I’ve been working on a few new recipes lately.

Some have been good…but not perfect.

Some have been complete failures!

These little pies would be an example:

I made these delicious, mini crusts using tea biscuits, pistachios, butter, flour and a few spices.  They were incredible!  They firmed up perfectly and popped right out of the pan I used to bake them.

Then I whipped together a filling.  This is where it all went down hill…fast.

I aimed to make a delicious chai flavored filling.  Kind of like a custard, I guess.  Something the consistency of key lime pie would have been perfect.

I wanted to use real tea because too often (almost always) things that advertise themselves as being “chai” flavored don’t even contain tea at all!  They toss together spices–usually an abundance of cinnamon–and call it “chai.”

Chai is the word for tea, it’s not just a simple spice mix.  And since I’m already on my soapbox, I might as well say that “chai tea” is a ridiculous thing.  Chai is tea.  They mean the exact same thing.  “Chai tea” is tea tea.  It sounds so silly.  (I’m looking at you, Starbucks!!!) 

oops.

So, I brewed some really strong Darjeeling chai–flavored with all the essential spices: black pepper, cardamom, bay leaf, ginger, clove and a little cinnamon.

The tea was fantastic.

Unfortunately, when I added the tea to the rest of the filling ingredients the mixture thinned out more than I had planned; but it still tasted quite good.

I decided to bake it anyway, knowing that it would probably thicken up, and it eventually did…after it had already caused my beautiful crusts to crumble.  😦

I think it would have probably worked if I tossed the pie shells back into the pan and baked them that way instead of putting them on a cookie sheet and letting them stand free.

Oh well.

You win some, you lose some.

Lesson learned.

Not everything can be perfect and beautiful all of the time.  Not me.  Not life.  Especially not pie.