A lot of work

In light of the challenging economic times, I decided to try and recalibrate my entertainment schedule to more fun, creative activities that didn’t immediately involve me drinking 10 over-priced drinks, staying out too late, splurging on unnecessary purchases, and going for McDonalds the next day to quell my hangovers. As such, I made a massively annoying list of  ‘Fun Things To Do On a Budget’.

Item #19 was ‘Master Making Pies’*

To achieve this item I knew I needed to call in the big guns. AKA, Marnie Poppins (my mom). A master pie maker who makes it look both fun and easy I figured she was just the person for the job. Now, lest you think that pie making actually is both ‘fun and easy’ let me assure you that it is not, at least not yet.

As such, I’ll save you the step-by-step typical post and rather approach this as a Greatest Hits list of tricks you need to know to make pie:

1.To prevent your pie dough from shrinking if cooking the crust only (for example for a Lemon Meringue Pie), put little pebbles in the pan, on top of the crust.

2.If you’re like me and don’t have an appropriate work surface to roll out your dough, a clean, un-textured towel cloth will just the trick when you put some flour on it.

3.When in doubt, less is more. Don’t beat up the dough or berate it with over zealous rolling. To ensure a flaky, light crust, you need to blend rather than beat. Took me a bit to get the hang of this one.

RECIPE TO COME.

*-Having attempted to make a pie once, I have since changed this to read ‘Try To Make One Pie a Week’

The fruit of my labors. Pie #1