Week #33 April 11 - 17

This week I continued with the cream pie theme, and made a recipe that has been staring me in the face for a long time. It is a hybrid between a banana cream and coconut cream. Or aptly titled, "Banoconut Cream Pie". This recipe comes from Chow, one of my favorite food resources.

The recipe calls for a layer of bananas on top of the crust. Then the next layer is the coconut filling. Followed by the standard whipped cream. And to top it off, a sprinkle of toasted coconut.



This was definitely one of the better looking pies I've made. I may have put too much whipped cream on top, but I didn't hear any complaints. As opposed to the last banana cream and coconut cream pies I made, this one turned out pretty well. If I were to have one complaint about the taste, it is that the coconut filling wasn't strong enough. But overall, when I hear, "This is my favorite pie you've made so far young man" it's a good feeling.

Week #32 April 4 - 10

I have been feeling the cream based pies as of late, and this week I made a raisin and sour cream pie. I knew this wasn't going to be for everyone, because for some reason a lot of people don't like raisins.



I felt like this pie didn't turn out exactly as planned. It has a regular crust, a layer of raisins, and a layer of sour cream topping. The crust was fine. But the raisins didn't cook they way I had wanted them to. The recipe called for them to be mixed with sugar, orange zest, flour, vinegar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground cloves. But they didn't really get to the consistency that I wanted them to. When they cooled, they hardened more than I would have liked.

The sour cream custard topping was good, but again, I don't think it thickened to the extent that it was supposed to. It wasn't runny, but I was hoping for a firmer consistency then what I got.

Overall, the pie seemed to have some people who enjoyed it. A few of my coworkers told me it was great. I hope they were serious. However, there was about 20% left over, which means that it wasn't a fan favorite. Not every pie will be though. The goal of this project was to make a different one each week. I knew going into it that there would be winner and losers.

Week #31 March 28 - April 3

For my pie this week, I stuck with the pudding pies in Bubby's book, and made a chocolate pudding pie. What was interesting was that I actually found two, yes 2 mistakes in the recipe that I made. I was able to use my best judgement. But aren't there editors that are supposed to correct these things?

Regardless, I think it is safe to say that this was the best chocolate pie that I have made. It is made very similar to the vanilla pudding pie. Except I used a traditional pastry crust instead of a graham cracker crust. The chocolate is melted in a double boiler and then added at the end of the process before the filling is cooled.

Not to brag, but not only was this pie the best tasting chocolate pie that I made, but it also seemed to be the closest one that I made to being of a more professional caliber.

I wanted to get a picture, but by the time I grabbed my phone to get a picture, it was gone. It was eaten in under 5 minutes by my coworkers.