I Told You So Apple Pie

by Elizabeth Kelly

This week's journey through my kitchen was my first attempt at baking for my Baking Arts class. Pies, apple and pumpkin, a standard menu item for our thanksgiving dinner and I have been the pie maker for many years, having inherited the job from my Grandmother.

After at least 30 years of baking pies, I finally failed, spectacularly. It was runny, under cooked, and it was swimming in liquid. It was a case of one part of me said "do it this way" and the other part said "it wouldn't work", and neither listened to the other. An when it was all done, all I could say was "I told you so."

I will now have to try again. It's not that it's hard to make a pie, its that I am so out of my element with these pies.

Firstly, everything is weighed and that is really disorienting me. I have a method for doing my mis en place and it seems to have gone out the window when I am weighing on a scale instead of measuring in a measuring cup.

Secondly, I am putting sugar in my pie, something I have never done. That just makes it more runny so I have to adjust my steps for that.

Finally, I have a convection oven and I am finding out that it's not a good one. There are hot spots and I think they are a lot hotter that the rest of the oven.

I am very thankful that I finally listened to myself when I invited my son and daughter-in-law to come and try they pie and they couldn't come for 4 days. I decided to cut it now and was thankful that I hadn't served it. Now they want to come for the next attempt so I have to get it right. It looks like my pie journey isn't over yet.