Pie Club Week 9: Chocolate Cream

Week 9 was chocolate cream!!!
This was one that everyone was waiting for, and by far the most popular choice for the month of April. Almost everyone loves chocolate, especially in a creamy custard, set into a flaky crust and topped with lots of cream and more chocolate!

Custard is one of my favorite things to make, so I was also looking forward to this pie. I made a crust that was slightly sweetened and very slightly chocolate by adding a little sugar and cocoa powder. The crust ended up being more tender due to the sugar, which nicely supported the weight of the custard, and the flavor was mild and perfect. I did not want to have a strong chocolate crust with the chocolate filling, because it could easily be too much of a good thing.

The custard was cool, smooth, chocolate perfection which I topped with freshly whipped cream. Standardly, this pie is topped with chocolate curls. However, I do not like eating the curls and am of the opinion that it is too much, so I decided to smooth the cream and then make a design on top of the pie using chocolate sauce. I was really pleased with the result.

This pie was delicious, satisfying and wonderful! I will definitely make it again, and again.

Pie Club Week 8: Oatmeal

Week 8 already, and it was oatmeal pie! Yep, oatmeal. This week I heard a lot of: "What? Oatmeal pie? What is that?" However, some brave souls ordered it, and it is just how it sounds, oatmeal in a pie version. It was delicious and super, super sweet.

The oatmeal pie I made was basically like the filling of a pecan pie, but with rolled oats instead of nuts. I used a basic pate brisee crust, poured in the filled and baked. It also puffs up in the oven just like a pecan pie, and then deflates once it has cooled. When baking, this pie fills the house with the smell of oatmeal cookies.

While this pie was delicious, it was very sweet and we liked it a little better in the morning than as a dessert. I also liked it with just lightly sweetened, whipped cream. If I made this again, I think I would either add some nuts to it, or use more oats to help balance the sweetness of the filling. This was not one of my personal favorite pies so far, but it was yummy and a success! If someone wanted this pie, I would make it again, and may make the version with nuts added this fall/winter.

Pie Club Week 7: Challenge

Week 7 was a challenge week! I let a loyal customer (who asked) give me his 4 favorite ingredients, and challenge me to make a pie with them. It was super fun! And, turned out to be the favorite pie so far...

The 4 ingredients were pineapple, vanilla, coconut and cashews. I love all the ingredients also and right away I had some ideas, so I thought out a few different options before I settled on what I wanted to bake. I decided to incorporate the cashews into the crust in the form of a nut flour substitution. Basically, I made cashew flour and substituted some of it into the flour for my pate brisee. Then, I decided to use the pineapple filling from my pineapple pie (week 1) as the base and first layer. For the second layer, I decided to use some of the coconut filling from my coconut cream pie (week 2). I topped all of that with vanilla flavored, freshly whipped cream, and finished it with a healthy sprinkle of toasted coconut and toasted, chopped cashews!

The result was a light and delicious, creamy dream! There were some slight crunches from the coconut, cashews and flaky crust, and some gooey, nicely sour note from the pineapple. It was great, the customer was thrilled with the result and so was I! The only thing I would change about this pie, would be to make the pineapple layer thicker. The pineapple was slightly lost in all the creaminess, but I will definitely be making this again! I loved challenge week!