Category Archives: Homemade Pie Crust Pies

Pie #9 – Toasted-Pecan Pie

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Greetings! For this weeks pie, I baked a toasted-pecan pie. It’s a relaxing day to bake here in Austin. It’s cloudy and cold and the NFL playoffs are in full swing.

Yummy Pecan Pie

I’m hoping  it’ll be the Packers and the Jets in the Super Bowl.

The crust:

1 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 stick of chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 in. cubes
4 tbsp. (or more) ice-cold water

Blend the flour and the salt in a processor for about 10 seconds. Add the butter, using on/off in turns until the mixture looks like a coarse meal. My favorite part of baking is doing battle with the food processor. Also note, it is not a good idea to stick a knife in an active food processor…

Add 4 tbsp. of cold water until moist clumps form.Add 1 tbsp. at a time if the mix is dry. Gather the dough in a ball, flatten, and wrap in plastic wrap. refrigerate for at least one hour to chill.

The filling:

3 cups pecans, divided
6 large eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups dark corn syrup
1/2 stick unsalted, melted butter
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Coarsely chop 2 cups of pecans and hold in reserve. Spread the remaining cup of pecans on a rimmed baking sheet. Toast in oven until nuts are aromatic and dark in color, about 12 minutes. Cool the pecans completely and grind finely in a processor. Maintain your oven temperature.

Roll out your dough disk on a lightly floured surface to about 13 inches around. Transfer to a 10 inch glass pie dish (or in my case, a 9 inch dish. I don’t have a 10 inch). Fold the dough underhang, forming a high standing rim; crimp edges decoratively. Freeze for 20 minutes while you pull together your filling…

Whisk the eggs in a large bowl until frothy. Add sugar, corn syrup, melted butter, vanilla, salt and ground toasted pecans; whisk until blended. Mix in chopped pecans. Pull the crust from the freezer and fill the crust.

Bake the pie until the crust is golden brown and filling is puffed and set (the center of the pie may move slightly when shaken), about an hour and 10 minutes. Transfer to rack and let cool at least 3 hours.

Serve slightly warm or at room temperature with fresh whipped cream.

I ended up with quite a bit more filling than I could fit into the pie crust. I think it’s because the pie dish I have is smaller than what the recipe called for. So I grabbed a

ready-made pie crust and made another pie. I’ll be bringing that one to work on Monday:)

Pie #8 – Lattice-Topped Blueberry Pie

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The "least presentable" in todays pie category

I love blueberries. I put them on cereal, I eat them in bagels. Breakfast bars of course. I don’t care about antioxidants. If they do something healthy, that’s nice too. I just like the way they taste. That and they’re really purple. Who names purple berries blue?

From the handy Bon Apetit Deserts Cookbook…

Best Ever Pie Crust (this is debatable):

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup non hydrogenated solid vegetable shortening or lard, frozen, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
5 tbsp. (or more) ice water

Blend the flour, sugar and salt in processor. Add butter and shortening. Using on/off, cut in until mixture resembles a coarse meal. Transfer mixture into large bowl. Mix in 5 tablespoons of water, adding more ice water by teaspoonfuls, if needed, until moist clumps form. Gather the dough into a ball; divide in half. Flatten each half into a disk, wrap in cellophane and chill at least 20 minutes.

Point of note: make sure your processor is big enough to accommodate the above crust recipe or things could get messy and frustrating…

While the crust is chilling, prepare your blueberry filling. Yes, I meant to do that.

The filling:

32 ounces frozen wild blueberries or regular blueberries (unthawed) of 7 cups fresh wild blueberries or regular blueberries ($14 total at your local HEB)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. finely grated lemon peel
Heavy whipping cream
Vanilla ice cream (also known as pie garnish)

Combine the blueberries, sugar, cornstarch lemon juice and lemon peel into a medium-sized saucepan. Cook over medium heat until mixture thickens and bubbles, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. Continue to cook 1 minute longer, stirring constantly. Cool until warm.

Position rack in bottom third of oven and pre-heat to 400 degrees F. Roll out one disk of dough on a lightly floured surface to 12 inches around. transfer to a 9 inch diameter pie dish and trim dough so 1 inch hangs over the edge. Spoon the filling into the crust. Roll out the remaining dough to 13×10 inch rectangle, cut into 2/4 inch wide strips. I hope you have a ruler:) Arrange half the dough strips atop the filling, spacing evenly. Arrange the remaining strips at a right angle atop the first strips. Weaving is optional or, in my case, not realistic. Brush the crust edge with the cream so the strips adhere. Trim the dough strips even with the overhang on lower crust. Fold the edge of crust up over strips, pressing gently to seal. Crimp the edges decoratively. Brush the edges and the lattice lightly with cream. I didn’t do the previous six sentences, The cream was an oversight and the crust work was in need of some piecrust ninja. There wasn’t one to be found.

Place the pie on baking sheet and bake until crust is a golden brown, about an hour. Cool pie on a rack for about an hour.

Serve the pie warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream garnish.

The pie bubbled over quite a bit and the presentation is messy but it’s tasty. And I like tasty just as much as I like blueberries, bubbled over or not.

Pie #7 – Lemon Merin Pie (didn’t quite make it to Meringue)

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Lemon Merin Pie:)

I have to re-think my schedule. I’d initially thought I’d bake these on Wednesdays but sometimes things get in the way (like life or laziness). I plan on doing my baking, moving forward, on Saturday or Sunday. It’s easier and a bit more relaxing than doing it on a weeknight when I’m usually late from work.

I had a couple of challenges this week; I forgot to add butter to the pie crust recipe so I had to do the pie crust again. File under lack of attention to detail. I also didn’t whip the meringue long enough so it wasn’t as stiff as it should have been. Not epic, but slight pie-fail.

The Crust:

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tbsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. finely grated lemon peel

1 stick chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 in. chunks

2 tbsp. (or more) ice-cold water

Blend flour, sugar and lemon peel in a food processor. Add butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Unsure of what a “coarse meal” resembles, I winged it. Drizzle 2 tablespoons of ice water and mix with fork until moist clumps form, adding more water a tablespoon at a time if mix is dry. Gather dough into ball and then flatten. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator a minimum of 20 minutes.

Roll dough out on a lightly flowered surface to 12-inch around. Gently roll up the dough on a rolling-pin and unroll into a 9 inch diameter glass pie dish. Fold the excess dough overhang under, even with the edge of the pie dish. Crimp dough edges decoratively. Freeze your crust until firm, about 15 minutes.

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees F.  Line the frozen crust with aluminum foil and dried beans or pie weights. Pie weights? I have never seen or heard of these… Bake until crust sets, about 15 minutes. This will keep the bottom of the pie crust from bubbling up, forming a dome. Remove the foil and beans and continue baking until the crust is golden brown, another 10 minutes or so. Remove the crust from oven and reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F. Let the crust cool while you prepare your lemon filling.

Your lemon filling:

1 cup sugar

4 tsp. cornstarch

2/3 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

4 large egg yolks

1 tbsp. finely grated lemon peel

Whisk the sugar and cornstarch in a medium sauce pan. Gradually whisk in the lemon juice. Whisk in the egg yolks one at a time. Stir in the lemon peel. Whisk constantly over medium heat for 10 minutes until the filling comes to a boil and thickens. Spoon the warm filling into the crust and smooth out the top.

And now for the Meringue (or in my case, the Merin):

3 large egg whites

1/2 cup sugar

Pinch of salt

Using an electric mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and salt in a large bowl until soft peaks form. Check. Gradually beat in the sugar and continue beating the mixture until stiff and glossy. Glossy, check. Stiff, FAIL! It was, ummmm, semi-stiff. I didn’t mix it long enough and while it was able to hold some form, definitely not enough for the big peaks one would hope for.

Using a silicone spatula, spread the meringue over your warm filling, covering to the crust edge and creating peaks and swirls. My wife needed to step in here and rescue the top by adding the swirls and what she could of the peaks. For that I am grateful.

Bake until the meringue is pale golden, about 15 minutes. Cool pie completely and serve.

The lemon filling really pops with sweet/tart. The meringue has a nice texture and the crust is nice and flaky. I’m just not pleased with the presentation and will probably try this one again.

Blueberry Yogurt Cream Pie

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The first.

I bought a pie recipe book with 500 different types of pies and tarts. I then went to William Sonoma and bought some pie crust mix and a really sweet pie dish. I decided that my wife and/or kids will choose a random recipe from the Pie and Tart Book week and then I will put it all together on Wednesday evenings. My family and I will sample the wares every Thursday after dinner. My family seems very agreeable to this. Home baked dessert once a week? Fabulous!

The monday before Thanksgiving I chose my first pie. It was to be a blueberry yogurt cream pie. Being so close to Thanksgiving, it became the 1st pie on my baking adventure. Thanksgiving fell on a Thursday so the timing was perfect.

The Crust (this recipe makes 2 crusts and todays pie only needs one so divide the recipe in half unless you want to make 2)!:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/8 tsp. salt

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1/2 cup cold unsalted butter

1 large egg

2 tsp. white vinegar

2 tbsp. ice-cold water

Combine the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Cut the veggie shortening and butter into small chunks and add to the flour mixture. Using a pastry blender or two knives in a crisscrossing motion, blend until the butter and shortening mix with the flour and salt to give consistency of wet sand, with a few pea size pieces of butter and shortening remaining. In a separate bowl, using a whisk or fork. beat the egg with the vinegar and water. Blend into the flour mixture  and stir until mixture is moist. The dough should be able to be formed into a ball.  Divide into 2 balls  and wrap each one in plastic wrap. Form into a flat disk and chill for a minimum of half an hour.

Pre-heat oven to 350F

When you’re ready, lightly flour a surface to roll out crust.  Remove one disk from fridge and roll out from center to edge, until you have a crust that extends an inch past your pie plate. Transfer the pie crust to your pie plate and carefully press in. If cracks appear during transfer or when in’s in dish, push seams back together with lightly floured fingers. Crimp edges decoratively.

Bake for 15 minutes at 350F. Transfer to wire rack and leave it to cool.

The filling (truly delish)!:

1 envelope unflavored gelatin

3 tbsp. water

1 cup whipping cream

2 cups whole-milk vanilla yogurt

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 cups fresh blueberries

In a small saucepan sprinkle the gelatin over the water. Set aside for a few minutes while you fill a large bowl with ice and cold water. Then cook the gelatin for 3 to 4 minutes until dissolved. Pour the gelatin into a metal bowl filled with 1/4 cup of the whipping cream.

In a separate bowl, stir the yogurt and sugar together. Gently whisk the yogurt mixture into the metal bowl with the gelatin mixture then set the bowl in the ice bath. Brrrr…

Chill, stirring occasionally for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the mixture starts to thicken. Using a separate bowl and electric mixer, beat the remaining cream into stiff peaks. Gently fold the cream  and 1 3/4 cups of blueberries into the chilled yogurt and gelatin mixture. Pour the mixture into the cooled pie crust and place the remaining 1/4 cup of blueberries over the filling. Voila! Pie #1! Fifty one to go!!!

I haven’t baked in a while but everything came together nicely and tasted good. The consistency of the pie was also strong. All guests seemed to like the pie and they thought it noble to try a 52 week challenge. Next week, Mudd Pie…