Ponder: Pumpkin Pie, Anyone?

Last night I decided to make pumpkins pies. I make two at a time using Libby's pumpkin pie and Pillsbury pre-made pie crusts in a roll from the refrigerator section. The pie crusts were creeping up on their expiration date. I use the recipe on the can, tripling the cinnamon, doubling the ginger, and substituting 2 tsp nutmeg for ½ tsp cloves

Alright I admit it; the two pie crusts were just past their best buy date, but that was not my main problem. The recipe called for 1½  cups sugar. I measured out the dregs of my Tupperware sugar canister and found I had only 1 cup. I searched back into far reaches of my pantry and found I did not have a reserve bag in waiting. Drats! What should I do?

I did not want to go to my neighbor and violate that social distance of 6 ft to borrow ½ cup of sugar. I rejected using powdered sugar guessing that the consistency would make mush when added to the pumpkin/egg mixture. Maybe brown sugar? I was not sure what the conversion amount would be and it was probably just in one hard lumpy block anyway. Speaking of lumps I then spied my containers of sugar cubes. More popular for tea during our camping days, I still add them to my spaghetti sauce and other similar sauces. Hmmm. Could I uncompress these back to their granulated sugar form? It was worth a try so I got out my small food-processor/nut-chopper and gave it a whirl. Initially I tried counting how many cubes I would need. Each cube is 1 tsp, 3 tsps  = 1 Tbsp, 8 Tbsp = ½ cup; therefore I would need 24 cubes. The ground quantity fell short of ½ cup, so I eventually just dumped in one container's worth and repeated press pulse on the chopper. I now had enough granulated sugar and it worked out fine. Well maybe not literally fine but granulated enough to work for the pies batter.

This is the mini-processor I used that had not been out of the cupboard for years.

I mixed up the pumpkin pie batter and poured it into the two shells I had rolled out and prepared. The bump in the pie-baking road arising from the lack of sugar had been navigated successfully, but that was not my only problem. I preheated the oven to 425° and put in the two pies, staggered and on separate racks as I normally do, and set the timer for 15 minutes. My norm is that after 15 minutes, I lower the temperature to 350° and let the pies bake for an additional 45 minutes. Then I shut off the oven, crack the door open 3"- 4" and let the pies come to room temperature slowly as the oven cools itself down. Last night when my timer went off I shut it off and reset it for the additional 45 minutes. Then I never lowered the oven temperature! I was clueless that I had omitted this critical step due to distraction or senility or an subconscious internal urge to sabotage my own culinary efforts. My first realization of my gaff was when I opened the oven door and glimpsed the black charred crust and scattered dime-size charcoal dots on the upper pie, and the chocolate-colored crust on the lower pie. The central filling sections were not quite as golden in color more of a burnt orange but they looked edible.

I whisked the pies out of the oven, emptied two shelves in the freezer, and plunked the pies in there for 10 minutes or so to hopefully stop the cooking process. I was lucky that I have gradually been using up the frozen food while sheltering in place, and so there was room for the pie rescue operation. Note that part of one pie has been eaten – yes, eaten and not thrown away – it was quite edible and even tasty once drenched with whipped cream. We had eaten the charcoal spotted portions of darker pie as a taste test of the worst case scenario. The photos for this blog have been re-staged since at the time of the fiasco I was otherwise occupied. 

After cool enough to handle I took each pie to the kitchen sink. I broke off the fluted part of the crust, with fork, with knife, and with bare hands, sometimes by long arcs or otherwise by black, flaked chips. Of course, my hands had been washed beforehand with soap and water for 20 seconds to the tune of Happy Birthday sung twice. I had plenty of time to do this while the pies were chilling in the freezer. My kitchen sink looked like the aftermath of trying to scrape off an over-toasted slice of bread with a kitchen knife. Plus I had to wash the food processor. Use your imagination for those photos.

Now I noticed I have bananas on my counter more ripe than I prefer to eat them. I know! I will make banana bread! But not until I get more sugar. Until then, I have plenty of room in the freezer to store them if they get too, too brown.