a taste of birthday bananas

Since banana cream pie is my boyfriend's favorite dessert, his birthday celebration over the weekend was the perfect opportunity to test out my skills in the pie arena. I had to go out and buy a pie pan earlier in the week, if that says anything about my current pie making skill level. Nonetheless, the finished product was a bunch of bananas better than I initially expected.

Before turning the oven on Saturday afternoon, I was most worried about perfecting the meringue topping. Much to my surprise, I seem to have a magic touch for whipping up meringue, but my pie crust technique needs some work...

I used shortening to make my pie crust, as it makes for a nice flaky crust with good flavor (so I was told). The image above doesn't really convey the true size of the rolled out crust, however, I will be honest and tell you that it did not all fit in the pie pan without some extra guidance. I had to break off pieces of dough from one side and press them around to other sides where needed. Luckily, this was not evident in the finished product because of the beautifully browned meringue distraction.

After baking the pie crust and slicing the bananas, I was ready to make the vanilla cream filling. This process started with my first experience separating egg yolks from egg whites. Not as hard as I thought, although I did have to dig out a small piece of egg shell from the bowl of egg whites. (Note to self: meringue should not be crunchy.) The cream turned out nice and smooth and my only worry was keeping it warm while I attempted my first meringue.

Much to my delight, my wobbly Sunbeam mixer did a fine job of whipping up a tasty meringue topping. (Yes, a KitchenAid mixer is on my "wishlist of happiness," but for now, I am happy to make do with what I have in my cupboard.) I quickly poured the vanilla cream into the pie crust over the bananas and spooned the meringue on top. After carefully spreading the meringue to the edges of the pie crust, it was ready to bake.

I should take a second here to note that I have a bit of a bad habit of peeking into the oven to check on my goodies before they're done. This poses a problem only if you're one of the chefs who believe that you're letting heat escape and cold air in, therefore altering the quality of the finished product. I am not one of those chefs. Although this bad habit may be breakable if I had an oven with a light inside... Another addition to the wishlist I suppose.

Controversial oven habits aside, thirty minutes later my very first pie came out of the oven looking like this! While I'm not personally a huge fan of banana cream pie, I was pleased to receive a plethora of pie praise from not only the birthday boy, but also a few family members who were in town for the weekend. One piece even made a two and a half hour car ride north to Columbia City, where it was promptly devoured by my uncle.

All in all, it was a successful first taste of pie. Seeing the happiness on my boyfriend's face as he ate several pieces during the course of the weekend made it that much sweeter. Three days and counting until my adventures in pastry really begin. Get your tastebuds ready...