TWiB #9 – Pumpkin Cream Cheese Pie

I made this pumpkin cream cheese pie as part of a pi(e) date with GiR. We had cottage pie, this pie, and watched the movie Pi.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Pie

Recipe
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Pie from New Baking Book (Better Homes and Gardens)
crust: Plain Shortcrust Pastry from Cooking: A Commonsense Guide

Modifications
None

Rating
3 stars out 5. Not really any better than a traditional pumpkin pie.

TWiB #8 – Quiche

Yes, a quiche is more like “cooking” than “baking”, but I did make my own pie crust, so that counts, right?

Quiche

Recipe
crust: Plain Shortcrust Pastry from Cooking: A Commonsense Guide
filling: modified Quiche Lorraine

Modifications
I used the Quiche Lorraine as a springboard for the quiche, since the ingredients are easily changed.

• 1/2 pound plain sausage instead of bacon
• colby-jack cheese instead of swiss cheese
• added most of 2 peppers (1 red and 1 green)

Rating
Overall, the quiche gets 3 1/2 stars out of 5, but the crust by itself is 4 stars out of 5.

TWiB Bonus Edition – Goleem

This TWiB Bonus Edition was brought on by a commission from my friend SS. He requested an edible version of a monster-thing he came up with called a Goleem.

It needed to be man shaped and have a soft, dark gray center (representing lead) with a hard, light gray exterior (representing titanium) and a powdered sugar coating. And bonus points for having it stand up.

I love challenges like this, so I spent the rest of the day pouring over ideas for what to do. I eventually decided to bake a white cake and color it gray for the lead. I froze it after baking so it would be easier to cut and build. For the titanium coating, I chose white chocolate candy melts, colored gray.

Building was pretty easy, if messy. I cut out the shapes from the cake and stuck them together with toothpicks and wooden skewers. I lay the Goleem on a wire rack over some wax paper and spread the melted coating on his back first. When that dried (very quickly), I turned him over and coated his front. There was only a minor mishap involving one of his arms falling off and having to be re-cut, attached, and coated. =) Quick dots of icing gel for eyes, then (miracle of miracles) he stood up.

Awwww…. isn’t he so cuuuute?

Not to mention very tasty. =)

TWiB #7 – Bananas Foster

Yes, I am still doing TWiB, it’s just taking me forever to post pics.

Bananas Foster

Recipe
Family recipe of MB’s

Modifications
None

Rating
Good, but not impressive. 3.5 stars out of 5.

TWiB #5 & 6 – Napoleons and Eclairs

I was sick during TWiB #5, so I had to double up and do #5 and #6 together. The recipes I chose are very similar in general flavors, but have very different results.

Napoleons

Recipe
Used store-bought puff pastry dough and this pastry cream

Modifications
For half the Napoleons, I spread a thin layer of strawberry jam over the pastry cream and added a dollop of jam to the top

Rating
The rating for the strawberry ones is 4 stars out of 5. The jam adds just the right about of sweetness.

Eclairs

Recipe
Eclairs

Modifications
None

Rating
4.5 stars out of 5. These were AWESOME. The only thing that needs improvement is the chocolate glaze.