Money Pie

Mmmmmm, I love a large slice of money pie. With its rich and decadently glistening filling, the al dente clatter of silver against tooth enamel - nothing quite beats it. Abramovich is a fan I hear, washed down with a pint of Russian crude. And Bill Gates has been known to guzzle a few after his marathon sessions of online scrabble, the greedy monkey. Flavoured with exotic ingredients from around the world:- a few grams of Brazilian Reis here, a pinch of Thai Baht there, maybe a slug of US dollars to hold it all together. Yum.

Waiter! Bring me another slice of that pie and this time go easy on the custard will you!?

Of course you can't really eat money pie. That would be stupid. Imagine the indigestion that would follow and I won't even go into the toilet issues. Do you remember the fantastic French entertainer Monsieur Mangetout on Record Breakers with Roy Castle and Norris McWhirter? He's guzzled over 9 tons of metal in his lifetime, including a Cessna 150 aircraft. You just know Health and Safety watchdogs would prevent that from being broadcast to children nowadays.

Mum: What would you like for tea tonight Jonny?
Jonny: Can I have carburettor and chips, Mum?
Mum: Don't be so silly, Jonny. Chips are terribly bad for you.


Anyway, maybe when he's feeling a bit flush Monsieur Mangetout gets his local patissier to knock up a flan au fric rather than visit his local Michelin starred eatery. Quel imbecile!

Ok, I'll come clean. This post isn't about money pies or flan au fric at all! It's about blind baking the Blumenthal way. On his programme Perfection, Heston demonstrated his method for blind baking by filling the pastry case with coins instead of baking beans. The reason for this is that metal conducts heat more evenly, ensuring the bottom of the pastry cooks properly. There's probably some rule about only using coins made of the same metal but I just tipped in a load of foreign currency left over from my travels and it did the trick. It produced the perfect rich shortcrust case for my caramalised onion and gorgonzola quiche.