My baking school break is over and now it's The Art of Pies - all pie, all the time! Our first pie was Custard-Filled Phyllo with Orange Syrup. I've never worked with phyllo before and it was pretty simple, but not very low-fat.
Sheets of phyllo were brushed with butter and laid in a pie plate. The filling included: milk, butter, sugar, cream of wheat (all heated until just boiled), and eggs, orange juice and vanilla (whisked together and then added to the previous cooled-down mixture). More buttered phyllo was laid on top of mixture once it had been poured into the pie plate and the sides of the phyllo were scrunched up to form the ruffled look you see here.
After baking (approx. 40 minutes), an orange syrup consisting of sugar, water, cinnamon, cloves, orange and lemon peel and Grand Marnier (brought to a boil and cooled for 5 minutes) is poured over top of the finished pie to give it some flavour. Once the pie is fully cooled, it can be dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon. I had a piece for breakfast today and it was very rich and flaky - not as flavourful, I don't think, as some of the other pies in our course outline will be (Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie and Cherry Cheese Streusel Pie!). After sampling a little piece, I usually give away everything I bake but not sure that will be the case for this class..
