Saturday was Pi Day. Even though I've never been a strong math student we celebrate Pi Day by making pie (because I am a dessert enthusiast and all I need is the flimsiest reason to justify dessert). This year I decided to make my aunt's Graham Cracker Pie recipe. I gathered all the ingredients, made the crust, cooked up the pudding from scratch and was all set to begin whipping the egg whites into meringue. Lo and behold my mixer was no longer working. The thing is 20 years old and has been used hard so I didn't feel as if I had been somehow cheated. However, it meant I would now have to whip up the 4 eggs whites into meringue...with a whisk...BY HAND. I was less than thrilled.
Could I have just left the pudding in the pie shell and had meringue-less pie? Yes, but I had already gotten my taste buds primed for a proper graham cracker pie and I had already used the yolks to make the pudding and had the 4 eggs whites sitting expectantly in the bowl. To have a meringue-less pie would have been sadly incomplete and disappointing and it would have wasted the egg whites. Yes, I know that amounts to perhaps 10 cents worth of food and no I really don't need you to point out that I shamelessly tossed 10 cents of graham cracker crumbs into the trash. This was now a challenge from the universe that I was compelled to rise to. Besides, I figured the caloric expenditure of whipping that dang meringue by hand would easily justify a second piece of pie for me.
So, if you don't mind please take a minute and marvel over the gorgeousity that is my meringue (with graham cracker crumbs sprinkled on top as per the recipe). So light and fluffy. Look I even made sure it had pretty little peaks to get all toasty brown in the oven.
Could I have just left the pudding in the pie shell and had meringue-less pie? Yes, but I had already gotten my taste buds primed for a proper graham cracker pie and I had already used the yolks to make the pudding and had the 4 eggs whites sitting expectantly in the bowl. To have a meringue-less pie would have been sadly incomplete and disappointing and it would have wasted the egg whites. Yes, I know that amounts to perhaps 10 cents worth of food and no I really don't need you to point out that I shamelessly tossed 10 cents of graham cracker crumbs into the trash. This was now a challenge from the universe that I was compelled to rise to. Besides, I figured the caloric expenditure of whipping that dang meringue by hand would easily justify a second piece of pie for me.
So, if you don't mind please take a minute and marvel over the gorgeousity that is my meringue (with graham cracker crumbs sprinkled on top as per the recipe). So light and fluffy. Look I even made sure it had pretty little peaks to get all toasty brown in the oven.
Mmmm....doesn't that look yummy?
Better get some while the gettin's good.
If celebrating Pi Day isn't geeky enough for you, I took my mixer apart to get at the cord which snapped where it exits the body of the appliance.
I'm geeky enough to know how to fix it but I think, given the life span of the old hand mixer and the amount of baking I do, one of these is called for as a replacement.
