Pi Day

For Pi day we made our favorite and signature Chocolate Honey BBQ Frito Pie.  Salty, sweet, and chocolate.  Who could resist?  Here is the recipe.

The Pies Of Thanksgiving -- Recipe Edition

We have had several recipe requests for our Thanksgiving pie roundup. 

I cook like my Mother cooked.  People were always asking for recipes and my Mother would try to give them to people, it's just that she never cooked anything the same way twice.  I never met a recipe I used.  This is pretty close.

The traditional pie is the one on the pumpkin can.  Pumpkin, sugar, evaporated milk, whatever.  The only trick to this pie is to under cook it slightly. I can't tell you anymore than that.  If you cook it and leave it in the oven as long as the can says, the custard will split.  If there is big gooey spot in the middle, don't take it out.  A slight wobble is A-OK.  Really, a split won't affect it at all.  You eat the ugly piece and throw whipped cream on the rest!


The apple pie is a second attempt of a good idea.   A friend of mine brought me some pumpkin cream cheese.  Pumpkin cream cheese seemed like a great idea until I actually had it and didn't have a clue what to do with it.  I though of using it as a base for an apple galette.   I saw a recipe for a galette that touted a magnificent crust.  (Let me say here that with all the "off the cuff" improve I do in the kitchen, I rarely mess with a pastry recipe, so I followed the the recipe to the letter.)

I made the miracle crust, put it on a silpat, piped on the pumpkin cream cheese filling, added the apples, raised the sides, chilled it a full 30 minutes to set the crust, put it in the oven.  Ten minutes into baking, the crust had meted and cream cheese was oozing everywhere.  There was no saving the galette, so I let it bake.   When it was cool, I peeled the mess off the silpat and tossed it in a bowl.  Everyone that passed the bowl grabbed a chunk of the...whatever.  (Let me just say here, that cooking for Thanksgiving requires many battles and after the melting crust, I chose not to fight that one and capitulated to a store-bought pre-made dough.  Let me also say that I never just unroll the dough and go, I always add a bit of coarse sugar, an herb or two, a touch of spice, or a schmere of butter to make the crust mine.)  (Let me also say that I have never made or bought a pie crust that had enough crust to turn one pie into a dozen little pies.  The instruction always say, roll the crust and cut 12 circles.  Don't be fooled, you will not get 12 circles out of a single recipe for dough nor will you get them out of two rolls of pre-made pie dough.   Make six or make more dough.)

Moving on...

Apple/Pumpkin Cream Cheese

1 pie crust or 6 or 12 little pie crusts depending on your mood

5 apples, peeled and cut into small chunks

1 8-ounce package of pumpkin cream cheese, softened, plain will work...

1 egg

1 cup sugar, 3/4 for filling, 1/4 cup for dusting the apples

1 teaspoon quatre épices, or pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt


1.  Cut the pie crust in small circles, slightly larger than the cupcake tins as you will want about 1/2 inch of the crust to stick up above the pan edges. Place them in a cupcake pan. 

2.  Peel and cut the apples and immediately dust with 1/4 cup sugar and the spice.

3.  In a bowl, mix the softened cream cheese, the egg, 3/4 cup sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

4. Evenly distribute the cream cheese mixture onto the bottom of the pie crusts.

5.  Top the cream cheese mixture with the apples.

6. Press the sides of the crust around the apples.

7.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes


(If you want to make one gallette, leave the crust in tact, spread the cream cheese in the middle of the crust, leaving about a 2 inches boarder of crust.  Place the apples on top and bring the plain edges of crust up around the mixture.   Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.  Generally, a gallet is baked on a cookie sheet, but feel free to cheat and cook it in a pie pan, just in case your crust fails.) 

The pumpkin mousse in a ginger snap crust is an amalgam of about six recipes from the mundane to the sublime.  There is a Philadelphia Cream Cheese recipe calling for cream cheese, Cool Whip and pre-made graham cracker crust.  There is a sublime recipe over at my one of my favorite blogs,  Yummy Books.  Mine falls in between. 

Pumpkin Mousse in a Ginger Snap Crust

Crust

1 box ginger snaps

1 stick melted butter

1/4 cup soft diced ginger (This is optional, thought I have said it before and I will say it again, this is one of my favorite cooking items.  Toss a spoon full in a vinaigrette, add it to a barbecue sauce, put it in a curry, you can't go wrong...)

Crush the ginger snaps in a food processor.  Add the ginger if desired.  Slowly add the melted butter, pulsing until the wet crumbs hold together.   Remove the crumb mixture and place in a tart pan with a removable bottom that is at least 2 inches high.  Press the crust into the pan, filling the flutes with the crust.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  Remove and let cool.

Mousse

1 can pumpkin

1/2 stick butter, softened

1 small package cream cheese (4 ounce), softened

8 ounces of plain goat cheese, softened

1 cup 10 X powdered sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon quatre épices or 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

(It is very, very important to make sure the butter, cream cheese and goat cheese are softened.  They need to give easily when touched.  If they appear to be too cold or lumpy, you can force the cheeses and butter through a wire strainer with the back of a spoon. You can also just put them in the stand mixer and let them beat beat and beat till smooth.)

1.  Sift the spices and sugars into a small bowl.

2.  In a stand mixer, whip the softened butter, cream cheese and goat cheese until very smooth.

3.  Add the pumpkin and beat until incorporated.

4. Add the sugar mixture and beat again, till fully incorporated.

5. Pour the mousse into the cooled pie shell and refrigerate overnight.

Don't have time to bake the crust?  Try this:

If you own one of those mini cheesecake pans with the removable bottoms, just lay a ginger snap in the bottom and add the mousse.  

Simply crumble the cookies into the bottom of jelly jars or ramekins and dollop in the mousse. 

Try chocolate cookies. (Yummy Books uses almond cookies and rosemary for their crust.)

Use your favorite granola for the crust.

Be bold.  Experiment.  If you screw it up, just scrape it into a bowl and refuse to give anyone the recipe! 

The Pies Of Thanksgiving

Pumpkin Mousse in a Ginger Snap Crust

Traditional Pumpkin

Apple/Pumpkin Cream Cheses

 

Sweet Potatoes With A Side Of Pie

My friend Catherine returned from a visit to the shore with a bag of presents: a cabbage just slightly larger than a basketball and two lovely, large sweet potatoes. I love sweet potatoes, but I must confess that casserole topped with bags of store-bought marshmallows makes me gag. It is tantamount to making a rich, cheddary macaroni and cheese and then topping it with a jar a chezwhiz.

I was looking for a dish that I could make in individual servings that would be textural, not too sweet and would show off the sweet potato. This fall I received an abundance of old fashioned, hard pears. They are divine for preserves, but as it became hard to process them all, I decided to make a batch of pear butter. This was a case where the variety of pear did not evenly match its use. The herbed pear butter with thyme and sage remained a bit gritty.

When I got the sweet potatoes, I thought the pear butter would make a nice compliment to some mash. Then I decided to make a savory pie instead. I thought this would be nice to make in large cupcake pans so you could have individual servings, but I made one big pie to try it out.


I made a sage oil with some rubbed and fresh sage and set it aside. I began roasting the largest sweet potato in a 375 oven and after about a half-hour, I set in a pie crust to blind bake. Next, I peeled and slice the other potato in slices of a bit over 1/4 inch. I laid them on a baking tray and brushed them with the sage butter. When my crust was nicely browned, I pulled it out and checked my baked sweet potato. It was soft, so I took it out and put in my slices.



I mashed the baked sweet potato and added about 3/4 cup of herbed pear butter. I added 1/4 cup half-half and two eggs and mixed well. I added the mixture to the pie shell, removed my slices from the oven and laid them decoratively on the top. I put the pie back in the oven and baked it for 45 minutes.



It came out fine, but not as savory as I thought. It actually made a lovely dessert pie. I am still thinking of making individual "cups" to serve with a Christmas turkey or maybe just as little snacks.

(Not So Savory) Sweet Potato Pie

1 bottom crust, blind baked
2 baked sweet potatoes: one mashed, one sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
1/4 teaspoon rubbed sage plus 6 sprigs of fresh sage if available
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup pear butter (or apple sauce)
1/4 cup half-and-half
2 eggs


Mix the sage, salt and oil in a small bowl and set aside.

Peel and slice one sweet potato. Lay the rounds on a baking sheet and brush with sage oil.

Bake the other sweet potato in a 375 oven for one hour, until soft.

Remove the baked sweet potato from the oven and now add the tray of sliced sweet potatoes into the oven.

Peel and mash the baked sweet potato. Add the pear butter, half-and-half, and eggs and mix thoroughly. Pour into baked pie shell.

Remove the potato slices (they may not be totally cooked, but that is OK). Arrange the slices on the top of the pie. Return pie to oven for about 45 minutes.

In the end, these sweet potatoes would not be denied their incredibly rich sweetness. So my savory sides became a sweety pie. What's a girl to do?

Pies from the garden...

Actually, the pies are from the oven -- the ingredients are from the garden. The rainbow chard is still plugging along and I cut a big batch and then didn't have a good idea of what to do. So I decide to make a pie or tart perhaps a quiche depending upon your particular choice of vernacular.

I always keep some store-bought pastry in the fridge. While I am usually opposed to such things, even the most snooty chef's will buy their puff pasty and virtually all of them buy their filo and while I can throw together flour and lard with the best of them, after an afternoon in the garden if I had to make pastry, it would starve.

A COUPLE OF NOTES

As for a bought pie crust, in order to get it to unroll without breaking, you need to let it set at room temperature. However, it you let it get too warm, it won't bake properly -- so after you unroll it and place it in your pan, you need to return it to the refrigerator for a bit to firm it up.

Both of these pies have an egg base, so I blind bake the crust. Take your chilled crust and carefully line it with parchment paper or foil. Fill the parchment with dried beans or pie weights (yes, I have pie weights and I also have an old jar filled with navy beans that I use) and bake in a 375 degree oven for about 10-12 minutes. Take the crust and carefully remove the parchment with the beans. In a traditional blind-bake the crust is returned to the oven and baked again. This is done when filling a crust with something like lemon or custard that is already prepared and won't be baked again.

For these pies, I simple baked them to firm them up and not to be totally done. Some people don't bother with the blind baking. If you feel like skipping the step, try sprinkling a layer of cheese on the bottom of the crust and then pouring in the filling.

Rainbow Chard Pie

1 blind baked pie crust
1 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 bunch chard, chopped
5 eggs
1 cup shredded cheese
1 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper

While the crust is blind baking, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a skillet, add onions and garlic and sauté until translucent but not browned, about 2 minutes. Add the chopped chard, salt and pepper and sauté another 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Mix the eggs, milk and cream and beat until smooth. Fold in the cheese.

Add the sautéd vegetables to the pie crust.

Pour the egg mixture over the vegetables. Resist the urge to overfill.

Bake in a pre-heated oven for 45 minutes.

And another pie...

When my friend Ann was here in July, she asked for a tomato pie. She thought it sounded good, but had no recipe or real concept, she just thought it sounded good. Most savory tomato pies in the South are made with tomatoes and a blend of cheese and mayonnaise. It is like a big pimento cheese sandwich with tomatoes. In fact, when I make pimento cheese, I always think about making extra for just such a dish.



Here's the problem, all that "pimento-cheese" makes for a really rich pie that I think masks the tomatoes and since I grew them, I didn't want them overcome. (In the middle of winter when those rock-hard tomatoes appear in the store from some far away place, I might revert ti the original concept of cheese-mayo-tomato.)
Anyway, I decide to make the filling a custard and top the pie with "pimento-cheese" crust to cut some of the richness.

Once again, I used a store-bought crust. My advice is to look upon a store bought crust as a single ingredient in a pie crust that you make your own. For the tomato pie, I made a basil crust by taking one of the crusts and layering it with fresh basil from the garden.



I topped it with the other crust and rolled it out so the basil became visible. Then blind baked the crust.

Tomato Pie

1 blind baked pie crust
2 pounds tomatoes, various colors, slice thickly
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups half & half
1 1/2 cups grated cheese
1 cup mayonnaise

Mix the cheese and mayonnaise in a bowl.

In another bowl, mix the eggs and half & half until smooth.

Layer the tomatoes into the pie shell. Pour the egg mixture over the eggs leaving about 1/2 inch of space.

Spoon the cheese mixture over the top.

Bake in a 350 preheated oven for 45 minutes.

Remove and let sit for another 15 minutes before cutting.

There is no salt in this recipe, because I find the cheese mixture to be a bit salty. Even with the custard filling, I must say this recipe was almost too rich.


When Ann was here, she left me her really nice camera. That is why the Rainbow Chard pie picture is much better than the Tomato Pie picture. In the end, photography aside, both pies were quite tasty.

Chicken Pot Pie

At Cookbook Of The Day i received a recommendation from "home before dark" to try the cookbook Earth to Table. Well it doesn't take much to get me to search out a new cookbook. I commented on the cover having many of my favorite things, including a pot pie. After writing that, I realized it had been a while since I made a pot pie, so I set out to resolve that issue.

My biggest problem with living in West Virginia is not having a 7-11 at hand to pick up -- well anything! I knew I had some chicken thighs in the refrigerator and I even had a store-bought pie crust. (Now, I tend to frown on store-bought pie crusts because in the time it takes you to open the package you can just about make a pate brisee in a food processor. Recently, Cooks Illustrated did a review of packaged pie crusts. On a scale of 1 to 5 the very best crust came in at a lousy 2.5. When the San Francisco Chronicle asked pastry chefs to compare packaged crusts, the very best crust received a 52 out of 100 and the second choice clocked in at a mere 43! That being said, I always keep one in the fridge in case of emergency which is what making my pot pie turned out to be.)

I found dried mushrooms in the larder, which I immediately began to rehydrate, and there was an onion and four potatoes

In the "crisper" and I use that term lightly, I found a stalk of celery, and two slightly limp carrots.

In the freezer was half a bag of green peas.

I always have eggs, so it looked like a chicken pot pie was doable.

I turned the oven to 450F, salted the chicken thighs and stuck them in the oven.

I chopped the onions, carrots and celery and sautéed them in a nob of butter.

I peeled and chopped the potato and added it to the sauté pan.

I drained the mushrooms, retaining the liquid, and chopped them and tossed them into the sauté pan.

When the chicken was done, after about 20 minutes, I pulled it off the bone, saving the juices.

In the chicken pan, I made a roux of flour and a bit of milk, thinning it with some of the mushroom juice and made a gravy which I poured over the vegetables and chicken and then I added the frozen peas.

I put my crust in a deep baking bowl, added the creamed chicken mixture, and topped the pie with the second crust.

I crimped, cut a hole for the steam and washed it in a beaten egg.

The dish went back into the 450F oven for about 25 minutes and I had...

Chicken Pot Pie

Wish you had been there!

Fair Pies

Yesterday was the big Apple Pie contest at the Tyler County Fair. I was a bit late getting my act together but I entered two pies.

An Apple Cardamom Pie in the "use a store bought crust" category.

and

A Carmel Apple Pie in an Herbed Crust in the "make your own crust" category.

It was my first "Fair" entry and I place second in both categories. I was shut out of First Place by Lynn "The Pieman" Burns. For the second straight time, Lynn swept all four apple pie categories! I heard his "Best in Show" ribbon was already hanging over the coffee pot. Congratulations, Lynn.

Just wait till next year!

Chocolate Honey Barbeque Fritos® Pie

Craving a SALTY/SWEET treat! Don't be alarmed. I know you are skeptical, but trust me, this is a quick and tasty addition to your culinary library.

For Christmas, I gave people bags of chocolate drizzled Fritos. The best are the Honey Barbecue Twists, drizzled with a bit of dark chocolate. They are better than crack! And legal!! This recipe grew out of that treat.

Give it a try. Here's what you need:





Chocolate Honey Barbeque Fritos Pie

1 bag Honey Barbeque Fritos Twists, about 10 ounces
3 tablespoons butter, melted
10 ounces dark chocolate
1/3 cup cream
1 tablespoon vanilla

Crush the Fritos® in a food processor then add the melted butter.

Line an 8 inch springform pan with parchment paper. the paper makes it easier to remove from the pan.

Pour the Fritos® mixture into the pan and form a crust. Keep the edges thin as it is quite crumby.

Put the crust into the freezer and leave for 1 hour.

Break up the chocolate, add the cream and vanilla and melt in a double boiler or in a bowl over water. Be careful not to let the water splatter into the chocolate.

When the chocolate is fully melted, remove the crust from the freezer and pour in the chocolate.

Smooth the chocolate and sprinkle with a few crushed Fritos® or with some cocoa.

Refrigerate for at least one hour.







The pie is very rich, so serve sparingly. You might want to serve it and then discuss the ingredients with your guests. Enjoy