I wanted to try a new twist on my nearly famous low-fat pumpkin pie. It includes layering marshmallow creme on the pie crust before adding the punkin'y goodness, in which I have an admittedly heavy 'spice' leaning. But that's another post. At any rate, when I went grocery shopping (after Tom's pre-New Year's Eve party, probably not the best idea) I couldn't find marshmallow creme. So I got marshmallows instead. And of course, the first pie turned out horribly, horribly wrong.
What is supposed to happen is that the marshmallow creme marbles through the pie filling and in places, bubbles over the top, to add a fake meringue-type covering. What actually happened was kind of that, but not. I carefully layered the small marshmallows on the bottom of the pie crust before adding the filling, taking care to even spritz them with butter and coat them with spices. Then I slowly added the pie filling. Turns out, marshmallows float. So even before going into the oven, it was visual chaos.
To add to that, I used a whole can of fat-free evaporated milk (12 ounces) instead of a true cup (8 ounces). So besides being visually chaotic, it was a runny, soupy mess. I baked it anyway. It's still runny. (But not so much that my cat & dog weren't able to feel as though, briefly, I baked a pie especially for them.)
Which reminds me: Tom & Maria - sorry I wasn't able to come through on that pie I told you I was making for you guys......
So, with the second pie, I adjusted accordingly. I microwaved a bowlful of marshmallows, but must have overdone it - because the result was a yellow-ish series of globs resembling melted plastic, by sight, smell, and consistency. I had to throw away my rubber spatula! So I tried again, half the time, to zap the marshmallows. This time, it resembled marshmallow creme, but that apparently doesn't spread so well on a graham cracker crust. So the underlayer of marshmallow creme ended up being kind of star-shaped, rather than covering the entire base of the pie crust.
Then I got creative, and added marshmallows around the border. Then I thought it might be neat to try to make a Christmas Tree out of marshmallows on the pie. I even cut cold marshmallows with angles for the tree (pre-cooking), but of course, none of that effort remained after cooking. The end result, though, is much better by comparison. I had some left over during my third pie, so made a small snack-size pie for myself. I figured I should at least taste my new recipe iteration before gifting it to others!! (It was an insulin-overloading taste explosion, if I say so myself.)
So here is the first pie: a picked off scabby topped goo:
...and here is its refined version (much better looking!). Now this pie was able to pass the quality test for gift-giving, for looks (meh) if not for taste (spicy!) :
While waiting for my second pie to complete, and before making a batch of Snickerdoodles, I took a walk along South Main, to see the luminaries. These are lit by homeowners all along S. Main on Christmas Eve. The neatest part: whole families were out strolling along the walks, and each one to a person that is encountered offers wishes of "Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!" It's like the happy ending part of some Dickensian tale.
So, with that, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
