What To Do When Your Pies Go South

It’s not a regular posting day for me, but I just had to write a Thanksgiving post. And I have just the story to tell you along with useful last minute advice. 

So I was working on my pies on Wednesday, apple, pumpkin… and pecan. 

I did an apple lattice pie (I know I said I was going for carmel apple, but I kinda winged it.) It came out gorgeous.

I did a classic pumpkin, I tried a braid around the edge for the crust. Again gorgeous. 

And then I tried pecan… for the first time ever. Eeeekkk. The pecan went south. I tried it in a tart pan. That was the first mistake. The crust sank down the sides when I pre-cooked it, so the filling made it around the crust and managed to glue the entire pie into the pan. The tart pan also turned out to be way too small. The filling fit originally but then it boiled and bubbled, and like Niagara falls overflowed all over the bottom of the oven. Did I put anything under the tart pan to catch drips (or waterfalls)? No I didn’t. Mistake number two. The bottom of my oven is a brown sugar, Karo syrup, pecan, black, burnt, glued to the oven stinky mess. And on top of all this I didn’t even try to salvage the pie. The top was burnt, but the bottom of the crust wasn’t cooked enough. Plus… it was ugly. I just scooped it right out of the tart pan in hopes of cleaning the pan before the mess inside became a hardened permeant fixture. 

So what do you do when your pies go south in such an epic manner? Do you start from scratch, make a brand new pie? I suppose I had time if I had really wanted to. But honestly I was tired, my leg hurt (I have some problems with my left leg), I just wasn’t up to it. So no, no new pie. 

You know what you do when your pie goes south? You swing by the grocery store and pick up a nice pie from the bakery and you don’t sweat it. Which is exactly what I did.  (That’s the helpful last minute advice part.) 

So in conclusion, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Enjoy your family and friends. Live it up and have a monster plate of food. Count your blessings. Watch some football. Take a nap. Just don’t sweat the small stuff. 

Happy Thanksgiving!