General blather

Better Baking 2024

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One last pie and a wrap-up

I got one last pie baked this year – a sort of tropical take on a mincemeat pie (no meat involved at all).

For the dried fruit I used a mix of raisins, cherries, apricots, mango, and pineapple. I soaked all that in brandy and spices for around a week, then made the pie using packaged crust. Mainly because it was Christmas and I had plenty of stuff to do without making crust. I forgot to add a stick of butter cut into small dice that the recipe called for, which might be why it is very crumbly? Or possibly I needed to cook it briefly before putting it in the crust? As you can see, it did not stick together very well, but it tasted pretty good. Much lighter than the traditional fruit mix, I think.

So this is the last item in my year of learning to be a better pie and cake baker. I aimed for 1 pie and 1 cake each month. In terms of timing, it didn’t fall out quite like that. However, I did make 12 cakes and 13 pies, so good enough. All in all, I think it was pretty successful. Not everything I baked turned out well, but there were lessons in the missteps. I did pick up some new skills, which is was I was hoping for. I didn’t try everything I planned on, but that is OK. There’s nothing stopping me from baking cakes and pies in the future, I just won’t be doing as much of it. Next year I’m going to work on my pizza baking skills. I do make pizza somewhat often, but the results are hit or miss. So I’ll see if I can improve those odds.

2025 – the year of the pizza!

18 thoughts on “Better Baking 2024”

  6. I’ve never made a mincemeat pie, but it looks like a fun experiment!

    Homemade pizza is a wonderful thing! I’ve enjoyed making a variety of pizza dough, but for me the thing that changes up the pizza the most is what I bake it on. I have a pizza stone (great for crispy crusts, but harder to use unless you’re good with a pizza peel) and a metal pizza pan (not as crispy but SO MUCH EASIER).

    Sourdough pizza can be quite good, too. Though my recipe for sourdough pizza crust is a sourdough + yeast combo, so the flavor is not as sour as it could be.

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    1. I agree with you about homemade pizza! I do like using a pizza stone, but it is definitely harder to use than a metal pan. I have not tried sourdough crust yet, but hope to at some point!

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      1. I got to the point where I was only slightly messing up my pizza crusts with the pizza peel + pizza stone combo, but I have slacked off on that lately and have only been using the metal pan. I’d need to practice with the pizza peel all over again, I fear. (And yes, I did dump one of my early pizza peel pizzas onto the oven door when I was trying to get it in the oven. That was a disaster! LOL)

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      3. It had (for me) a steep learning curve, but it was helpful—especially for getting the pizza out of the oven. I had started out putting my pizza on the stone using parchment paper, and that worked well for transportation of sticky dough, but I always worried a bit about the paper burning in the high oven temps. The pizza peel removed the worry of the parchment paper burning, but came with its own issues.

        However… for every day homemade pizza these days, I use the metal pan because it requires no extra planning or thought process.

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      4. There’s a lot of good to say about no extra planning or thought! Thank you for sharing your thoughts on that. I’ve considered a peel and still thinking about it.

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