Midweek Roundup: "A Yummy Pie"

Photo by Jen

Evil Cake Lady Blog

Truth in blogging:  Jen did indeed say that this is a yummy pie, but she also noted that it was a lot of work and some things didn't go so well.  The cookie dough was hard to work with, and ended up sticking to the pie plate (but yay!  she found her deep-dish pie plate that was MIA for the Pumpkin Pecan Pie), and she over-cooled the Bavarian Cream, making it a bit too gelatinous in texture.  But there just happened to be some shiny lacquer glaze in Jen's Miracle Freezer.  Still, it was a good pie.  The picture I especially enjoy, aside from the picture of the week, is the one of her chocolate cookie squares on the baking pan--it looks like she's working on a chocolate map of the United States.  (I think I see Wyoming, Wisconsin, Oregon, and Minnesota.)

Vicki calls it a "high maintenance pie," but also dubs it "Rose's ultimate chocolate pie creation," continuing Jen's Jekyll-and-Hyde theme.  She cut down on the Hydeishness by learning from other's mistakes.  No sticking cookie crust for her; she barely "tamped down" the cookies.  She thought it was time consuming to make, but not really difficult to make.  Probably reserved for special occasions, but definitely "a show-stopper."  Vicki had a holiday inspiration, and topped it with peppermint whipped cream and crushed candy canes.  "Spectacular!"

Katya thought the pie was "delicious" and found it easy to make over the space of a few days (she saved a little time by not cutting the cookies into squares, but just rolling the dough out and baking it whole).  She didn't take its "poshness" too seriously since she kept comparing it to Jell-O pudding.  Although, really, "reverse engineering [into] a convenience food dessert," which is how she saw this pie, is becoming very common in posh restaurants--haven't you seen some rarefied version of the Twinkie on menus?

Kristina made her pie to bring to a party, which meant, since the party was pretty impromptu, that she probably should have started making it a day earlier. Fortunately, she made the cookies the night before. I liked this description of her friends' reaction to the crust, a reaction that probably all of us who have soldiered through Rose's multi-step recipes are familiar with: "One of my friends asked what the crust was, and I said, “Cookies that I made yesterday before making them into crumbs this morning.” I got a look that I think was a cross between bafflement, amusement, and kind of an “of course you did” response."  Kristina sped up the cooling of the chocolate custard by using an ice bath, and hey presto! there was the Bavarian cream. She "rushed the recipe" again by letting it cool only 2 hours before getting lacquered. No harm done to the pie by any of these steps, and Jay is looking forward to eating it sometime in the future, although that future may come only after all the recipes in this book have been tackled!

I think that Kim is the only one who actually used the recommended edible gold leaf, and I'll admit that its use really does add to the pie's poshness.  For any of you who haven't yet made this pie but are thinking about it sometime in the future, save Kim's good tutorial for future reference.  Even the picture that her camera took itself is a good one!   Her blog is really a love song to Bavarian Cream, which she learned to make from Rose in The Cake Bible and has loved ever since for its light but rich creaminess and the oohs and aahs it always elicits.

Next week:  The Renee Fleming Golden Chiffon Cake.  It almost seems like diet food in comparison to the Posh Pie, but if it were, you'd want to go on the Chiffon Cake Diet immediately.  It's absolutely delicious.