What you see right there is a Black-Bottom Oatmeal Pie, or a Poor Man's Pecan Pie, as it's dubbed by Brooklyn-based sister pie artists Emily Elsen and Melissa Elsen, co-authors of Four & Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book. This book was gifted to me by my ever-thoughtful brother-in-law, and I've made exactly two of them so far. My sweet beau has made one. All three have been delicious.
The truth is, I'm not really a pie person. Don't get me wrong: I will never say no to a bite or a slice of pie, if that's what's in front of me, but in all candor, I'm more of a cake gal myself. Chocolate cake. Flour-less chocolate cake to be exact. The Black-Bottom Oatmeal Pie was the first recipe from this book that I tried because as you can imagine, the black bottom refers to a chocolate ganache layer, and I kind of assumed that with the toasted oats, it might taste like an oatmeal cookie. It didn't. It tasted like a pecan pie with oats, which is precisely what the pie sisters suggested would happen.
This was a trial run for the pies we would eventually present at Thanksgiving dinner--a job I was tasked with at one of our more recent family dinners, and which I happily accepted.
Now, back to the "I'm not a pie person" comment. The thing is, I love making pie for other people. Pie is a very special gift when it's brought to the table, and I take the job seriously. It's truly labor intensive (I'm not one for laboring too much in the kitchen, so anything that takes more than 45 minutes qualifies as such), and it becomes in this sense, a labor of love.
While the flavors were intense and the pie worthy of consumption, we agreed that it wasn't quite right for a Thanksgiving dessert. We also realized that pie is truly intended for sharing among a group of friends. The two of us put a good dent in it, but it was more than we could handle in its entirety.
There is nothing more tragic in the culinary world than tossing leftover pie. Duly noted.
Come Thanksgiving Day, we decided on two pies from our new pie book. I was in charge of the Cranberry Sage, and Joe tackled the Egg and Grog (a boozy pie that tastes like egg nog!).
'Twas divine.
The ingredients smelled delicious! A combination of spices, including sage, shredded apple, fresh cranberries, dried cranberries, sugar flour and all the rest. As I carefully folded these ingredients, I knew this was definitely the right pie for the occasion.
I'm still working on my lattice skills--but I'll get there!
Both pies were well-received by our family and friends, and now that it's been a week, I'm ready to start plotting my next pie. What I love about this book is that the pies are split up into seasons: There's a smattering of options depending on what fruit is available in the markets, and I must say, this makes for a far less-daunting pie book. It's good to know that we can pace ourselves. Some pies may wait until Spring.
As for the pie sisters, they run their own pie shop in Brooklyn--aptly named The Pie Shop--and their book is inspired by memories of home cooking, their family, and of course the pies they've created for their local community.
Read more at birds black to check out their pie book and to learn about some other cool pie projects theses sisters are cooking up.
Also, they take beautiful pie pictures--perhaps the most photogenic of all desserts. What's your favorite holiday/winter pie?
No comments:
Post a Comment