Welcome, welcome everyone.

[last minute edit]

[takes another deep breath]

Welcome back to Sunday Gravy.

A few weeks back our very own Brick Meathook entertained us all with photos of banana cream pie that he sampled from a variety of LA institutions.

L.A is actually fairly well known for it’s pies as well as it’s burgers. Why there’s even this out here…

Obviously that’s Pie ‘N Burger a Pasadena landmark since 1963. This place actually resides right in our own Balls of Steel and Fury’s neighborhood.

It’s said that LAs car culture led to the prevalence of these types of restaurants in the area and they are all over greater Los Angeles.

Speaking of Senor Balls: a few weeks back on one of Mr. Balls open threads he referenced the photos that Brick had been posting and even asked where to find the best banana cream pie in L.A. Me being me of course said something like “That’s easy! In my kitchen.” I even said if you give me a couple of weeks I could prove it.

Gauntlet thrown, challenge accepted and here we are.

We’ve indeed featured pie before on Sunday Gravy. Right at the absolute very fucking beginning of the pandemic I wrote this feature about key lime pie. 

In that post I mentioned that pie had been featured even further back in time in a post written by long term inmate resident and random commentist Old School Zero.

We’ve also featured quiche several times on Sunday Gravy, including this season’s premier episode and in fact, I will be using the exact pastry dough recipe that was used in that episode to make our pie today.

 

During previous discussions about my upbringing, inspiration and family history I’ve spoken about being a 4th generation baker. My great grandmother MeMaw was an incredible baker who passed the torch to grandmother MeMe, then to my own dear Ma and finally to me.

Please note that while I have given Ma a ton of shit for her weeknight dinner menus I would never disparage her baking. That woman could bake.

I’ve been baking since I was about 13-14 years old give or take but I did indeed fall out of practice after taking a few years off with the exception of breads and the occasional quiche. In the married days I baked something damn near every week for the ex and my daughters. In fact pies, especially cream pies were hands-down my specialty. Ever have a chocolate cream pie? Custard pie anyone?

I stopped baking back around 2000 or so because I was a single recently divorced dude and if I made a pie I would eat the whole motherfucking thing.

Finally figured out that this was not sustainable when I reached 339 pounds.

Baking stopped. Eating healthy started.

Didn’t mean I couldn’t still throw the fuck down, now. Don’t get me wrong.

This is why when I threw out the banana cream pie challenge I didn’t even break a sweat. I’ve probably made 15 banana cream pies in my history so it was simply a matter of getting my crust right – easier said than done people! Easier fucking said then done.

I was confident in my pie because I broke out my secret weapon; MeMe’s recipe!

Shall we make a pie then?

Yes! Let’s!

Gather your ingredients.

We start by making the crust. If you wish to follow along with this particular dough recipe be prepared cuz you will need to let it rest for several hours. Or you can do what I did and refrigerate it overnight.

Butter pastry dough!

2 cups all-purpose flour, divided

½ cup butter (1 stick), cut into 12 cubes, frozen

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons ice water

Add the first cup of flour to your food processor and add in the sliced frozen butter.

Next add the remaining flour, the sugar and the salt.

The food processor is critical to keeping the butter cold. Give ‘er a few quick pulses to combine.

Next drizzle in the very cold water and pulse again a few times. The dough will look a bit dry and you may feel compelled to add in more water but don’t. Trust me.

Gather the dough into a ball and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Should look a little something like this…

Into the fridge you go. You need at least 4 hours of refrigeration but it worked even better overnight.

Next day it’s time to roll it out.

Start by flattening the dough with your hands as much as you can before applying the rolling pin. I spread the dough out over a sheet of parchment paper and place another sheet on top. Similar to how I roll out my flatbreads.

Then using your rolling pin go ahead and roll it on out.

See those dollops of butter scattered throughout?

That’s the proper SHIT right there. Herein lies the secret to flakiness.

Carefully lift the dough and place it in your pie plate. I’m using the big plate today.

My form and application of “art” in this particular instance is in the creation – nay the perfect preparation of the finished dish. Most notably in the finished taste.

What my art definitely fucking ain’t?

I can’t “flute” the edges of my pastry dough for “FUCK-ALL!” I have a niece who’s a pastry chef and you should see her pastry edges. Goddamn masterful they are and this is the best I can do?

You know what? I’m resigned to it. It’s my own little idiosyncrasy and I can live with it.

In fact? This is nothing. You should see my sad ass try to wrap a Christmas present. I fucking SUCK at it.

So instead I’ll just have to settle for being a culinary badass. My art is the taste dammit!

We’re next going to blind bake the crust. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. When the oven is heated bake your pastry shell for 10 minutes. What I did this time is laid a sheet of parchment paper over the crust, being sure to press down lightly over the entire crust. This kept it from over-browning.

Get it to somewhere in this general vicinity.

The cracks in the shell won’t matter. Really. Once we stuff this bastard they won’t even be noticeable.

Time to build the puddin’!

Fun story: when I made the pie I told brother TAJ bout it and he actually asked me if I used “Nanner Puddin’ mix.”

It’s Southern shit folks.

Hell no, we’re not using a mix. We’re making this shit from scratch. Thing is, this really does make a fucking kick-ass pudding all on it’s own.

Cream pie filling

hat tip to Sallysbakingaddiction.com for the memory refresh.

1 and 3/4 cups whole milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

4 large egg yolks

1/4 cup cornstarch

1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 Tablespoons butter, softened to room temperature

Start by heating up the milk, cream, sugar and salt. Heat this over a medium-low heat. Not too aggressive we want this to form together and just slightly start to bubble. When baking a pie be prepared to do lots of stirring. A whole goddamn lot of stirring.

Time to practice your egg separation technique. Once again for the record! It’s cool if you leave a little white in your yolks. It is most definitely NOT FUCKING COOL to leave yolks in your whites.

While the milk is coming to a simmer whisk your egg yolks and cornstarch together in a medium bowl.

Next is the fun part. The tempering of the eggs. Not too difficult but a step you most definitely do NOT want to fuck this up. We’re making puddin’ not scrambled fucking eggs over here.

Remove about a cup of the hot milk/cream mixture and with a steady slow pour gently and add it to the egg mix. Keep stirring dammit! Keep pouring/stirring until the cup of milk/cream is incorporated with the egg/cornstarch.

/.

Next add the egg mixture to the rest of the hot milk/cream and stir like a motherfucker until everything is blended smooth and delicious looking.

Now that’s a proper damn puddin’ right there.

Let it cool but first lay a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the custard so a film doesn’t develop on top.

Refrigerate a few hours or even overnight.

Finally it’s time to build the beast.

Slice 2-3 bananas into fairly thick slices and form an even layer over the cooled pie shell.

Like a lot of banana in your pie? Get after that shit, Jackson! It’s your goddamn pie!

Now for the secret trick. This is what made MeMe’s pie stand apart from the rest of the pie crowd.

Yep. A sprinkle of cinnamon. Maybe 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon evenly over the banana slices.

This shit really, really works too!

Pour the chilled custard over the entire shebang and spread the pudding smoothly over the top.

At this point you can decide whether to do a banana cream or a banana meringue pie.

While I do indeed make a kickass meringue, the initial request called for banana cream pie so whipped cream – from scratch of course – was the order of the day.

Whipped Cream!

1 cup heavy cream

2 Tablespoons confectioners’ (powdered) sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form, about 5 minutes.

[record scratch]

That was the plan anyway. I should let everyone in on the fact that my two pie sampling judges for this experiment were none other than DFOs own Balls of Steel and Fury AND Rikki Tikki Deadly!

Guest judges up in here!

It was fucking fantastic hosting and just seeing these good folks again. It was pre-pandemic the last time we got together and I missed the hell out of these guys. The DFO LA contingent used to get together quite a bit before…well, yeah. Damn good to see them. 

Anyway!

I had my Kitchenaide stand mixer all ready to go with the whisk attached and every-damn-thing when I encountered an anomaly. I big fucking anomaly it turned out.

With just a small amount of ingredients for the whipped cream the goddamn whisk barely even reached the surface of the liquid in the mixer! Motherfucker didn’t reach bottom!

So? Remove the goddamn whisk and start whipping that shit by hand it was. I got a couple of minutes in and made a call to the bullpen and Senor Balls stepped to the plate, took the whisk from my hand and finished the hand whisking himself! Which was greatly appreciated because my ass was worn out at this point.

[don’t even fucking start]

Finally, add a dollop of the freshly whipped cream right on the pie.

Oh hell fucking yes.

The crust. That fucking crust. And there’s puddin’? This was affirming.

I got our backs MeMaw. I’ll carry the baking torch and I have a good feeling that you’ve inspired more than the next generation of this family. I’ve got two generations of my own who can stand with the best of them.

There you go.

So great to be able to welcome Balls and Rikki to the right dojo. I got to show off my cooking to some of my best friends. I broke out all of the good stuff too.

While withholding one small secret.

Everything was vegetarian.

Had a blast.

The request line is indeed open if you have a menu request. I do love a good challenge.

Have a great Sunday folks. You’ve earned it.

See you next week.

PEACE!