Week 15: Pumpkin Pies for Thanksgiving and Why You Don't Take Your Dog Along on Pie Deliveries

After the State Fair, I think I was burnt out on pies, and I took a little respite that turned into a nearly-three-month vacation from piemaking. Life seemed to get busier and a lot of the time I didn't think I missed it.

But as Thanksgiving came close, I got antsy to make some pies again. I found myself getting the ingredients for pumpkin pie, even though I didn't need it for Thanksgiving dinner because someone else was bringing that pie. So I made three pies and proceeded to give them out: one to a friend who'd just had surgery, and one to a friend whose husband was recovering from a pretty serious infection.

What happened to the third pie, you ask? Well, that is why you don't take the dog along on pie deliveries. I came out from delivering one of the pies and found that the dog had found the pies I'd hidden under my heavy coat, and was nibbling on the edge of one of them. Sigh.

It felt good to get back in the pie-making groove.

Week 14: The State Fair and the Nut Pie Invention

The Oregon State Fair was coming up at the end of August. I was planning to enter several pies into the regular contest for ribbons. Plus there was a special contest by Karo syrup for the best pie using Karo. You had to take your pie there on a particular date and time to enter this special contest.

I proceeded to look into what kind of pies you could make with Karo, and found that the usual is a pecan pie. Looking around some more, I found some pies using other nuts that sounded good.

I made three different pies, one a regular pecan pie, the other two hazelnuts with two different substitutions for the bourbon called for in the original recipe, and had my Walgreens coworkers try them and vote for which one they liked best. The voting was pretty close but the one with the Toriani butter rum syrup won out.





Then I gave it some thought, plus discovered that we're supposed to invent our own recipe, and decided to use the technique I'd learned from the hazelnut pies, but combine three kinds of nuts instead of just hazelnuts, to make a hybrid version of the recipe.

In the meantime I had to take my regular-entry pies to Bob's Red Mill to enter them. I discovered after making my pies that I couldn't enter refrigerated pies, so the strawberry cream cheese pie stayed home with us. I entered the Cherry-Cherry-Berry Pie that I've made several times before, the Spiced Peach Pie that I made for the Washington County Fair, and a blueberry pie that I'd also made for the county fair.







On the day of the Karo Syrup contest Alyssa and I traveled down to Salem for the day, with my beautiful hybrid Three-Nut-Maple Pie.



We were so excited as we made our way to the building where the contest was (and it wasn't easy, because the map wasn't very clear). Imagine my disappointment when I inquired about the contest and learned that I was supposed to be there 1/2 hour before the contest time. The pie had to come home. It was delicious though! And I will try again next year. And, I won two red ribbons, one for the cherry pie and the other for the blueberry pie. Not bad for a first-time state fair competitor!





Most of this episode's recipes have appeared in previous posts, so I won't post them again here.

And here is the recipe for the pie I "invented":

Three-Nut Maple Caramel Pie

• 3/4 cup  maple syrup (can be real, but fake seems to do just as well!)

• 1/2 cup Karo light corn syrup

• 1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 2 tablespoons Torani caramel syrup

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes 

• ½ cup chopped pecans

• ½ cup chopped walnuts

• ½ cup chopped almonds

• 3 large eggs

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 prepared 1-crust pie crust, rolled out and put in pie pan

• Topping: Smucker’s Sundae Syrup, caramel flavor

This pie won a blue ribbon and a special Best in Class ribbon at the 2011 Oregon State Fair.

Bring maple syrup, corn syrup, brown sugar, and salt to boil in saucepan over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Continue boiling 1 minute, reducing heat as needed to prevent mixture from boiling over. Remove pan from heat. Add caramel syrup and butter; whisk until butter melts. Let cool to lukewarm, whisking occasionally, about 20 minutes.Preheat oven to 350°F. Scatter nuts over prepared pie crust. Whisk eggs and vanilla extract in bowl until blended. Whisk cooled caramel-maple-sugar mixture into egg mixture. Pour mixture over nuts in crust. Bake pie until filling is set, about 50 minutes. Cool on rack. Drizzle with caramel sundae syrup when cooled.

Week 13: The Orange Mousse Pies that Never Went Anywhere

I joined a group called "Love the Pie" on Facebook, and they posted a link to an Orange Mousse Pie one day. I thought it sounded pretty good. So I went back and found the link, bought all the ingredients and proceeded to make it.

I tripled the recipe as usual. It made so much filling that I had to make 1 more pie shell to hold it all. So we had our pie for ourselves, and 3 other pies besides. And we found that the pie did not taste as good as the recipe looked. It was a little too creamy and not enough orange-y.



And then, life got in the way. I don't remember why, but I just could not find the time to get these pies out to anyone. Finally I appealed to my friends on Facebook to come pick them up, and one did. Cody took another one to a potluck. The last pie just got thrown away. I felt so wasteful, especially since the ingredients were not cheap. But in the end you just have to learn from it and go on.

Orange Mousse Pie
from Pillsbury.com

INGREDIENTS
Crust:
1 box Pillsbury® refrigerated pie crusts, softened as directed on box

Filling:
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
3/4 cup orange juice
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
2 cups whipping cream
2 large oranges, chopped, drained (2 cups)*

Topping:
1 container (6 oz) Yoplait® Original 99% Fat Free French vanilla yogurt

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oven to 450°F. Bake pie crust as directed on box for One-Crust Baked Shell, using 9-inch glass pie plate. Cool on cooling rack 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in 1-quart saucepan, mix gelatin and orange juice; let stand 1 minute. Cook and stir over medium heat until dissolved. In small bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar and orange peel with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth and fluffy. Gradually add softened gelatin; blend well. Refrigerate until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes.
3. In large bowl, beat whipping cream with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold whipped cream into orange mixture; gently fold in chopped oranges. Spoon into crust. Refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours. Garnish with additional orange peel, if desired. Top each serving with dollop of yogurt. Cover and refrigerate any remaining pie.

*One can (11 oz) mandarin orange segments, drained and coarsely chopped, can be substituted for the 2 large oranges.

Week 12: Off to the County Fair

The Washington County Fair was coming up this week. So on Friday, I spent all day baking eight pies altogether. I entered five of them in the fair. The other three were duplicates of some of the fair pies.



The pies had to be entered on Sunday, and were judged on Monday. But I had to wait until the fair opened on Thursday to find out if I won any ribbons

To my delight, I had won three blue ribbons, for the blueberry, peach, and cherry-cherry-berry pies.





I took the duplicate blueberry pie to work and shared it with my co-workers. It was delicious, with just-right sweetness and fresh blueberry taste.

I wasn't surprised that the other two pies had not won. We discovered that the duplicate lemon meringue pie was more like soup. It just didn't set up right. Alton Brown let me down. (I got the recipe from his show) The meringue looked rather like alligator skin--there must have been too much moisture.



The strawberry delight pie, which is the same one that won a blue ribbon at the Multnomah County fair back in May, turned out differently this time. It didn't taste as sweet, and the cream cheese flavor seemed too pronounced. No wonder it didn't win.



We have decided that the solution must be that I have to combine the recipes for the fresh strawberry pie, the one that I didn't make because the filling didn't thicken up enough, and the strawberry delight pie. That gives it the right sweetness and texture. I guess I've invented a new recipe!

You can find the recipe for the cherry-cherry-berry pie here, and the strawberry delight pie here (but watch for an updated recipe on that one). I'm not going to put this lemon meringue pie recipe in the blog, but you can see here for a different recipe I've used that has turned out well.

I've included the recipes for the peach pie and the blueberry pie below.

Spiced Peach Pie
recipe from FoodNetwork.com, Sandra Lee

Prep Time:5 min
Cook Time:1 hr
Serves: 8 servings.

Ingredients:
For filling:
2 (12-ounce) bags frozen peach slices
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup instant tapioca
2 tablespoons crystalized ginger, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
For crust:
1 (11-ounces) box pie crust mix
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon peach nectar, chilled, divided
1 egg
2 tablespoons coarse sugar, for dusting, optional

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

For filling:
In a medium bowl, stir to combine all filling ingredients. Set aside for 15 minutes.

For crust:
In a large bowl, stir together pie crust mix and 1/3 cup chilled peach nectar until dough forms a ball. Split dough in half, and form into 2 disks.

On a lightly floured surface, use a rolling pin to roll dough 1 1/2-inches larger than an upside-down 9-inch pie pan. Fold dough in half and unfold over pie pan. Press onto bottom of pan.

Fill pie shell with peach filling mixture; set aside.

Roll out remaining dough and place over filled pie shell. Pinch the edges of the pie together or crimp with a fork. Trim away any excess dough.

Lightly beat egg with 1 tablespoon peach nectar or water to make egg wash. Use a pastry brush to lightly brush top of pie with egg wash. Sprinkle with sugar. Cut slit in center to vent pie.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 60 minutes or until crust is golden and filling is bubbling through vent. If edges get too brown, cover edges with foil to prevent burning.

Cool before slicing.

Country Blueberry Pie
Recipe courtesy Cheri Garnett, from FoodNetwork.com

Prep Time:1 hr
Cook Time:1 hr
Serves: 6 to 8 servings.

Ingredients:
Filling:
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup water
3 cups blueberries
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Pastry:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup shortening
1 egg
2 tablespoons water
1/2 tablespoon vinegar
Flour, for dusting
Sugar, for sprinkling on top

Directions:
Filling: Combine sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and water. Add to a saucepan and heat rapidly until thickened. Set aside to cool as you prepare the pastry. Once cooled add the berries and lemon juice.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Combine flour, sugar and salt. Cut in shortening. Whisk together egg, water and vinegar. Add to flour mixture tossing lightly with a fork. Turn out onto a lightly floured cutting board and using your hands combine dough. Separate into 2 single crusts. Line the bottom of a pie plate with 1 of the crusts.

Pour filling into dough lined pie pan, and sprinkle the lemon juice over the filling. Adjust top crust, cut vents and flute rim. Sprinkle top lightly with sugar. Place pie onto a baking sheet and into the oven for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake for an additional 20 to 25 minutes. Allow to cool, cut and enjoy!

Week 11: It's All Her Fault

As I was contemplating what kind of pie I wanted to make this week, one of my friends posted on her Facebook profile that she was in the mood to do some baking, including a sour cream lemon pie, but she was getting a migraine and was probably going to have to go lay down.

This is one of the things I love about Facebook--the inspiration! So, I set about finding a recipe for Sour Cream Lemon Pie. I found one that sounded fairly simple and good on tasteofhome.com. It turned out that my friend uses the same recipe, but she says she uses low-fat lemon yogurt instead of sour cream.



My husband thought it was very good, and just-right lemony with the sour cream. I should probably try it with the lemon yogurt sometime just to see if we like it that way.

I dropped one pie off to my inspiration, who was resting in her room so her kids let me in and I put it in her fridge.

I took the other pie over to a friend who was moving the very next day. It was sad to see her empty house (the movers had already come and gotten most of the stuff). Since she hadn't eaten I was glad to provide some food, and some company for a while.

Sour Cream-Lemon Pie
from TasteofHome.com

8 Servings
Prep: 20 min. + chilling

Ingredients:
Pastry for single-crust pie (9 inches)
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons plus 1-1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 cup milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped

Directions:
Roll out pastry to fit a 9-in. pie plate. Transfer to pie plate; trim to 1/2 in. beyond edge of plate. Flute edges. Line unpricked pastry with a double thickness of heavy-duty foil. Bake at 450° for 8 minutes. Remove foil; bake 5-7 minutes longer or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

In a large heavy saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch. Gradually stir in milk and lemon juice; add egg yolks and lemon peel. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened. Stir in butter and cool to room temperature. Stir in sour cream and pour filling into pie shell. Top with whipped cream. Store in the refrigerator. Yield: 8 servings.

Week 10: Celebrating Berry Season

This week's pie was a three-berry pie with a streusel crust. In many ways it reminded me of "Tom's Cheery Cherry Cherry Berry Pie" except that there were more berries instead of the cherries.

My daughter asked for this kind of a pie for her last week in Oregon. She is now off to Walt Disney World for the next several months and then plans to move to New York City.



For this week's decision on who to give the pies to, I decided to post a picture of my pie on Facebook, and take pies to the first couple of people who replied who lived close enough.



One of the first people was my neighbor down the street. I had to try to get her a pie twice, because the first time she wasn't home. I gave her a little bit of a hard time about that. But she had to get her daughter to dance class. When I was finally able to drop it off, she was home alone. She said she ate some as her dinner.



I told the other person I could bring her a pie, and she offered to pay me for it. She hadn't read my blog to see what it was all about. She was surprised that I was giving away pies! Her family was quite happy to get a pie, and we talked Scouts for a while.



Three-Berry Pie with Crumb Topping
From tasteofhome.com

6-8 Servings
Prep: 15 min.
Bake: 45 min.

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1-1/2 cups fresh or frozen blackberries
• 1-1/2 cups fresh or frozen elderberries or raspberries
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca
• 1 unbaked pastry shell (9 inches)

TOPPING:
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened

Directions:

In a large bowl, sprinkle berries with lemon juice. Combine sugar and tapioca. Add to berries; toss gently to coat. Let stand for 15 minutes. Spoon into pastry shell.

For topping, combine flour, salt and sugar in a small bowl. Cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over filling. Bake at 400° for 45 minutes or until filling is bubbly and topping is browned. Cool on a wire rack. Yield: 6-8 servings.

Weeks 8 & 9: Falling Off the Wagon

I fell of the "wagon" of the intent of my project--I made pies, but did not deliver them. I must be in a slump!

Week 8 began just great--I made lemon meringue, again, but this time I used the old traditional recipe from the same 1960's cookbook that my pie crust recipe came from. It turned out more the way my husband likes it, and he quite enjoyed it.





I made one extra pie this week, trying a sugar-free version of this pie, with Splenda. The filling got really lumpy, and the meringue didn't bake up quite as evenly as for the regular pie. I took it to my son and his girlfriend. My son had just had a bunch of his stuff stolen from his house and was a little shook up by it, and his girlfriend doesn't eat sugar.



The other two pies sat in my fridge. And sat and sat. And never got delivered to anyone.

For week 9, I made a pie called "Southern Banana Mallow Pie" because it was the closest I could find in pie form to Southern Banana Pudding (the stuff with the vanilla wafers, bananas, pudding, and cool whip), which I was having a craving for.

I made one modification to this recipe--I used banana pudding instead of vanilla. I wanted more banana flavor!



It was rather interesting, with the marshmallows making the texture kind of different.





Once again I never got out to deliver these pies. I finally let my daughter have one of them for a party, and took the other one to work to share.

I'm gonna try to do better from now on!

Traditional Lemon Meringue Pie

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup Argo® or Kingsford's® Corn Starch
1-1/2 cups cold water
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
Grated peel of 1 lemon
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon butter OR margarine
1 baked (9-inch) pie crust
3 egg whites
1/3 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine 1 cup sugar and corn starch in medium saucepan. Gradually stir in water until smooth. Stir in egg yolks. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly, and boil 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in lemon peel, lemon juice and butter. Spoon hot filling into pie crust. Beat egg whites in small bowl with mixer at high speed until foamy. Gradually beat in remaining 1/3 cup sugar; continue beating until stiff peaks form. Spread meringue evenly over hot filling, sealing to edge of crust. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden. Cool on wire rack at room temperature for 30 minutes; refrigerate for 3 hours before serving.

Banana Mallow Pie

1 3/4 cup cold milk
1 package (4-serving size) Jell-O vanilla flavor Instant Pudding & pie filling (I used banana pudding mix)
2 cups Jet-Puffed miniature marshmallows
1 cup thawed Cool Whip whipped topping
2 medium bananas, sliced
1 honey Maid Graham pie crust (6 ounces)

Pour milk into large bowl. Add pudding mix; beat with wire whisk 2 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes. Add marshmallows and whipped topping; stir gently until well blended. Place banana slices in crust; cover with pudding mixture. Refrigerate at least 1 hour. Cut into 8 slices to serve. Store leftover pie in refrigerator.