Chocolate Pie

from Betty NesSmith

2 sticks butter, melted

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup cocoa

4 eggs, lightly beaten

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 pie shells, partially baked

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix all & pour into pie shells.
3. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Pie - Blueberry Cream Cheese

from Granny

2 graham cracker crusts

16 oz cream cheese, room temp!

2 cans Eagle Brand condensed milk

2/3 cup lemon juice

2 tsp vanilla

1 can drained blueberries

Beat cream cheese very well, gradually adding milk till all lumps are gone.  

Mix in lemon juice & vanilla. 

Carefully fold in blueberries. 

Put mixture into piecrusts. 

Refrigerate. Pies will thicken.

Apple Crisp

Recipe Inspiration Source:  The Chunky Chef

Preheat oven to 350.  Butter an 8x8 baking dish, or spray with non-stick cooking spray.  Set aside.


Apple Mix

In a mixing bowl, add apples, sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice.  Stir to combine, then transfer to prepared baking dish.

• 6 apples, peeled and chopped
• 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 ¾ tsp ground cinnamon, - divided
• 1 ½ tsp lemon juice

Topping

In a separate mixing bowl, add topping ingredients.  Use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the oat mixture, using a slight downward twisting motion, until mixture resembled pea-sized crumbs.  Alternatively, you can use two forks or even your hands to cut butter into the mixture.

• 1 cup light brown sugar
• ¾ cup old fashioned oats
• ¾ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup cold unsalted butter, diced into small cubes - could use vegan butter
• pinch of kosher salt

Spread topping over apples in baking dish, and gently pat to even it out.  Bake 40-50 minutes, until golden brown and bubbly.


Serve warm and enjoy! 

Apple Mini Pies

These look so fancy, but also incredibly easy.  That's right up my alley.  The pie crust makes them a bit less than healthy, but not as bad as many other dessert choices.

Slice apples, then cut out the middle core.

The cut won't show so if you need to use a knife 

instead of a fancy little tool, it won't matter.

Coat both sides in a sugar and cinnamon mix.

You can use a pre-made pie crust, but if you're in the mood to make your own,

here's my PIE CRUST recipe.

Roll out pie dough and cut into squares.

Make cuts in the corners as shown in photo.

TIP:

Photos show pie crust rolled out on cutting board.  If it's all done on parchment, then it will be easier to transfer to pan.  It would probably be best to assemble and fold after movie the crust.

Place coated apples in the center of each square.

OPTIONAL - 

Hmmmm.... it might be fun to add walnuts and maybe even raisins.

Fold the OUTER corners towards the center as shown.

Bake on parchment lined pan.

I'm guessing at 350 degrees.

30 minutes seems to be about right.

When it comes out of the oven,

sprinkle a bit of confectioners sugar on top.  

Oh my gosh!!!

So pretty!

Recipe Inspiration Source:  

I saw this on Instagram.  It came up on my feed randomly and was from @gulun_tarifdefteri.  It was in another language and translation was not available.  It was in video format, so I took screenshots.  It looks straightforward enough, but of course, exact measurements were not available.  Since it looks so easy, that shouldn't be a problem.  Hopefully, this link will lead to the video.

First attempt - 

The folding did not turn out so well.  Mine were sloppy and not so pretty.  I used a store bought pie crust shaped in a circle and tried to push it into a square.  Also, the size of each square matters. It needs to be a nice square.  Also, I used an apple corer to cut the insides of the apples, but the corer cuts a slightly smaller circle than what was used in the video.  My corners were hard to pull to the center.  I think most of my issues could have been avoided had I made my own crust.

As for taste - they were good.  This recipe is a keeper.

Pie Crust

Recipe Inspiration Source:  Inspired Taste

• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar, optional
• 2 sticks very cold (put in freezer 15-20 min) unsalted butter, cut into half inch cubes
• 4 to 8 tablespoons ice water (allow the ice to sit in the water and then measure out the ½ cup) - Could also use alcohol.  See notes below.

Add 1 ½ cups flour, salt, and sugar (optional) to a food processor. Pulse 2 to 3 times until combined. The remaining cup of flour will be added later.

Scatter butter cubes over flour and process until a dough or paste begins to form, about 15 seconds. There should be no uncoated flour.

Scrape bowl, redistribute the flour-butter mixture then add remaining 1 cup of flour. Pulse 4 to 5 times until flour is evenly distributed. Dough should look broken up and a little crumbly.

Transfer to a medium bowl, then sprinkle ice water over mixture — start with 4 tablespoons and add from there. Using a rubber spatula, press the dough into itself. The crumbs should begin to form larger clusters. 

If you pinch some of the dough and it holds together, it’s ready. If the dough falls apart, add 2 to 4 more tablespoons of water and continue to press until dough comes together.

Remove dough from bowl and place in a mound on a clean surface. Work the dough just enough to form a ball. 

Cut the ball in half then form each half into discs. Wrap each disc with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 2 days. 

You can also freeze it for up to 3 months (just thaw it overnight in the fridge before using it).

★ Too Much Gluten is an Enemy to a Pie Crust!

Some gluten is okay and actually needed for structure, but too much can really mess things up.

So, remember this: less gluten formation = flakier and more tender pie crusts.  Too much gluten makes pie dough tough, like parchment.

Cook’s Illustrated found that if you thoroughly mix part of the flour with the fat (butter) and make a flour-butter paste first, every particle of that flour becomes coated in fat. Think of each particle of flour with butter raincoats. These raincoats make it very difficult for the flour to absorb water. In other words, it helps to prevent the development of too much gluten. Then, you can add the remaining flour so the perfect amount of gluten develops. This means perfect pie crust, every time.

★ What Appliance is Best?  A Food Processor!!!

You *could* use a bread machine on the pasta dough course, but it’s not the best appliance. A bread machine is like a food processor on low gear. It is strong and has more torque but moves at a much lower speed. Instead of chopping the fat quickly into the flour; flour, water, salt and yeast are mixed together and pushed around for a long time, which allows more gluten to form. That's not good.

Pie dough takes a few seconds to a minute, tops. If you don't have access to a food processor, you'd be much better using a pastry blender, a couple of butter knives or even your cool fingers to quickly press the fat into the flour.

★ Alcohol in Place of Water is an Option

Cook's Illustrated considers vodka a key ingredient in pie crusts.  "Unlike water, alcohol does not contribute to the formation of gluten, the network of proteins that can cause a crust to turn leathery. Because the alcohol burns off quickly in the oven, drying out the crust, we could add enough vodka to keep the dough wet and extremely supple."  Vodka is their favorite but they tested rum, whiskey and gin as well and found they were fine.

When making an apple pie, may cooks recommend using Apple Jack, which has the same alcoholic content as vodka.    

★ Pie Decor Inspiration

Lauren Ko @lokokitchen on Instagram has taken pie art to a whole new level.  WOW! You really need to check out her page to see her pies up close.  She has a book out, too!  I am smitten.  I wish pies were health foods.

Chocolate Pie

from Betty NesSmith

2 sticks butter, melted

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup cocoa

4 eggs, lightly beaten

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 pie shells, partially baked

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix all & pour into pie shells.
3. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Pie

from Bernice Casey (Granny)

2 graham cracker crusts

16 oz cream cheese, room temp!

2 cans Eagle Brand condensed milk

2/3 cup lemon juice

2 tsp vanilla

1 can drained blueberries

Beat cream cheese very well, gradually adding milk till all lumps are gone.

Mix in lemon juice & vanilla.

Carefully fold in blueberries.

Put mixture into piecrusts.

Refrigerate. Pies will thicken.