late pie

I started, too late in the day, to make a pineapple-apple pie for Charles since we're meeting tonight (I'm using up the Chuseok-gift apples and pears that my company gave me). I'm going to have to bring it to him tomorrow. This time around, I did something I don't normally do: I blind-baked the bottom crust of the pie because the last couple of pies I've made, while being awesome in terms of their top crusts and fillings, had somewhat soggy bottoms. So I hit this bottom crust with a 350ºF blast for ten minutes, followed by five minutes of baking using both the top and bottom burners of my oven (you have no idea how convenient that makes baking: being able to select burners allows you a lot more control over how your dishes turn out).

So—sorry, Charles, but your pie will be coming tomorrow.

UPDATE: now I remember why I don't usually blind bake: with the dough I'm using, the pie crust tends to shrink a lot when the pie has no filling. (You're actually supposed to do things like freeze the crust before baking, then you line the crust with foil and add "pie weights" in the form of beans or special oven-ready marbles to keep the dough from shrinking and collapsing. Yeah—I forgot to do all those things, and I paid the price. Duh.) This crust shrank about 20% after a short bake, so I can't use it. I still have dough for the top crust, which will now become dough for the bottom crust. So I need to make more top-crust dough, plus dough for a whole 'nuther pie (the second pie is for my office).

UPDATE 2: it occurs to me that I need to buy more pineapple for my second pie. Luckily, stores ought to be open tomorrow. As an anti-capitalist measure to help small, struggling businesses, most large chain stores have to close every second and fourth Sunday of the month to give small stores a chance to sell on one day of the week without competition. (As I said: anti-capitalist. In my opinion, if you can't compete, you deserve to die. For this same reason, I despise government. bailouts in the American economy. A car company that fails in a weak economy ought to be cut loose, not saved.) This measure doesn't apply to all stores, but if you're trying to hit a major store like Costco, Home Plus, SSG Food Market, eMart, etc., and it's the second or fourth Sunday of the month, you're fucked.