On the [belated] sixth day of Christmas… A guest blogger did appear

The third of the ten stories in 1001 Nights Of Snowfall is The Christmas Pies. The story is painted by resident Fables artist Mark Buckingham and focuses on Reynard the Fox who tricks the Adversary’s forces into baking and delivering Christmas pies to a group of trapped and hungry animals in effort to recreate “the miracle of the Christmas pies”.

Let’s take a step back here before I get into this anymore. Yesterday, there was an unfortunate hamburger incident that rendered Bill unable to work on the sixth blog. So I’m here – Stephanie, Bill’s assistantey critter and Sherpa – to fill the gap on the holiday blogs (you can find more details on me and where to find me at the bottom of the page). Some of you might be familiar with me already and some might not, but I live up in Canada and work remotely from the frosty north. I just moved into a new apartment and as such, I needed to christen my oven with something delicious; my first home-cooked meal in the apartment. That’s where the story of Reynard the Fox and the Miracle of the Christmas Pies comes into play.

Sort of.

Yesterday, as I mentioned, was the day in which I decided to cook my first proper meal in the new apartment. A lot of my recipe books are still packed away, so I looked through my collection of recipes on the computer and stumbled across the perfect one: Potato Bacon Cheddar Pie, or PBCP for short.

I should mention that this recipe originally came from Chef Michael Smith and he called this “pie” a tart, but I think that’s pretty rude to call people/things bad names, so I’m sticking with pie. I adjusted this recipe a bit to be easier, so I’m going to post my version below, but if you’d like the fancy shmancy one, I won’t be offended if you visit Chef Michael Smith’s site instead.

Ingredients:

2 pounds of bacon

3-4 cups of cheddar cheese (depending on how much you like cheese)

3-4 large unpeeled baking potatoes

Salt and pepper to taste

Parchment paper

You’re going to need a 9-10’ round cake pan for this. You could probably use a pie plate as well, but it’ll work best if you have something that the bacon can’t really stick to. That’s where the parchment paper comes into place though, so let’s get started!

Steps:

1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2) Get a piece of parchment paper that covers the cookware you’re using. From there, fold the paper in half and then in half again and then like you’re making a paper snowflake, start folding the it into triangles. Martha Stewart can explain what I mean better. You’re not making a paper snowflake though, so don’t start cutting out shapes and such.

Once you’re done that, take the tip of the triangle and line it up in the center of the dish and then where the parchment paper meets the edge, cut the excess paper away.

Grab some spray on oil and line the dish with it and then place your round parchment paper inside.

It should look like this:

3) Next up, you’re going to want to get out your bacon. Have I mentioned that the crust for this “pie” is bacon? Because it is. You’ll probably want to put something underneath the dish so that when you do this step, the bacon isn’t hanging all over the sides and onto your counter. You’ll see what I mean in a second. I used a cookie sheet underneath mine.

You’re going to put bacon the entire way around the dish, right on top of the parchment paper. Make sure the first slice goes right to the center and the second slice overlaps the first by a little bit. After that, every other slice shouldn’t come right to the center of the dish, but rather about half way back. Otherwise you’ll wind up with a giant mound of bacon meat in the center of the dish. Make sure that the bacon that’s hanging back a bit still overlaps the previous slice, but again, you don’t want a clump of meat in the center.

After you’re done with the circle of bacon, it should look something like this:

4) Next comes the first layer of potatoes. Each potato slice should be about as thin as you would make scalloped potatoes. If you’ve never made scalloped potatoes, the slices should be as close to a quarter of an inch as possible. You’ll want to arrange them into the pan (and on top of the bacon!) a bit like you would if you were making scalloped potatoes. Start at the outer edge and work your way around and into the center. Try not to leave gaps and try your best to make sure the layer is mostly one level. You don’t want mountains and valleys in your potato layer. After you’re done, sprinkle salt and pepper on top of the layer to flavour. If you like a little bit of additional flavour, you can put some fresh garlic in there or sprinkle a little bit of garlic powder in as well.

5) The first layer of cheddar cheese then goes on top of the potatoes. Cover the potatoes so that you don’t see them anymore. If you’re a cheese lover, add more. If you aren’t, just sparsely sprinkle over the potatoes. It’s really up to you: it’s a cheese your own adventure!

6) Repeat Steps 4-5 once more. From there, you want to continue the steps a few more times, but you want to start bringing the potatoes away from the edge, like a layer cake.Like this:

7) Once you’ve completed your cake of potatoes and cheese, you’re going to fold the bacon back over the top of the potatos and cheese. Gently press down as you go along so, again, you don’t wind up with a giant mound of everything in the center of the pie.

It’ll look like this:

8) The final step before putting this bad boy in the oven is to put something with a little bit of weight to it on stop of the pie before letting it cook. Bacon curls and you don’t want the edges to roll down, so find a lid for a pot or pan or anything basically that’s safe to go in the oven. Put a piece of parchment paper between the lid and the pie, place it on top and NOW the pie is ready to bake.

9) Bake at 350 degrees for a minimum of 2 and 1/2 hours. Make sure to put a pan or sheet underneath the pie since this IS a pie made of bacon and it’ll sizzle in the oven and potentially make a mess otherwise.The pie is ready when you’re able to easily slice into it, letting you know that the potatoes are cooked.Once you take it out of the oven (very carefully because the pie dish will likely be filled with bacon grease and you don’t want to burn yourself!), find something to pour the grease from the pie into. Carefully drain it and once that’s done, you have a PCBP or a Potato Bacon Cheddar Pie.

If you like what I have to say and my recipe for your own personal slice of heaven, you can find me on Twitter @hellocookie or over on my own web site/personal blog www.misfortunecookie.ca.

NOTE: Bill’s Seventh Blog of Christmas will be up later today.