The Pie Ho

So, if you’re like me then you read the books as a kid and IMMEDIATELY wanted to be a witch/wizard. You get to live in a castle and run around casting spells and wearing your bathrobe to class (in that respect being a wizard is a little like being a college student). Wizards also have really cool paraphernalia like brooms and cauldrons and all their toys do magical schtuff like float or walk around or whatever (I’m thinking specifically of Ron’s Viktor Krum figure who, I’m pretty sure, would get along swimmingly with my living Barbie doll). But the best part of being a wizard, I always thought, would have to be the food. Fizzing whizbees, Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans (not the crappy kind Jelly Belly made which are ALL GROSS FLAVORS, do not want), cauldron cakes, and PUMPKIN PASTIES!

If you want a little history on the pasty, here’s what I know: they traditionally have meat and vegetables in them and, frankly, are hearty and delicious. Someone once told me that miners used to take hot pasties to work in colder weather: keep it in your inner jacket pocket and the hot pasty keeps your core warm during the day and then you eat it for lunch. God only knows if it’s true but it’s a damn good story in my opinion. And now I’m bored with history, if you want to know more read the wikipedia page (originally it took me to pasties as in the things girls of ill repute wear on their nips.)

Technically pumpkin pasties are not REALLY pies, but it’s the same basic principle: pastry with a tasty filling. I made a sort of pumpkin pie like filling and then made my normal plain pastry, cut it into a few small circles of dough, and carefully folded the pre-baked filling into the circles. I got the recipe off of the website the Leaky Cauldron if you’re interested in making your own. The recipe says that you need enough pastry dough for two pies. I assumed that this meant just one of my plain pastries, which is a bottom AND top crust (or two open faced pies, that makes sense right? RIGHT?). But what they really mean is enough for two pies with top crusts, I discovered this when I made the pasties and was left with almost EXACTLY half the filling left in the pan that I pre-baked it in (though, by the time I’d finished filling the pastry I HAD made I was sufficiently annoyed enough to not give a flying frog (censoring myself) about the other half (I made it into cup pies). I ran out of time when it came to putting them in the oven since I was taking them to a friend’s house, so it was a few hours later when I baked them once I was there. I think that’s why the crust seemed a little dry, though I also tried to use an egg wash (unsuccessfully).

Aside from the crust, which was somewhat meh, they were okay. I was sort of expecting a pumpkin PIE experience, but the filling didn’t have that skin on the top with the sort of solidity to it because I had to scoop it out of the pan in that stage and put it in the crust. Overall, I give it a B-/B, but maybe next time I’ll do it better and it will get a higher score then.

(Originally posted 1/10/11)