One of my favorite bloggers, Bake at 350, is hosting a monthly blog carnival called Flavor of the Month.
What's a blog carnival, you ask??? Well, it is a blog "event" dedicated to a particular topic and organized by a host. Read more here. If you would like to participate, go here for instructions.
This month's theme -Pie!! Which leads me to the purchase of these peaches.
And, the opportunity to use the crystallized ginger Vicky sent me.
The Peach Pie recipe is from Food Network and I simply added 1/4 cup crystallized ginger.
Now, this recipe calls for "quick cooking Tapioca". I'm not going to lie, I am not a fan of tapioca. I had no idea the purpose this ingredient served as I have never cooked with it. I was hesitant to leave it out...what if this was a thickening agent? What happens if I leave this ingredient out? Seriously, I need a true baker on speed dial so I can ask these important questions.
Since time was of the essence, I mean I have a due date for crying out loud, I had no time to waste....Sunday was the only free time I had to make this pie! I went ahead and bought the tapioca and went for it.
I peeled 8 not-so ripe peaches. Mistake # 1. Again, the clock was ticking and the peaches probably needed another day or so for perfection. I tried blanching for the first time and peeling was still a headache.
Then it was on to the crust. Well, the recipe instructed me to use a food processor, which I quickly learned mine was not big enough to handle 3 1/2 cups of flour and 3 sticks of butter. Mistake # 2. I had to figure out how to make the dough in batches then finally decided to transfer to the Kitchen Aid Mixer.
Being that I am not a master Pie maker, I was trying very hard to follow the recipe to a T.
Now, rolling dough is my forte. No problem here...
Fill with peach mixture. Easy enough....
Can you see the bits of quick-cooking tapioca? Eww... There are also bits of ginger in there. Yumm...
Add the top and voila...into the oven it goes....
After cooling for quite sometime....I cut my first piece. I almost cried. Where did I go wrong??
No pretty slice of pie to show off, instead a big mess. However, it tasted yummy. Although I couldn't taste the tapioca, I almost had to eat with my eyes closed. Tapioca resembles caviar in my book and although I have never eaten caviar...the little round eggs just gross me out, thus I have the same feeling towards tapioca.
The crust was buttery, the peaches were yummy and the ginger added a lovely spice that brought everything together. This would be a nice pie for Thanksgiving. That is if you know how to make a pie that doesn't result in this mess.....
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6 comments:
I think it looks great messy! :) Ginger and peaches sounds like a great combination!!!
Thank you for participating!!! ♥
Here are some tips.
first let me say your crust looks awesome.
Make pie dough by hand in a giant bowl. I can never get pie dough right in my food processor. I think no matter what you do it gets over worked. When I worked in the pastry kitchen at a fine dining establishment, we made our pate brisee by hand in a bowl. And it was always great.
Instead of tapioca (which is a thickening agent) try a recipe with cornstarch. Much better.
Peaches can be a major pain in the ass if they're not ripe enough. You can boil them for an hour and still have problems peeling them and getting them off the pitt.
Anyway, I'm going to be conducting a pie-a-palooza at the end of this week. I'll let you know how my peaches work out!!
Hope you don't mind all my advice/tips. I know you didn't ask, but I like to share all my eff ups!!
We've made pie crust (pate brisee) in class and it's really easy by hand in a big bowl. For the bottom we did a mealy crust and the top a flaky. I'll give you the recipes :)
I don't like tapioca either! I always use cornstarch, or even flour in my pies. I'd eat your whole pie anyway, though!
I think your pie looks delicious! I love peach pie, definitely one of my favorites:)
I prefer to just use flour.
One important thing for getting not-soggy pies is to cut vents in the top so the steam from the cooking fruit can escape. The more vents, the better! Also important is pricking holes on the bottom of the crust, for a similar reason.
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