I had half a mind to skip this month‘s book because the first week of the month is a cray cray period at work but primarily because the book for June is...
Yes a pie book.
Entering this book as a complete pie noob. Please be kind.
Pies are so intimidating and I’ve always steered clear of them whenever possible. I don’t think pies are a big thing in Singapore yet or at least I’ve never been very excited to go and find some good pies to eat except maybe the chocolate pie from MMcDonald’s (Eh don’t judge)
I like to glorify myself as an efficient baker but honestly speaking, I’m just lazy 🤪 Pies certainly don’t have the reputation of being the simplest things to make. You need to cut the butter, break it down into pea sized pieces while having it somehow stay miraculously cold in the v humid weather we have in Singapore, chill it overnight, roll it out, blind bake it. AND, I have not even started on the pie filling 🤦🏻♀️ See what I mean???
But it‘s alright. The purpose of this blog is to help me get out of my comfort zone; to bake things I would otherwise not bake SO I’m going to be accountable and stick with this.
I won’t be rating each recipes because I don’t think a pie eating and making noob would make a fair judgement. I might just rate every one of them 1 or 2 stars thinking about all the trouble I have to put in just to bake one recipe. So instead, maybe I’ll rate it by taste and how pie noob friendly the recipe is!
That being said, I’m actually pretty excited because the recipes are so unique! Some have caught my eye... peanut butter paprika cookies, fennel seed snickerdoodle, cardamom tanini squash pie, apple sage gouda pie, apricot rose galette, mint lime shortbread, salted maple pie... I can go on and on.
I’ll try to bake as many pies as I can but fresh stone fruits are very pricey in Singapore so hope I don’t bust my spendings on the book. Wonder if it’s the right season for fresh fruits at the moment. Maybe I can try substituting with canned fruits but will try following the recipe properly like a good student first.
Special ingredients to get ready:
1) Fine cornmeal: I have a bag of polenta so I’m gonna grind it up in the blender
2) Sugar-sugar: Lisa makes her own blend of sugar by combining granulated sugar & turbinado sugar. I suggest making a batch first!
3) Turbinado sugar: See above. Also known as demerara sugar!
4) Apple cider vinegar: For pie dough!
5) Heavy cream: Quite a few of her anytime pies require heavy cream so good to get 1 litre since most pies requires 1/2 to 1 cup each!
6) Specialty flour like dark rye, spelt and buckwheat. It can be easily substituted with all purpose flour but if you want to be true to the recipe like me, you can invest in them!
7) Pie making essentials like 9” pie pan, rolling pin, dried beans as pie weights
TLDR:
Pros:
1) Unique flavour combinations. You also can’t find any basic pies in this book
2) Very clear cut instructions so it’s quite friendly to newcomers to pie making
Cons:
1) Doesn‘t come with weight measurements. I don’t really like using cups as measurements because of discrepancy and also it’s one extra thing for me to wash as well.
So come forth, join me this month to bake some pies 🥧 Hopefully I stay as excited during the conclusion of this month!
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