Pi Day 2018

I decided to celebrate in proper style today, as I am working at home (in part because we are between snowstorms, and I'm not traveling) and I have some new tart pans to inaugurate.  On the other hand, it's our busy month, so I don't have a lot of time to fuss, even subtracting a commute.

I made a basic short pastry in my new mini food processor, using a cup of whole wheat pastry flour, and proportionate amounts of butter and water.  Rolled out and tucked into the tins:

Lid for the apple pie also rolled, and a tart's worth of extra dough.

Then I filled one with a tart apple, cut thinly and mixed with five-spice mixture, a bit of ground ginger, and splashed with (not enough, it turned out) honey: 

Of course, they have to be trimmed suitably for the day.  After adding the lid to the apple pie, I cut the steam slit.  And I pricked the other all over, to bake it blind.  In the following photo you see it filled with parchment paper and beans: 

Then a bit of baking, I took out the shell, and left the apple pie in to cook through.  How does this not violate what I've given up for Lent?  First, because my life and my rules.  Second, because it's not too sweet. And third, because it's breakfast.

 As Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry might say, you can see from the photo of the bottom that it is "a good bake".  The crust is a bit thick, since I was rushing, but the filling tasted quite nice.  You can see how well the apples cooked down, and got darker with the spice and honey cooking into it:

YUMMY!

I finally got to finish the open tart for a very late lunch.  I'd sliced up the sprouts of some onions I'd overlooked and which had decided to go into another generation.  Since this is a tiny tart, I used them as if they were miniature leeks, and sauteed them with oil, salt, and pepper:

You can see the "π" in the piercings.

   

I forgot to get a picture of the finished onion sprouts, or the pie before baking,  I was hungry!  This is the final result - I used a bit of trimming to decorate the top:

There's a sprinkle of shredded cheese, and just one egg.  It was tasty, but showed the effect of my trying to squeeze a recipe down to the tiny size.  The dark spots are all the onion bits I'd cooked down, some of which got a bit took cooked.  But I like the crispy taste that onion gets that way.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the death of Stephen Hawking earlier today.  As some people pointed out, other that being a few years apart, he "was born on the day Galileo died and died on the day Einstein was born."  He threw a party for time-travelers (in part to prove whether time travel exists); spoke to astronauts in space; had a wicked sense of humor; and was part of a trio of the hottest brains ever:

Time to wrap up the day with some jokes (the dark side may have cookies, but the nerd side has pi) and listening to the Fugue on Pi.