Pi Day!

Ok any other nerds out there?? It's 3.14 does that mean anything to you? How about 3.1415926... it's pi!!! Come on I told you I was a nerd. In celebration of mathematical pi day, I made a pie. :D

Cherry Pie to be exact, and it's delicious!! I got the crust from a blog I recently found and fell in love with What would Cathy Eat. You can find the recipe here, and check her out! So many good recipes!!

As for the pie, I've made it here before, and still love it!

Cherry Pie Filling (using canned cherries packed in water)
6 Tbs brown sugar (more or less to taste, if you like a sweet pie you'll want to add more)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 cans Oregon Red Tart Pie Cherries, drained, reserve juice from one can
1/4 tsp almond extract (optional but oh so tasty!)

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Drain the cherries and reserve the juice from only one can. In a saucepan, stir the cherry juice into the combined mixture of the cornstarch and sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Gently stir in cherries and almond extract. Remove from heat. Pour filling into pastry lined pie pan. Bake 45 minutes or until crust browns and filling begins to bubble. If necessary, cover edges with aluminum foil during the last 15 minutes to prevent over-browning. Cool pie several hours to allow filling to thicken before slicing.

PS. If you didn't catch it this weekend, check out my Newman's Own Video debut!

I heart Pumpkin Pie

Well you all know I love pumpkin... as evident by all of the baked goods involving pumpkin that I have made. Pumpkin pie can be a total belly bomb, butter, half and half, buckets of sugar... say it aint so!! You all know by now we don't need all those things to make a good pie right?? I decided to make a few small pies this weekend... why? Because I saw this recipe for no roll pie crust on Joy the Baker's blog. It involves using a cheese grater and frozen butter... and a dash of cream cheese? Doesn't it just sound FUN!? I had to try it straight away.

The pie however wasn't the most photogenic subject... and I was bringing it to John's parents house so I couldn't slice out a piece to take pictures of... sorry folks this is all you get. Yes that is a heart shaped pan... kinda looks like a deformed kidney...


Ok enough of my bad photography... I really need to set up a mini photo studio... maybe once John and I get married... I'm planning on putting one in the basement bonus room (and yes it's also going to be a sewing/craft room - and yes I know I'm a dork)... I just need to build a light box... and umm buy lights... right.

Onto the recipe. I made this filling along side a full fat, full on filling version last Thanksgiving... I didn't tell the family which was which... and guess what? They picked the skinny version as the better of the two!! Take THAT half and half!!

I think you should all go home and make some pie... no need for a special occasion! You can make this filling without a crust for a total skinny pie or use a graham cracker crust (yum), or go to your own pie crust recipe. For this I used Joy's no roll recipe> here. I've used the crust recipe below in previous pie baking extravaganzas.

Born Again Pumpkin Pie
recipe from Better Homes and Gardens

1/4 cup crushed gingersnaps
1/2 cup crushed graham crackers
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon flour
3 tablespoons margarine, melted (I used a little more than 1 Tbs of butter)
1 16-ounce can pumpkin
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup refrigerated or frozen egg product, thawed
1 cup evaporated skim milk

Directions
1. In a 9-inch pie plate, combine gingersnap and graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and flour; drizzle with melted margarine and mix with a fork. Using your fingers, pat crumbs to cover the bottom and sides of the pan. Chill about 1 hour or until firm.

2. In a mixing bowl combine pumpkin, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Blend in egg product with a rotary beater or fork. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour in prepared pie shell. Cover edge of pie with foil. Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 30 minutes. Remove foil. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until center appears set when shaken. Cool on wire rack; cover and chill to store. Makes 8 servings.

Strawberry rhubarb pie

Baking is wicked fun, baking with a friend is even more fun! For starters you have someone to chat up the whole time, second, it means I can take action shots of the chow! This recipe is being filed straight away under the "Not Healthy" The crust has TWO sticks of butter in it, yeah you heard me right... not ONE but TWO!!

steph was a bit overzealous with the flour LOL

This is the pie Steph and I made for her John. His parents have a couple huge rhubarb bushes. Steph's John says if you look up rhubarb in the dictionary it says it's a pie plant... something tells me he's making this up. Either way, we'd never say no to free rhubarb, so off we went to make a pie!





I made the crust, the recipe comes from Smitten Kitchen, don't you love her? I seriously want to be her. She has a great write up there and explains all the steps out. As for the pie filling, Steph made it, and that one comes from a Betty Crocker cookbook (you can find the filling recipe over here). The pie really is simple to put together. Just make sure you don't overfill it like we did... and if you do, just place a large jelly roll pan on the rack below it, makes cleanup WAY easier that way :)




And in case you were wondering... it was freaking delicious!!!!

Tart Cherry Pie

So my cousin Donna gave me a call a week or so ago asking for my "delicious cherry pie and whole wheat crust recipe" (her words not mine). So not to disappoint I had to make some up! It actually worked out perfectly because John's dad loves this pie and it being fathers day yesterday... I'll let you can figure that one out ;) It's also his birthday next week and since I'll be out of town (in NJ partying it up baby shower style for my sister!! lots of recipes to come from that I'm sure... so stay tuned) the pie worked for a fathers day/ birthday all in one :)

I used Oregon red tart cherries that are canned in water (no syrup!!) they are delicious and can be found in the canned fruit isle. Now if you say have a local tart cherry orchard near by (Donna...) you can totally adapt this recipe to use fresh cherries, I'll write about that in a bit.

First things first, make the pie crust! I like a naked top pie (so scandalous!), so I only make a single crust, if you want a covered pie just make two crusts and remember to vent the top crust once you put it on so it doesn't blow up... unless you like exploding pies... in that case have fun!

Single Whole Wheat Crust
1 cup whole wheat flour (plus more for dusting counter and rolling pin)
1/4 tsp salt
5 Tbs cold butter
4-5 Tbs cold water

Instructions
Mix flour and salt, add chunks of cold butter and using a pasty knife... or 2 knives or a fork and knife if that's all you have on hand and cut butter into flour mixture until it resembles course crumbs.


Sprinkle water one tablespoon at a time and using your hands form the dough into a ball. Don't over wet or the crust will be tough and not nice and flaky. Another option is to use vodka instead of water, it evaporates in the oven leaving the crust very light. My dad has done it and it turned out great. I didn't have any vodka on hand so I just used plain old cold water :)

Place in the refrigerator to firm up a bit if the dough is getting too soft or feels greasy. On a floured surface using a floured rolling pin (or a wine bottle if you don't have a rolling pin) to flatten out the crust. Once it's large enough to cover the bottom sides and hang over a 9 inch pie pan transfer to the pan and pinch the excess crust to form a nice edge. Place in the refrigerator while you make the filling.

As you can see I put John to work. As a wee lad he always made the pie edges for his mom so I used his expert skills and put him to work! The kid wont eat butter but he'll happily shape it into a pie crust for me :)

ok now onto the filling! Seriously don't buy pie filling in a can... it's gross, just say NO! Plus this is so super easy to make why would you want to buy canned filling??

Cherry Pie Filling (using canned cherries packed in water)
6 Tbs brown sugar (more or less to taste, if you like a sweet pie you'll want to add more)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 cans Oregon Red Tart Pie Cherries, drained, reserve juice from one can
1/4 tsp almond extract (optional but oh so tasty!)

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Drain the cherries and reserve the juice from only one can. In a saucepan, stir the cherry juice into the combined mixture of the cornstarch and sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Gently stir in cherries and almond extract. Remove from heat. Pour filling into pastry lined pie pan. Bake 45 minutes or until crust browns and filling begins to bubble. If necessary, cover edges with aluminum foil during the last 15 minutes to prevent over-browning. Cool pie several hours to allow filling to thicken before slicing.

ready to go in the oven... this pie tin is great, it has handles! no more sticking your thumb into the pie!

hot and bubbly out of the oven

Cherry Pie Filling (using fresh cherries) this is in theory I haven't tried it in practice yet...
6 Tbs brown sugar (more or less to taste, if you like a sweet pie you'll want to add more)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 lbs Tart Cherries, pitted, soaked in 1 1/3 cups water overnight
1/4 tsp almond extract (optional but oh so tasty!)

Instructions for fresh cherries
Wash and pit cherries and place in a bowl with 1 1/3 cups water and let sit overnight. You will use half this cherry saturated water (2/3 cup) in making the sauce the next day.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Drain the cherries and reserve 2/3 cup juice. In a saucepan, stir the cherry juice into the combined mixture of the cornstarch and sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Gently stir in cherries and almond extract. Remove from heat. Pour filling into pastry lined pie pan. Bake 45 minutes or until crust browns and filling begins to bubble. If necessary, cover edges with aluminum foil during the last 15 minutes to prevent over-browning. Cool pie several hours to allow filling to thicken before slicing.

Slice up and serve by itself or with a scoop of icecream
Chow!!