Pumpkin Pie

With the abundance of pumpkin puree I've had on hands lately I knew it was time for me to make my all time favorite, pumpkin pie! This is a Thanksgiving Day mandatory for me, but one I've never actually fixed my self. I pulled this recipe from the first cook book I was given just after I got married, Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. It was very easy recipe to follow, but I may try beating this on low with my mixer the next time around so that I can get the eggs to mix up better. But the final product was a wonderfully smooth pie with a great balance of sweet and spice. In fact my wife who isn't a huge fan of pumpkin pie enjoyed her fair share, so you can't go wrong with this recipe.

Butter Pie Crust

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flout

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, chilled and diced

1/4 cup ice water

1. In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

2. Roll dough out to fit a 9 inch pie plate. Place crust in pie plate. Press the dough evenly into the bottom and sides of the pie plate.

Pumpkin Pie Filling

1-15 ounce can pumpkin puree

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

(Rather than measuring individual spices, you can use 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice instead)

2 slightly beaten eggs

3/4 cup half-and-half, light cream, or milk

1. Prepare and roll out Pastry for a single-Crust Pie. Line a 9-inch pie plate with the pastry; crimp edge as desired.

2. For filling, in a medium bowl combine pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Add eggs; beat lightly with a fork just until combined. Gradually add half-and-half; stir until combined.

3. Place the pastry-lined pie plate on the oven rack. Carefully pour filling into the pastry shell.

4. To prevent over browning, cover edge of the pie with foil or use a pie crust shield. Bake in a 375ºF oven for 25 minutes more until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Cover and refrigerate with in 2 hours.

Glazed Red Berry Pie

This recipe has been setting in my recipes to fix box for most of this summer when it arrived in the summer edition of Kraft's Food & Family. It was a great recipe, but sadly my skills were put to the test and came up short. The pie filling, which consists of Raspberry Jello Gelatin, raspberries, and strawberries was really good. It was the crust that really disappointed me, it was my first attempt at making a pre-baking a pie crust and it came out really tough and chewy. Now this is in no way a reflection of the recipe, but just my skills and making pie crusts that require bake time before being filled. I know there is a bit of an art to pies and I would like to be come proficient in them, but for health reasons I will not be spending a lot of time doing so.

Ingredients
3/4 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 1/2 cups water
1 pkg. (3 oz.) Jell-O Raspberry Flavor Gelatin
3 cups fresh strawberries, hulled
1 cup fresh raspberries
1 baked pie crust (9 inch)
1/2 cup thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping

Directions
Mix sugar and cornstarch in medium saucepan. Gradually stir in water until well blended. Bring to boil on medium heat, stirring constantly; cook and stir 1 min. Remove from heat. Add dry gelatin mix; stir 2 min. until completely dissolved. Stir in fruit.
Fill crust with fruit mixture. Refrigerate 3 hours or until filling is firm.
Top with Cool Whip just before serving.

Makes 8 servings; Prep 10 min.; Total 3 hours 20 minutes
Kraft's Notes
Pie can be prepared using a frozen deep-dish pie crust. Bake as directed on package; cool. Fill as directed.
Healthy Living: Save 40 calories per serving by preparing with Jell-O Raspberry Flavor Sugar Free Gelatin and Cool Whip Lite Whipped Topping.

Blackberry Pie!

A few weekends ago the family and I went to pick fresh blackberries from a local grower. We had a blast and my little girl thought it was the coolest thing ever to be picking berries. Once we got home I needed to decide what to make with them. I initially had wanted to do blackberry cobbler outside in my dutch oven, but as the heat index was in the triple digits I opted instead for a blackberry pie. I used my usual butter pie crust recipe from Allrecipes.com and also used a blackberry pie recipe from the same website.

The final result was delicious! I've only made a few pie crusts with this recipe and I'm getting better at it, each one is a little flakier then that last. I love this recipe as it's easy to to throw together an only has a few ingredients.

Butter Flaky Pie Crust
I have prepared this recipe as is and doubled it with no problems or change in consistency.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, chilled and diced
1/4 cup ice water

Directions
1. In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours  or overnight.
2. Roll dough out to fit a 9 inch pie plate. Place crust in pie plate. Press the dough evenly into the bottom and sides of the pie plate.

Blackberry Pie
Ingredients
4 cups fresh blackberries
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
2 tbsp milk
1/4 cup white sugar

Directions
1. Combine 3 1/2 cups berries with the sugar and flour. spoon the mixture into an unbaked pie shell. Spread the remaining 1/2 cup berries on top of the sweetened berries, and cover with the top crust. Seal and crimp the edges. Brush the top crust with milk, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup sugar(I omitted brushing the crust with milk and sprinkling with sugar as I am still trying to improve my skills on the basic pie crust).
2. Bake at 425 degree F for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature of the oven to 375 degrees F, and bake for an additional 20 to 25 minutes.

Homemade Apple Pie

This past weekend was the first weekend the local apple orchards were open for self picking of the apples. We had tried to attend last year, but unfortunately were just not able to make it in time, so this year we were on the ball to make sure we made time to go. We all had a blast picking apples, playing with a little play house they had there, and we almost came home with a kitten; thankfully they weren't old enough to be adopted. When we got home I knew just what needed to be done with the fresh picked apples, apple pie. I've made apple pie before and used a store bought pie crust, but I decided making pie crust is a skill I need to learn. I scoured my cook books and the internet and finally found a recipe that would work for the ingredients I had on hand. I don't use, therefore I don't keep, shortening in my kitchen. I do however try to keep plenty of butter, or imitation butter anyway, on hand.

For my first attempt at making a pie crust I think I did a pretty good job. It was a little tough and dry especially around edge, so I may have used a little to much flour and will have to try to use less next time.

The pie filling came out wonderful! The spices were great, the apples were cooked through, and it was so juicy. The only thing that was missing was a scoop of vanilla ice cream to with it.  That day was a perfect fall day, the temperature was on the cool side and the house was filled with the smell of baked apples and cinnamon.

Butter Pie Crust
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flout
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, chilled and diced
1/4 cup ice water

1. In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
2. Roll dough out to fit a 9 inch pie plate. Place crust in pie plate. Press the dough evenly into the bottom and sides of the pie plate.

Apple Pie Filling
5-6 cups sliced apples
1/8 tsp salt
1/2-2/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1-1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1/8 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Line a 9 inch pie pan with crust. Peel and slice apples into thin pieces. Combine sugar, salt, cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir apple slices in until they are well coated. Place the apples in layers in the pie shell. Cover with upper crust. Be sure to prick holes in it for venting. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for 35-50 minutes more until done.