Pecan Pie

According to the chart of pies I posted earlier, January was pecan pie month. Not a fan of pecan pie, I have been reluctant to make it. But particularly unpleasant January weather and a fancy new camera motivated me to make it anyway. Although I can't say that I enjoyed eating this pie, making it turned out to be a fun way to spend another night cooped up inside. Plus I tricked a friend into doing most of the work, and I even got the bonus of being introduced to the Traveling Wilburys.  

There are only a few ingredients in this pie. Eggs, sugar, salt, butter, corn syrup and pecans (plus the flour, baking powder, salt, and shortening you'll need for the crust). Thank you, Kristin, for giving me your mom's recipe.  

Make the tried-and-true pie crust, or buy a ready-prepared crust. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Beat 3 eggs, 2/3 cup of sugar, 1/2 a teaspoon of salt, 1/3 cup melted butter (not too warm because that will cook the eggs), and one cup of corn syrup in the totally-not-superfluous  KitchenAid mixer.   

You'll end up with this oh so appetizing yellow liquid that does not call to mind bile. Not at all.

Then mix in one cup of pecans. I crushed half and kept half intact.

Roll out your crust and line a pie dish with it. Then pour in the pecan-syrup mixture.

Bake 40-50 minutes, or until the center is set. It'll come out looking like this:

It turned out with a layered quality that didn't seem quite right, possibly because I overcooked it a bit (for about 55 minutes). There was a gelatinous layer on the bottom, a crisp sugar layer over that, and a layer of pecans on top. 

But it wasn't terrible with a touch of whipped cream. 

Pecan Pie

3 eggs 2/3 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/3 cup butter, melted 1 cup dark or light corn syrup 1 cup pecans, broken or whole is fine Prepare pastry in advance. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Beat eggs, sugar, salt, butter and syrup with rotary beater. Stir in nuts. Pour into pastry-lined pan. Cover the edge of the crust with foil to prevent it from burning. Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until filling is set.

Pie Chart of Pies

Here is Modern Farmer’s guide to eating seasonally – through pie.

Martha Stewart Insults Bloggers, Makes My Day

"Who are these bloggers? They’re not trained editors at Vogue magazine. I mean there are bloggers writing recipes that aren’t tested, that aren’t necessarily very good, or are copies of everything that really good editors have created and done. So bloggers create a kind of popularity, but they are not the experts. And we have to understand that."



Watch the interview and read an excellent response here.

 

I'm quite pleased to be part of a movement that irks Martha and happy to impart what I have learned making (literally) hundreds of pies, even if that means laying bare my failures.  

Bite-size Key Lime Pies

Today I bestow upon you, my handful of devoted readers (and the remainder of you whom I have guilt-tripped into reading this blog), the cutest thing I have ever made, nay, quite possibly, the cutest thing ever. Ok, ok, these pies aren't the cutest thing ever because the creatures have already claimed that title. C'mon:



Sometimes they do things that are so cute it
actually makes me hate them just a little bit.

These pies are pretty darn adorable nonetheless. When I took them to a BBQ, they were met with many "squees" and "oh.my.gods!" And when I brought some to work, I learned an important life lesson - the road to workplace popularity is paved with bite-size pies.

This is my go-to key lime pie recipe baked in mini muffin tins that I lined with homemade graham cracker crust. Gather 5 limes (as previously noted, it's not necessary to deal with the hassle of using key limes), graham cracker crumbs, unsalted butter, sugar, eggs, and sweetened condensed milk. The recipe below makes two dozen lil pies.

As usual, I doubled the recipe, so this picture contains more ingredients than you will need. You'll only need 1 can of sweetened condensed milk, 5 limes, one stick of butter and 3 eggs.

Measure 1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs (you can buy the crumbs or use a food processor to crush the crackers into a fine powder).  In a small bowl, mix 1/3 of a cup of white sugar with the crumbs.  Then pour 6 tablespoons of melted butter over the crumbs and mix with a fork until all the crumbs are wet. 

Line a mini muffin dish with paper liners, or brush them with butter.  The paper liners were easier for cleanup, plus they gave the crust a nice zigzag edge. Using a rounded teaspoon, spoon about 1 1/2 teaspoons of the crumb mixture into the cups. Roll the rounded bottom of the teaspoon around the bottom of each cup, pressing the crumbs up along the edge and packing the crumbs together as you turn the spoon. It is much easier to use a round object to form the crust than to use your fingers. I imagine pressing a shot glass into each cup may also work, if it is the right size, but I didn't have a shot glass to test this theory.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees as you finish forming the teensy crusts. Bake for 4 minutes (not 5 minutes, not 3 minutes...trust me, I tested both out. After 5 minutes, the crust becomes too dark, but after only 3 minutes, the crust does not stay together. It's science...).

While these are baking and cooling, zest 5 limes, cut them in half and juice them until you have 2 teaspoons of zest and 1/2 a cup of lime juice. Make sure to get all the delicious pulp into the juice because it adds a lot of flavor.

Mix the lime zest and juice with one 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk.

Then add three egg yolks and mix until it is blended thoroughly.

Next, spoon about 1 tablespoon of the filling into each cup until the filling reaches the edge of the graham cracker crust. The filling doesn't puff up, so it is fine to fill them all the way.

Reduce the oven's temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 10 minutes.  Let them cool, then refrigerate overnight. The next day, remove the paper liners (because you don't want anyone mistaking these for cupcakes, god forbid!). Then place them in a box lined with hot pink gingham tissue paper because OHMYGODTHESEARESOCUTE!

Seriously. 

Finally, make whipped cream. Using the Kitchenaid stand mixer that was totally worth all the money you spent, whip 1 cup of heavy cream on a high speed until it is thick. As it mixes, add 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla.

I put whipped cream on 2/3 of the pies and left 1/3 without. Surprisingly, the whipped-cream-free pies were pretty popular (but not as popular as the pies with whipped cream, because that would be insane).

I tried meringue on a few, but it didn't turn out quite right. The meringue didn't adhere to the filling, so it fell off after they baked. They looked nice before I put them in the oven, though:

I was really on a roll with my tiny pies and itty-bitty meringues, so I even attempted to make candied lime zest as a garnish. There I was, saying to myself "eat your heart out, Martha," when I tasted one of these and realized (bitterly) that I had better stick with the things I am good at.  So candy is out. Even if the zest hadn't tasted horrible, it wouldn't have been worth the effort I put forth just to make a garnish.

Key Lime Pie - makes 24 

Crust: 

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs 

1/3 cup of white sugar 

6 tablespoons melted butter 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix crumbs and sugar, then pour in melted butter, stirring as you pour. Press the crumb mixture into lined or buttered mini muffin tins, using the method described above. Bake for 4 minutes. 

Filling:

One 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

3 egg yolks 

1/2 cup fresh lime juice 
2 teaspoons lime zest

Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. Bake pies on middle rack for 10 minutes. Remove, let cool and refrigerate overnight (or at least 3 hours).

Whipped Cream:

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Mix heavy cream on medium-high heat, adding sugar and vanilla as it mixes until the whipped cream thick. Pipe onto the chilled pies before serving.

Study shows desserts should be served with the appropriate key words

Note to self: serve all pies after eliciting memories of love in my guests.

Blueberry Cobbler

Cobbler is the lazy man's pie; that's my snobbish maxim. But I'm not above making it, as it is perfect for large parties. This is a variation on a recipe from the St. Louis Post Dispatch that was published at least a decade ago. Making cobbler is much less work than making pie (especially if you only put crust on the top), but it's just as satisfying to eat. I took this to a BBQ, and it got rave reviews (including my personal favorite, that it was "off the chain"). 

Gather blueberries, cornstarch, sugar, baking powder, unsalted butter, and half and half (or milk, provided it's at least 2%). Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Wash 10 cups of blueberries thoroughly and make sure all the stems are removed (this is the most tedious part of making this cobbler, because about one in every ten blueberries has a stem attached, so you have to carefully examine them).  Then put the blueberries in a 9" by 13" glass or ceramic dish. 

Next, pour 6 tablespoons of cornstarch, 1 1/2 cups of sugar and 1/2 a teaspoon salt over the blueberries and mix carefully.

Then dot the blueberry mixture with 2 tablespoons of butter and set it aside while you make the dough.  

In a bowl, mix with a fork 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cut in 1/2 a stick of butter with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture looks like this:

Then pour in half a cup of milk or half and half, mixing as you pour.   

Now you will have a crumbly mixture that you can gently form into balls.

Gently form twenty dough balls (roughly the size of golf balls), which should contain about 1 tablespoon of dough each. Place them on top of the blueberry mixture. You will have five rows containing four dough balls (dough balls? I feel there should be a more eloquent way for me to describe that...).

Bake for thirty minutes or until the dough is golden brown and the blueberries are bubbling. It will come out looking like this and smelling amazing.

Blueberry Cobbler

For filling:

10 cups blueberries

6 tablespoons cornstarch

1 1/2 cups of sugar

1/2 a teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

For topping:

1/4 (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk or cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

For filling:

Thoroughly clean blueberries and place them in a 9" by 13" glass or ceramic dish. Gently mix in cornstarch, sugar and salt. Dot with unsalted butter and set aside.

For topping:

Mix flour, sugar, and salt with a fork. Cut in cold butter with a pastry blender or with two knives (until the butter is in roughly pea-sized pieces). Add milk and mix with a fork. Form the dough into balls, about 1 tablespoon each, and place them about a half-an-inch apart on the blueberry mixture. Bake for 30 minutes or until the dough is golden brown and the blueberries are bubbling. 

Serve with vanilla ice cream or homemade whipped cream. 



Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

I am a major blogging slacker, but I haven't given up on this blog just yet. In my defense, I've been busy doing better things than blogging, like going to Paris, where I ate delightful pastries and pretended that if I wear a scarf I can pass as European. 

In short, the blog has been justifiably neglected. Not to mention April and May give us the best weather Missouri has to offer, so I decided to soak up the sixty-degree days when I could. Now that it's miserably hot, I might redouble my efforts with this blog. Or perhaps I will slack into blogging oblivion... 

Several weeks ago, I made strawberry rhubarb pie (when a display at Whole Foods told me to make it). Rhubarb is a rare find at your average grocery store, but it's common at places like Whole Foods and at farmers' markets. Needless to say, this pie can get a bit expensive, but it is worth every penny.  The best pie I've ever eaten was strawberry rhubarb pie at the Flying Star cafe in Albuquerque. When done right, this pie is sweet, tart and the desired soft-but-not-runny texture. 

As usual, I made two pies because one is never enough. So I gathered two containers of strawberries and five stalks of rhubarb, which is more than enough for two pies.  I also gathered sugar, tapioca, butter and salt.

I tried a strawberry huller for the first time when I made these pies. Switching back and forth between the huller and a knife slowed me down; it was more efficient (though admittedly a bit more wasteful) to chop off the top of the strawberries before slicing them in half.

Then I cut the rhubarb into one-inch pieces. It's fine if the rhubarb is a bit green; the pie will still look and taste amazing.

 The red filling looked very pretty.

 Until I added half a cup of tapioca.

And two and a half cups of sugar. 



Then I added the filling to a pie dish that I lined with my tried-and-true pie crust and dotted the filling with two tablespoons of butter.



And I made a lattice crust for a classic look.



Then I brushed the crust with egg whites and sprinkled it with one tablespoon of sugar. This pie is an excellent candidate for a topping of coarse white sugar (which is how it was made at the Flying Star Cafe).  You can get this sugar at fancy stores like William Sonoma and Sur la Table.

When the pie came out of the oven, it had the perfect rustic look I am going for with a classic pie like this.  The touches of red filling make this pie look quite appetizing.

And when cut, this pie came out in perfect slices that were not runny. It was delicious with vanilla bean ice cream.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie (for one pie)

Tried-and-true pie dough
2 1/2 cups strawberries
2 1/2 cups rhubarb
2 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup tapioca
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (alternatively, leave out the pinch of salt and use salted butter)

Remove the stems and cut strawberries in half.  Chop rhubarb into one-inch pieces.  Mix with sugar and tapioca. Add a pinch of salt. Roll out pie dough and line the bottom of a pie dish with it. Pour in filling and dot with 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter.  Roll out the remaining dough, and add a pricked or lattice top.  Bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes, reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking for 25 to 30 minutes, until the filling is soft but not mushy.

Enjoy!