Better Baking 2024

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!