Like first tracks after a storm ... Boston Cream Pie....

http://jamescasey.co.uk/fafnir/bostoncream.jpg



This is the Boston cream pie. It is creamy. It is rich. It is extravagant. It travels among the glitterati and the well-to-do and it is never out of place. It is so upper crust it does not need a crust. Everyone has good things to say about the schools it went to and the celebrities it hangs out with and its influential family. This is the old money pie.

And it is a good pie, a delicious pie, a pie as smooth and as silky as a limousine made of fur coats. But has this pie forgotten its roots? Has it become distant and cold to its fellow pies, like the earthy apple pie and the hearty pot pie and the homespun pumpkin pie? Or is all of this just the bitter whispering of jealous pies?

You are haughty and aloof, Boston cream pie and we resent you for it. But we resent you because we love you so. We crave your rich texture and privileged upbringing. We pine for your easy socialite lifestyle and your creamy custard filling. Who does not want in their heart of hearts to be the Boston cream pie?

This thread is useless without recipes.

The Boston Creme pie has always seemed more like a cake to me.

Ever had a Kootenay cream pie?

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Originally Posted by AKA

The Boston Creme pie has always seemed more like a cake to me.

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I agree, pies are more the crust and filling (apple, cherry, rhubarb, poon-tang, etc) while cakes have that cake-y part. The sponginess makes it a cake, though I cake I love

I ate a kumquat for the first time the other day, it was delicious.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Arty50

This thread is useless without recipes.

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Boston Cream Pie
9/1998

The egg whites should be beaten to soft, glossy, billowy peaks. If beaten until too stiff, they will be very difficult to fold into the whole-egg mixture.

Serves 8
Foolproof Sponge Cake

1/2 cup cake flour
1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon table salt
3 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 eggs , room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar

Pastry Cream

2 cups milk
6 large egg yolks
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/4 cup cornstarch , sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon rum
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (optional)

Rich Chocolate Glaze

1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup light corn syrup
8 ounces semisweet chocolate , chopped into small pieces
1/2 teaspoon vanilla


1. For the sponge cake: Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 8- or 9-inch cake pans and cover pan bottoms with a round of parchment paper. Whisk flours, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl (or sift onto waxed paper). Heat milk and butter in a small saucepan over low heat until butter melts. Remove from heat and add vanilla; cover and keep warm.

2. Separate three of the eggs, placing whites in bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment (or large mixing bowl if using hand mixer or whisk) and reserving the 3 yolks plus remaining 2 whole eggs in another mixing bowl. Beat the 3 whites on high speed (or whisk) until whites are foamy. Gradually add 6 tablespoons of the sugar; continue to beat whites to soft, moist peaks. (Do not overbeat.) If using a standing mixer, transfer egg whites to a large bowl and add yolk/whole egg mixture to mixing bowl.

3. Beat yolk/whole egg mixture with remaining 6 tablespoons sugar. Beat on medium-high speed (setting 8 on a KitchenAid) until eggs are very thick and a pale yellow color, about 5 minutes (or 12 minutes by hand). Add beaten eggs to whites.

4. Sprinkle flour mixture over beaten eggs and whites; fold very gently 12 times with a large rubber spatula. Make a well in one side of batter and pour milk mixture into bowl. Continue folding until batter shows no trace of flour, and whites and whole eggs are evenly mixed, about 8 additional strokes.

5. Immediately pour batter into prepared baking pans; bake until cake tops are light brown and feel firm and spring back when touched, about 16 minutes for 9-inch cake pans and 20 minutes for 8-inch cake pans.

6. Immediately run a knife around pan perimeter to loosen cake. Cover pan with large plate. Using a towel, invert pan and remove pan from cake. Peel off parchment. Re-invert cake from plate onto rack (see illustrations below). Repeat with remaining cake.

7. For the pastry cream: Heat milk in a small saucepan until hot but not simmering. Whisk yolks, sugar, and salt in a large saucepan until mixture is thick and lemon-colored, 3 to 4 minutes. Add cornstarch; whisk to combine. Slowly whisk in hot milk. Cook milk mixture over medium-low heat, whisking constantly and scraping pan bottom and sides as you stir, until mixture thickens to a thick pudding consistency and loses all traces of raw starch flavor, about 10 minutes. Off heat, stir in vanilla, rum, and butter (if using) and transfer to another container to cool to room temperature, placing a piece of plastic wrap directly on surface of mixture to prevent skin from forming. Refrigerate pastry cream until firm. (Can be refrigerated overnight.) To ensure that pastry cream does not thin out, do not whisk once it has set.

8. For the glaze: Bring cream and corn syrup to a full simmer over medium heat in a medium saucepan. Off heat, add chocolate; cover and let stand for 8 minutes. (If chocolate has not completely melted, return saucepan to low heat; stir constantly until melted.) Add vanilla; stir very gently until mixture is smooth. Cool until tepid so that a spoonful drizzled back into pan mounds slightly. (Glaze can be refrigerated to speed up cooling process, stirring every few minutes to ensure even cooling.)

9. While glaze is cooling, place one cake layer on a cardboard round on cooling rack set over waxed paper. Carefully spoon pastry cream over cake and spread evenly up to cake edge. Place the second layer on top, making sure layers line up properly.

10. Pour glaze over middle of top layer and let flow down cake sides. Use a metal spatula, if necessary, to completely coat cake. Use a small needle to puncture air bubbles. Let sit until glaze fully sets, about 1 hour. Serve.


STEP BY STEP: Folding Without Deflating

http://www.cooksillustrated.com/imag...pongeCake1.jpg
1. With saptula perpendicular to the batter, cut through the center down to the bottom of the bowl.

http://www.cooksillustrated.com/imag...pongeCake2.jpg
2. Holding the spatula blade flat against the bowl, scoop along bottom, then slide up the side of the bowl.

http://www.cooksillustrated.com/imag...pongeCake3.jpg
3. Fold over, lifting the spatula high so that the batter falls without the spatula pressing down the batter.

not a bad recipe, i would prefer a sponge cake without chemical levening and a pastry cream without corn starch.

the egg beating needs a note too.

start with cold eggs.
and make sure your mixing bowl is completely clean and dry.

separate your egg whites into an 'intermediate' bowl. preferable small and clear glass. separate the white into your intermediate bowl, put the yolk into your yolk bowl. very closely examine the egg white. if there is any yolk at all in the egg white (even the minutest speck), save it for omlettes or whatever and start over. you should even wash and dry your intermediate bowl if you see any yolk get in there. once you have verified the white is completely yolk free, dump it into your mixing bowl.

once you have separated your eggs, let the mixing bowl stand until the egg whites reach room temp. then beat them.

eggs separate easier when cold, but whites will form peaks quicker when warm. letting the eggs reach room temp lets them achieve max volume with minimum violence.

also, any yolk or fat in your whites will reduce the volume you will get out of your egg whites.

Everybody knows cream pie's are all about the filling


Link NSFW

http://www.creampie.com/images/pics/gianna20055.html

Boston, the white guy on the show "I love New York" creamed in your pie?

This got me thinking...a pie variation on Flan might taste damned good. I'll have to ponder and try that.

Sprite