Kitchen Fails: Pâte Brisée

Oh, kitchen fails... I'm not a fan of making mistakes in general and, while it's nice that we learn from 'em & all, I don't think anyone REALLY ENJOYS making mistakes. Especially one that took a few hours off your New Year's Day. I was all excited to start a new tradition that would bring me and Mark into the New Year with extra luck (I don't know where I made the association between what I was about to do and having a lucky year, but my brain decided to make that connection somehow)...

Every New Year's Day I would make some type of celebratory pie. It would bring us luck and fortune in the coming year. Yes. Apparently a pie is responsible for all those things. And it's delicious to eat. One cannot lose, no?!

Well the tradition was set to start with my first homemade pâte brisée pie crust (Stirling Creamery was kind enough to let me sample some of their Churn 84 Butter for the recipe - it is delicious and is higher in fat content than other butters you can buy in Ontario so it helps pastries and pies and other treats be much flakier than if you use normal butter). This was an ambitious first attempt to say the least.

Long kitchen fail story short, here's what NOT to do when following a  pâte brisée recipe:

• Forget to chill the blade! Damn it! My butter was freezing cold but I. Forgot. To. Chill. The. Food. Processor. Blade.
• Add too much ice water! Even if the f*#*(*g dough won't stick together, DON'T ADD TOO MUCH BLOODY ICE WATER. Don't!
• Overknead it! It makes your pie crust extremely tough. I had a crumbly texture like the recipe picture showed, but when it came time to form it just a bit, enough to get it into ball form for chilling, I couldn't get the dough to stick together. And if I couldn't get it into a decent ball, I knew it wouldn't roll out. So I had to sort of knead a bit to get it into a ball form... you're not really supposed to knead it at all but what's a girl to do?! LOL I couldn't even get enough to roll out properly to make a good size crust, let alone a double crust as I had planned. It was edible, and eat it we did, but it was pretty tough.
• Use a food processor from the 1970s! Mine was my grandma's and, while I love it for sentimental value, I think its motor is a bit weak...

Pâte brisée, I will conquer you eventually! But I think for Jan. 1, 2014 I will master my mother's pie crust for sweet pies. :) Can't wait!

So what were you up to New Year's Day? Did you have any kitchen wins or fails? Tell me about 'em in the comments!

Yours in food,
-Stacey

New Year's Food Resolutions, anyone?

Holy crap - Christmas was very good to our kitchen this year! And with this new gear comes thoughts of what we will do in the new year (New Year's food resolutions, if you will). From the lovely people in our lives who support our addiction for kitchen gadgets, we got:

• an electric "Lazy Susan" warmer which will be AWESOME for parties with our friends to keep food warm. We throw maybe three or so a year but with this puppy I might just be wanting to throw a couple more!
  
  
• a crock pot (the old one I had smelled like an electrical fire waiting to happen - it was my Grandma's). I cannot wait to make a slowcooker recipe my Mom makes with flank steak. Yum!
  
  
• a blender with a spigot - I am in love with the spigot. 2010 will equal smoothie heaven. I can already tell what my favourite thing to make in it will be - I have matcha (green tea) powder and I'll add vanilla soy milk and vanilla frozen yogurt to emulate the Matcha Monsoons at Booster Juice - yum!
  
  
• a pasta machine that I cannot WAIT to get my hands on.
  

My personal first resolution of the new year is to make my own homemade ravioli. I'll have to check with Mark on his, but I think he'll enjoy helping me eat that ravioli! ;)

Got any food resolutions for 2010? Anything you've been dying to make at home? A place you've been dying to eat out at? A food festival you have to make sure you won't miss this year? Please share yours by commenting!

Yours in food,
-Stacey