Jan 07, 2013
I was pleasantly surprised by the flavor of this pie. It was a bit bland, but other than that, the taste was pretty good, albeit reminiscent of refried beans with unusual seasonings. The only unpleasant part about the flavor is the hint of vanilla. I should have followed my instincts and left that out. I did cook the bean mixture before pureeing it, because uncooked/undercooked beans can be toxic and I didn't want to end up poisoning my family. I'm only giving the recipe three stars because of the blandness, fact that the beans really do need to be cooked more thoroughly, and also I really think there's something wrong with the measurements for the crust. I've never seen a pie crust where the amount of fat equaled the amount of flour, so I reduced the amount of butter (COLD) to 1 cup and chilled the shortening for over an hour. Even so, I still ended up with a thin paste rather than a dough. I had to add almost two cups more of flour before I had anything close to a dough. Like the previous reviewer, I noticed that the amount of beans were way too much for a single pie. I only pureed about half of the beans and still had enough for an 11-inch pie. I used the rest of the beans to make chili for dinner. While this was a fun experiment, I doubt that I'll make it again. It was a lot of work and the end result just wasn't enough to justify it.
—Keri
