Michael makes a fine job of the pastry, Dave reads Desnivel and looks on.Many of you are aware of Claire's fine selection of killer recipies on her blog. Consider this an 'anti recipie'. Actually, it wasn't the recipie that was the problem, only our control over out 'oven'. In our flat in Spain, Alicia was determined to make Pumpkin Pie for thanksgiving, but the lack of any oven was causing us some considerable head stress. Michael had the smart idea of using 'embers' in our open fire to bake the pie. Cool!
Michael, perhaps was a touch keen with the coals and built an impressive fire.
Everything looked fine though, Pie looking good going into out terracotta oven.
We put the lid on and waited. After not too long we were shedding jumpers and feeling the heat a little. One of us piped up 'Do you think it could be a little hot in there?' Alicia looked worried. After 15 minutes we felt a visual check might be in order, if we could actually get near it.
Upon removing the lid our creation looked damn fine for about three seconds, before spontaneously combusting before our eyes. Oh Well. Moral? When one finds oneself without an oven, stick to the microwave! Our microwave produced quite exquisite apple and pear crumble and chocolate brownies. Who would have thought...
would it not of worked fined had you first removed the whole terracotta oven from the fireplace before opening it? :-)
ReplyDelete*fine
ReplyDeleteMate, it was fully carbonised! Perhaps the correct temperatue for moulding ice axe piks or something...
ReplyDeleteI wanted to take the opportunity to point out that I in no way condoned the placement of a top crust, even a partial top crust, on this pie. Any top crust visible in the photo above was strictly the result of pressure from the would-be pie eaters and not a result of the pie chef's knowledge of proper pumpkin-pie-making methods:)
ReplyDeleteI agree with the pie chef that pumpkin pie does NOT have a top crust. I tried to explain it to the would-be pie eaters - but perhaps the notorious static across the Atlantic prevented the message from getting across.
ReplyDeleteI do have a hypothesis about why the pie erupted in flames after about 3 seconds after opening the lid. The pie was HOT, but it lacked the necessary oxygen to burst into flames while the lid was closed. You open the lid, the oxygen (air) gets in - and voila! In hindsight, if the pie was was allowed to cool down a bit (to get it below the combustion temperature) BEFORE opening the lid - it could have been a masterpiece.
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