Monday, October 09, 2006

Thanksgiving - round 1



I'm starting out with new beadies, because that's been the most postive part of my day. They're a new colour combination that I was playing with, and I quite like it. I should be working on a scissor fob for a stitching exchange, and I'd like to incorporate some beads, but haven't quite decided how to do it yet - if I put the stitched part first, then beads then a tassle or if I put beads and the stitched part in place of a tassle.

In other news, I've attempted to make a pie crust twice this morning, and am about to give up and go on to pumpkin creme caramel, which doesn't require any crust. I'm a pretty decent baker, and have had good luck with pie crust before, so I wasn't that put out by making one.

The attempt at making pie crusts were a disaster, to put it mildly. I trust Cook's Illstrated implicitly, and pulled out "The Best Recipe" this morning to find a recipe for pie crust. I even had all of the right ingredients - unsalted butter, vegitable shortening, etc. The recipe called for 4-5 tablespoons of cold water, but by the time I'd put about 4 tablespoons in the food processor, it was clear that the crust was going to be glue. I can't even describe what this resembled - it was sticky, gooey, and it was clear that the mass of dough that I had was never going to be pie crust.

So I started again. This time I got about 1 tablespoon of water in before the dough became a ball, so I stopped. I refrigerated the dough, rolled it out, and somehow got it in the pan. It was soft, but at least the dough resembled pie crust. I chilled it again (as per the recipe) and started to bake it. The finished result was somewhere near shortbread, only not quite so nice. Most of it stuck to the foil which was supposed to be shielding it from the baking process. Needless to say, all of it is now in the garbage.

I think I will switch to pumpkin creme caramel. I love the recipe, and so does my Dad, who will also be at dinner tonight. It's easier, and most importantly, there's no crust.

No comments: