Last week I made my first sweet practice pie for the fair and it was a true pie fail. It’s taken me a week to write about it because I’ve been so annoyed. The good news is that the mistake is obvious and easily fixable. The other good news is that everything tasted good even if it was a disaster. The bad news is that it was just a really annoying mistake. Basically, I didn’t use enough thickener and the filling was soup.
Instead of corn starch, I use Clear Gel, which is a thickener from King Arthur Baking, which works very well and typically requires less than corn starch. The recipe called for corn starch and since it’s not 1:1, I was winging it and underestimated how much Clear Gel I needed.
So, here is my first practice Spiced Plum Pie (recipe from Erin McDowell’s Book on Pie). The crust actually looked and tasted great. The crumb topping was good and the flavor of the plums was great. One extra tablespoon of Clear Gel and I think this pie would have been close to perfect.
That said…the spiced part of the recipe is cinnamon. Since I need to make this pie again this week, I am going to try cardamom with a touch of ginger and see what I think, compared to the cinnamon. I’ll report back!
Also, good news! I made the savory tart again this week and solved the flavor problems from last week. More about that next time.