A good trick for Apple Pies and other fruit pies with a top crust.

I read on the Cooking Light site about a good trick to help your apple pies from making a lot of air between the apple filling and the top crust.

http://www.cookinglight.com/cooking-101/techniques/cooking-questions-tips-00400000064986/page51.html

Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie!

I haven't made a pie for a while. "Life stuff" has been getting in the way. But what better time is there to make a pie than for Thanksgiving. And of course I went with the classic pumpkin pie. I read recipes for sweet potato/pumpkin pie, strudel pumpkin pie… but they just aren't classic enough.

So, I'm not sure how it tastes yet, because tomorrow is Thanksgiving, but the little lick I tried tasted divine!

I did read that taste testers can't tell the difference between the canned and fresh pumpkin after it has been baked. But the waitress at the Cafe said she could(she makes pie too). BUT, I didn't feel like going through all of the trouble with the fresh pumpkin so I used Libbys canned, and that always works for me.

I cookie-cuttered some leaves and baked them separately so they wouldn't sink in the filling while the pie was baking. I like how it turned out. But next time I will probably just use the leaves for the edge of the crust. I just wanted to practice my crimping technique. And as you can see, it still needs more practice. =) Happy Thanksgiving!

Ham and Cheese Pie

Today I made ham and cheese pie for dinner. It ended up being more of a quiche but it was still really good. I made it to use up the rest of my pie dough from the coconut cream pie. This pie called for parsley but they didn't have any at the store, so I added dill. I knew everyone I was making it for really likes dill and it turned out really well. 

This pie had eggs, ham, provolone cheese, mozzarella cheese, green onions and DILL. Yum! It turned out really well.

Auntie Sharon's Coconut Cream Pie

Today I made my aunt Sharon's coconut cream pie recipe for my cousin Ryan's birthday. (Trying to keep it all in the family.) It turned out really well. Even though the recipe called for coconut in the crust and I forgot to put it in. But my crust looked good and the filling was very creamy. 

I also added some toasted coconut on top because Ryan really likes the combo of savory and sweet. All you do is get a sauce pan to medium and put a little butter in the pan and add coconut. Cook it slow and in a couple of minutes it will turn golden. Yum! I had some left over toasted coconut and I've been putting it on my yogurt parfaits in the morning. Super Yum!

Apple Pie for Web Development Class

Today I made my yummy apple pie recipe for my web development class. I haven't gone to class yet, so the pie is cooling on the kitchen counter. I hope it tastes good. It makes me a little nervous that I can't try it before I take it to class. At least it looks pretty. 

This pie turned out really well. The curst did not shrink. I refrigerated the crust before I baked the pie, and that seems to be the trick for shrinking crusts. Some of the web students in the class even had seconds!

Neat Pie Site

Today I was surfing the web and I found a site that had a lot of varied pie making tips and tricks. A very fun read for someone just learning to make pie!

http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf/Food_and_Recipes/Recipes/Baking/Pies/index.html

Dark Chocolate, Caramel & Walnut Pie

Today I made a Dark Chocolate, Caramel and Walnut Pie. This recipe used semisweet chocolate chips. So next time I make this I'm going to use milk chocolate chips, because I like those better. My grandmas pie crust recipe is still working very well. The crust recipe uses butter flavored crisco and lard. Mmm. This was a fun pie to make. 

First you cook sugar and water on the stove top. Then when it boils and turns tan, add the chocolate chips, vanilla and walnuts. And refrigerate in pie dough for 3 hours.

Very Good!

Japanese Fruit Pie (Pecan Pie)

This pie was a bit lighter in taste than a traditional pecan pie. The filling was made with butter, sugar, pecans, coconut, vanilla and vinegar. It was VERY YUMMY. I really liked it. I am still learning to crimp the crust edge, like on a traditional pie. It has proven it self a lot harder to do than what I thought. So if anyone has any helpful tips on how to crimp crust edges, that would be great! The name for this pie isn't very descriptive, since there is no fruit in it and I didn't know that coconuts grew in Japan, so it might need a re-name. 

I have also solved my shrinking crust problem. Originally I read that you should not stretch your crust or it will shrink. But the problem was that I wasn't stretching my crust and it was still shrinking. So I finally found a new tip that actually works. 

First, roll your crust and place it in the pie plate. Don't do anything to the edges or put filling in it yet. Then refrigerate it for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes put filling in and bake. No More Shrinkage! Hallelujah!!

Apple Pie Monday

Apple Pie

This morning I made an apple pie. My grandma gave me her pie crust recipe because I was having a hard time finding a good one. I think I tried at lease 8 different pie crust recipes and non were perfect. Grandmas crust turned out pretty good. I cooked this apple pie a little too long. So next time I will watch it a little closer, but it tastes great! The secret to this apple pie is that you cook the apples in a pot on the stove top and then you drain the juices. So when the pie bakes, it doesn't turn into apple soup. And I used sanding sugar one top so it gave it some extra sweetness. Yum.

Basil and Thyme Pie

This Basil and Thyme Pie was delicious! I figured it was about time for a savory pie. I especially loved the thyme. It was very savory and very pretty. Other than my hack job on the braided crust, it was very delicious.

Sweat Potato Pie

This sweet potato pie turned out really good. It was very delicious. And it had a few different spices in it to give it flavor. I also made some stars with a cookie cutter to give it some visual appeal. I still haven't fixed my shrinking crust problem. But the pie was still good.

Reeces Peanut Butter Pie

I made this Peanut butter pie thinking it would taste a lot like a peanut butter cup. But in the end it just didn't. The peanut flavor wasn't peanut-y enough. And the chocolate wasn't chocolate-y enough. So I don't know if I will ever try this pie again, because I'm not sure how to fix these problems. On a positive note, it was a pretty pie. And you can see the peanut butter cups on the top. Mmm.

Pumpkin Pie

During the Thanksgiving season I made a pumpkin pie for my neighbor Ruth. She is a very sweet lady and her favorite kind of pie is pumpkin. I was really lucky with the first recipe that I chose. It had a lot of spices in it which added a lot to the flavor. This was not a boring pumpkin pie by any means! It wasn't overwhelming though. I also tried to cut out some leaves from the left over pie dough. They turned out a little sloppy for my taste. So next time I will spend more time on that and maybe make a template. This pie was so good!!! And it was so fun to share it with my neighbor.

Coconut Cream Pie (My other favorite.)

I was lucky when I started baking Coconut Cream Pie, because I came across a really good recipe from the start. It is very creamy and has a good coco-nutty flavor. Mmmm.

French Silk Pie (My favorite.)

A couple of months ago I made 4 French Silk Pies. I finally came across a recipe that I just loved. The chocolate cream was made of coco powder, heavy cream and vanilla. And the topping of the pie was made with freshly whipped cream and chocolate shavings from a Hershy bar (Because who wants to spend $5 on fancy chocolate? Not me!).  This pie is not only yummy, it is very attractive too!

Apple Pie (A little runny.)

One of my first pie making attempts was an Apple Pie. It tasted really good. But it was really runny! After this experience I read a lot of apple pie recipes The trick to making an apple pie with out all of the juice soaking up the bottom crust and running all over the plate when you take out a slice is two easy steps. 

First, blind bake the crust before you put any of the filling in. This makes it so the juice from the apples doesn't soak into the crust so easily. 

The second trick is to precook the apple mixture in a sauce pan. This way you can drain out all of the extra juice before you put the apples in the pie. 

I just love it when I can read up on recipes and figure out how to fix what went wrong. That's what makes the process of learning pie baking so fun!

Buttermilk Pie Yum!

Today I made my first buttermilk pie. I had never had buttermilk pie before, so I made it not knowing what it should taste like. After I made the pie I thought the texture was perfect. It was creamy with a little crunch on the top. But I thought the pie wasn't sweet enough, so in the end I dusted it with powdered sugar. I got the recipe from my subscription of Cooks Country Magazine, and it was so yummy! Another problem I have with baking pies is that they always taste good, they just don't always look good. My crust always shrinks when I bake it. And I read somewhere that it was doing that because I was stretching it. So I made sure not to stretch it and it still shrank. So someone told me to use pie weights. So I'm going to try that next time.

Introduction

Hello All,

My name is Emily Magnuson. I am a 30 year old Human Resources Generalist. I used to be a web designer, but I didn't really like it. I live in Iowa. I love to garden and make pies. This blog is going to focus on my quest to learn to make the PERFECT pie. It is a life goal, it is on my bucket list, and I am totally motivated to figure it out and perfect the craft. I have not made the perfect pie yet, but the journey has been very enjoyable so far and I thought I would share.