Pie #46 – Pear and Apple Pie

Posted on October 10, 2011 by pieofthebeholder

Yesterday was my birthday so please forgive me if this is a day late. My wife and I spent the weekend in San Antonio as gadflies on the River Walk. There were lots of drinks and laughs and just all-around good times. I also enjoyed the salutations from a bunch of my friends and family via Facebook. Those were like a bunch of little presents. They were very much appreciated.

However, my week has been tinged with a bit of sadness as well. As I wrote in my earlier blog, our cat Fuzzle has gone missing. And now, a week to the day after she disappeared, our other cat, Ginger, has also disappeared. I’ve spent the week wandering our neighborhood calling out to both cats and even wandering into the wooded areas that we have around our house and in the neighborhood. There is no sign of them and I can already tell this is going to be one of those life mysteries where we will probably never know what happened to either of them. It’s sad. They were beautiful and awesome cats. After I got home today, I put away their food and water dishes. And we’ve already moved their cat perch into the garage, along with their toys. *Sigh*

Pie number 46 is a basic Pear and apple pie. I didn’t want to go through the effort of making pie dough today so I just bought a couple of ready-made crusts.

The ingredients:

Pear and apple pie

4 peeled, sliced and cored pears (or 1 can pear quarters)

4 peeled, sliced and cored apples (or 1 can sliced apples)

½ cup of brown sugar

¼ cup of granulated sugar

¼ cup of flour (preferably all-purpose)

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

¼ tsp. ground nutmeg

a pinch of salt

2 tbsp. unsalted butter

1 tbsp. light cream (or you can use half and half)

1 tsp. granulated sugar

Pre-heat oven to 325F. Thaw your ready made crusts. One will be the top of your pie.

Combine the sliced apples with the sliced pears, brown sugar, and one-quarter cup of sugar in a large bowl. Also throw in the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

Pour the apple and pear mixture into pie pan. Dot the top with butter.

On a floured surface, roll out other dough into a 12 inch circle and transfer to top of the pie. Seal the crust and cut slits into the top. Brush the top with cream. Sprinkle a bit of sugar on top.

Bake for 50 minutes and cool for an hour. At 30 minutes you may want to check on the pie as the cream and sugar on top will darken the dough considerably. I recommend covering the top in foil after 30-35 minutes.

It’s an easy and quick recipe and tastes pretty good. I recommend a scoop of vanilla ice cream with it.

Good night girls. I miss you both:(

Pie #45 – Death by Chocolate Pie

Posted on October 3, 2011 by pieofthebeholder

My little Fuzzle cat has gone missing without a trace. She’s been gone since this past Tuesday. She’s the kitty in the first picture I put on this blog, who was there with me last Thanksgiving when I made my first pie. She is heaven-knows-where. It makes me sad as I write this post. I want pie to associate with happiness and The Yum. But I cannot help wonder where she went, how she went and whether she’s ok, or at peace. Fuzzle, I hope you come home. And if you do you’re grounded.

Today, I decided to try a recipe from Kate Orenberg’s Summer of Pie blog here on WordPress. It won’t be the last. She’s got the pie thing going on. This weeks selection is Death by Chocolate pie. And people, it’s Chocolate. The crust is a brownie, the filling is chocolate pudding (home-made of course) and the topping is a chocolate ganache and chocolate whipped cream topping. It’s also garnished with chocolate:) Please note the recipe is copied almost in its entire original form. She’s also a sharp writer. Thanks, Kate.

The crust!:

(From King Arthur Flour’s “The Best Fudge Brownies Ever.”)

8 oz. (one stick) butter

1 1/4 cups sugar

3/4 cup cocoa

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tbsp. vanilla

2 large eggs

3/4 cups flour

6 oz mini chocolate chips

Butter and flour a 9″ deep dish (2 – 2 1/2″ deep) pie pan.

In a medium-sized microwave safe bowl melt the butter. Add sugar and stir until combined. Stir in cocoa, salt, baking powder, and vanilla. Add the eggs and beat until smooth. Add the flour and chips, and stir until thoroughly incorporated. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, being care to bring it up the sides and over the top slightly. Make as thin a layer as you can as the batter will rise in the oven.

Place in the refrigerator for 30 min – 1 hour to set.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Line chilled crust with greased parchment paper, pressing it firmly but gently against the sides; fill with weights. Bake for 20 minutes or until sides are set. Remove the parchment and weights and bake for another 8-15 minutes. Set aside to cool. I baked at 8 because the crust started to burn. I’ll take undercooked brownie to burned brownie any day:)

The filling!:

Adapted from “Recipe of the week: Blackout Cake: Brooklyn’s long-lost dessert”

3/4 cup sugar

2 tbsp. cornstarch

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup half-and-half

1/2 cup whole milk

4 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped

2 tsp cocoa liqueur or vanilla extract

Combine sugar, cornstarch, salt, half-and-half in medium saucepan, slowly whisk in milk over medium heat. Switch to a heat-proof spatula and stir constantly until mixture thickens and begins to bubble, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and immediately stir in chocolate, continue stirring until all chocolate is melted (place on low heat if pudding is too cold to fully melt the chocolate). Stir in liqueur or vanilla, and pour into prepared crust. Refrigerate until cold, at least 2 hours and up to 1 day. My vote is 2 hours…

Ganache!:

12 oz heavy whipping cream

8 oz. bittersweet (like my mood) chocolate, chopped

Heat 6 oz of cream in a small saucepan over medium/low heat until steaming, but not boiling. While cream heats, chop chocolate into small pieces (fine) and place in heat-proof mixing bowl. When cream is steaming, pour onto the chocolate. Mix until thoroughly combined and allow to cool to room temperature. You want the ganache to set up a little so it’s no longer liquid, but not so set up as it would be difficult to fold into the whipped cream.

In a separate bowl, whip the remaining cream until it holds stiff peaks. Fold into chocolate mixture, then gently spoon into chilled crust. Wrap in plastic and chill overnight or for at least 3 hours.

I only used 4 oz. of the bittersweet chocolate. I’m glad I did. The ganache almost ran off the top of the pie. Delicious but messy. I’m also a poor judge of determining how thick the ganache should be before folding in the whipped cream.

The whipped cream!:

12 oz. heavy whipping cream

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tbsp. rum

3 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

1/3 cup powdered sugar

Pour cold cream into a large bowl. Add vanilla and rum. Sift in cocoa powder and sugar. Blend with a hand mixer on low until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated; whip on high until cream has the consistency of a soft frosting. Spread gently on top of pie.

Decorate with a handful of mini chocolate chips, grated chocolate, or dusted cocoa powder. Chill until ready to serve.

This pie is, ummmm, chocolatey. Super delicious if you are a fanatic about chocolate. And I am.

They say chocolate cures the blues. I’m going to need to eat the whole thing myself in order to get over the sadness of the loss of my beautiful, flame-point Siamese kitty. Good night Fuzzle. Wherever you are…

Pie #43 – Cherry Pie with Lattice top

Posted on September 20, 2011 by pieofthebeholder

I took my wife to Sonoma, CA for the weekend in celebration of her 40th birthday. It was also our 5th wedding anniversary. So it all came together quite nicely. We invited 15 of our friends to a beautiful and large home called Artisan House on the Russian River. It was truly a great weekend of fun and laughs. With a hot tub. In a small amount of spare time, I baked pie 43, a cherry pie with a lattice top.

Pie by the Russian River

The crust!:

2 ready-made pie crusts (hey, I was on vacation)

The filling!:

4 cups cherries (fresh or frozen)

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 cup unbleached flour

1 cup sugar

Thaw one of your ready-made pie crusts. You’ll cut that for your lattice.

Mix cherries, flour, cinnamon and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Pour into your frozen pie shell.

Flatten your thawed pie crust. Cut lattice from your thawed crust and weave on top of the pie. Pinch the edges to the shell.

Bake at 425F, for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 350F and bake an extra 25-30 minutes or until crust is light brown.

It was really tasty and had a nice hint of the cinnamon. It was also quite juicy and sweet. Just like our weekend! All of our friends who tried it really liked it too.

Pie #42 – Butterscotch Meringue Pie

Posted on September 11, 2011 by pieofthebeholder

And so today is 9/11/2011. Ten years ago I worked at an ad agency called Foote, Cone and Belding. On that day, as I was getting ready for work, I checked my email and a friend had just posted an email to our email list. It said simply, “Plane hit WTC. On fire.” I turned on the TV and couldn’t really process what I was watching. My first reaction was “is this some kind of joke?” I called a co-worker and asked him if he was watching TV. He handed the phone to my boss who told me that the office was closed for the day. I watched everything unfold and then rode my bike into downtown San Francisco. It was practically empty. I just sat on a bench on Market Street, took in the mental pictures of that day, where I was, and tried to rationalize. No rationalization came. Still hasn’t.

I find that after 10 years there’s still a lot of things I can’t watch in relation to the attacks. It’s still upsetting, unnerving, unsettling. It was one mindf*ck of a day. And so much has changed, on so many levels.

On this anniversary, it is also week one of the NFL football season. So I’ve spent my day watching games, buying supplies for pie number 42 and typing this. Today I made a butterscotch meringue pie. So much for low carb or vegan. The sweet is back. On the anniversary of a day that is anything but.

The crust!:

One pre-made graham cracker crust (Today is lazy-time)

The filling!:

1 cup brown sugar (not packed)

2 tbsp. flour

2 tbsp. butter

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup cold water

2 egg yolks (slightly beaten)

This recipe can also be used (without the pie crust, of course) to make butterscotch pudding.

Butterscotch Meringue Pie

Combine sugar and flour in the top of a double boiler. I used a glass bowl as the top of the boiler, with a spaghetti pot filled 1/4 full as the bottom. Bring water to a boil. Add remaining ingredients in order given, adding the water and eggs last. Mix the egg yolks with 2 teaspoons of water before adding. Cook until mixture has thickened and coats the back of a spoon. About 20 minutes. Remove from heat.Pour the mixture into a prepared 9-inch pie crust.

Meringue Topping!:

Beat 3 egg whites until stiff. While beating, gradually add 6 tablespoons of white sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time. Beat well after each addition. Add 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla. Continue to beat until stiff peaks form.Spread the meringue over the top of the pie, all the way to the edges. If you don’t spread it to the crusts to seal, the meringue may shrink.

Put the pie in a preheated 375F oven until the meringue has browned. Let cool to room temperature. Eat and enjoy.

pieofthebeholder

52 weeks. 52 pies.

Tag Archives: Pie

Pie #46 – Pear and Apple Pie

Pie #45 – Death by Chocolate Pie

Pie #43 – Cherry Pie with Lattice top

Pie #42 – Butterscotch Meringue Pie