A Baking Fable

OK, Cate, just because of your gentle chiding, and despite the pile of work on my desk, I present the following post.

Back in the summer, we picked some black raspberries and I thought, “Hey, I can make mini-pies with these! We have the mini pie tins ... they’ll look beyooootiful!”

So I made the crust, and mixed the berries with some spices and some flour for thickening. I had not considered the heat in the kitchen from the preheating oven, added to the heat from the outdoors. Our air conditioner wasn’t strong enough (I hadn’t set it cold enough) to keep things working in this hot environment. I hadn’t prepared enough crust. I thought I had a plan, but instead of beautiful mini-pies, we got this:

(The members of my partyfamily said they tasted really good, but really, what else would you expect your partyfamily to say?)

This weekend, the Consort bought some cooking apples, but not enough for a pie. I thought, “Hey, I can make apple mini-pies with these! They’ll be made without tins, so the girls can bring some to school as dessert – won’t that be a treat!”

Not to be boring, I decided to incorporate some grated cheddar cheese in the crust. This was all new and high-tech, but heck, the best place to test things out is in the field, right? I peeled, cored, and sliced the apples. I mixed in the spices. When I went to roll out the dough, the texture was all wrong. But I persevered. I smooshed and I squooshed, and maybe used the dough a little too roughly. Instead of nice little packets of goodness, in the end I just man-handled the crust around the filling, and we got this:

(The members of my partyfamily say they smell delicious, but really, what else would you expect your partyfamily to say?)

What I’m trying to say is, Rummy, I think I know how you may be feeling. Maybe it would have worked out better if your realm, like mine, was a one-party system.