A few months ago, gripped by baking fever, I purchased Mary Berry's Baking Bible. I quickly decided to embark upon a mission to bake everything in the book, and turn myself from an occasional baker into a bit of an expert. My Grandad Ern was a Master Baker by trade; the man responsible for introducing Danish Pastries to England in fact, and I wish it had occurred to me to spend more time learning from him, rather than simply enjoying the fruits of his effortless labours. This project is almost a way of making amends for that; I'd like to follow in his footsteps (if not in my career, at least as a hobby) and continue the proud heritage of baking in my family.
I credit my friend Rachel with the idea to write a blog about my baking exploits, hoping that there will be more successes than failures as I attempt all 213 of the Queen of Baking's recipes.
So as not to bore the husband with a monotonous diet of sponges, followed by weeks of biscuits, I've decided to tackle the recipes by selecting the first bake from each chapter, followed by the second recipe and so on. I'm not going to pick and choose; I'm determined to face my baking demons and learn how to do everything baking-related, even if the consequences are disastrous!
Everything will be photographed, with comment about how I found baking it, and a husband rating (to be taken with a pinch of salt as he has a very selective cake-tooth).


Sunday 6 April 2014

58. Pecan Pie

I can't recall why I decided to make this: it wasn't next on my list in the pie section. I do know I wanted to bake something which we could share with the family when we visited though, and I'd never made, or even eaten, one of these before. It looked as though it would present moderate challenge, and I was looking forward to tasting it.
To begin, I made a sweet pastry, which included an egg yolk and icing sugar. Once made, it needed to be refrigerated for about half an hour, so I got on and made the filling while I waited for the pastry to chill. The key ingredient, aside from the pecans, is maple syrup. I had no idea how expensive this stuff is! It took me ages to even find it in the supermarket, and when I did, I was faced with the choice of buying the expensive 'good' stuff, or a cheaper version, which wasn't actually pure maple syrup. I had to opt for the proper stuff, of course, and I'm sure it makes all the difference. Don't think I'll be making too many of these though!
The filling was pretty easy to make, and very runny. Once the pastry had been baked blind, I poured the mixture in on top of the pecan nuts which I had fairly carefully arranged on the pastry. I put a baking tray underneath the flan case, as I felt sure some of the mixture would leak out, and I was right. It only needed to be baked for just over half an hour, and certainly smelt good when I removed it from the oven.
The pie was tasty, but because we'd never had it before, we didn't really know what to expect from the texture. We sampled a piece warm from the oven and found it very 'eggy' and soft. It reminded me of a custard tart, texture-wise. I'm not a fan of those. I was worried I'd not cooked it for long enough, but a bit of research reassured my that it was meant to be like that. It was lovely with vanilla ice cream, and also went down well with the family, who had it cold.
Baker's verdict: fairly straightforward to make; tasty apart from the slightly eggy flavour. The texture of the filling was a bit off-putting.
Husband rating: 7.5/10 - a bit eggy, but lovely taste of maple syrup and the pecans were very nice in it.
 
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