Today being Pi Day I joined the who-knows-how-many folks across the country (and maybe around the world) celebrating mathematics through pastry.
I rarely jump on bandwagons, probably because so few involve pies.
What I should have done was kick back with a book, given how hard I’ve been working on my just-launched writing course. Yet every time I bake a pie I think, “Damn, this is good! Why don’t I do this more often?”
Probably because I’m busy with other things, or because desserts like rice or tapioca pudding are so much simpler. However, since our springlike weather (temps in the 30s) disappeared and we’re back to zero or thereabouts, I decided a little comfort baking was in order.
Around 7 p.m. I went looking for the rolling pin and a can of Nice! (the Walgreens house brand) cherry pie filling. Normally I make my own fillings, but these cans were bought on last-chance clearance a few years back for, I believe, 59 cents apiece – impossible to resist. The expiration date is September 2015, not that such things bother me unduly.
As I write this at about 9 o’clock the house smells just wonderful, a mix of cherry pie and sugar and cinnamon. The latter two scents come from the piecrust cutouts I made for DF. Whenever I do bake a pie I make a little more pastry than I need and then roll out the extra, sugar-and-spice it, and bake it in pieces on a cookie sheet.
He always waxes rhapsodic about them – but then again, he thinks everything I do is wonderful. Bless his heart.
Besides, I owe him: Tomorrow he’s making bread and cooking a turkey on the Weber. I think I got the better part of this culinary trade.
Tomorrow we’ll have bacon and pie for breakfast, like potentates. Or New Englanders.
Readers: Did you bake a pie today? Or do some math?
Related reading:
- The boiling bag
- A mess of beans
- Good to the last drop: Getting full use of condiments
- The call of the Koolickle
Math? Nope, not if I can help it! I did do some pattern alterations for a sewing project though.
Took a rhubarb-strawberry pie out of the freezer, though, and am just about to eat a piece for breakfast.
Great minds . . .
My pie crusts are better suited to paving potholes (a good-sized one has just opened up in front of our house.). Therefore, I made blueberry coffeecake with blueberries I froze last summer when they were on sale. Blueberries, blackberries and raspberries freeze great… haven’t had any luck with strawberries.
I just pulled more raspberries out of the freezer, along with some rhubarb. They make a lovely, bright-red compote that’s delicious with my homemade yogurt.
Both raspberries and rhubarb are easy to grow up here. It makes me happy to eat stuff from our own yard, especially since it costs us nothing to grow these things.
On the chance you might want to try making a crust again some time, my godmother’s crust recipe has never failed to result in a decent showing, and I know she’d be happy to share it with you as well.
2 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp veg oil PLUS enough water to make 3/4 cup
Put down a piece of waxed paper that is about 18″ long, and have another one ready.
Mix the wet into the dry, just enough that everything is wet.
Put the dough on one sheet of waxed paper, put the other sheet of waxed paper on top, and roll the crust out.
I transfer it from the waxed paper directly onto the pie plate, but I’m not sure how to describe that process.
Although I make pie crusts with shortening rather than oil, I use the waxed paper method to roll them out. My mom always did it that way. It just seems easier than rolling, then folding, then unfolding.
Made a apple pie pie today, so good when it comes out of the oven!
And never quite as good afterward. Although it helps if you warm it slightly and add ice cream. 😛
My sister is a science educator at the Newark Museum and she made lots of pies for work yesterday. (I’m writing on 3/15.) we’ll get some at a dance this afternoon. Yesterday was also the anniversary of Albert Einstein’s birth. We were in high school physics when he would have been 100 and baked cakes for our respective classes to celebrate. Had we realized the significance of the date back then, we’d have baked pies.
OMG Dr. Einstein was born on PI day. Some things are just not a coincidence:) As a math/comp sci girl I was tickled happy that it was Pi day. My inner geek was excited by the number. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to make a Pi.
No baking but I did spend time doing math to see where my money was going to travel to Buffalo, NY to spend time with my daughter and her husband. We had to travel, have lunch at Rocco’s pizza, do some birthday shopping for her seeing her birthday is this coming Friday. My son went with me and that consisted of him having snacks on the way up and spending money for the St. Patty’s Day parade he went with his college friends.
Aren’t unofficial holidays that celebrate math through pie great? My Dad made pumpkin pies with streusel topping, it’s his specialty. My mom and I are a bit nerdy so we had pie at 9:26 am so it was 3/14/15 9:26, or 3.1415926.
And I hope you repeated the process at 9:26 p.m.
Well, we had our pie prematurely at 9pm, and it was delicious both times.
Was it damn fine cherry pie?
Also, thank you for making a type I don’t particularly like. Makes me feel better about not getting sweets.
It was damn fine, now that you mention it. Haven’t though of “Twin Peaks” for quite a while.
Hello, My family shared an apple pie that one daughter “dumpster” dived.
Yep, that child has a regular route of dumpsters that she visits. Always the food items are well wrapped and neatly piled inside the dumpster.
Actually sad how much food and perfectly usable , still wrapped articles she is able to score.
I’m not a “freegan” myself, but I admit it bugs me that so much food goes uneaten.
I have found that nothing makes friends and family happier than presenting them with a lovely, homemade pie. I don’t know it is so hard to buy a good one (the supermarket pies are dreadful) and why they cost an arm, a leg, and your firstborn when you do finally find one. With dough sheeters available, you would think making a pie would be a cinch in a professional bakery.
Actually, when you look at the cost of any item from a really good bakery (someplace where everything is made from scratch and they use real butter), homemade baked goods are actually a pretty extravagant gift. I joke with my husband that I have probably given away thousands of dollars (retail value) in baked goods.
Pies are just special somehow, even if they’re baked with those store-bought pie crusts/sheets. Any specialty shop that sells baked goods can charge huge amounts because the items are luxurious but still semi-affordable. I blanched when I saw a loaf of bread that cost almost $17 here (cherries with white chocolate chips); the bakery has other loaves that run upwards of $10 apiece. Yikes.