Still working on it...

Okay, so I've been experimenting with our Egg Custard Pie at the bakery... I tried a few different recipes and after some modifications, I have finally settled on the one I like best. So now it is a matter of technique... I think I have it somewhat down pat, though my main problem at the moment is figuring out when to take it out of the oven! I always think it is not finished baking yet, so I keep adding a few minutes, but then I just completely miss it and it turns out over baked! *sigh* Anyway, I think I have finally come close to figuring out the approximate bake time ~ 53 minutes. We'll see at the next trial!

So, let me tell you about the new things I learned at the French Culinary Institute I was able to apply to my Egg Custard Pie experiments! Luckily, we are currently learning about custards so, my timing was perfect! So, let us start with burning eggs with sugar... Yes, you read that right, burning eggs with sugar! The first time I made the custard pie, part of the recipe says to scald the milk. In order to save time, I went ahead and started mixing the eggs with the sugar to get that ready to go before adding the milk part. Well, by the time the milk was ready, the egg/sugar mix had turned a dark color. Apparently, I had burned the eggs... =( Because of the hygroscopic nature of sugar, it absorbed all the liquid from the egg, thus burning it! Another thing I applied to my method is adding some of the sugar to the warming milk so that it doesn't burn. And finally, the third method I used was tempering the egg mixture with some of the scalded milk before complete integration.

Here is a picture I snapped with my phone of the final result from today. Of course, it is the nicest of the bunch... Hopefully I will get it perfect the next time!