Valentine's Cupcakes

Although these carrot cake cupcakes are not a pie, I made them from scratch for Valentine's Day and they are delicious. You can find the recipe here. My modifications are that I only made half of the recipe and I turned them into cupcakes instead of a layer cake. As such, the cupcakes only need to bake for 30-35 min.

Current Pie Tally: 73

Quickie Pie

Pecan is definitely my go-to winter pie, mostly because the crust doesn't require pre-baking. It takes about 1.5 hours, start to finish, and about one hour of that involves the pie sitting in the oven while you have a cocktail and get ready for the party you're going to. Normally, I don't adorn my pie with any toppings that might undermine the full-force flavor of the pie, but pecan pie tends to be an exception. I always enjoy my pecan pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream if the option presents itself. When I had a slice of the pie from this post, there was a twist. Our party hosts had also put out a small ice cream sundae bar on the dessert table. Our neighbor started talking through the possibilities of the caramel and hot fudge toppings on the pecan pie. Normally, this would piss me off, but I tend to loosen up my pie purism with the pecan pie. I said, "Caramel - no. Hot fudge - definitely go for it." My thoughts turned to black-bottom pecan pie, with a warm chocolate layer dancing with the sweet, nutty pecans in my mouth. It had to be done. When backs were turned, I brought my ice-cream topped slice over to the hot fudge and added a couple dollops myself. Suffice to say, the experience shall be relived. It was heavenly. Now I'm on a mission to find/tweak a Black-Bottom Pecan Pie recipe that is up to snuff. For my go-to Pecan Pie recipe, click here.

Current Pie Tally: 73

Football Apple Crumb

The neighbors invited us over to watch one of the NFL Playoff games this past weekend, so I offered to bring this little delight over. In actuality, my husband secured our invitation with promises of pie and his homemade guacamole. It did not disappoint! My only complaint is that the crumb topping didn't look quite right. It tasted great, but it didn't clump and golden up the way it was supposed to. I suspect it's because I tried mixing up the topping without the nuts first, and then adding in the nuts once it was already pretty well blended. Next time, I'll stick to the instructions. Blend ALL the topping ingredients together with your fingertips.

Football Apple Crumb Pie
filling:
5 large (larger than fist) Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, thickly sliced
1 large Stayman apple, peeled, cored, thickly sliced
1/4c. fresh orange juice
1/4 c. white sugar, heaped
1 t. ground cinnamon
1 T. arrowroot starch
1/4 c. applesauce

topping:
3/4 c. all purpose flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. (packed) golden brown sugar
3/4 c. chopped walnuts
6 T. (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 t. salt

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a pie dish with homemade pie crust. Prick all over with a fork. Stick in the freezer for about 10 minutes while you preheat the oven to 375F. Place pie weights in crust and bake for 12-15 min. Remove pie weights and continue baking for another 12-15 min, until the crust is golden brown.
Mix all filling ingredients together in a large bowl. Pour into pie crust. Using your fingers, blend ALL the topping ingredients together until well-mixed, moist, and crumbly. Heap on top of pie filling. Bake at 350F for about one and a half hours. Crumb topping will be nice and brown, but not burned and apples will be soft when pierced with a fork.

Current Pie Tally: 72

Christmas Crapple Pie

This one is long overdue - a Cranberry Apple Pie I made for Christmas. It is festive and delicious. The cranberries add color and really heighten the flavor, while the apple offsets the tartness of the berries and adds a comfort food feel. I'm still not sure how I feel about the cinnamon-sugar sprinkled crust. It's cute and smells wonderful, but I think I prefer the flavor and texture of a plain crust. It was a little too "fussery bussery" for me. The recipe can be found here. I modified it by using my own pie crust recipe. I also used 3/4c. white sugar to make the cranberry sauce part of the filling. Then I added 3/4c. brown sugar to the apple part of the filling. Also, I think it's easier to say you'll need 2 lbs. tart apples and 1.75 lbs. sweet apples, rather than specify certain types of each.

Current Pie Tally: 71

Licorice Lattice-top Pear Pie

I couldn't resist an opportunity to make this Pear Anise Pie. I first read about it in ReadyMade (sadly no longer in print) magazine, which published an interview with two pie mavens and four of their intriguing pie recipes in its December/January 2011 issue. I guess I'm on track to make all of the pies from the article. The only one I have left to try is the Cranberry Sage. The Bittersweet Chocolate Cherry Nut and Pear Anise pies were visual showstoppers with good flavor, but not spectacular. The Vinegar Chess remains one of my favorites and is a snap to make. As a person who holds a fondness for licorice flavored items, this pie recipe stared me in the face and dared to be made. Plus, I had the added confidence that the other pies originating from the same bakery came out well. The result was certainly tasty. The pear and anise flavors complement each other well, and the anise did not overpower at all. It was subtle, yet held its own.

More than anything, the pie looked awesome. I was a bit worried I had overcooked it into pear sauce, but the pear slices underneath the goo held their structural integrity. My tried and true method of "the pie is done when the goo bubbles in the middle" proves itself again. I also must admit that I don't own any of the fancy Demerara sugar called for in the recipe. I could only assume that it is fat baker's sugar, so I improvised as best I could. Orange cookie decorating sprinkles it is!

Current Pie Tally: 70

Partytime Pecan Pie

When I made the pumpkin pie for my mom's post-Thanksgiving visit, I decided to go two for one on the crusts. I put the extra one in a Ziploc bag in the freezer, with the idea that I could crank out a pecan pie lickity split when needed for any holiday functions. The pecan pie is the only one-crust pie I'm making right now that doesn't require a pre-baked crust, so it's ideal for using up frozen crusts (or "money in the bank" as we pie people like to say). This little number came out great and was a nice addition to the dessert table at our winter holiday party. The recipe is the same as the one used in my last post about pecan pie.

Current Pie Tally: 69

Post-Thanksgiving Pumpkin

Since my mom couldn't be with us on Thanksgiving Day, she came down on the train the following week. After she finished packing the night before, she put in a request for me to save her a slice of pie. Little did she know that the Thanksgiving pie had been polished off long ago. Luckily, I had some pumpkin puree in the freezer and enough time to throw this pie (her favorite) together before she arrived. It was also the first time I got to try out my new holiday pie dish. I love it! The recipe used is the standby pumpkin version from older posts. For some reason blogger isn't letting me link to it right now.

Current Pie Tally: 68