Monthly Archives: December 2010

Pie #5 – Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

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First off, Happy Holidays! I hope that whoever reads this had a lovely holiday with family and friends. On Christmas Eve, our house hosted a small group of friends and neighbors and an abundance of munchies was shared. Aside from seafood linguini, crabcakes, crab legs, and shrimp, there was pie:)

Pumpkin Chiffon is nothing more than whipped cream and pumpkin butter pie. But man is it yummy!

To put this one together you need:

1 jar (11 oz.) of New Canaan Farms pumpkin butter

1 5.8 oz. box of Instant vanilla pudding ( i didn’t have enough so I added a couple of tblsp of vanilla yogurt too)

1 pt. heavy whipping cream

graham cracker pie crust

nutmeg and chopped pecans

Mix the pumpkin butter and vanilla pudding mix into a 2 qt. bowl. Using an electric mixer, add the whipping cream into the mixture until it forms stiff peaks. Pour into the pie crust and chill for at least an hour before serving. Garnish with nutmeg and pecans. Voila! Christmas Eve desert for friends! And now 365 days till Christmas…

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Pie #4 – Grasshopper pie

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Shopping for ingredients on this one was a lazy and expensive proposition. Lazy because I decided to buy ready-made crust. Expensive because of the liqueur that I only needed a couple of tablespoons of.

The pie calls for 1 1/3 cup whipping cream 4 egg yolks, 3/4 cup super-fine sugar (what is super-fine?), 1 tbsp creme de menthe, 1/3 cup creme de cacao, and 1 1/2 tbsp gelatin.

you whisk 1/3 cup whipping cream, gelatin, yolks, liqueur, and super-fine sugar over medium low heat for about 4 minutes. Pour into metal bowl and set in a larger bowl that’s filled with ice and cold water. That gets the mix to thicken. Stir periodically for about 10 minutes to set.

Pore the remaining whipping cream into a bowl and with an electric mixer, mix till cream is stiff. Fold whipping cream into the cold mixture until everything is well combined. Pour into crust and refrigerate for three hours until set. Garnish with mint chocolate flakes.

Then eat part of remaining mint chocolate bar as reward:)

Pie #3 – Apple Caramel Crumb Pie

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I didn’t do the pie until saturday night. We had a dinner engagement Sunday evening and we brought desert. I just hope this pie worked.

According to the menu I needed 8 apples. I think 4 would have probably worked. I have enough for 2 pies and may make another one tomorrow.

I may have overcooked the caramel. The menu called for the sugar and water mix to turn dark amber before taking it off heat to add butter and water. I just hope dark amber and a lighter shade of black are close:) I added a teaspoon of granulated sugar over the top of the apples as a sort of insurance policy. Or perhaps a bit of hope…

The brown sugar crumble that goes over the top turned out pretty good, and as I looked at it in the oven, it formed a nice crust over the top of the pie.

The crust came from a box and turned out alright. Simple pie crust becomes simpler. I’ll try making one from scratch next week.

Pie #2 – Mud Pie

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I need to adjust my routine in order to work on the pies. My wife went shopping to pick up the ingredients I didn’t have. And for that I thank her.

A mud pie is nothing more than a cold fudge sunday in graham cracker crust. So very easy to make and quick too. It took about 30-45 minutes to put it together.

Blend a cup of graham cracker crumbs into a half stick of melted butter and form the crust into a 9 inch pie pan. Bake 15 minutes. Let cool completely. Your house will smell yummy. Spoon in a cup and a half of softened chocolate ice cream as a layer. Then layer a cup and a quarter of fudge sauce on top of that. Garnish the top with a quarter cup of slightly toasted almond chips on top. Wrap loosely with cellophane, separating the plastic wrap from the filling with toothpicks. Let set in the freezer. Make sure the surface is even:) Otherwise your frozen pie will list to the side.

The pie is quite rich and small slices are recommended:)