The pie I remember best from childhood had a base of flaky pastry, followed by a thick layer of creamy mousse-like chocolate and clouds of fluffy whipped cream. Its name was French Silk and it came from Bakers Square. I’ve made a fair number of fruit pies over the years but shied away from cream-filled ones.
It’s the filling, which is either a cooked custard or an uncooked (raw eggs!) mousse, which I was convinced I would wreck. But on this Monday night, I’m about to get the boost I’ve always needed, in a cream pie class taught by Honeypie’s Chief Executive Pie Officer. Not only is it like having your own tutor coaching you to pie preeminence, but the class is also a total blast.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
I’m one of 12 initiates gathered around a worktable in the kitchen of Palomino, Honeypie’s sister restaurant. Our goal in the next two hours is to make two 8-inch pies with our choice of cooked cream fillings. Instructor/restaurant co-owner Valeri Lucks starts her two-hour lesson with the base – our crust, which we can make either with graham cracker or chocolate cookie crumbs, sugar, a little salt and melted butter. I’ve always loved mixing with my hands, and that’s exactly what we do for this crust – a moist, sandy, stick-together mix that can be easily molded into our pie tins. (Quick tip: push it into place with a measuring cup.)
The cream filling recipe can be customized to make vanilla, coconut, chocolate and other pies. In the kitchen, we can choose between various extracts and add-ins like shredded coconut, chocolate chips and bananas. Each pie will be topped with fresh sweetened whipped cream, then needs to be chilled for at least four hours before we can eat it. But Lucks speeds up the process without glossing over steps.
While our crusts are baking (7-10 minutes), Lucks makes a huge pot of filling that all of us will use for our pies. To do this, she whisks egg yolks in a saucepan and adds sugar, cornstarch and salt. Then she pours in whole milk (“Don’t use anything less than whole milk,” she tells us.) and continues whisking. Now comes what I think will be the tricky part: cooking the custard over high heat until it thickens. But she makes it look easy; in less than 10 minutes, the custard is ready – pale yellow, shiny and silky-smooth.
Lucks hooks an ice cream scoop to each side of the pot’s rim and invites us to line up to take portions of it to fill our own pies. I add vanilla and almond extracts to the portion of filling I take for my banana cream pie. For my other pie, I add coconut extract and chocolate chips to the warm custard, stirring until the chips are melted, then fold in shredded coconut and carefully spread the mixture into my crust.
It looks so good I want to sneak a bite – but I can’t! I look around and see a few folks licking their spatulas longingly and figure I’m not alone. But Lucks saves the day by bringing out samples of pies they made ahead of time. Fortified by dessert, I leave armed with my creations – and a swagger I didn’t have before. Cream fillings? A piece of cake, er, pie.
The Pie Sessions are hands-on classes (2-3 hours) that cover topics like “butter crusts and apple pies.” They’re held in the kitchen of Bay View’s Palomino. Cost: $85, includes ingredients, recipes, a drink at the bar, and your own baked treats to take home.
