What are you Baking the week of February 23, 2020?

[Mike Nolan]

I blind baked a 9 inch pie shell and a 4 1/2 inch tart shell today. I'll fill them with a sour cream raisin pie filling from a recipe my wife found online. It is different from the others I've tried in that it has no spices, not even cinnamon, just some vanilla, and it doesn't call for topping the pie with meringue.

[chocomouse]

I've tried a number of pump sprays over the years, and have not found even one that is acceptable. They clog, the mechanism breaks, it's too much or not enough oil, etc. Generally, they don't last longer than two or three uses.

[Mike Nolan]

I've had the Evo for at least two years, starting with canola oil, then switching to corn oil and now to a canola/soybean blend. It hasn't clogged once.

The other sprayers I've had were like you described.

[Mike Nolan]

I made the sour cream raisin pie filling, it is basically just a pastry cream with some raisins and sour cream added. But maybe it's what my wife is looking for in a sour cream and raisin pie.

[skeptic7]

The pie sounds very tasty. Does it look anything like a mincemeat pie?

[Mike Nolan]

Not really, it looks like a custard pie with raisins, which is essentially what it is.

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[BakerAunt]

The pie does look delicious Mike.

On Thursday, I adapted a recipe from The Splendid Table, "Butternut Squash Galette with Gruyere," that I first posted about last November. The details are in the thread "Would an Oil Crust Work for a Galette?"

The old thread was easy for me to find, thanks to Mike's new search tool. 🙂 I posted the details on that original thread. Suffice to say that it made a tasty late lunch.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by BakerAunt.

[Joan Simpson]

The pie does look good Mike.

[Mike Nolan]

Aside from licking the spoon, I haven't tasted it yet. My wife took the 4 inch tart one to work, she says it 'needs something'. I was afraid that might be the case with only vanilla for flavor, no cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, etc.

[skeptic7]

Somehow I didn't notice that Fat Tuesday was the last Tuesday until two days later. I had dreams of baking a King Cake or Cinnamon Rolls or something else deliciously decedent. As it was I had a dental appointment and just warmed up leftovers.
Now its the Easter Season I'll have to look up my Hot Cross Bun recipes. The best recipes take a lot of time and kneading.

[Mike Nolan]

We've tried pieces of the pie with a little cinnamon sprinkled on it, with some cocoa powder sprinkled on it, with some sliced strawberries, with a little nutmeg and with some pecans. So far the strawberries seem to be the winner. The nutmeg was a little too assertive, I think it has to be baked into the filling.

My wife says the raisins have a strange taste to them, they weren't plumped in water but thrown into the custard mix as it was cooking. Next time I think I'd plump them in hot water first, like I did with the previous sour cream raisin recipe I tried.

[BakerAunt]

Well, it's a good sign, Mike, that there will be a next time for the recipe.

We were out of bread, so I baked two loaves of Buttermilk Harvest Grains Whole Wheat Bread, using the proportions I used last time. However, I added ½ cup of a mix of oat bran and Scottish Oatmeal as well. (It’s a long story, but the two got mixed, and I need to use up that mistake.) The dough was a bit dry, so I added 1 Tbs. of water near the end and kneaded it in. The first rise took 90 minutes. The second rise took about an hour, and the bread baked in 40 minutes. I look forward to slicing it tomorrow.

[Mike Nolan]

My guess is that the next sour cream raisin pie will borrow a little from all 3 of the recipes I've tried in the last year or so. This filling would probably make a pretty good banana cream pie, though. (BTW, if you want that recipe, search for 'a pie worth waiting 40 years for'. I refuse to give the URL because it's one of those sites that makes you create a log-in just to print something, and I consider that at best obnoxious. And, personally, I don't think it was worth the wait.)

But I think pie is on hold for a little while, I've got some bread plans for the weekend and maybe carrot cake, since I'll be juicing a bunch of carrots to make carrot vinegar using the Noma book methods. I'll also be making celery vinegar.

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