PIE!

[Cehrabehra]

Okay not the lemon meringue "let's celebrate the end of this thread" type... or any type in particular - or maybe EVERY type in particular!

I have been on a pie making kick. I found a place here I can get jello pudding and have been practicing my pie crusts. They're better than ever, but still far from where I want them to be. Does anyone have any recipes they *swear* by? Especially what sort of texture does the dough have when you start to roll it out? I'm wondering if I'm making mine too cold...

Also, I think I may be ready to venture out into making some real pie fillings... maybe a chocolate silk, maybe a cornstarch and lemon juice or key lime... maybe trying to figure out how to make REAL vanilla custard or whatever for some real banana cream pie... omg my fav...

I did make an amazing pie the other day.... regular pie crust, butterscotch filling (1 box in the bottom of 2 pies), a layer of bananas and then I made banana cream that I mixed coconut in and for a middle layer and then whipped cream on top. I am wondering though if I'm ready to get rid of the jello pudding boxes... my daughter wants me to make a peanut butter chocolate pie.

Recipes, hints, tips welcome!

 

[Aoife]

What is your pie dough doing when you try to roll it out? If it splits it's either too dry, or too cold. Have you ever tried mixing the pie dough in the food processor? That's where I get my best results. Other tricks are using half chilled vegetable shortening and half chilled butter, then just enough ice water for it to hold together.

Right now, at my house it is all about pumpkin pie and apple pie. My husband looves banana cream and coconut cream pies, but very seldom gets them from me, poor baby. He's the only one in the family who loves them, and it's not good for him to eat an entire pie by himself.

 

[Miss Sparkly]

I swear by Krustx's just add water pie crust I'm not sure that's something you could find where you are though (China right?). One of my favorites is mock apple pie

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/ritz-mock-apple-pie-53709.aspx

I've never made my own filling from scratch either. Good luck and I hope it turns out well

 

[Maisie]

I would love someone to post a recipe for lemon merringue pie. I love it but have never attempted to make it.

 

[makemepretty]

My pie crust is 2 C flour, 3/4 Shortening...hand mix till crumbly then add 1/4 c cold water. Mix by hand till you can form it into a ball. It's a double crust recipe but for something with a single crust I just roll it out and put it in the pie plate, crimp edges then trim off the excess. It's thicker that way but I don't mind. I have a lemon meringue recipe.


Laura's Lemon Meringue Pie

1 C Sugar
1/2 C Cornstarch
1/2 Tsp. Salt
3/4 plus 2/3 water-don't ask, that's just the way I measure it.
3 Egg Yolks Beaten
2 TBS Butter or Margarine
1 1/2 Tsp. Grated Lemon Peel(optional, I don't use it)
1/3 C Lemon Juice

Bake Pie shell**. Cool. In medium saucepan combine sugar, cornstarch, salt. Stir in water blending until smooth. Cook over medium heat until mixture thickens, stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute. Remove from heat. Blend a small amount of hot mixture into egg yolks and return egg yolk mixture to saucepan, mixing well. Cook just until mixture starts to bubble, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, stir in butter, lemon peel and lemon juice. Cool slightly. Preheat oven to 400. Prepare meringue*. Pour filling into baked shell. Spoon meringue over filling, sealing to crust and spreading to cover. Bake 8 to 10 min or until lightly browned. Cool several hours before serving.

*Meringue is 2 TBS sugar for every egg white. I use 8 eggs whites for this recipe because I love meringue. When making meringue beat egg whites till stiff peaks form, then 1 tbs at a time beat in sugar(16TBS for 8 egg whites).

I'm not great at explaining recipes, sorry but I hope you can follow this one.

**Bake your pie crust at 450 for approx. 10 min. Remember to prick bottom. Pie shell recipe at top or use your own recipe.

 

[makemepretty]

Here's my family's favorite apple pie. Which I'm requested to make often. Shhh, don't tell them I posted it online. The lemon pie and apple pie are family secret recipes that I've adapted and am keeper of, and usually the one to make the pies because pies are time consuming. I've been tempted to add a salted caramel in the filling but haven't done that yet. I like my apple pie warm with vanilla ice cream. My sil loves it cold and my grandfather loved it warm with a piece of cheese on top(American or Cheddar).

Laura's Apple Pie
Crust
2 C Flour
3/4 C shortening
Cream together by hand till crumbly then add in
1/4 C cold water and mix by hand till it starts to form dough.

I form a ball then divide it in two, but one ball I make a bit bigger than the other because I need more of the dough for the bottom crust. Roll out bottom crust on floured surface and put into your pie plate, cover the rest of the dough until you're done with your filling.

* Honestly, sometimes my crust looks like franken-crust, pieced and pinched together. Other times it works beautifully. Either way it still tastes the same. I usually use shortening, but in a pinch you could use margarine sticks.

For the filling:
1 whole bag of apples and an extra 1/2 bag of Granny Smith apples.
Most of the pies I make are one bag of red delicious(usually a 3 lb bag) and half a bag of granny smith. Sometimes I add more than half the bag of granny smith if I want a bigger taller pie. The granny smith give it a little sour to combat the sweet. I've tried golden delicious apples but they are too soft really. Peel and core and chunk up your apples. Put them in a big bowl and add:
1 C Sugar
1/2 C Flour
Mix all together and add your cinnamon. I've never quite figured out how much cinnamon, I just sprinkle it till it looks like enough and keep tasting.

Let the filling sit while you roll out the top crust. Then pour the filling in the pie plate and place your top crust onto it. Pinch around the edges. Cut little air vent slices towards the middle. I then take out milk and dab the top crust with a milky hand(I wish I had a pastry brush or something fancy to do that but I don't so I use my CLEAN hand to pat milk on the top so sugar will stick. I then sprinkle the top with sugar. Sometimes I use cinnamon sugar but mostly, since your pie usually has enough cinnamon I just use plain white sugar.

In a 400 degree oven cook it for 15 Minutes then lower the temperature to 350 and cook an additional 45 minutes. DO NOT FORGET TO LOWER THE TEMPERATURE.

You might want to put a cookie sheet or aluminum foil on the lowest rack under your pie because they always leak out juices and then I have to clean my oven.

 

[makemepretty]

Grasshopper Pie
ingredients:

24 large white marshmallows
14 oreo cookies
2 tablespoons real butter
1/2 cup milk
1 cup heavy wipping cream
4 tablespoons Creme de Minth (green)
2 tablespoons Creme de Coaco
9" pie pan


1. Smash those little Oreo suckers into a zillion pieces, I placed them
in a large zip-loc bag first.
2. mix the cookie crumbs with the 2 tablespoons of melted butter.
3. press this stuff into the GREASED pie pan and let cool.
4. in a double boiler, melt the 24 marshmallows and the 1/2 cup milk
stirring constantly.
let this cool a little while, but too long and it
will start to separate. If it does, just restir it to uniform consistancy.
5.While it is cooling, whip the cream.
6.add the whipped cream to the melted marshmallows, folding in carefully.
7. add the booze and fold in again.
8. pour the mix into the Oreo crust and freeze or chill if served then.
9. save some for others!

 

[Maisie]

Thank you MMP!!

 

[Iowa Lizzy]

I rarely meet a slice of pie I don't like, but I just never make it. There is one super easy pie that I love in the summer. It sounds kinda weird, but Jello pie is so light and refreshing. Raspberry and Lime two of my favorites. Nom nom nom.



Recipe from Cooks.com
2/3 cup of boiling water
1 package of Jell-O brand gelatin
1/2 cup of cold water
1/2 cup of ice cubes
2 tubs of Cool Whip
1 Honey Maid pie crust
Stir boiling water into gelatin in a large bowl until completely dissolved. Mix cold water and ice to measure 1 cup. Combine with gelatin mixture, stirring until the ice melts.
Stir of in 1 tub of whipped topping with a wire whisk until smooth.

Refrigerate 15 to 20 min or until mixture thickens. Spoon into crust and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

Makes 8 servings.

 

[Aoife]

"Best" Butter Pie Crust

2 1/2 cups flour
1 T sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chilled unsalted butter (cut into 1/2 inch cubes)
1/2 cup chilled vegetable shortening (cut into 1/2 inch cubes)
approximately 5 T ice water

Mix flour, sugar and salt in food processor. Add butter and shortening and pulse until coarse meal forms. Blend in ice water (pulse) very gradually--you may need a bit more or a bit less. Don't over-process. Gather dough into a ball and divide in half. Flatten each half into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and chill at least 2 hours.

Makes enough for one double crust pie, or 2 single crust pies.

This is as close to no-fail as pie crust gets!

 

[Cehrabehra]

What is your pie dough doing when you try to roll it out? If it splits it's either too dry, or too cold. Have you ever tried mixing the pie dough in the food processor? That's where I get my best results. Other tricks are using half chilled vegetable shortening and half chilled butter, then just enough ice water for it to hold together.

Right now, at my house it is all about pumpkin pie and apple pie. My husband looves banana cream and coconut cream pies, but very seldom gets them from me, poor baby. He's the only one in the family who loves them, and it's not good for him to eat an entire pie by himself.

When we first moved here and we hadn't gotten our shipment yet with my glass pie plates I bought some much smaller like 6" pie plates and I can make 4 with a double batch of pie crust and one box of pudding has a little left over... you could make him a little one

So what is it doing? It's splitting but it's not too dry - I've been "resting" it in the freezer and I think my freezer is too cold. I'm going to try putting it in the fridge instead. Once it's BAKED it tastes *amazing* - it's better than ever... but I don't recall such difficulty rolling out in the past... or at least not this difficulty. In the past I went immediately to rolling and it would be too soft. I'll play with that before I mess with the recipe.

So what I have been doing is this recipe inspired from martha stewart and alton brown:

2.5c flour
.5t salt
1T sugar
.5c butter (1/4 of this melted and the rest super chilled)
.5c shortening (1/4 of this melted and the rest super chilled)
1T apple vinegar (I put this in the first 1/4 c then do water by tablespoons)
icy water by feel... 1/4-1/2 c

I melt some of the fat and mix it in with a fork to uniform... not too much, you don't want it to be pasty, just kind of looks like bisquick) and the rest I cut in with a pastry blender... I like it... tender and crispy. I think my next batch I will melt more shortening and keep more butter ice cold. Alton brown says using both makes it flaky AND tender lol

I can't wait to try some of your recipes!!

Oh and yeah - there's no instant pie crust here I would purchase.... I have seen a big box of lucky charms go for about $16 and the cereal I get for my kids is $7 american and that's the cheapest I can find. It's cinnamon cluster honey bunches of oats. Import foods like this are INSANE. A tiny tiny box of bisquick is almost $10. I brought a huge costco sized box the last time I was in the states lol But because it's so scarce I typically make my pancakes from scratch and save the bisquick for making the biscuits from red lobster haha

 

[Ninna]

Hi,
Resting the dough in the fridge is a better option than the freezer IMO. I often roll cursts between plastic wrap and rest in the fridge for 20 minutes [again] before crimping. Re Vinegar: Glad to hear I'm not alone, I often add 1 Tb to the water [apple or champagne], Bourbon, Vodka, etc

Here's an 'Oldie':

Chocolate Pudding [double up the recipe for deep pie dish]
**Adapted from My Home to Yours by D. Greenspan

1 flaky pie crust, blind-baked and cooled

2 ¼ cups whole milk
6 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons cornstarch
¼ teaspoon salt
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and still warm
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Bring 2 cups of the milk and 3 tablespoons of the sugar to a boil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.

While the milk is heating, put the cocoa, cornstarch and salt into a food processor and whirl to blend. turn them out onto a piece of wax paper, put the remaining 3 tablespoons sugar, the egg and egg yolks into the processor and blend for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the remaining ¼ cup milk and pulse just to mix, then add the dry ingredients and pulse a few times to blend.

With the machine running, very slowly pour in the hot milk mixture. process for a few seconds, then put everything back into the saucepan. Whisk without stopping over medium heat – making sure to get into the edges of the pan – until the pudding thickens and a couple of bubbles burble up to the surface and pop (about 2 minutes). you want the pudding to thicken, but you don’t want it to boil, so lower the heat if necessary.

Scrape the pudding back into the processor (if there’s a scorched spot, avoid it as you scrape) and pulse a couple of times. Add the chocolate, butter and vanilla and pulse until everything is evenly blended.

Pour the pudding into the ramekins. If you don’t want a skin to form (some people think the skin is the best part), press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of each pudding to create an airtight seal. refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

makes 6 servings

Storing: covered, and kept away from foods with strong odors, the puddings can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.

**Adaptations:
Heat milk with 3 Tb of sugar in a heavy saucepan. In a small bowl whisk: cocoa and salt, add eggs whisk just to blend. Once the milk starts to boil, add 1/3 of the hot milk to the egg mixture and whisk a few times to temper, return this mixture to the saucepan and whisk until it starts to thicken, it shouldn't boil. Place a strainer over the KA mixer and pour the hot pudding through it to catch any solids, discard them. Add 3 oz of chocolate [5 oz is way too much!], butter and vanilla. Mix on low with the whip attachment until smooth. Cover with plastic and let it cool to room temp. Fill the crust and let it set in the fridge while you whip the cream:
Beat 1.5 c of cold whipping cream to stiff peaks, add 1 ts vanilla and 1/2 c powdered sugar, whip for a few seconds and pipe or spread over the filling, refrigerate for 2 hours...

 

[dragonfly411]

 

[MonkeyPie]

...dammit, now I'm hungry.

 

[Cehrabehra]

Oh my that looks yummy!! I'm going to try it!

but first, today, I am making a chocolate peanut butter pie...

I don't know about you guys but when I am wanting to try a new recipe I generally do research and make a spreadsheet comparing ingredients and values and then I kind of pick what I want... like if some call for oil and others for butter I'll choose which I prefer, I look for average amounts of sugar or flour, see if there is anything interesting making one sound more interesting... and I make my own recipe. It usually works great. Usually lol I did make some blueberry muffins once that were WAY too rich. My family liked them but I was like hold the butter batman!

so the recipe I'm going to use tomorrow is this one, fully adapted to my own usage lol

http://kitchensherpa.wordpress.com/2007/09/13/double-chocolate-peanut-butter-pie/

Adapted by adding 2T melted butter to the peanut butter
and doubling the ganache and whipping half of it to put in the bottom of the pie first
making it 1c of sugar instead of 1/2 cup to the peanut butter (most recipes called for more)
and possibly adding a bit of something something to the chocolate part... I would love to put amaretto but I'm going to see if I can find something more appropriate to go with peanut butter...

ideas?

 

[Cehrabehra]

Okay I made the pie and it's pretty good... but I should have quadrupled the ganache for two pies. I don't have a springform pan here in China so I just used 2 classic pyrex pie dishes and used 30 oreos (I had 15 chocolate filled and 15 regular) and blended them together for the two pies... I also poured the butter/chocolate into the food processor rather than doing it in a bowl. There was not enough oreo crumbs (not to mention my 220v food processor sucks and I miss my kitchenaid!!) to go up the sides so I just have a thick layer on the bottom. Adding the whipped ganache layer was a really good idea, but definitely you need 1c cream and 1c chocolate for just the whipped part alone. And you also need another 1c of each for the shiny dark brown ganache for the top. I also still had a warm piecrust (I was in a hurry to leave) that melted the whipped ganache a bit and warm ganache for the top which was a little difficult to spread without bits of the peanutbutter mousse sticking through.

But oh my god does it taste good. I want to do another one with a layer of french silk, a layer of whipped ganache with amaretto in it and whipped cream on top. Or something else like that. Now I have to find some people in my neighborhood willing to take this away so I don't eat it all. I might as well just chug a cup of sugar wtih a butter chaser!

 

[danners84]

More pie recipes please!!

Does anyone have a good coconut cream pie or banana cream pie recipe? We never made cream pies growing up but I love em and would like to attempt one!

 

[Cehrabehra]

Banana cream pie is my FAVORITE. I love love love it and unfortunately because it's not super rich I could probably eat a whole pie by myself

I have been making my crust from scratch but using jello banana pudding. I did one with butterscotch that was really good (I think I typed it out above). I also did one with banana cream pudding and coconut - kind of a mix of two favorites and it was really awesome.

 

[gemgirl]

This is a GREAT thread ladies! We should revive Deb's cake thread too and keep adding to both.

What does everyone roll the pie crust on to? What kind of surface? The counter top doesn't seem to work. The dough gets stuck onto it and besides that, my counter tops are relatively new and I don't want to use a scraper to get the dough up. Ditto sugar cookies for Christmas. Rolling out that dough and trying to cut shapes and peel them off of the counter tops just ruins them and then they look like something very weird.

I'm making another trip to Bed, Bath & Beyond. What am I buying?

 

[Ninna]

I don't roll things directly onto counters [fat build up]. Some use two pieces of plastic or wax paper even Silpat mats.
I like http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop-img/1267717529196.jpg
But Walmart, BBB, Pampered Chef, etc have their versions. They stay on the counter, easy to clean and so much easier to measure/roll your tarts, pies, cookies and rolls.
Giving the rolled dough a quick chill may help you achieve a nicer cutout

 

[Cehrabehra]

I roll it on a wooden cutting board. It starts to hang off a bit on the 2 sides but oh well. I prefer to use the counter. Unless of course it is tile but I think tile counters have gone never to return, I hope lol I always thought they looked nice but once I had one I realized what a bitch they are to clean, particularly as a flat horizontal surface.

Oh and I meant to say that I have one of those sheets with the circles but it's curved and it fights me. I recently rolled it the other way for in the box and hopefully that will help. I don't have anywhere here I can store it flat. 4000 square foot house and yet the chinese designed the storage ::sigh:: lol