Kitchen Gadgets

Well, I had the worst baking day on Thursday that I've had in a while. I made a batch of pie crust that just wouldn't hold together when rolled out, no matter what I did. I must have forgotten a cup of flour, or added one too many, or something. I added more water, more flour, chilled the dough...nothing worked. And then, the handles fell off my rolling pin, and the ball bearings fell on the floor. So then, whenever I rolled anything out, my rolling pin would make grinding noises, and small shavings of rusty metal would fall onto the pie crust. Delicious.

I have since gotten a new rolling pin, and have also had the chance to try out my new pie blackbird, and let me say, the experience with both of them more than makes up for the lousy day on Thursday.

My husband and I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond today to get new stools for our kitchen and a new rolling pin for me. The stools part of the trip turned out poorly (since we didn't think to measure our current stools beforehand...d'oh!), but the rolling pin part was fantastic. In the kitchen section, I had the choice of 5 or 6 different rolling pins...a small wooden one, a small plastic one, an enormous one, a corrugated one, and even one that was just a tapered cylinder without handles.

And then, there was the Oxo rolling pin. Nonstick. Dishwasher safe. Handles that always stay upright. 12" long. The most beautiful looking rolling pin ever. Bed, Bath, and Beyond sells it for $24.99, which was easily the most expensive rolling pin there. But my husband grabbed it, and we took it home. And after rolling out 3 crusts tonight, I'm in love with it. Its action (if rolling pins have action) is so smooth, and the extra length really makes rolling crusts out a lot faster. The nonstick feature is also pretty awesome; I had a lot fewer tears and chunks torn out of my crusts tonight than I normally do. I honestly wanted to keep rolling out the dough further than I needed to, just because I liked the feel of it so much. I don't know about how dishwasher safe it is; I honestly was too afraid to ruin my wonderful new toy, and so I handwashed it anyways. :)

My second new baking toy was a gift from my friend K. She gave it to me, and at first, I really didn't know what it was. She explained that it was a pie blackbird, and that, while she had never heard of one, all the people at the cooking store said it was a must-have for those who made pies.

After doing a little research, I learned that you put the pie bird in an unfilled pie crust, put the filling in around it, and then drape the top crust over the bird. The bird's beak will puncture the crust, allowing the bird's head to poke through. What the pie bird does is release the steam from the pie, so that the filling does not overheat and boil over. Today, these pie birds are not only useful when making pies, but are also valued as collectibles, as they come in many shapes and designs.

Further research showed why these steam funnels are often in the shape of birds--apparently, royal chefs in medieval times were always looking for ways to impress the court, and one of the things they sometimes did was put live birds into baked pies, so that when the pie was sliced open, the birds would fly out. Remember the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence"? Apparently, the line "Four and twenty blackbirds/ baked in a pie" isn't complete gibberish after all :)

At any rate, I used it to make my blueberry pie tonight, and I think it's the nicest looking pie I've ever made--the pie bird seems to suck out any extra air, and so the pie is nice and neat looking. And the bottom of my oven is clean (or at least no dirtier than before I started baking).

Happy baking!