# I screwed up again...damn it!



## htc (Dec 31, 2004)

Made banana cream pie last night and didn't let the cream get thick  enough, so today when I cut into the pie, the cream is oozing..  :? Usually my BCPs have a nice consistency so when I cut slices it still looks pretty.

last couple times I have made it, I've screwed up.  I am going to make it again next week just to prove that I can go BACK to making it good.

Does anyone else experience this?  You know you can make it well, but for one reason or another it turns out bad...


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## PA Baker (Dec 31, 2004)

It's happened to me, htc, with all sorts of things.  Usually I'm too busy and trying to do several things at once and either miss a step, time things out wrong, or am just plain careless.  It's usually a "wake up call" of sorts and I go a while before I make a big goof again.  DH points out that when you cook as much as we do we're bound to have some more slips-up.  He's right!


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## Alix (Dec 31, 2004)

Hey, I like your DH attitude. Very cool.


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## PA Baker (Dec 31, 2004)

Alix said:
			
		

> Hey, I like your DH attitude. Very cool.


Yeah, he's not bad!  He tends to be the calm, even keel one in the relationship.  Most of the time, when he tells me that, it doesn't sink in because I'm too mad at myself.  When I stop and think about it at a later, more rational moment (I have them once in awhile!) I know he's right!


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## marmalady (Jan 1, 2005)

Maybe it was the cream - they're doing some very funky things to whipping or heavy cream these days, lots of additives and 'stuff', and sometimes you'll get a batch that just won't thicken.  I had a quart I was trying to reduce to thicken recently, and it 'reduced' fine, just stayed thin. 

 TO THE DAIRY FARMERS  OF AMERICA - DON'T MESS WITH MY HEAVY CREAM!!!


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## Audeo (Jan 2, 2005)

marmalady said:
			
		

> Maybe it was the cream - they're doing some very funky things to whipping or heavy cream these days, lots of additives and 'stuff', and sometimes you'll get a batch that just won't thicken.  I had a quart I was trying to reduce to thicken recently, and it 'reduced' fine, just stayed thin.
> 
> TO THE DAIRY FARMERS  OF AMERICA - DON'T MESS WITH MY HEAVY CREAM!!!



I have experienced the same nightmare, marmalady!

Here, here!  Stop Fiddling With Our Cream!!!!!


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## htc (Jan 2, 2005)

Ok, then I'm totally blaming it on the cream.


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## kyles (Jan 2, 2005)

In England we seem to do good cream, but I have had that happen in Australia many times, it is infuriating.

Hey PA Baker I like your dh's attitude. I am mentoring a junior at work, who occasionally gets feedback coz she does the odd thing wrong (as we all do) I keep saying to her those that make no mistakes are not working hard enough!


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## Chief Longwind Of The North (Jan 2, 2005)

kyles said:
			
		

> ... I keep saying to her those that make no mistakes are not working hard enough!



I say somnething similar, but less kind.  My version states "The only people who never make mistakes are those who do nothing."

I have little tolerance for those who always put the blame on others, and make sure to point out another persons mistakes, and usually never admit to their own.  I have a boss like that.  He drives often me nuts.

That's why this forum is so great.  We are all willing to try something new, and if it fails, we admit that we don't know everything there is to know, and ask questions.  We learn from our mistakes and try to share our collective knowledge.  That to me is how society should work.  I'm glad to belong to such a group as this, and to another one as well, but then, I'd be straying into religeous teritory so I'll shut up now.  

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North


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## Chief Longwind Of The North (Jan 3, 2005)

Oh, by the way, I mess up all the time asa well.  It's part of being human.

My two cents for the cream not setting up properly depends on whether you are using a custard base, or starch to thicken.  If it's a starch base, add a little more starch to the liquid.  If you are making a custard, remember to avoid boiling the custard as it will break.  baking in a water-bath might help.

For custard and cream pies, I like to blind-bake the crust, make the filling on top of the stove to assure the proper consistancy, then add to the baked crust.  Refrigerate until cold.

Making a cream pie and getting it to set properly from baking is more difficult.  I like easy.  I don't have enough experience with cream fillings to make them accurately in the oven.

But I'm sure there are those here that do.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North


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## jasonr (Jan 9, 2005)

I'm just curious, what do you mean it is not thick enough? You whip it to medium peaks presumably, and then, what, it just unwhips?


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## htc (Jan 9, 2005)

The cream part of the banana cream pie was too runny.  Before when I made it and it was chilled properly it would set nicely and when I cut the pie, the cream doesn't ooze.


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