Saturday, January 29, 2011

The Pie Experiment....

*EDIT* THE LINK FOR THE PIE AND FOR THE CRUST FOR THOSE THAT ASKED. DOUBLE THE CRUST RECIPE FOR TOP AND BOTTOM CRUST.

So I've never been much of a baker...well let me take that back I've never really had the desire to try my hand at baking with the exception of pre-made cookies and boxed cakes. I've made cookies from scratch and have become quite good at that but that's been the extent of my baking skills.

On our journey as we've begun to change our diet and our eating habits I think what I've missed most are desserts; My evil nemesis if you will and my downfall when it comes to maintaining a healthy weight...that and pasta and bread...Ok well food period, but that's another story. Smile!!!! I'm exaggerating a tad bit, but you all get my point right? I LOVE, ADORE, and have quite the love affair with food, desserts especially

So being almost Vegan (we still eat fish) it's been difficult..no down right impossible to find desserts without animal products in them. We had some pears in the kitchen that no one seemed to be eating and I thought to myself 'Hmmm....what kind of sweet treat can I make with these?' After searching sites online I came across a recipe for a pear pie. I decided I would try my hand at it and was So very surprised at the results. It was SO very good. I made the crust from scratch also and substituted the ingredients in the recipe. Instead of all purpose flour I used Spelt Flour, Earth Balance butter, and Agave honey to replace the sugar. I was a little disappointed because I didn't make quite enough crust for the top and bottom layers so I had to make due as best I could. I'm not really a crust person anyway. I added a little honey and cinnamon to the crust as well and the family loved it. I didn't get a picture of the finished product but I did get a picture of part of the process:



Then after the success with that pie I decided I'd try apple...and OH MY GOODNESS!!!! That one was just as good so now I'm thinking I'm a baking mad woman. Lol

The crust was brushed with a honey and butter mixture. I learned in this process that you shouldn't brush the crust until the baking has almost finished because the crust got a little darker than I would have liked. But hey that's just aesthetics because AGAIN let me remind you I'm not really a crust person...I like the soft crust underneath but that's about it.






The Apple pie was like heaven with this ice cream...YUM

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ok, Mrs. Smith! *lol* The pies look and sound yummy. I love pears and usually I buy way more than we can eat before they go bad. Feel free to share that pear pie recipe. :)

Unknown said...

@ MrsTdj: Lol for the Mrs. Smith comment. I was getting my bake on in a serious way. I don't know why I thought I included the link, but I guess I didn't. I'm adding the link to the post. Let me know how yours turns out.

We do the same thing with fruits and veggies all the time. We over estimate what we're going to need and then end up tossing a bunch of it. I really hate throwing away money so I was happy I found a use for the pears. :)