Make This: Salted Caramel Pie

I am not much of a baker and I pretty much never make pies because I am terrible with pastry. I think it's one of those things that you either get or you don't, and I'm firmly in the "don't" category (fortunately, my sister, Cooper's sister, Cooper's dad and Alicia are all in the "get" category, so I've got plenty of dessert makers in my life).

Here's the thing, though: since I am an overachiever, I desperately wish I was naturally good at baking. But since I am also realistic, and I don't like damaging my self-esteem, the only baking recipes I try are ones that sound really easy. Which means the only pies I try to bake have graham cracker crusts.

Upside: graham cracker crusts are delicious.

All of this is a long way of saying that I just made the salted caramel pie from the November issue of Food and Wine and it was a) delicious, in a rich, salty, sweet way and b) pretty much impossible to screw up. It takes a long time to make - 2+ hours of oven time and 4+ hours of chilling/setting - but it's well worth it.

Let's take a look:



Dixon helped me with the crust. So easy a five-year old can do it!





This is what the caramel looked like after about an hour and 45 minutes in my oven (which tends to cook things quickly). A little lumpy, but as the recipe attests, the lumps smooth out during the chilling process. Also: licking this pan clean was pretty awesome.




Lumpy caramel pie, pre-chill.




Five hours later, out of the fridge, with a topping of very slightly sweetened whipped cream.




And sliced for the plate!



Cooper thought it might have been even better if the base of the pie was frozen pre-whipped cream. He could be right about that, but I'm also not sure how the crust would hold up. Either way, it was very good.

Plus, the satisfaction of baking something myself - even something easy - pretty much priceless.