Midweek Roundup: "Rave Reviews!"

Photo by Vicki

Heavenly Cake Walk Blog

For people who make dessert once a week (more or less), we all seem to be powerful afraid of too much sugar.  What Vicki had in mind when she made this pecan chocolate  (mud) pie were the many "overly sweet pecan pies [we've eaten] in our lifetime, smiling through gritted teeth at our Thanksgiving host."  But the "flavor profile" of this pie threw her "completely off guard," with the eggs and cream adding richness but not "cloying" sweetness.  And Vicki has her own secret anti-sucrose weapon:  Kahlua, which she swears will  "break through" any feeling of too much sweetness.  By the way, Vicki served the "mud" on the side.  No turtles for her.

Aimee, who must like to tell stories as much as she likes to bake, had a charming story about a turtle named Michael who ran away from home, and another turtle named Michael, who must also have run away from home.  The two Michaels found good homes, and you may not be totally surprised to learn that one of the Michaels was not, perhaps, appropriately named.  And neither Michael got a piece of Mud Turtle Pie--for their own good, you understand.  But they do get a "delicious" pie named after them--the Mud Turtle Pie is the Russian Turtle Pie in Aimee's house.

For Kim, it was the chocolate-pecan combo that made the pie too sweet; she found the pecan filling alone, even with its one-too punch of Muscovado-Lyle's syrup, "ethereal" in its undeniable sweetness.  Just a little too much with the chocolate addition, even thought she acknowledged that "lots of people love" this combination of flavors.  Kim is still swearing by (not at) her decision to make the pie crust by hand.  She is so convincing that she has almost made me decide to give it a try next time.  We'll see.

I don't know if Orin made the pie crust by hand.  I do know that she's confident enough in her newfound prowess at pie-baking that she veered from the recommended brand of butter and instead tried "golden butter from a local dairy farm where they churn their butter from Guernsey and Jersey cream (oh, it's so delicious!).  She was rewarded by comments that the crust's flavor was "unlike anything tasted before."  Overall, a "messy" but "utterly divine" mud turtle pie.

Kristina made two pies.  She says that one of our group recently said that it wasn't much more work to make two pies than one.  (I know who didn't say it).  Then the sainted Kristina left one pie at home for her husband while she was gone and took one into the office, to thank the person who just brought in a rhubarb custard pie.  I so want to work at Kristina's office!  Or I guess what I really want is to have lunch at Kristina's office.  To top it (them) off, Kristina made two cute little chocolate turtles:  one for each pie!

"Many layers of deliciousness" is how Rachel aptly describes this pie.  Rachel also made a lovely little pecan turtle.  Or rather, her daughter made it.  And it's not exactly a pecan turtle--it's a peanut turtle, since Rachel's daughter didn't know where the pecans were but located the peanuts.  No matter. Not only does the peanut turtle display her ingenuity, it also makes a fine-looking turtle.  Rachel is one of many who commented on how the taste of Lyle's syrup really makes the pecan filling sing!
Are we all in love with Lyle's?

And finally, Milagritos, who baked the Un-Mud-Turtle Pie.  Not that she had anything against chocolate.  She just didn't have any on hand--not the good stuff, anyway, not the "type of chocolate that's worthy of a Rose recipe."  She almost didn't blog about this pie since she was missing a key component, but then decided she could use this opportunity to announce how great the Mud Turtle pie is sans mud.  She increased both the nuts and the sauce (because she wasn't going to have the chocolate layer), added some whiskey (always a good idea), and ran out of pecans so substituted walnuts for some of the pecans.  Although she would have preferred a little more salt, she still thought the pie was "so, so very good."  And her final words of warning:  "Don't let this pie hang around the house or you will eat it all (I'm dead serious)."

Next up:  Something completely different--the Banana Split Chiffon Cake.  It's a light and lovely cake with a real burst of banana flavor.  Hope you enjoy it.