Dinner Last Night & Tips for Cream Pies

Yesterday afternoon we sat out in the backyard and enjoyed the heat wave we're having.  Eventually dinner rolled around, and we BBQd some curried potatoes, portobello mushrooms, and mini farmers' sausages.

Dessert was the chocolate cream pie that I had baked up that morning.

When baking cream pies, you have to blind-bake the crust, which just means that you bake it before you put the filling in.  In order to prevent shrinkage, and the crust falling down from the sides of the pie pan, you need to put something heavy in the middle while it bakes.  If you don't have pie weights, which I don't, you could use dried beans, rice, etc..  I used buckwheat that had been in the pantry forever. 

Just roll the dough out and place it in the pie pan, trim, and pierce with a fork along the bottom and sides.  Line with the shiny side of tinfoil (you could give the tin foil a quick spray to ensure it doesn't stick), and then fill with something heavy to hold it down.

You could also line the pie dough with tin foil, then put another pie plate on top to hold it down.

Once the crust is done, and cooled, you can cook up the filling on the stove and pour it in.  You'll refrigerate it for a couple hours to set the filling.  If you want to prevent a nasty "skin" from forming on the top of your cream pie, cover it with plastic wrap, pressing it down to touch the filling:

This will keep it nicely until it's chilled and you cover it with whipped cream.

Perfection.

How is your week going so far?  

Are you having a heat wave where you are?

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