Aspiring Bakers #10: Easy as Pie (August 2011): Rum - Vanilla Cream Pie

I love to join all the baking event on the internet, and yes there are many ^^. I had a chance to participate in Aspiring Bakers before Aspiring Bakers #3: My Favorite CNY Cookie (Jan 2011) Chinese almond cookies and it's a long time ago.

Mostly because I don't have so much time to stay at home lately, even I do bake a lot but having to bake something specific is not easy. The thing that I bake depends on the ingredient that I have on hand or the request from family members. 
Anyway, when I know that this month the Aspiring Bakers will do something as easy as pie, hehe, I said "Wow, I can do it, for sure". There are so many thing that I can make, and I really believe that making pie is not hard to do.
There are many way to make the pie crust, it depends on the recipe (what kind of the crust that you want) and how easy you want it to be ^^. If I don't lazy I will use the food processor, it's easy and you get good result but the additional work is you will need to clean the food processor too, hehe. But using the pastry cutter is easy too, but you have to keep the butter (or any kinds of fat) cold, because you will need more time than using the food processor.
Keeping it in the fridge for 1 hour (or for some recipe 30 minutes), the pastry will relax, cold and easier to be rolled. This time I choose to try the recipe from the book ".............................." The recipe is "Rum - Vanilla Cream Pie", the pie that will catch every vanilla lover's heart ^^ (ie. my sister, haha).
And if you're the one who love vanilla too, I think you should try this, the pie that makes you happy with the lovely fragrance. A bit of rum helps adding some special touch in this pie but if you don't like it just leave it out, and be happy with your vanilla.

"I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #10: Easy as Pie (August 2011), hosted by Janine of Not the Kitchen Sink!" I bake Rum - Vanilla Cream Pie.

 Rum - Vanilla Cream Pie

Make 18 cm round pie pan or 10x25cm rectangular pan

Pâte Brisée
80g .................................. All purpose flour
¼ tsp .............................. Salt
¼ tsp .............................. Sugar
60g .................................. Unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes
1-2tbsp ........................... Ice water


Rum – Vanilla filling
100g ............................... Sugar
17g .................................. Cornstarch
⅛tsp .............................. Salt
½bean ........................... Vanilla bean
280ml ............................ Whole milk
2 ..................................... Egg yolks
1tbsp .............................. Dark rum
2tbsp .............................. Unsalted butter, soft


Topping
½ cup ............................ Whipping cream
2 ½ tsp .......................... Icing sugar


Dusting
½ tsp ............................. vanilla powder 
½ tsp ............................. Icing sugar

Makes Pâte Brisée:

 Put all the ingredients, except cold water in a bowl of small food processor and process until the mixture resemble fine breadcrumbs.
Pour the ice water into the bowl and process until the dough just hold together.
Use your hand to gather the dough into a ball.

 Cover with plastic warp and refrigerate until firm (1hour -1day).
When the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 180°C
Butter the pan.
Roll the dough into preferred size (depend on the pan that you use), and fit the dough into the pan.
Pierce the bottom with fork and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Line the shell with aluminium foil and fill with Baking beans.
Bake until the edge begin to golden 15-18 minutes.
Remove the weights and foil, bake until the crust is golden brown 12-15 minutes more, let cool completely on the wire rack.


Make Rum – Vanilla filling:

 Combine granulated sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan. Whisk  in milk and vanilla seed, and cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until bubbling and thick.
Whisk egg yolks in a medium bowl until combined. Add milk mixture in a slow , steady stream, whisk until completely incorporated. Return mixture to saucepan, and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it return to boil 1-2 minutes.

 Pour mixture through a fine sieve into a large bowl, and stir in 1tbsp of dark rum. Add butter, whisk until butter melts. Let cool, whisking occasionally about 10 minutes.

 Pour custard into crust. Press plastic warp directly on the surface of custard. Refrigerate until custard filling is firm, 4 hours or 1 day.
Before serving, whisk cream with icing sugar until soft peaks form, and pipe whipped cream over pie.
Dust with icing sugar and vanilla powder  and serve immediately.

Aspiring Bakers #10: Easy as Pie (August 2011): 

Rum - Vanilla Cream Pie