasy curdled mess, haha)
Huh, I guess I shouldn’t have worried about the crust too much after all.
So, I guess this is the first overwhelming failure of the challenge. But it also means I should try a custard….something again for a later challenge!
Next week is muffins and scones….I might try something savory for it. Yeah, cheesy scones sound delightful.
I Can Bake That! 