OUR MAY 2014 PIE IS . . .

CARROT PIE
From "A Year of Pies" by Ashley English

Carrot Pie

Did you ever have one of those days when everything you do turns into frustration. This is how my Saturday started.

My grass was about a foot high. Ok, not really that high, but high. Higher than all my neighbors who've already mowed (show-offs). So, I decided I'd better mow it. Pulled out the gas can – empty. Drove to the gas station, cut my finger unscrewing the gas can cap, filled the can and then waited for over five minutes to get out of the gas station. Too much traffic. Got home, pulled the mower out of the garage, filled it with gas and pulled the cord about 70 times (not kidding – I pulled that cord to start the mower a lot). The mower coughed like it wanted to start, but just wouldn't kick in. Then, it started to rain. Mower back in the garage.

I made a couple of phone calls, including one to my son, Brion, leaving him a message asking him to come start the mower. He's much stronger than me. He can pull the start cord with more force. Then, I realized it was pie baking day. Yippee!

I turned on the oven, and pulled out the ingredients for the crust. I made the Basic Pie Dough recipe from the book which calls for half butter, half shortening. Now, I'm an all shortening crust baker, so using this recipe is outside my comfort zone, but I figured I should venture out of the box some day. Today is the day!

I only needed a half recipe. Easy enough, just cut all the ingredient amounts for the crust in half. Half of three-quarters is three-eights. I don't have an eighth of a cup measure so I had to eyeball the butter and shortening amounts. The crust came together nicely. I chilled it as instructed.

No response from Brion. Hmm – no pie for him!

Then, I pulled out the filling ingredients only to find I didn't have enough carrots. Swell! Jumped in the car, drove to the grocery store. This store has a rather strange parking arrangement and traffic flow. Once you figure it out, it's totally sensible, but if you've never been there before, it's confusing. I pulled in behind someone who obviously had no clue how to navigate the lot. I actually had to toot my horn at the driver after watching five cars move when the driver in front of me should have moved. Due to this, I lost the parking space close to the door and had to park in a space next to the street. No big deal, I thought. I like to walk. Iran in, bought carrots and, of course, some other things I probably could live without but you know how it is when everything looks so enticing. Anyway, I got in the express line behind a woman who had quite a few items more than the recommended 12 for the express line. Part of my frustrating day, I thought. When I left the grocery store, the sky had opened up with torrents of rain and little pieces of hail. Since I was parked at the street, I got wet – very wet. And cold.

Unbaked Crust

Put on my apron when I entered my kitchen and proceeded to bake the pie crust. This is a blind baked crust and I forgot to purchase parchment paper at the store (another frustration) so I used waxed paper with my ceramic pie weights. The waxed paper worked fine, but I forgot to pierce the crust with a fork before baking per the instructions. The crust baked fine, even without the tine pricks.

Steamed Carrots

The carrots need to be steamed in order to puree them. The book says to place them in a saucepan with an inch of water and steam for 5 minutes until they are slightly softened. I used my Tupperware microwave oven steamer. I really like it! Usually, it cooks things in half the time, but not today. I steamed those carrots pieces for 6 minutes. Maybe it was the type of carrots I used. I don't know, but I can't imagine 5 minutes on the stove would soften the carrots enough.

Once the carrots were done, I whirled them around in my food processor for a good bit, but they never really turned smooth like I think a puree should be. I added the other ingredients and proceeded to separate the eggs. I love to separate eggs. I always feel like I've done something totally cool and I think I'm pretty good at it, too. Not today. On the third and final egg, the yolk broke and dripped into the whites. Swell! Not starting over. I just scooped out as much yolk as I could and proceeded.

The pie went together easily, but used a lot of bowls and equipment: four bowls, two whisks, food processor, spoons, measuring cups and spoons, spatula – I could have use a hand mixer, too, but opted for a second whisk instead.

As I was pouring the filling into the crust, I heard my lawn mower start. Brion arrived, starting the mower. I mowed while the pie baked. He fixed a spot on my garage roof and repaired a flower box on the front porch. He deserves some pie!

When the pie cooled, we each had a slice. Brion loved it. He liked it so much, I gave him the rest to take home. The pie is a pretty color, if you like orange. It is tasty, but if I didn't know it was carrot, I couldn't have guessed what it's made off. The spices are the main flavor, and they are nice flavors. I'm not sold on the crust. It had a nice, buttery flavor, but was more crunchy than flaky.

This pie is proof positive that pie fixes everything. All my early day frustrations were baked away!

I might make this pie again. If someone said, “Let's make a great pie!” I probably wouldn't select this one. But, I would make it for a dinner party as something novel to serve. It might be a nice pie for breakfast with a hot cup of tea or coffee.  I give it an overall 3-4 on our rating scale.

Peggy