Simple Strawberry Pie

It's a really easy pie to make, and one of my favorites.  Recipe to come when I find a moment.  Sophy's choice, once again.

For this pie, I borrowed a recipe from Paulette Condrasky, my Italian mother in law.  She's the best cook I know, and I rarely see her use a recipe, or measure anything, or pay any attention at all to what she's doing when she cooks.  And she drinks vodka tonics, the whole time she's cooking.  But what she puts on the table is awesome.

This is a very simple strawberry pie.  Why get complicated, when the basics taste so good?

Ingredients
Extra Flaky Crust (credit to Ken Haedrich from his book (Pie)
1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cake flour
1 tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter
5 tbs cold Crisco
1/4 cup cold water


Filling
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
3 tbs cornstarch
dash of salt
sliver of butter
2 tbs dry Strawberry Jello
1 qt of strawberries

Method
To make and prebake crust
Combine flours, sugar and salt in a large bowl.  Add butter and toss with flour.  With mixer on low, blend the butter into the flour until you have coarse, damp meal with large and small clumps.  Add Crisco and repeat.  Pulse the mixer, add half of the water and pulse again.  Do not over mix.

Using your hands, pack the dough into a ball.  Knead two or three times.  Put in the center of a piece of plastic wrap and flatten into a disk about 3/4 inch thick.  Wrap in the plastic and refrigeragte until firm enough to roll, at least an hour.

Fully prebaking the shell: 
You'll need pie weights (I use dried beans) and silver foil. 
Grease and flour 9" pie dish.
Roll your dough on floured wax paper.  Place dough in pan.  Refrigerate for fifteen minutes to firm up the fat, which will increase the flakiness as it bakes.  Once out of the refrigerator, mold gently to pan, shape edge as desired, and trim edges. 
Completely cover the dough with silver foil, and cover foil with pie weights (or beans).  With oven preheated to 400 degrees, bake on center rack for 15 minutes.  Remove foil and pie weights and prick the bottom and sides with a fork so that it won't puff up.  Rotate pie 180 degrees and return to oven.  Lower temperature to 375 degrees and bake for 15 minutes.

To make filling:
Combine 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, 3 tbs cornstarch, dash of salt in saucepan.  Place on medium heat and stir occasionally until boiling.  Once it boils, stir continuously for two minutes and remove from heat.  Add a sliver of butter and 2 tbs of dry strawberry jello.  Let cool.  Clean and slice berries and place in large bowl.  Fold enough of the cooled jello mixture into the berries to bind them - use 1/2 to 3/4 of jello mixture.  Place in baked crust, cool, and serve.

Frozen Lime Margarita Pie

Sophy wins the pie race and needs a drink!  Sophy, the pie race winner for the first period of March, requested a frozen lime margarita pie. It didn't sound that great, and took forever to make, but it looks pretty, and actually tasted very good.  It was kind of like key lime pie with a bite.  It actually had a fair bit of tequila and triple sec in it.

Chocolate Mousse Peanut Butter Pie.

Aunt Judy's birthday, and she's been asking for a chocolate peanut butter pie for ages...I made her one with chocolate mousse, peanut butter and peanut butter chips, in a flaky basic crust.

I got this one out of a Hershey's Classic Recipe book, and changed it only a bit.  It was simple and good.

Ingredients
Extra Flaky Crust (credit to Ken Haedrich from his book Pie)
1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cake flour
1 tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter
5 tbs cold Crisco
1/4 cup cold water


Filling
1 2/3 cups peanut butter chips
1 8 0z package of cream cheese
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup plus 2 tbs milk
1tsp unflavored gelatin
1 tbs cold water
2 tbs boiling water
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1 cup cold whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method
To make and prebake crust
Combine flours, sugar and salt in a large bowl.  Add butter and toss with flour.  With mixer on low, blend the butter into the flour until you have coarse, damp meal with large and small clumps.  Add Crisco and repeat.  Pulse the mixer, add half of the water and pulse again.  Do not over mix.

Using your hands, pack the dough into a ball.  Knead two or three times.  Put in the center of a piece of plastic wrap and flatten into a disk about 3/4 inch thick.  Wrap in the plastic and refrigeragte until firm enough to roll, at least an hour.

Fully prebaking the shell: 
You'll need pie weights (I use dried beans) and silver foil.
Grease and flour 9" pie dish.
Roll your dough on floured wax paper.  Place dough in pan.  Refrigerate for fifteen minutes to firm up the fat, which will increase the flakiness as it bakes.  Once out of the refrigerator, mold gently to pan, shape edge as desired, and trim edges.
Completely cover the dough with silver foil, and cover foil with pie weights (or beans).  With oven preheated to 400 degrees, bake on center rack for 15 minutes.  Remove foil and pie weights and prick the bottom and sides with a fork so that it won't puff up.  Rotate pie 180 degrees and return to oven.  Lower temperature to 375 degrees and bake for 15 minutes.

To make filling:
Melt 1 1/2 cups peanut butter chips in small saucepan over low heat.
Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar and 1/3 cup milk in medium bowl until smooth.  Add melted chips; beat well.  Beat in remaining 2 tablespoons milk.  Spread in cooled crust.

Sprinkle gelatin over cold water in a small bowl.  Let stand 1 minute to soften.  Add boiling water.  Stir until gelatin is completely dissolved.  Cool slightly.  Combine sugar and cocoa in medium bowl.  Add whipping cream and vanilla.  Beat with electric mixer on medium speed until stiff.  Add gelatin mixture, beating until well blended.  Spoon over peanut butter layer.  Refrigerate several hours.  Garnish with remaining chips.  Cover and refrigerate.

Peach Pie with a coconut almond crunch topping

 

February's second pie race winner requested a peach pie.  I read conflicting reports on peaches in February.  One authority told me that frozen peaches are the way to go, that the time between harvest and freezing is so short that you're better off than you are with fresh, sometimes.  The produce manager at my grocery store tells me that whenever you freeze something juicy, like a peach, the cell walls of the fruit burst during the freeze and thaw, and you wind up with a more mushy pie than you want.  I ignored recipes that called for canned peaches, 'cause that just sounded nasty.  I found some fresh peaches from imported from Chile, ripened them for a day in a closed paper bag in sunlight, and juiced them a little longer than normal, because I'd have preferred to use ripe peaches in season.  But it turned out awfully good, anyway.  This is a pie best eaten warm, IMO.  And don't over mix the crumb topping - it gets powdery, which is never good.

I took Ken Haedrich's All Peach Pie with Coconut Almond Crumb Topping recipe and messed with the quantities very slightly, and used fresh instead of canned peaches.

Ingredients

Extra Flaky Crust (credit to Ken Haedrich from his book Pie)
1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cake flour
1 tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter
5 tbs cold Crisco
1/4 cup cold water

Filling
5 cups peeled, pitted and sliced ripe peaches
1 1/2 tabs fresh lemon juice
finely grated zest of one lemon
1/3 cup plus 3 tbs sugar
2 tbs cornstarch
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Coconut Almond Topping
1 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1 tbs milk

Prepare pastry and refrigerate for 1 hour.

On a sheet of lightly floured waxed paper, roll the larger portion of the pastry into a 13 inch circle.  Invert pastry over a 9 1/2 inch deep dish pie pan, center, and peel off the paper.  Gently tuck the pastry into the pan, without stretching it, and sculpt the overhang into an upstanding ridge.  Place in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Combine peaches, lemon juice, lemon zest, and 1/3 cup of the sugar in a large bowl and toss well to mix.  Set aside for 10 minutes to juice.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch with the remaining 3 tbs sugar.  Sprinkle this mixture over the fruit and mix well.  Stir in the vanilla and nutmeg.  Turn the filling into the chilled pie shell and smooth the filling with your hands to even it out.  Place the pie on the center oven rack and bake for 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the topping.  Combine the flour, sugar, salt, almonds and coconut in a food processor and pulse several times to mix.  Do not over mix.  Scatter the butter over the top and pulse until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.  Add the milk and process again until the crumbs are gravelly.  Transfer to a large bowl and rub gently between your fingers to make the crumbs uniform in texture.  REgrigerate until ready to use.

Remove the pie from the oven and reduce the temperature to 375 degrees.  Carefully dump the crumbs in the center of the pie and spread them evenly with your hands.  Press on the crumbs gently to compact them.  Return the pie to the oven, placing it so that the part that faced the back of the oven now faces forward.  Just in case, slide a large aluminum foil lined baking sheet onto the rack below to catch any spills.  Bake until the juices bubble thickly around the edge, about 30 minutes.

Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool for at least 1 hour.

Mike's Apple Pie

 

The pie winner for the first February race got an apple pie, and I made the simplest pie I could, because sometimes, all you really need is a simple, basic apple pie. Mmm.  Recipe to follow when I get a moment to write it up...

Sour Cream Apple Pie with Dark Brown Sugar Topping

I made this pie for our second January pie race. Jessica, the pie race winner, gave me three options, and I picked one that sounded the best, and changed it around a bit to suit. This is pretty heavily based on a SimplyRecipes.com pie, but I shifted ingredients around a bit and used more vanilla and dark brown sugar instead of light.

Ingredients
Pate Brissee(All butter) crust
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, very-cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar (increase to 1 1/2 teaspoons if for a sweet recipe)
2 to 4 Tbsp ice water, very cold

Filling
1 cup sour cream
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 egg
4 cups peeled, sliced tart apples

Topping
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Mix together all ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Chill until needed in the recipe.

Method
Crust
• Start by cutting the sticks of butter into 1/2-inch cubes and placing in the freezer for at least 15 minutes (preferably longer) so that they become thoroughly chilled.
In a food processor, combine flour, salt, and sugar, pulse to mix. Add butter and pulse 6 to 8 times, until mixture resembles coarse meal, with pea size pieces of butter. Add water 1 Tablespoon at a time, pulsing until mixture just begins to clump together. If you pinch some of the crumbly dough and it holds together, it's ready. If not, add a little more water and pulse again.
• Remove dough from machine and place on a clean surface. Carefully shape into a disc. Do not over-knead the dough! You should still be able to see little bits of butter in the dough. These bits of butter are what will allow the result crust to be flaky. Sprinkle the disc with a little flour on all sides. Wrap the disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
• Remove the crust disk from the refrigerator. Sprinkle some flour on top of the disk. Roll out with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface to a 12 inch circle; about 1/8 of an inch thick. As you roll out the dough, use a metal spatula to check if the dough is sticking to the surface below. Add a few sprinkles of flour if necessary to keep the dough from sticking. Gently fold in half. Place on to a 9-inch pie plate, lining up the fold with the center of the pan. Gently unfold and press down to line the pie dish with the dough.


• Preheat oven to 400°F.
• Beat together sour cream, sugar, flour, salt, vanilla. Beat egg separately, then combine. Add apples, mixing carefully to coat well.
• Put filling into pie shell and bake at 400 degrees initially for 25 min.
• Remove from oven and sprinkle with Topping. Bake for 20 more minutes.

Banana Cream Pie

 

I made this one for a  family get together, and it seems to have been well received.  Either it was really good, or they were very hungry, but either way, it was gone in sixty seconds.  I took a recipe  from Ken Haedrich’s book, Pie, and changed it around a very little bit to suit my own tastes.

Ingredients

Graham Cracker Crumb Crust
1 ¾ cups graham cracker crumbs

2 tablespoons firmly packed light brown sugar

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pinch of salt

6 tablespoons unsalted butter.

Filling

¾ cup plus 2tbsp granulated sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

3 cups whole milk

3 large egg yolks

3tbsp unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch pieces

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

Topping

1 cup cold heavy whipping cream

¼ cup confectioners’ sugar

3 medium large ripe bananas

1 Butterfinger candy bar, finely chopped

Method

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray pan with Pam and lightly coat with flour.  Combine graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in food processor.  Pulse until graham crackers are crumbed.  Add butter and pulse until mixed.  Spread crumbs evenly and loosely in pan.  Refrigerate for 5-10 minutes.  Place in center rack and bake for 7 minutes.  Place on a wire rack for 10 minutes upon removing.  Refrigerate and let cool. 

Combine the granulated sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium size, heavy saucepan.  Whisk in the mile and egg yokes.  Place over medium heat and cook, stirring periodically, until the mixture thickens and bubbles, 7 – 10 minutes.  Continue to cook, whisking continuously, for about 1 minute.  Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter, one piece at a time, and the vanilla.  Pour the filling into the chilled pie shell, and smooth out the top.  Gently press a piece of plastic warp against the filling to help keep a skin from forming.  Let cool to room temperature and chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes. 

Once the filling has chilled, cut the three bananas lengthwise into quarters, and slice into small chunks.  Spread evenly and press down into filling.  Using a chilled medium sized bowl and chilled beaters, beat the heavy cream with an electric mixer until it won’t quite hold soft peaks.  Add the confectioners’ sugar and continue to beat until it is stiff but not grainy.  Spread with spatula over bananas until covered.  Sprinkle with chopped Butterfinger.