This past week I was tasked with making pumpkin pie ice cream and dainty pie crust disks as an accompaniment. As mentioned in my previous post, A Pumpkin Pie Day:
I have not the hands of a pastry chef. My mom has frigid hands whether it’s 90 degrees or 20. Mine are hot whether it’s 90 degrees or 20. Hot hands and butter that’s supposed to stay chilled are not a happy match.
Well today I had no choice. Pie crust needed to be made and I wasn’t about to reach for a box of premade dough. My hot hands would have to suffice, I just wish my mum was here to giggle at me.
I pulled out all the ingredients, pulsed my flour, sugar and salt, cut up my butter and smiled exasperatingly as it melted steadily before being placed in the freezer to cool back down.
Long story short it wasn’t a triumph but it could have gone much worse. The little circular crusts puffed a little, the cinnamon and sugar tasted lovely, and the egg wash gave them a gorgeous sheen. The flavor was on point but the flaking you expect with a good pie crust (and that is the best part) just wasn’t there.
These hands were made for yeast doughs, not dainty buttery ones but I am determined to keep at it. Who knows, maybe with consistent practicing and frequent hand dips into ice water, I could churn out a decent crust and actually graduate to filling a pie successfully.
Stay tuned!
What’s your nemesis in the kitchen?
welliemum 