welcome friends welcome back to the
kitchen it is canadian
thanksgiving weekend uh this weekend
so i'm doing uh sort of a more coveted
friendly
smaller gathering um of family because
we can't have a big
gathering this year and so i've got a
i've got a roast beef going out on the
pellet grill
we're doing a tomato aspic for the old
cookbook show on sunday
and a wild rice and broccoli dish that
is an old
family favorite that we can't do without
and this
is an old family favorite that we can't
do without on
thanksgiving and that is date custard
pie
so this is a single crust pie and the
bottom crust gets parbaked
if you go way back on our channel you'll
see that i've done this pie before
and my method has changed over the years
and i think that's important as you grow
as a cook and you try new things
and you talk to different people and you
see different methods
you really should change to get better
to grow
and so i didn't parbake this crust for
the longest time
because my grandmother didn't bake the
crust she would just make it and it
would all go in and it would bake at the
same time
i have since changed so i'm going to
roll out the crust
and we'll get ready to par bake it
okay let's give it a shot
i think that's good so just fold this
back
and lift it in
and then take a fork and dock it which
is just
prick little fork holes in it and that
just allows steam to escape
so it doesn't bubble up it also helps it
a little bit
in the shrinkage department but
that's really down to pie weights so and
do along the edges too along the sides
and don't be afraid to over dock it's
better to over
do more holes than not enough they will
mostly close during the
the first par baking process and none of
your filling is going to leak out
through the holes
now take a piece of parchment paper but
instead of just pushing it in like that
i crumple it up
and then unfold it
crumple it up again and i might crumple
it two or three times this time i'll
only do it twice i won't make you watch
me do it over and over and over again
what this does is it breaks down the
paper a little bit makes a little more
pliable
makes it so that when you put the pie
weights in whether you're using actual
pie weights or
dried beans it fills the cavity better
and
really gets into all of the nooks and
crannies and corners
it gives you a better fit really is what
it comes down to
now i have both pi weights and
beans um
i usually go for beans first in fact i
pretty much always use beans
some people use sugar uh some
people will use sugar with foil
other people use these these beans and i
have them
i don't use them that often but i'm
running out i've got i'm a little short
on beans today
so i'm gonna put some pie weights on top
and it's okay if you mix these two
together it's not a problem
you really want to make sure that the
entire shell
is filled all the way to the top with
weights
it keeps the shell from shrinking now
the oven is preheated to 475 degrees
fahrenheit and i have my pizza stone on
the middle rack
and i'm gonna sit the pie crust directly
on the pizza stone
just to transfer as much heat as quickly
as possible
to set that bottom crust that'll go in
there for
12 to 15 minutes then i'll take the pie
weights out and stick it back in for
another two minutes
while that's happening we'll make the
custard for the custard we start out
with
three cups of milk and this is just uh
homogenized milk 3.25 milk fat
you could use half and half you could
bump it up with a little bit more cream
i find this works pretty well
so the milk i'm going to put into this
pot uh it's sort of on a medium-low heat
we just want to bring it up to below a
simmer
you don't want it to boil you don't want
it to get that hot you just want to have
it
warm enough to start that custard
cooking when you mix it with the eggs so
next i've got five eggs and
i'm just gonna break those into this
container
now four of the eggs go into this mixing
jug
one of the eggs i'm going to put in this
little bowl
and we're going to use it as an egg wash
inside the parbage shell when it comes
out of the oven
so i'm just going to set that aside for
a moment and to these eggs i'm going to
add
sugar salt
some vanilla
and i'm going to grate in a little bit
of nutmeg
and then we'll just whisk this up
okay so the shell is perfect which is
different than blind baking even though
i often use the terms interchangeably
blind baking really is
for pies where you're just putting a
filling in and it's not going back
into the oven where it just goes into
the fridge like a chiffon pie or
something like that
whereas par baking is the term that
you're supposed to use
when the pie will go back into the oven
for baking
a tiny little point that i often just
use the words interchangeably and i know
that's wrong but i don't know i still do
it for some reason
so i just whipped up that egg a little
bit and we're going to egg wash the
inside
of this pie shell this is a tip that i
got from
a food stylist recipe developer here in
toronto
and she told me that this keeps the
inside of the pie
shell from absorbing any of the custard
when you first put it in
and it's one of those things that seems
to work and it certainly doesn't hurt
so when i've got a pie filling that uses
egg
i will do this and just get it
everywhere
you don't need to put it back into the
oven to bake since this came right out
of the oven and the inside of this crust
is unbelievably hot
okay so this egg that's left over i'm
gonna put it into the egg with the
filling and just mix that in
and our milk looks like it's at about
the right temperature it's just steaming
a little bit so i'm going to temper the
eggs with the milk
drizzle it in a little slowly at first
because you don't want to scramble the
eggs
and then you can just pour all the rest
in
so in this bowl i have chopped dates
and i just sprinkle those into the
bottom of the pie
shell distribute them fairly evenly
and then i pour the custard over top
okay so the real trick is getting it
into the oven without spilling it
everywhere and if you were smart
you would probably stick this on a
baking tray
in your oven with the shelf out pour the
filling in and then gently
push it back in sometimes with the
camera going and everything happening
i'm not that bright
so the oven was really hot 475
when i baked the shell i turned it down
to 325 when i took the shell out after
par
baking and i'm gonna stick this in
to this hotter oven
without spilling and i'm going to let
that
go at the lower temperature the oven
will cool down slowly but that
slow cool down period down to 325 from
475
will help set the custard to begin with
and then slowly cook it through
okay have forks so this is not
julie's favorite part my friends no it
turned out pretty well
it does look like i'm pretty pleased
with that but it is my family's favorite
pie
um and i i i said earlier
the pie that's sitting in front of me is
my favorite
i'm i really am okay with pretty unless
it's coconut or banana
but date custard i absolutely love it
that's a great custard glen that's like
a nice firm
custard with lots of good flavor and i
luckily got one without a date
yay so that there's the thing so the
custard itself isn't sweet
no the dates are really sweet and so
when you get a date you get that hit of
sweetness and that flavor from the date
and i find dates just way too sweet like
they're just overwhelming
for me but to me i really like it when i
get a date and the bottom crust is so
nice and crispy isn't it
it's a job well done yeah and my family
would be thrilled
and your family would be thrilled but
it's just you and i
so we get it all uncle jimmy go to town
on that
luckily he's not here this year i can
eat it all myself
yes you can so um
take custard pie and you could do
raisins in this custard
you could do any dried fruit in the
bottom of this custard pie
you could do dried apples you could do
all of those things you could probably
do a mixed fruit we've never done that
yeah it would be very interesting yeah
there's you know so it is just a basic
custard pie
and play with the the bottom as you like
really really make it your own if you
like uh date squares
yeah at all you're gonna love this pie
it's just
and it's just toned down a little bit
it's not nearly as sweet it's not
cloying
it is kind of a refreshing end of the
meal pie that you could eat probably
five or six slices i feel like you could
wax poetically for another five minutes
i could go on and on and why this is a
good one i could go on and on about this
pie
but we need to move on to the tomato
aspect um
there's a whole yeah we'll get there so
if you've missed it this is our
uh canadian thanksgiving week feast we
did a uh a strip loin roast we smoked it
and then reverse seared it we did
a broccoli and cheese with wild rice
thing
so check out those videos as well and
come back for the tomato aspect
thanks for stopping by see you again
soon
you