Cake, Pie, and Related Questions

[Liquidambar]

For pie, learn to make a crust with lard (or shortening for the true vegetarians out there).  All-butter pie crusts are so fussy to make.  To get a butter flavor, simply dot the filling with butter before adding the top crust!

I've been getting great results with a basic pie crust recipe from Joy of Cooking.  I use half shortening and half butter.  (Due to family food allergies, I've never tried cooking with lard.)

I also substitute butter for all the shortening when making cake recipes that call for shortening.  It turns out well.

[mamselle]

Savory's cool.

Sweet's cool, too.

En francais, 《sucre》et《salle》are both accepted, too...so it must be ok (sorry, no easy accents on this phone).

This is an ecumenical thread meant to uplift commonalities--disparagements not required to participate...

I made crabcakes at Christmas--or maybe it was Thanksgiving?

And I've made potpies several times lately, it's nice to have something hearty and warm that you can enjoy over and over without as much work the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th times.

Has anyone ever made or had a Cornish pasty?

I've never gotten all the way to Cornwall, nor found them in shops in London, Salisbury, Worcester or Hereford...

So, I'm curious about those, too.

M.

[spork]

Is that for structure, or do the egg whites make it sweeter as well?

Never considered that!

M.

In my opinion it does both.

[Parasaurolophus]

I would prefer crab cakes and pot pies, but I guess those are probably out of bounds (though thanks to Vkw10 for sneaking the latter into the list!). 

In principle, I like them both. In practice, most cakes are gross, apart from the ones you get at good pâtisseries, or if you're making the bûche from Les recettes de tante Léa.

I find a mediocre pie more palatable than a mediocre cake.

I probably lean in this direction. In principle I like both, but in practice I only like cakes I have had from two bakeries.  Both are thousands of miles from here.  Sometimes I like those molten chocolate lava cakes, but I'm not sure if they count.  Pies are a bit easier.  I grew up loving coconut custard pie but haven't had it in ages and miss it. 

Oh yeah, I used to make those lava cakes regularly myself. I accept them, and think they count, although I'd really prefer my fancier cakes!

I also accept pot pies.

[Harlow2]

Rhubarb pie! Cherry! And apple, though there's a distressing amount of tasteless apple pie out there.  And why is shortening called that?

[WidgetWoman]

Apple pie (WidgetMan's favorite) is really dependent on the type of apples used. A firm apple prevents the mushiness, and strong-flavored is a must. My personal favorite is the Wealthy apple; makes delicious, buttery, apple-y pie. But Granny Smith is a solid choice.

My personal favorite is cake, but I won't say "no" to a good pie.

[Morden]

Has anyone ever made or had a Cornish pasty?

I've never gotten all the way to Cornwall, nor found them in shops in London, Salisbury, Worcester or Hereford...

So, I'm curious about those, too.

We spent several weeks in Cornwall a few years back and tried a variety of them--traditional (beef with turnip) and more modern versions--cheese, vegetarian, etc. I am a fan of the traditional. I have wanted to try making them but haven't so far.

[the_geneticist]

Rhubarb pie! Cherry! And apple, though there's a distressing amount of tasteless apple pie out there.  And why is shortening called that?

Vegetable shortening/Crisco is called shortening because it is similar to lard (the original go-to for bakers) in that it's solid at room temperature and gives a crumbly or "short" texture to baked goods.  Fat is supposed to interfere with gluten cross-linking formation.  Long gluten strands give the stretch or bounce and sturdiness to pasta & bread.  Lack of these cross-links gives the crumbly or soft texture in cookies and pie crust.  Of course, you can over-mix a pie crust and that will encourage more cross-linking and your pie crust will be tough.

If I remember correctly, the original hydrogenated vegetable oil was marketed as an ingredient for soap-making, not for cooking.

[sinenomine]

Coconut cake.

Shoofly pie (wet bottom).

[pgher]

My wife's family makes something they call blackberry cobbler, but it's actually just a square or rectangular pie. Mmm. Best with ice cream.

I also like something they call strawberry shortcake, which is actually just chunks of pie crust served with ice cream and strawberries.

[mamselle]

Rhubarb pie! Cherry!

My cousin in Belgium makes a rhubarb-cherry tart....talk about sweet-n-sour....my mouth puckers just remembering it.  It's a low, open-faced pie, sometimes with custard on the bottom, sometimes just a tapioca glaze.

Mmm...

[traductio]

Because it is cold and I am sitting in my basement, I'm dreaming of juneberry pie, my favorite of all time. (For my Canadian friends, I'm talking about saskatoons. I'm from the south side of that border where they have a different name.) There's a place right on Lake Sakakawea in western North Dakota, thirty miles from anything that'd count as a town, that makes the best juneberry pie. I didn't get to make my annual summer pilgrimage there last year (I now live on the north side of that border), but I'm dreaming of it now...

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

We like apple pie, blueberry pie, mango custard pie, chocolate pie and pumpkin pie over here. SO is in love with Key Lime pie. Cake is probably tied with pie. Pound cake, Devil's Food cake, Red Velvet cake, chocolate mousse cake, pineapple upside-down cake- they're all good!

Savory pies are also acceptable. Can't beat a chicken pot pie, or shepherd's pie.

[ergative]

For pie, learn to make a crust with lard (or shortening for the true vegetarians out there).  All-butter pie crusts are so fussy to make.  To get a butter flavor, simply dot the filling with butter before adding the top crust!

I've been getting great results with a basic pie crust recipe from Joy of Cooking.  I use half shortening and half butter.  (Due to family food allergies, I've never tried cooking with lard.)

I also substitute butter for all the shortening when making cake recipes that call for shortening.  It turns out well.

I got terrible results from that pie crust recipe. I later learned that I wasn't using nearly enough butter or water. Maybe my one-cup measure was too big? Something was off about the proportions, anyway, and when I first started I didn't know what sort of consistency to look for, which meant that following the recipe exactly left me with a crumbly mess that didn't roll out, and I was too ignorant to do things like add more water until it cohered.

Now I'm less stingy with both butter and water and it works well. I've found that Melissa Clarke's pie crust recipe on the NYTimes cooking is pretty good, although that has too much butter (like, 10 Tbsp for one cup of flour or so) and tends to drip on the oven floor. The best amount of butter, I've found, is enough so that if you cook your crust in a transparent (e.g., pyrex) pie plate, you can see it bubbling away at the bottom and up the sides, sort of deep-frying in butter the crust dough, but not so much that it bubbles over.

I'm also having good results from freezing + grating the butter, so I don't have to spend ages rubbing/cutting it into the flour.

[ergative]

Yes, please, all of them. Cheesecake too.

I just made this: https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/simple-sesame-cake/17691/

It's cooling on the counter even as I type.

Sorry for the double-post, but I just want to update: This cake is excellent, and highly recommended.