Pie Crust... Failed.

Nobody's perfect, ok?!?  In the spirit of humbleness, I'm going to write about my first real Bake or Buy failure.  It was time for the pie test, which I was very excited for.  I was attempting apple pies with a refrigerated crust and a crust from scratch, made with oil (I don't keep shortening on hand, which is how a typical crust is made... I don't know why I didn't do butter).

The store brand: Harris Teeter Refrigerated Pie Dough (store brand)

My Recipe (from http://whatscookingamerica.net/piecrst.htm):
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil

- Mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl.
- Measure the vegetable oil and the milk into the same liquid measuring cup but do not stir.
- Add to the flour/salt mixture; mix briskly to combine until the dough comes together into a ball.

I could already tell there is an issue going on here...

- Divide the dough in half. Roll out each half to 1/8 inch thick between 2 sheets of wax paper.

So, how did it go?  It was laughable.  The dough was so crumbly that it would never make a pie shell.  So instead, I did some little tarts with half the dough:

But the dough burnt and was really hard when they were done.

The other half I added some water to and did a bottom pie crust (the bottom pie - I just made a crumb topping):

The top crust is the store brand.  It was SO easy.  And tasted so much better - the oil crust was just hard and awful.

It was so bad/sad that I didn't even photograph the final product!  UGH.  The pie crust will be revisited, but for now...

Bake or Buy?  BUY!

Do you have a great pie crust recipe? Do you just want to poke fun at my failure?  Share in below in the comments section!

Pumpkin

It's HALLOWEEN TIME!!!! 

Since I'm going to be going to a Halloween party anyways, I'm going to make pumpkin pie bites for comparison (I can't eat 48 of those things on my own...).  The question is, do I use the pumpkin puree from the can or bake my own pumpkin? 

OMGoodness, I'm going to probably eat all these before the party.

The store brand: Libby's Pumpkin

My recipe (for the pumpkin puree):
- Preheat oven to 450º.
- Cut pumpkin in half (harder than it sounds).
- Place cut side down in baking dish.
- Fill baking dish with ~1/2" of water.
- Bake 45 mins - 1 hr until pumpkin in soft.

- Scoop out filling and puree in food processor until smooth.

My pumpkin puree came out a little bit runny, so I drained it through a cheesecloth to thicken it to the consistency of canned puree.

So, how do they compare?  Mine is a lot lighter (I think it was the variety of pumpkin I used).  Even after straining the puree, it was thinner than the canned.  Nutrition-wise they are exactly the same - the only ingredient in the canned pumpkin is, well, just that - pumpkin.

If you want the recipe for the pumpkin pie bites, you can get it here: http://www.bakerella.com/pumpkin-pie-bites/

And the price comparison?

	Size	Cost	Cost/oz
Libby's Pumpkin	15 oz	$      1.95	$           0.13
Homemade	4 cups	$      5.00	$           0.15

Hmm, so it actually costs more to roast your own pumpkin.  The taste was a little different - the canned pumpkin was more of a typical pumpkin taste, while mine was a little more like squash.  In the recipe, my roasted pumpkin tasted a little smoother, but the color of the canned was bright orange (great for my desserts!).

So in the end, we have a can of bright orange pumpkin puree from a can that is pure roasted pumpkin that costs less than my pumpkin.

Bake or Buy?  BUY!