National Dessert Day

Can a day be any sweeter than National Dessert Day? I don’t think so. Now, as you all may know, my favorite dessert is a cookie, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t whip up some tasty pies and cakes. Below are my favorites (and some of the most viewed recipes in the history of the blog). Click on the name of the dish below the picture to go straight to the recipe.

White Almond Cake with Creamy White Almond Frosting

Pattie's "Secret Ingredient" Carrot Cake

Chocolate Stout Cake

Sistine Chapel Sugar Cookies

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Toffee Shortbread Cookies

S’Mores Pie

Praline Custard Pie

Plum Streusel Pie

 

Flaky Pie Crust Made Easy

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After seeing how flaky and gorgeous the crust was on the quiche that I made earlier, a number of people asked me for the recipe. The recipe isn’t all that special; there is honestly nothing to it. It’s a recipe that is available almost anywhere online, but the key, I have come to learn, is not as much the recipe itself, as it is the baking, and by that I mean pie weights. Nothing beats pie weights for weighing down the crust. Trust me when I tell you that I have used a variety of dried beans in the past, popcorn kernels (you can imagine how foolish that was), and when I didn’t have either of all those things, I filled the crust with oven safe measuring spoons. None of those yielded the flaky crust that I got here.

Generally speaking, I am one of those people who buy crust because it’s convenient and easy. I have total trust anxiety when it comes to rolling it out; I am just not good at doing it. So another important aspect is, after you have taken your dough out of the food processor and put it onto plastic wrap, flatten it as much as you can, I am talking flat! Make about an 8-inch disc. That way you will only have to roll it out 2-4 inches all the way around to get something that comfortably fits a 9-inch pie pan.

Simple Pastry Crust for Quiche
Makes one crust for 9” pie plate

1¼ c. all-purpose flour
1 stick unsalted butter, cold, cubed
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
3 to 5 tablespoons ice water

In the work bowl of a food processor place flour, cubes of butter, and salt. Pulse until crumbly and then slowly, through the feed tube, pour in the ice water, a tablespoon at a time. Start out with about 3 tablespoons of water. When the dough pulls away from the side of the work bowl, and you can pinch of piece, squeeze it between your thumb and index finger, and, if it sticks together, you’re finished. Place it on a piece of plastic wrap, flatten it into an 8-inch disc, seal it completely in the plastic wrap, and place it in the refrigerator for at least an hour, but closer to one day.

When you’re ready to bake, roll out the pastry on a piece of parchment paper to a generous 12” circle (If you want an overhang to fold under to make a fancy schmancy edging, otherwise 10” will do). Fold the parchment paper over carry it over to your pie plate, put it face-down, and slowly peel the parchment paper off. Fit it into the bottom of the pie plate and up the sides. Don’t stretch it, or it’ll shrink. Just pat it lightly into place. A tart tamper can often help here. At this point you can make any type of decorative edge that you desire, or simply cut off any excess and imprint with a fork all the way around, which is something that I generally do. Then, take a sharp-tine fork, and poke holes in the bottom. Place it into the freezer for an hour.

Shortly before you’re prepared to bake your quiche, preheat the oven to 425°F. Remove the piecrust from the freezer, line the bottom and up the sides, and over the edges (to prevent the burning) with aluminum foil, and cover the bottom with pie weights. Place on the bottom rack in your oven, and bake for 15 minutes. When the 15 minutes are up, remove the foil and pie weights, and bake for five minutes more to bake the bottom through. Now you’re ready to make your quiche.

If you would like the recipe for the Easy Gruyere and Brie Quiche shown in the photo above, you can find it here.

Twin Peaks Pie, anyone?

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 You have often heard me speak about the belly of the beast where chaos reigns. But when my number two son, his wife, and their two cats lived with me for six weeks awaiting the completion of their new home, it positively ran amok! Boxes were everywhere, as well as various pieces of furniture and decorative items they’d moved out of the guest room, and its associated closet, in order to give themselves more space. Additionally, it was the Christmas shopping season, so more boxes were arriving daily — many of them for my house guests — and they got added to the already obscenely big pile. They had boxes, I had boxes, and there were still boxes from my late mother, father, and husband, all in this area.

The other day, I was rummaging around, like I do, and ran across two unopened boxes with my son’s name on them. He couldn’t imagine what they might be, so when he came for his Friday visit with his old mom, he opened them. It was like Christmas! In fact, it was Christmas; there was a gift in there for me that he had completely forgotten he’d ordered. Here it is, my new Twin Peaks ceramic pie dish. Now to decide upon an appropriate pie!

Cinnamon Pie for “Psych-Os”

With the exception of baseball and British crime shows, I don’t watch a lot of television. Still, it does tend to run in the background when I’m cooking, working on various projects, or those rare moments when I clean. Because, during these times, I’m not paying close attention, I tend to have things on that I’ve seen in the past. Marathons are good for this. Recently I was watching a “Psych” marathon on the Hallmark Channel. I’ve seen every episode a number of times, and it’s mindless fun…or, perhaps, fun for the mindless.

Source: USA Network

One of the episodes is called “Dual Spires,” a clever take on the enigmatic “Twin Peaks.” In this episode psychic detective, Shawn Spencer, and his sidekick, Burton Guster (Gus), spend a lot of time eating pie, cinnamon pie in particular. This intrigued me because I had never heard of cinnamon pie, and I wasn’t alone.

This pie is for all of you “Psych” fans (“Psych-Os”) who haven’t been able to find such a recipe. It’s based upon my mother’s cheese pie that she made and served so often when I was a little girl. Give it a try, and let me know what you think.

Cinnamon Pie for “Psych-Os”

For crust:
12 whole graham crackers

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

6 tbls. unsalted butter, melted

For Filling:

12 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon extract

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3-1/2 tbls. ground cinnamon

2 large eggs, at room temperature

Powdered sugar for dusting

Whipped cream for garnishing

For the graham cracker crust:

Preheat the oven to 350° F.

In a food processor, pulse the graham crackers, sugar, and cinnamon. With motor running, poor melted butter in through the top, and allow it to run until all is combined. Press into a 9-inch pie pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool completely before filling. Leave oven on.

For the filling:

Place the cream cheese, granulated sugar, extracts, cinnamon, and eggs in a medium bowl and beat on medium speed until smooth. Pour the filling into the cooled crust and bake until set, 25 to 35 minutes, or until you can insert a toothpick into the center of the pie and remove it cleanly. Let the pie cool to room temperature before slicing. Serve it slightly warm or cool.

Dust the top of the pie with powdered sugar. Serve topped with whipped cream, if desired.

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Another crowd-pleasing pie that makes good use of graham cracker crust is this Lemon Cloud Pie with Lemony Graham Cracker Crust.

This post is linked to:

Happiness is Homemade Sunday

What’s for Dinner Sunday

Over the Moon

Smells Good Sunday

Dishing It & Digging It

Cooking & Crafting with J&J

Amaze Me Monday

Over the Moon

Celebrate Your Story

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Salted Margarita Pie

Have you noticed that I complain a lot about the weather? If you haven’t, then brace yourself, because I’ve got a whole lot of sweaty anger heading your way. Let me first say that I am not a fan of summer. All of the other seasons suit me just fine, but summer, no. It’s not that I don’t attempt to get into the spirit of things, I do. I plant things and eagerly watch them grow, I get outside and grill, I dine alfresco as often as possible, and I try, I really, really try to enjoy that season. But the fact is, I don’t. I particularly don’t this year when we went straight from January into the middle of August, temperature-wise. We hit the 90° mark in early May and have not left it since. Hot weather makes me crabby. I don’t mind the cold, there’s always more that I can put on to warm up in winter, as I’m sipping boozy cocoa in front of a cheery fire, reading a good book. In summer, well, there’s only so much you can take off before somebody reports you to the police.

Where am I going with this, you may ask? Well, I’ll tell you. Many margaritas have been consumed in this house since early May. Generally, that’s a drink I reserve for Mexican restaurants in late August, but now, I keep a pitcher of them at the ready in the fridge. I have come to enjoy that citrus-y goodness so much that I decided to turn it into a cool and refreshing pie.

There are a lot of recipes around for Margarita Pie, and I studied those before I came up with this one. My new favorite crust, for just about anything that calls for a crumb crust, is pretzel. I love the sweet and salty combination, and it works beautifully here. I also decided that most of the margarita pie recipes didn’t have enough alcohol in them to suit me, so I upped that a bit as well. I also added the zest of a lime, and what margarita doesn’t have salt on it? So I added that as well. Here is my version of Margarita Pie. It is cool, and refreshing, and somehow makes summer seem not quite as miserable as it really is.

One thing to note -- I piped whipped cream on top of this pie before putting it into the freezer to make it attractive, and because, who doesn’t love whipped cream? But, I would not do this again. It was clearly a matter of form over function because, with its lack of alcohol content, the whipped cream freezes firmer than does the pie. Therefore, while the pie is ready to consume straight out of the freezer, the whipped cream is not. I sent two pieces of pie home with my number one son the other day so that he and his wife could try it out. (I love having taste testers.) They loved the pie, but Christopher, my son, said that he didn’t wait for the whipped cream to soften; he just plucked pieces off and ate them separately from the pie. So, let this be a warning to you. If you plan to top your pie with whipped cream, don’t freeze that cream with the pie, dollop it on separately.

Salted Margarita Pie

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups crushed pretzels

1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup of freshly squeezed key lime juice
2 ounces tequila
1 ounce triple sec
1 teaspoon freshly grated lime zest
4-6 drops green food coloring (optional)
2 cups whipped cream
Fleur de sel,* for garnish
Whipped Cream, for garnish
Lime zest, for garnish

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Put the pretzels into the work bowl of a food processor and pulse until they have been reduced to fine crumbs. Add sugar and melted butter, and pulse until combined. Press into a nine-inch pie pan. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes, remove from oven and allow to cool.

In a large mixing bowl whisk together condensed milk, lime juice, tequila, triple sec, zest, and food coloring (if desired). In a separate bowl whip cream to stiff peaks. Fold whipped cream into filling mixture. Pour into pie crust and freeze for a minimum of 4 hours.

Serve topped with whipped cream, a sprinkling of lime zest, and a sprinkling of fleur de sel.

*If you don’t have Fleur de sel you can use margarita salt.

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If you prefer to enjoy your key lime juice in cheesecake form, then you must try this mouthwatering Key Lime Cheesecake.

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Plum Streusel Pie

While many people's list of favorite fruits more than likely doesn't include plums, I have to say that the plum is one of mine. When ripe, it is sweet and juicy; in cooking, it can turn the most mundane dish, from savory to sweet, into something very special. It has more uses than almost any fruit I know. It makes an incredible crisp, tasty crumble, decadent butter, a fabulous accompaniment to pork, kicks Major Grey's backside when it comes to chutney (sorry Major, but it's true), makes an incredible coffeecake, and a delectable pie.

My mother used to make plum pies that were legendary. People always raved about how delicious they were. I'm not a pie maker or a pie eater, but I am a fan of plums, so decided I was going to give this plum pie a whirl. What made this recipe interesting to me was that it had a streusel topping (something I far prefer to yet another slab of crust because I'm not a crust person), and was topped with homemade lemon lime ice.

I made the ice earlier in the week, and was completely won over by it; you can find the recipe here. Today I'm giving you the recipe for the pie, both from Bon Appetit magazine, both outstanding.

 Plum Streusel Pie with Lemon-Lime Ice Milk

As seen in Bon Appétit, June 2003

Crust*

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 t. sugar

1/2 t. grated lemon peel

1/4 t. salt

1 stick chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 egg yolk beaten to blend with 3 tablespoons cold water

Filling and topping

3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

1/2 cup flour

3 T. packed brown sugar

1 1/2 t. ground cinnamon

3 T. chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/2 t. ground nutmeg

1 1/2 pounds Melissa’s Plum Bites halved, pitted, cut into wedges

1 large egg beaten with 2 teaspoons water (for glaze)

For crust:

Blend flour, sugar, lemon peel, and salt in processor. Add butter; using on/off turns, cut in until pea-size pieces form. With machine running, pour egg mixture through feed tube and blend just until dough forms ball.

Gather dough into disk; wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours. (Can be made up to 3 days ahead. Keep refrigerated.)

Roll out dough between 2 lightly floured sheets of waxed paper to 1/4-inch thickness. Peel off top sheet of paper. Invert crust into 9-inch glass pie dish; peel off paper. Fold edges under to form rim; crimp edges. Refrigerate 1 hour.

For filling and topping:

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Mix walnuts, flour, brown sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon in medium bowl to blend. Add butter and rub in with fingertips until coarse meal forms. Set streusel aside. Whisk 3/4 cup sugar, cornstarch, nutmeg, and remaining 1 teaspoon cinnamon in large bowl. Add plums and toss to coat.

Place pie dish on baking sheet. Brush inside of pie shell lightly with egg glaze. Transfer plum filling to pie shell, mounding slightly in center. Sprinkle streusel topping evenly over filling. 

Bake pie 15 minutes; reduce oven temperature to 375°F. Bake until filling bubbles at edges, about 35 minutes, covering crust edges with foil during last 15 minutes if browning too quickly. Cool pie on rack. (Can be made 8 hours ahead. Cover and let stand at room temperature.) Cut pie into wedges. Serve with Lemon Lime Ice Milk.

* I used a Ready Made Crust from Pillsbury. Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s not as good as homemade. In this case, I beg to differ, it was fantastic (and I saved one heck of a lot of time)!

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This post is linked to:

What’s for Dinner Sunday

Happiness is Homemade Sunday

Dishing It & Digging It

Cooking & Crafting with J&J

Amaze Me Monday

Busy Mondays

Art of Homemaking Monday

Celebrate Your Story

Inspire Me Tuesday

Tuesdays with a Twist

The Scoop

Dream, Create, Inspire

Chocolate-Bourbon Pecan Pie (or something vaguely similar)

Those of you who follow me on my personal Facebook page, are well aware that I am a bit of a reluctant baker, and often end up with disastrous results. It's probably because, as I've said so many times, I don't like to bake, but I do like to make people happy. So when I go out to have lunch with my dad, I like to take him something special. And by special, I mean good. And by good, I mean edible.

Pretty much these days, if I make a dessert, I'm happy enough if it's edible. I just don't like doing it. This morning when I got up I decided I was going to take my dad a pie. I'm always going through dessert recipes, I print out a lot of them, and set them aside for making later. This morning, while rifling through my stack, I saw a recipe for something I thought dad would like. It was called Chocolate-Bourbon Pecan Pie. Chocolate. Bourbon. Pecan pie. What's not to like there? Pecan Pie is one of my dad's favorites, so I thought I would give this recipe a try.

I started off making the piecrust. I had it in the pan, the edges not fluted as expertly as they could have been, and headed for the freezer to get out some pecans to toast. It was then that I realized that I didn't have any pecans. I had three brand-new bags of walnuts, but no pecans. So, I thought to myself, does it really make that much difference? I mean, nuts are nuts, right?

So I used the original recipe and just substituted walnuts for the pecans. That done, I reached into the pantry for semisweet chocolate chips to pour into the crust along with the pecans, err, walnuts. It was then that I realized that I didn't have chocolate chips either. Well, I had chocolate chips, just not semisweet chocolate chips. 

I have entire shelf in my pantry full of baking chips. I have cinnamon chips, pumpkin chips, white chocolate chips, salted caramel chips, Butterfinger chips (Yes, they make those, but I haven't tried them yet, I'll report.), mini M&Ms, Bits of Brickle (both with chocolate coating and without), and I also happened to have a few remnants of mini chocolate chips, and milk chocolate chips. So, in place of the 1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips that the recipe called for, I emptied the bag of mini chocolate chips into a measuring cup (it came up about 1/4 of the way), then I emptied the rest of the milk chocolate chips into that same measuring cup (bringing the measurement to 1/2 cup), and then I reached for the Bits of Brickle (those covered in milk chocolate), and dumped enough in to fill up the cup. Huzzah! I sprinkled this creative mixture on top of the toasted walnuts, and then continued on with the recipe as written.

 As it turned out the pie was pretty darn good. Dad was more than happy with it, but that in itself is no recommendation, because he is a guy who eats a lot of Marie Calender and Aunt Jemima frozen meals. At any rate, the original recipe, a product of Southern Living, is below. The reason I shared this story is so that you won't be held hostage by recipes for which you may not have the exact ingredients. Feel free to use my example, or make some substitutions of your own. As long as the ingredients for the custard are there, you really can get a little creative in a pinch, as long as you substitute cup for cup.

Chocolate-Bourbon Pecan Pie

As seen in Southern Living  

1/2 (14.1-ounce) package refrigerated piecrusts (or make your own, please make your own)

 1 1/2 cups chopped toasted pecans

1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate morsels

1 cup dark corn syrup

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup bourbon or water

4 large eggs

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 teaspoons plain white cornmeal

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon table salt

Preheat oven to 325°F. Fit piecrust into a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate according to package directions; fold edges under, and crimp. Sprinkle pecans and chocolate evenly onto bottom of piecrust.

Stir together corn syrup and next 3 ingredients in a large saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, 3 minutes. Remove from heat.

Whisk together eggs and next 4 ingredients. Gradually whisk one-fourth of hot corn syrup mixture into egg mixture; add to remaining hot corn syrup mixture, whisking constantly. Pour filling into prepared piecrust.

Bake at 325° for 55 minutes or until set; cool pie completely on a wire rack (about one hour).

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This post is linked to:

What’s for Dinner Sunday

Happiness is Homemade Sunday

Dishing It & Digging It

Cooking & Crafting with J&J

Amaze Me Monday

Busy Mondays

Art of Homemaking Monday

Celebrate Your Story
Inspire Me Tuesday

Tuesdays At Our Home

Tuesdays with a Twist

Dream, Create, Inspire
 Homestead Wednesday

Wow Us Wednesday

Wine’d Down Wednesday

Moonlight and Mason Jars
Full Plate Thursday

Thursday Favorite Things,
Home Sweet Home
Grace at Home

Foodie Friday & Everything Else
Share Your Style

Simple Saturday Blog Hop