Ginger-Apricot

I cannot believe what I have done... What I did... It's too horrific... I used a store-bought crust.

I can hear you gasping in horror.  I do not blame you.  It was a moment of weakness.  You see, it was getting late on a Monday night, I had been at play practice since school got out and was going to be getting home at 8:00 P.M. with a pie to bake and homework to do.  A store-bought crust seemed like a simple solution to my time crunch.  I rationalized my actions by saying that it was high time I learned if store-bought crusts were as bad as I had heard.  Let me tell you something: they are WORSE.

Store-bought crusts typically come in packs of two.  This way you have the option of making two single crust pies, or one double crust pie.  Because I was making Ginger-Apricot Pie (ginger and apricot were made for each other) I needed to do a double crust pie.  So I left the first crust in its flimsy aluminum tin...

For goodness sakes it even LOOKS fake.  Well anywho, I took the second crust and placed it upside-down on a piece of parchment paper to warm up a bit so I would be able to place it on top without it splitting in half on me...

While the crusts were sitting around I got to work on the filling.

I happen to be noticing a common trend with many of my fruit pies... Can you guess what it is?  The use of tapioca.  It makes sense I suppose.  Frits and berries tend to have so many natural juices in them that SOMETHING has to be used to avoid a liquid mess all over the place.  I don't think I've showed you an actual picture of tapioca yet, so here you go:

Personally I think it's kinda funny looking... But maybe that's just me.  So the sugar mixture for a Ginger Apricot filling includes tapioca, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, a tough of salt, and... GINGER!  Shocking I know.  Sugar mixtures have practically become second nature to me... I seriously think I could put one together in my sleep.  (Wouldn't that be impressive... making a pie while sleep-walking.  It could be dangerous, but still!)  With the sugar mixture ready I just added it to my apricots (just like the peaches they are home canned) and put the filling in the store-bought crust.

I'm not sure what is more hideous, the filling (yeah, peach and apricot fillings just don't look appealing to me until after they've been baked) or the crust... I take that back, the crust is much worse.  Well next I had to take the other crust that had been sitting on the parchment paper and place it on top of the pie.  Easier said than done.  Maybe the problem was that I didn't let the crust warm enough before trying to put it on top, maybe it's just that store-bought crusts suck... Personally I'm going with a mixture of the two.  The crust kept on tearing as I tried to seal the edges of the two.  After a good fifteen to thirty minute struggle I had a top on my pie.  Thank Goodness!  Throughout all of this I had begun to get very annoyed with the store-bought crust (this thing was supposed to SAVE me time, not take forever to get on the pie) but I had yet to realize the true horror of what I had just encased my filling in.  I placed the pie into the oven, and then turned back to the counter to see that in the midst of my battle with the crust a small piece of the edge had come off.  When I make my own pie crusts I always nibble on the excess dough, it just tastes so good!  Without really thinking about it I picked up the piece of crust and popped it into my mouth.  I just about died.  That thing was NASTY!  And I had just spent HOW LONG making a pie with it?!  An hour later the pie was done and I was able to see my creation...

Not only did it taste horrible, but the edges were just falling off!!!  Store-bought crusts... ugh.  The next day in ELI my class was distraught.  They loved the filling (some said the filling was actually their favorite so far) but the crust was just sad.  On the up side, they did boost my spirits to some degree.  They informed me that my pie crusts are twenty times better than the store-bought one.  I can't help but agree.  Never again will I sink so low as to use a sore-bought crust.  Never again.