Tag Archives: Dessert

Pie #27 – Cherry O Cheese Pie

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If a cherry pie and cheescake married, you would get pie #27. It’s very simple to make; the biggest challenge should you choose it, is the pie crust. This one is from Sharon, a creative that I have the pleasure of working with.

Pip pip cherry o, fork up and all that

The crust!:

16 -20 graham crackers

5 tbsp. butter, melted

3 tbsp. sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, blend the graham crackers until fine. Add butter, sugar and salt and mix until blended. In a 9 inch pie plate, spread the mixture along bottom and sides of pan. Bake for approx. 15 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and let cool.

The filling (super easy)!:

1 block (8oz.) cream cheese

1 can Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk

1/3 cup of lemon juice (about 2 1/2 if you go fresh squeezed)

1 tsp. vanilla

1 can cherry pie filling (or make your own, unlike me)

Blend all ingredients except the cherry pie filling until creamy. Put filling in a prepared graham cracker crust. Chill then add a can of Comstock cherry pie filling and chill until you serve it.

I love the combination of cream, tart cherries and the graham cracker crust adds good texture. Thanks Sharon:) This pie is in the very tasty range.

Pie #25 – Outrageous Orange Custard Pie

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Today’s selection comes courtesy Divaliscious in Dutchess County, New York. The recipe was located and attempted courtesy of GroupRecipes.com. Dutchess County just sounds like the kind of a county that would make really good fruit pies. This pie doesn’t have orange slices but is an orange flavored custard with a meringue topping.

The crust!:

1 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 stick chilled unsalted butter cut into 1/4 inch cubes

2 tbsp. sugar

pinch of salt

3 tbsp. or more of ice water

Blend the flour, butter, sugar and salt in a food processor using on/off turns. Add 3 tablespoons of water and mix until moist clumps form. Add additional water by teaspoon if the mix is dry. Remove from processor and form into a ball. Flatten and wrap in plastic wrap. Let set in the fridge a minimum of 3o minutes. Once cooled, roll out to 13 inch diameter disk and transfer to a 9 inch pie pan. Trim edges and use extra dough to patch any holes or thin spots. I usually have a lot of those:)

The filling!:

Orange

2 eggs, separated

1 egg whole

1 cup white sugar

4 tbsp. sugar for meringue (goes with 2 egg whites you saved)

1-2/3 cups evaporated milk (12 oz. can; The Divaliscious recipe called for 14.5 oz. but no such can seems to exist in Austin, TX. Besides, 12 oz. = 1 2/3 cups. Not only can I convert measurements but I can lift heavy things too.)

1-1/3 cup orange juice (with pulp is best)

3 tsp. grated orange zest (I used 4. Hope it’s not a deal breaker.)

1 tsp. pure orange extract (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and have shelf placed on the lower level in the oven. Separate two of the eggs – beat egg yolks and 1 whole egg well in mixer. Add sugar and blend well. Add evaporated milk, orange juice, orange zest and pure orange extract. Continue to mix until blended. Pour into pastry shell and bake in preheated oven for 30-40 minutes until custard is firm and knife comes out clean. Cool pie slightly.

While pie is cooling, beat 2 egg whites and 4 tablespoons sugar to make meringue. Remember people, make sure the meringue is blended until it forms stiff peaks. Top pie with meringue and bake in moderate oven (325 degrees) for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

The pie came out looking like it hadn’t fully baked. I realized afterward that I put in 1/3 cup too much orange juice. So this pie is going to be outrageously juicy. I also burned the crust which is never good. I need to put tin foil collars on these when they bake at 40 minutes.

The pie tastes good but it’s not, as the name suggests, outrageous. It’s got a nice  balance to it, but it’s also soggy. Not my worst but not one of the better pies either. It’s mid-range.

Pie #24 – S’More Pie

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Swap out campfire for oven. Swap out stick for plate.

Happy Mothers Day to all you moms! Tammi and I went to Taco Express with our friend Piph this morning for a few breakfast tacos to celebrate her day. The place was jammed. But the food is always good. After that, we went thrifting for costumes for an upcoming party. While Piph and Tammi continued on (I’m not much of a thrifter), I came home and jumped into baking pie #24. It’s S’More pie. I found this one on the Food Network website.  The pie crust is from Martha Stewart. It’s my favorite pie crust, if you’ve forgotten. A suggestion to all you moms with young children, if you want your kids to worship you, make this pie. In parental circles, it’s known as “leverage.”

The crust!:

16 -20 graham crackers

5 tbsp. butter, melted

3 tbsp. sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, blend the graham crackers until fine. Add butter, sugar and salt and mix until blended. In a 9 inch pie plate, spread the mixture along bottom and sides of pan. Bake for approx. 15 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and let cool.

The filling!:

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 stick butter, melted

3 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 (5-ounce) can evaporated milk

1/4 cup coffee liqueur or Kahlua (I used Kahlua)

2 cups miniature marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a mixing bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar thoroughly combined and pale yellow. Whisk in melted butter, cocoa powder, evaporated milk, and coffee liqueur. Set aside.

Place pie shell on baking sheet and place on an oven rack. Carefully pour in filling. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes. About 5 minutes before pie is finished, mound marshmallows in the center of the pie (they will spread as they
melt). Continue baking until marshmallows are golden brown.

Let cool slightly. Serve warm. It’s gooey and I like the hint of liqueur along with the cocoa. The marshmallows make it fun, but a little sticky.

And now we’re off with the kids for Mother’s Day dinner. Canolli Joe style. So much for desert.

Pie #23 – Sherry’s Blackberry Cream Pie

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Happy May Day. Lots to do today at the homestead in Austin. All manner of yardwork, cleaning, picking up kids, and baking of course. This week, I had a few people ask me what my pie of choice was going to be for week number twenty three. I didn’t have a plan for this one. Actually, generally speaking, my planning has fallen by the wayside. I usually scramble on the weekend figuring out the pie, and then rushing to the store to get any missing ingredients. Not really my preferred method but it works well enough.

A couple of these folks asked me if I had made a blackberry pie yet. I had not. Until today…

This pie comes courtesy of cooks.com. The pie guru who created this recipe is one Sherry Monfils. Why thank you!

The crust!:

1 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 stick chilled unsalted butter cut into 1/4 inch cubes

2 tbsp. sugar

pinch of salt

3 tbsp. or more of ice water

Blend the flour, butter, sugar and salt in a food processor using on/off turns. Add 3 tablespoons of water and mix until moist clumps form. Add additional water by teaspoon if the mix is dry. Remove from processor and form into a ball. Flatten and wrap in plastic wrap. Let set in the fridge a minimum of 3o minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees  and remove the dough after half hour. Roll out on lightly floured surface into a 13 inch circle. Transfer to a 9 inch pie dish. Today I rolled up the dough in a log and unrolled it in the pie dish. It actually worked pretty well. Trim the dough and use the remnants to patch any holes you might have around the crust edge or in the dish.

You aren’t supposed to bake the crust but I did. It was a slight oversight.  I lined the bottom of the crust with foil and filled with uncooked beans to weigh it down. It was baked for 20 minutes. After it was baked, the beans and foil were removed and the crust allowed to cool.

The filling!:

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/3 cups light sour cream
1 tsp  vanilla
3 cups blackberries
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped pecans
3 tbsp. butter, softened
whipped cream
Preheat oven to 400°F. In a bowl, combine sugar, 1/3 cup flour, eggs, sour cream, and vanilla until smooth. Toss in blackberries and stir well. Spoon into pie shell. If you’re someone who decides to bake the pie crust when you aren’t supposed to, drop the oven rack to the lower third of the oven, and put an aluminum foil collar around the crust so it doesn’t burn.Bake 30-35 minutes or until set. In a bowl, combine 1/3 cup flour, brown sugar, pecans and soft butter, mix well. Sprinkle over pie. Return pie to oven for 10 minutes. Let cool and slather with lots of whipped cream!
The pie tastes good. I like the contrast with the berries, the crumble and the flakey crust.  Thumbs up on this one.

Pie #22 – Coconut Key Lime Pie

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Happy Easter! It’s been a busy weekend. Getting ready for Easter Sunday. Easter egg hunt for the kids on Sunday morning. The Easter Rabbit brought the kids an Xbox Kinnect but didn’t bother to set it up. So I took care of that too. We also have a BBQ at friends today. I made Coconut Key Lime pie for the event. Actually I made two. The below recipe yields one pie. The recipe comes courtesy of Martha Stewart.

The crust!:

6 ounces cookies (about 12 graham crackers or 46 vanilla wafers or 30 chocolate wafers, such as Famous)

3 tbsp. sugar

1/4 tsp. coarse salt

5 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, pulse cookies until finely ground (you should have about 1 1/2 cups). Add sugar, salt, and butter and pulse until combined.

Firmly press crumb mixture into bottom and up sides of a 9-inch pie plate. (If using a springform pan, press crumbs halfway up sides.) Bake until crust is dry and set, about 12 minutes. Let cool completely in plate on a wire rack before filling.

The filling!:

1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk

1 can (13.5 ounces) unsweetened coconut milk

1/3 cup fresh or bottled Key lime juice

7 large egg yolks

2 cups cold heavy cream

2 tbsp. confectioners’ sugar

3 tbsp. sweetened shredded coconut, toasted

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together condensed milk, coconut milk, lime juice, and egg yolks until smooth. Pour into crust and bake until set but still slightly wobbly in center, 40 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack, 1 1/2 to 2 hours, then refrigerate 3 hours (or up to 1 day).

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat cream and sugar on high until stiff peaks form, about 3 minutes. To serve, top pie with whipped cream and sprinkle with toasted coconut.

The pie is really tasty but quite heavy.  Smaller slices will do quite well. The whip cream is thick,  fluffy and sweet,  they custard is rich. The graham craker crust is my new favorite. It’s very simple and holds to the custard well so you get the full range of texture and taste.