Desserts

Please don't misunderstand in anyway by reading these pages that mouse is in anyway an accomplished chef or even cook (sometimes being a mother does feel rather like being a short order cook) but there's lots she hasn't a clue how to attempt.  For gatherings, formal or informal mouse tends to stick to things she knows and it's incredibly rare that she screws those up.  Even if she does it's easy for her to hide an error.   A bit more sauce or extra icing or whipped cream can cover most errors.  

Weeknight meals are extremely simple and rarely lavish, unless mouse is experimenting with flavors.  Occasionally she'll try something different.  But it's best with the baby around to keep the meals easier because it's so easy to loose her place in a long complicated recipe.  

There is a skill she's never quite mastered, while most desserts turn out just fine for mouse there is one group that's just eluded her.  The Pie.  

Pies -- honestly mouse would rather do a crumble or just about anything other than a full on pie.  Now she has done a rustic pie, where you take the pie dough set it on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and just fill the center with fruit and pull the sides up.  It's appeal is that it's not supposed to look perfect.  

The second, albeit larger issue for mouse is the pie crust itself.  A funny aside, it seems to run in the family because when her grandmother passed away mouse found no fewer than 35 different pie crust recipes.  It's a very hit and miss process with mouse.  Sometimes it come off lovely and other times, gah wouldn't feed it to the dog.  

For our big formal shindig mouse wants the dessert to not only be kosher but kinda impressive too (after losing a whole weekend of possible research due to unfortunate events) and mouse was feeling the crush.  Most of her tried and true recipes aren't kosher and it wouldn't do for guests to have to wait several hours before dessert.  

Then Daddy mentioned he's fond of pie.  And yes he is.  He loves a good key lime or lemon meringue pie.  

So yesterday, mouse began experimenting just with the dough.   Unfortunately you can't make a small amount of dough (mouse has  a freezer full of dough balls with giant Xs on them).  One website recommended that all the ingredients be very cold when you begin including the flour.  Unfortunately that didn't work out too well.  The flour must have picked up moisture from the fridge after just a tablespoon of ice water it seemed to come together well enough, but it fell apart in the cooking process.  

There's also another issue, the rolling out process.  To watch people on those cooking shows you'd think it looks so simple.  Yet when mouse rolls out her dough, it just doesn't look like that at all.  It looks just terrible.  The times it did look lovely, the taste (overall) was horrible and it wasn't flakey at all. 

This must be why there are million different pie crust recipes.  Some insist if you want a flakey crust you must use lard.  Other's say vegetable shortening and still more say butter.  Honestly mouse must have been doing something wrong with each because NONE would come out right or the way mouse wanted.  

What makes a tough pie dough?  Apparently it's not just one thing, but could be several.  Over  mixing,  is common.  Over rolling.  Adding too much flour during rolling.  It's mind boggling.  Then exasperated, mouse sat down and thought about it.  

How did on earth did her Nona make pie crust without a food processor.  Truth was she didn't.  

So mouse began anew.  This time with a bowl and pastry cutter.  And learned what the dough should feel like.  The texture between her fingers.  And it worked.  Emboldened mouse did several more batches (yes we're using a lot of flour (nearly 10 pounds in this learning phase and let's not think about the other stuff).  It rolled out fine.  

So, mouse decided to further the experiment the following day.  Could she do it again?  Would her fingers remember the process?  Really she couldn't wait to get started.  After a trip to the market for more flour, shortening and the other pie ingredients like lemons -- eggs, etc.  mouse set to work again.  

The filling was easy  and came together quickly.  It was tasty.  But the meringue was an issue.  It wasn't tall enough...it didn't brown nicely....after just a short amount of time it seemed to weep and fall.  It took 4 tries (and yes mouse made four complete pies during that time) to get the meringue just right.  

At this point, honestly, mouse was rather mentally lost, the baby had been coloring and playing with her toys, running around but without mischief (yes mouse is counts her blessings on that).  But now it was nearly dinnertime and the baby was becoming very cranky.  

Pie for dinner?  No.  Daddy or mouse wouldn't approve of that.  Tentatively mouse picked up her cell and sent Daddy a text asking if he wouldn't mind picking up dinner.  He replied with a question...that depends will there be pie for dessert?  Really mouse laughed....and replied yes.  

True to his word he came home with food, a very nice spread in fact.  Think he must have gone to Whole Foods but really mouse was grateful because she couldn't stand the sight of another pie.  

The final pie, wasn't cut.  The meringue peaks were nearly perfect.  It was a pretty pie mouse would be proud to serve.  The other pies revealed a good crust, the pie filling was incredibly tasty those meringues tho did leave a bit to be desired and the reason mouse made so many.  The final one remained uncut because mouse was curious to know how long it could last in the fridge.  24 hours is optimum.  It was rather nerve wracking for mouse.  

Really must have looked at the thing in the fridge a hundred times, half expecting it to be completely deflated.  

By morning tho...um...not a pretty sight at all.  It was quite soft looking.  

Back to the drawing board.  

This time, mouse remade the pie without the meringue topping and left that to sit in the fridge over night.  Then in morning,  right after breakfast, mouse made the meringue.  It came out nice...looked good...Actually a bit better than before.  Nicely browned.  

After dinner mouse cut it and finally we had a taste.  Daddy approved very much.  He said it was the best pie mouse has ever made.   Still very nervous but plan on making another pie this coming weekend...

Really don't know if lemon meringue pie will still be Daddy's favorite by the time the dinner party arrives.

Just so you know the pie pictured above is not the one mouse baked.  Very similar tho.