Week 7: Double Trouble

This week I had a pie in mind that I wanted to make, but I made the mistake of asking my husband if he had any requests, and he asked for lemon meringue pie.

Now the dilemma...my pie, or his pie? I compromised and made both.

I'd seen Paula Deen make a white chocolate macadamia nut pie one day on her show. It looked and sounded delicious. White chocolate macadamia nut cookies are one of my favorites so I figured this would also be wonderful.

The ingredients proved to be somewhat expensive--things can get pricy when you're making multiple pies. Between the white chocolate baking bars, whipping cream, cream cheese, and macadamia nuts, this really added up. My goal for next week will be to see how inexpensive I can keep things.




For my second set of pies I chose another Paula Deen recipe that said it was lemon meringue. Instead of the usual cornstarch, sugar and eggs mixture, it involved mixing eggs and lemon juice with sweetened condensed milk.




My pie crusts went really well.



Both fillings were fairly easy to make, too. I was glad since I was making a total of 6 pies! I spent a lot of time with my mixer today.



As I expected the white chocolate filling was delicious!

Pat tried the lemon meringue and he was not impressed. I tried it later, and found it to be most definitely non-traditional. It was more creamy, and not very tart at all.

Since I made 6 pies and we kept one of each kind, I had 4 to deliver.

I delivered one pie to a next-door neighbor. In return I got to see her beautiful just-remodeled kitchen. I now have extreme kitchen envy because everything she'd done was something I have been wanting to do with my kitchen.

Another pie went to a co-worker to "convince" her to trade a shift with me so I could go to a friend's wedding. Yeah, it's a bribe. She loved it.

The other two pies went to church friends. One of them is moving so I'm glad I got to get a pie to her before she moved. Both of them said, "You made my day!" and that made my day.

I'm really having fun with this.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Pie
Recipe courtesy Paula Deen, from FoodNetwork.com

Prep Time: 25 min
Inactive Prep Time: 4 hr 0 min
Cook Time: 5 min
Level: Intermediate
Serves: 6 to 8 servings.

Ingredients:

Ganache:
•3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
•1/2 cup heavy cream

Filling:
•6 1/2 ounces cream cheese, softened
•1/3 cup sugar
•1/3 cup heavy cream, plus 3/4 cup, whipped soft
•6 1/2 (1-ounce) squares premium white baking chocolate, melted
•1/2 teaspoon orange zest
•2/3 cup roasted, chopped macadamia nuts
•1 pre-baked deep-dish (9-inch) pie shell

Garnish:
•1 1/2 cups heavy cream
•1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
•1 to 2 ounces chopped macadamia nuts

Directions
Place chocolate chips in a metal mixing bowl. Bring cream to a simmer over medium heat. Pour simmering cream over chips and stir until melted. Set aside and allow to cool to room temperature.

Filling:
Beat cream cheese and sugar with a handheld electric mixer until smooth. Scrape bowl with a spatula and mix in 1/3 cup heavy cream. Add the melted white chocolate, zest, and nuts and stir just until incorporated. Fold in the whipped cream. Spread into pre-baked pie shell and level off using a rubber spatula. Put in freezer until frozen.

To finish pie, place the ganache in the microwave on low for no more than 10 seconds at a time. Stir after each warming, until ganache pours loosely but is not even close to boiling. Be very careful when warming chocolate, as it will burn very quickly when heated in the microwave. Once chocolate is scorched it is unusable. Spread warm ganache over top of frozen pie, smoothing to the edges with a spatula.

Garnish:
Beat cream and confectioners' sugar with a handheld electric mixer to stiff peaks. Transfer to a piping bag and pipe edges of pie with whipped cream. Sprinkle macadamia nuts over top. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Lemon Meringue Pie
Recipe courtesy Paula Deen, FoodNetwork.com

Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 15 min
Level: Easy
Serves: 6 to 8 servings.

Ingredients
•1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
•1/2 cup lemon juice
•1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
•3 egg yolks
•1 (8-inch) prebaked pie shell or crumb crust

Meringue:
•3 egg whites
•1/4 teaspoon cream or tartar
•1/4 cup sugar

Directions
In medium bowl, combine milk, lemon juice, and zest; blend in egg yolks. Pour into cooled crust.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until soft peaks from. Gradually beat in the sugar until stiff. Spread over filling; seal to edge of crust. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until meringue is golden brown.

Week 6: Cheering Up with Cherries and Berries

I was feeling up for a challenge this week and decided to make the pie that won the competition on the recent Food Network "Pie Challenge" show.

This pie is called "Tom's Cheery Cherry Cherry Berry Pie." The original recipe has pretty specific ingredients, such as "dried Michigan cherries" and "Montmorency tart cherries." Seeing as I was trying not to spend my entire weekly grocery budget on this project, I chose to go with the frozen cherries and dried cherries I could find at Winco. This may have affected the final product, but face it, I'll never know, because I won't be buying those fancy cherries to try it again. It cost enough to get the ingredients at Winco.

Since the recipe included a crust recipe, I decided to try it, and it turned out fine.

The filling went just fine as well. There was a little error in the recipe I had at the time--it mentioned adding the blueberries to the cooked cherry mixture, and then says to put the blueberries on the bottom. I compromised by putting 1/2 cup of the blueberries in the cherry mixture, and then 1 cup of blueberries on the bottom of the pie. After re-looking up this recipe to include in this blog, I realize that I must have had a defective version, because this one doesn't mention putting blueberries in the cherry mixture.




The cherry mixture was VERY juicy, and pretty much filled up the pie shells. By the time I added the massive amounts of crumb topping, the juice was spilling over the sides of the pie. Good thing I had already put the pies on cookie sheets.

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When baked, the pie undergoes an amazing transformation. The crumb topping shrinks and caramelizes into this amazing crunchy surface--mmmm delicious.



I'd never made a topping like this for a pie before. Now that I have, we are envisioning similar pies with blackberries. I also saw one at the grocery store the next day with a similar topping, that had peaches and raspberries inside. That sounded delicious.

Cherry Pie is not my husband's favorite, but he tried one piece and would like me to make a blackberry one next time I try the crumb topping.

I took one of the pies to a friend who just moved, as a housewarming gift. She loved it. And the other pie went to our dear Relief Society president, who has been having health issues the past several months. Their happiness made me happy.

Tom's Cheery Cherry Cherry Berry Pie
by Linda Hundt, shared on the American Pie Council website

Crust:

1 1/2 cups of flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup Crisco shortening

Mix all ingredients in a stand mixer on medium speed swiftly until crust appears "pea like." Carefully sprinkle ice cold water in crust mix until it just starts to be fully moistened and gathers together. Pat into disc, wrap and refrigerate for at least one half hour. Roll out on floured surface and make and crimp piecrust. Freeze until ready to use.

Filling:

4 1/2 cups Montmorency tart cherries, frozen
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp real almond extract
1 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 tsp orange zest
1/2 cup dried Michigan cherries
1 1/2 cups of frozen blueberries

Combine frozen cherries, dried cherries, sugar, cornstarch. Stir constantly on med-hi heat until boiling. Boil for one minute or until thickened. Add almond extract, lemon juice and zest. Pour blueberries in bottom of pie shell and pour cherry mixture over them.

Crumb Topping
1 cup sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick butter softened

Mix together all crumb topping ingredients by hand or a pastry blender until crumbly.

Cover filling with crumb topping. Bake in preheated 400 degree oven for 45 minutes to one hour or until filling is bubbling over crust.

Week 5: Strawberries, Serendipity and the County Fair

Another week has gone by so quickly! But I did at least have a good reason for most of this delay, this week. I had to wait to see if I had won a prize!

On Sunday, our church leaders announced that we had had an imaginary earthquake, and they asked us to voluntarily live on our food storage for 6 days. No trips to the grocery store, just living on what we had in the house. We thought it would be interesting to do this experiment and see if we could make it. One of the things that I really like about our church is their concern that we be prepared for emergencies, and this was part of being prepared.

The biggest challenge in this experiment, other than possibly running out of milk, was the pie situation. We don't have a whole lot of fruit in our food storage, and not enough fresh fruit to make anything. Dried apple pie could be interesting I suppose. I could have made chocolate pudding pies, but I did that last week. And with not enough cool-whip they would not be as delicious as I'd like.

I finally settled on strawberry pie. We have a lot of frozen quarts of strawberries in our freezer, and it is supposed to be spring (you wouldn't know it nowadays with all the cold rainy weather we've had throughout May). I found a recipe that I thought would work, even though it called for fresh strawberries.

I was waiting for the frozen strawberries to thaw, so I didn't start trying to make the pies until Thursday (instead of Wednesday). After making the glaze and adding it to the bowl of thawed strawberries, I could see that this pie was not going to work. The formerly-frozen strawberries just had too much juice in them. If I put them in my beautiful pie shells, it would be like having strawberry soup pie.



Consulting with a few Facebook friends, it was decided that for this service-oriented project I would make an exception to our commitment to avoid going to the grocery store. At Albertsons I picked up some cream cheese, sour cream, and cool whip. I used these to make a recipe I've made before called Strawberry "Cheesecake" Pie. I could still use the strawberries, I just didn't need as much. My 16-year-old son happily consumed the leftovers. I finally wrapped up the pie-making at nearly bedtime on Thursday night.



On Friday morning, I was driving to work, with one pie sitting on my seat to take to a co-worker who had been having bad and continuous headaches for several weeks. That's when I heard Dana Jeffries of K103 talking about the Multnomah County Fair being held this weekend and how she was going to make a pie to enter when she got home that day. Hmmm, I thought, I have a pie, I wonder if I can enter? I hadn't decided yet where to take my second giveaway pie. This seemed a little too serendipitous.

Usually when I hear something like this and then have to go on to other things, I totally forget about it by the time I could do something about it. But on this day, I got home from work, remembered the morning broadcast, and looked up the location of the fair, how to enter, etc. I debated on whether I could go, and when I could go, and whether someone who lives in Washington County could enter another county's fair.

But with a little more Facebook encouragement, I set out after dinner to go to Oaks Park, a SW Portland amusement park that is maybe one or two steps above the traveling carnivals we got in our small town every summer. A lot of the rides are even the same--the spider, the tilt-a-whirl, the scrambler, and the merry-go-round, just to name a few.

I imagine that the reason Multnomah County has their fair so early in the "summer" is because they use Oaks Park as their locale--they are pretty busy the rest of the summer and wouldn't be able to give them the space to hold their event. And since Multnomah County is also mostly city, with not that much in the way of rural areas, this county fair is also pretty sparsely entered. It turned out that I had the only entry in the cream pie category. I only saw maybe six pie entries period.

Nevertheless I was thrilled to go back on Monday and see that I had won a blue ribbon and a check for $6.00. After all if they hadn't liked it, they could have refused it a ribbon.



It was so much fun to win a prize that I've decided I'm entering at least a couple of pies in the Washington County Fair in August. The competition will be stiffer there, so I will keep on practicin'!


Strawberry Delight Pie

1 pint fresh strawberries (frozen can be used)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1 8-oz. container of whipped topping
1 9-inch graham cracker crust (I used a homemade baked pie shell)

Slice 1 pint of strawberries and mix with 1 Tbsp. sugar. Let sit until berries become juicy, then crush lightly to release additional juice. Beat cream cheese until smooth and then gradually blend in 1/3 cup sugar. Beat in sour cream, vanilla and strawberries until thoroughly blended. Fold in whipped topping. Spoon into crust and chill until set, at least 4 hours. Slice and serve.

Week 4 (ish): Chocolate Pies for Visiting Teaching

I am typing this up a week late, and having problems with this current week's pies, so I'm feeling a little behind. I also skipped a week while I was recovering from surgery. But here goes.

For this week's pies I wanted something fairly simple and foolproof. And, unfortunately, I was at QFC when I remembered that I needed to get pie ingredients (that means it probably cost about twice as much as it needed to). I decided to make something we hadn't had in years--Dream Pie. Dream Pie uses a powdered cool whip substitute called Dream Whip, instant pudding mix, and milk to make a fluffy, light pie. I wasn't even sure they still made Dream Whip, but there it was on the shelf.



Not wanting to spend the money on pre-made graham cracker crusts, I bought pre-crushed graham cracker crumbs instead. I followed the recipe to turn these crumbs into crust, and it came out looking pretty greasy after I baked them. Undaunted, I patted them off like some people do pepperoni pizza, and continued with my whipping.



The result--beautiful fluffy chocolate pie.



I was scheduled to go visiting teaching today, so I decided that the ladies that I was visiting would be the recipients of today's pies. Visiting teaching is something that the LDS (Mormon) church does as an effort to make sure that each woman in the church has someone who will visit them, check in on them, help them with their needs, etc. Mostly we try to visit the women who we are assigned to, once a month, and talk with them, have a little spiritual thought, etc. It's always nice to have a treat to bring them, so I felt pretty proud of myself for coming up with something, even serendipitously.

I actually liked the "homemade" crust--it was a little chewier and way less dry than the pre-made crusts. And the filling was delicious. Mmmm! This was one pie my husband really liked, too!

DREAM PIE

2 env. Dream Whip whipped topping mix
2 3/4 c. cold milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 (4 oz.) pkgs. instant pudding mix
1 baked 9" pie shell, cooled or 1 graham cracker or chocolate crust

Beat Dream Whip mix with 1 cup of milk and vanilla in large bowl with mixer on high for about 6 minutes until thick and forms peaks. Add remaining milk and the pudding mix; blend on low. Beat on high for 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Spoon into pie shell; chill at least 4 hours.

Week 3: Teacher Appreciation Week

This week (actually last week, because I'm writing this after my gall bladder surgery on Friday May 7th) was Teacher Appreciation Week, so I decided to deliver pies to my sons' classes. Both of my youngest sons are in special ed classrooms for students with high-functioning autism or Aspergers--one in middle school, one in high school. Each classroom has a teacher and several aides. So a pie for them to share is just perfect.

This week I felt like Peanut Butter Pie and found one via tasteofhome.com that sounded appealing. It included cream cheese, peanut butter, peanut butter cups, and an oreo crust.

This week I had no problems getting the pie to set up. I did have to wait several hours for it to fully firm up though, so with my busy schedule I had to wait until Thursday to deliver them. And B's teacher didn't get hers until Friday, because by the time I made it over there she'd gone on to her sports team practice--the school day was over.

Both classrooms were very appreciative of their pies though!

Creamy Peanut Butter Pie from tasteofhome.com

Quartered peanut butter cups top this rich smooth pie from Rhonda McDaniel of Rossville, Georgia. "It's always a hit at gatherings," she says. "It saves time, too, because it can be made in advance and frozen until needed."

6-8 Servings
Prep: 15 min. + chilling

Ingredients
2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
2/3 cup whipped topping
14 peanut butter cups,divided
1 chocolate crumb crust (9 inches)

Directions
In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar and peanut butter until
light and fluffy. Fold in whipped topping. Coarsely chop half of the
peanut butter cups; stir into cream cheese mixture. Spoon into crust. Quarter remaining peanut butter cups; arrange over
the top. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving. Yield: 6-8
servings.

My Pie Crust Recipe

At least one person has asked me for my pie crust recipe. The one I use the most, which has always worked for me, is from a book titled, "All About Home Baking" by General Foods Kitchens, published in 1960. This book used to belong to my Aunt Jean, but evidently she left it behind with Grandma Crabill when she got married, and when I was asking for cookbooks Grandma gave me this one. So here is the recipe:

Flaky Pastry

Tender, flaky pastry is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. Measure carefully and follow instructions.

2 1/4 cups sifted flour
1 tsp. salt
3/4 cup shortening
7 Tbsp. cold water

Combine flour and salt. Cut in about 1/2 cup of the shortening, using a pastry blender or 2 knives, until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add remaining shortening in several pieces, and cut in until mixture is the size of large peas.

Sprinkle with water, a small amount at a time. Mix lightly with a fork until all particles are moistened and cling together when pastry is pressed into a ball. Amount of water may vary with flours. Cover with damp cloth and let stand a few minutes.

For 2-crust pie: Roll out 1/2 of the pastry very thin (less than 1/8 inch thick) on lightly floured surface. Press into a 9-inch pie pan and trim pastry at edge of rim. Roll out remaining pastry very thin and cut several 2-inch slits or a fancy design near center. Fill pie shell. Moisten edge of bottom crust. To adjust top crust, fold pastry in half or roll loosely onto rolling pin and center on filling. Open slits with a knife. (Well-opened slits are important to permit escape of steam during baking.) Trim top crust, allowing it to extend 1/2 inch over rim. To seal, press top and bottom crusts together on rim. Then fold edge of top crust under bottom crust and flute. Bake in hot oven (425 degrees F) for 50 to 60 minutes, or as recipe directs.

For pie shell, prepare half recipe of Flaky pastry, roll out, press into pie pan, trim 1 inch larger than pie pan and form a standing rim, then flute it. Prick pastry with fork, pricking all over and very thoroughly around the bottom curve of pan. Bake at 450 degrees F for 12 to 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool before filling.

One of our favorite things to do with leftover crust is to roll it out, then put butter and cinnamon-sugar on it and bake for about 10-15 minutes. This is something I learned from my Grandmother Yow, who made a lot of pies in her time. My husband always thinks it's a special treat when I do this.

Week 2: Key Lime Pie

This week's pie was Key Lime. I've always wanted to make real Key Lime Pie. I soon found out there were so many recipes and variations out there. Some baked, some not. I had a hard time deciding, and finally settled on a Paula Deen version because, you know, what could go wrong with a Paula Deen recipe besides having a heart attack after you eat it?



The recipe called for a lot of cream, half and half, and key lime juice. I was successful in following the directions, up to a point...then it kinda went pear-shaped toward the end.

The cream whipped up just fine. Then I added sugar, and that went well too. But when it came time to add the lime juice and half and half, it seemed that it was just too much liquid for the whipped cream to handle. It was a semi-runny mess for quite a while. Finally I thought to myself, I wonder if there are any hints on the Food Network page for this recipe. Reading through everyone's comments, I soon realized that almost everyone had had trouble with this recipe.

After letting it mix for a little while longer, I finally in desperation added some lime jell-o powder, and then proceeded to pour it into the graham cracker crusts I'd purchased. At this point I also discovered that the recipe made way more than the 1 pie that it had stated. I'd doubled the recipe, of course, since I was planning to make 3 pies total. But I filled the 3 pie shells, plus a couple of tiny shells (at my daughter's request), and still had enough left in the bowl to fill one more shell (that I didn't have).

Paula's instructions stated that they were to be frozen for 4-6 hours, and that successfully firmed them up. But whenever they are out of the freezer they turn runny again.

I took one of my tiny pies to my friend Emily who is in the hospital for some rehab. Then I gave a large pie to my friend Sharon, who came by with some camp stuff she was cleaning out of her house and said was mine. The last pie is still waiting, and will probably be delivered next week when I make more pies.



I think I will try a key lime pie again some other time, but this time I will make sure to read reviews of the recipe before I get started. Lesson learned!

Key Lime Pie
Recipe courtesy Paula Deen, foodnetwork.com

Prep Time:20 minInactive
Prep Time:6 hr 0 min
Cook Time:8 min
Level: Easy
Serves: 10 to 12 servings.

Ingredients
Crust:
•2 cups graham cracker crumbs
•1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
•1/2 cup butter, melted
Pie:
•1 cup heavy whipping cream
•1/2 cup sugar
•1 (12-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
•3/4 cups key lime juice
•1 tablespoon key lime zest
•1 pint half-and-half
•Fresh lime slices. for garnish
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, combine cracker crumbs and brown sugar. Stir in melted butter. Press the mixture firmly into bottom and up sides of a 10-inch spring form pan. Bake for 8 minutes and let the crust cool completely before spreading the pie filling over it.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer at medium speed, beat cream until slightly thickened. Gradually add the sugar, beating until soft peaks form. Add condensed milk and beat until stiff peaks form. Beat in lime juice, lime zest, and half-and-half. Once the mixture as reached desired flavor and consistency, gently spread pie filling over cooled crust. Cover and freeze for 4 to 6 hours or until firm. Cut into wedges and garnish with fresh lime slices, serve cold.