One For The Record Books

I have only thrown away two pies in my baking career. It's not because I am all that good at it, rather my family has a pretty good tolerance for just about any kind of pie no matter how it comes out. So throwing out a half eaten pie is a pretty serious event.

The pie that went in the trash was an apple pie with a cheddar cracker topping, the next recipe in my the journey through the "Pie" recipe book. Perhaps the thinking behind the recipe came from thinking that if paring a slice of good cheddar cheese with apple pie constitutes a taste treat, integrating cheese into the pie would be a real knockout.

The recipe called for an apple filling of apples, sugar, salt, lemon juice, lemon zest, and cornstarch. Even though it seemed to me to bit of a boring start, I had hopes that the cheddar cracker topping would carry the day.

The topping was made up of Cheez-it crackers ground up in a blender with butter and then combined with sharp cheddar cheese. You baked the pie for about 4o minutes prior to adding the topping.

Result: The Cheez-it crackers should have been the tip off. Baking something that has already been baked is probably never a good idea. The baked twice Cheez-its had an after-taste that I cannot really describe, although burnt tires comes to mind. Additionally the topping and the filling really had no taste connection; a bland, boring filling with a strange burnt cheddar taste mixed in. What were they thinking. Off the charts - Rating - Don't attempt.