Pies, pies and more pies

With Thanksgiving coming up, I thought I would do a post with some of our favorite pie recipes.  These are the pies I made last year for Thanksgiving.  Yum!

My favorite pie crust recipe is posted here.  

My favorite pecan pie recipe is posted here.  

My favorite apple pie recipe is posted here.
My favorite pumpkin pie recipes is here.

Blueberry Pie

1 recipe crust for a double-crust pie.

5 c. fresh or frozen blueberries (it is less runny if you use fresh)

2/3 to 3/4 c. sugar

3 T. flour

2 tsp. finely zested lemon peel OR ½ tsp. cinnamon (I like to use lemon peel)

Line a 9-inch pie pan with pie crust.

In a large bowl combine the sugar and flour. Stir in berries and lemon peel or cinnamon. Gently toss until coated. Transfer berry mixture to the pie shell. Trim bottom pastry to edge of pie pan. Place top crust over filling and seal edges. Cut slits in top crust.

If desired, brush top of pie with milk and sprinkle with sugar. To prevent over-browning, cover edges with foil. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes (or 60 minutes if using frozen fruit). Remove foil and bake for 20 minutes more or until filling is bubbly and pastry is golden. Cool on a wire rack.

Fresh Strawberry Pie

1 baked pie crust

8 cups medium fresh strawberries

2/3 c. water

2/3 c. sugar

2 T. cornstarch

Remove stems from strawberries, wash, and cut in half lengthwise. In a blender or food processor combine 1 cup of strawberries and 2/3 cup water. Cover and blend or process until smooth. Add enough additional water to the mixture to equal 1 ½ cups. In a medium saucepan combine sugar and cornstarch; stir in blended berry mixture. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture is thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir 2 minutes more. Cool for 10 minutes without stirring.

Spread about ¼ c. of the glaze over bottom and sides of baked pie crust. Arrange half of the remaining strawberries in pastry. Carefully spoon half of the remaining glaze over berries, making sure all berries are covered. Arrange remaining berries over first layer. Spoon remaining glaze over berries, covering each. Chill for 1 to 2 hours. (After 2 hours, filling may begin to water out.) If desired, top with whipped cream.

Razzleberry Pie

5 C. water

3 1/3 C. sugar

Bring to boil

Add:

1 pkg. frozen blackberries

Bring back to a boil.  Thicken ½ C. water with cornstarch (1 Tbsp.) Put back on stove until thickened.  Remove from heat. 

Add:

1 pkg. frozen raspberries

1 pkg. frozen blackberries

Pour into prepared pie crusts and refrigerate.  Makes 5 pies.

Rhubarb Pie

Pastry for 9" two crust pie

1 1/3-1 2/3 C sugar

4 C fresh rhubarb, cut up

1/3 C flour

3 Tbsp. orange juice

1/4 tsp. grated orange peel (optional)

2 Tbsp. butter

Stir together sugar, flour and orange peel.  Turn half of the rhubarb into pastry lined pie dish; sprinkle with half of the sugar mixture.  Repeat.  Dot with orange juice and butter.  Cover with top crust; seal and flute.  Cover the edge of the crust with foil until the last 15 minutes of baking.  Bake at 425 for 45 minutes.

Raspberry Star Cookies

My oldest is in preschool. Today she got to take snack to school, and it needed to start with the letter "r." I asked her what she wanted to take. She thought for a bit and then said raspberry cookies! So I found this recipe and they turned out pretty good. I skipped the glaze this time since they were for a bunch of preschoolers. That's just too much mess for them. :) I do have to say that the dough had a hard time staying together. It seemed like there was a little too much flour, so maybe next time I will add a bit less flour.

Raspberry Star Cookies

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 (8 ounce) jar raspberry preserves

• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 teaspoons almond extract

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg. Combine the flour and salt; stir into the creamed mixture. Dough will be stiff. On a lightly floured surface, roll half of the dough out to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into star shapes using a cookie cutter. Set cookies 1 inch apart onto the prepared cookie sheets. Place a teaspoon of jam onto each cookie and spread out towards the points of the stars. Roll out remaining half of the dough and cut into stars the same size. cut holes in the center of each star, then place them onto the jam stars.

Bake for 7 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden around the edges. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks. In a small bowl, mix together the confectioners' sugar and almond extract to form a glaze. Add water a teaspoon at a time if the mixture is too thick to drizzle. Drizzle glaze over cooled cookies.

Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

**Note: this can be made as white chocolate or chocolate. To do white chocolate, omit cocoa from crust and change chocolate chips to white chocolate chips.

4 8 oz. pkgs. cream cheese, softened
1 c. sugar
Mix together.
Add:
¾ tsp. almond extract
¼ tsp. raspberry extract
Mix, then add:
4 eggs, 1 at a time
Mix well. Add 2 c. chocolate chips, melted. Pour over graham cracker crust in spring-form pan. Add decorator’s lines of raspberry sauce. Bake 55-60 minutes at 350. Top with raspberry sauce when serving.
Graham Cracker Crust
1 c. graham cracker crumbs
3 Tbsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. cocoa (optional)
1/3 c. melted butter
Bake 360 for 6 minutes
Raspberry Sauce
10 oz. frozen sweetened raspberries
2 Tbsp. sugar
Mix in blender, and then strain seeds out.

Pecan Pie

This is my very favorite kind of pie. 

3 eggs, slightly beaten

1 C. corn syrup
1 C. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
2 C. pecan halves
1 unbaked pie shell (You can use your own recipe or see mine here)
In large bowl, stir together eggs, corn syrup, sugar, butter and vanilla until well blended. Pour into pie shell. Add pecans on top and bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookie Logs

These little cookies are so melt in your mouth delicious, that it is hard to resist them!  They are good without being dipped in chocolate as well, but let's be honest.  Where can you go wrong when you add extra chocolate to something?  The shortbread cookies are very easy to make, so it's really a win-win recipe!

Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookie Logs

1 c. butter, softened
½ c. sifted powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
2 c. miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 Tbsp. shortening
¾ c. finely chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. Grease baking sheets. Cream together butter and powdered sugar until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Mix in the flour and then one cup of the chocolate chips. Shape dough into 2x1/2 in. logs. Place logs 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 10-13 minutes in preheated oven, or until firm. Let cookies cool completely before removing from pan (shortbread is very brittle). Melt the remaining 1 c. chocolate chips and shortening over a double boiler, stirring frequently until smooth. Dip one end of each cookie into the chocolate then into the nuts. Place onto wax paper until set. Makes approx. 4 dozen.

Cherry Crunch Cake

This cake is such a weakness of mine... I love it.

1 can cherry pie filling
1 Tbsp. almond extract
1 cake mix (white or yellow)
1 stick butter, melted
Pecans
Mix cherry pie filling and almond extract in bottom of 8x8 pan. In separate bowl mix dry cake mix, butter and pecans. Layer on top of cherry mixture. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until nicely golden and filling bubbles.

I normally use a yellow cake mix.

Magic Cookie Bars

1 graham cracker crust
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 bag white chocolate chips
1 bag peanut butter chips
1 bag coconut
Line bottom of 9x13 baking dish with graham cracker crust. Then add ½ can of sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and coconut. Drizzle remaining milk over top. Bake 30 minutes at 350.

Pumpkin Pie Bites

If you don't visit Bakerella's website, I highly recommend it for some baking fun. I got the recipe for these here.

Pumpkin Pie Bites
2 refrigerated ready-to roll pie crusts

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter

Optional

1/2 cup chocolate morsels

vegetable oil

re-sealable plastic bags

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.Use cookie cutter to cut 12 pumpkin shapes from each pie crust. You will need to roll the dough thinner than it comes out of the box.Press dough shapes into a 24 cup mini muffin tray. (Make 12 at a time, alternating cups to make sure pie crusts don’t overlap each other.)Apply egg whites from one egg to the top edges of each pie.

Mix cream cheese, sugar, canned pumpkin, remaining 2 eggs, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice together until thoroughly combined.Spoon mixture into each pumpkin-shaped pie crust.Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Remove pies to cool and repeat with second pie crust. Place the muffin tray in the freezer to cool it quickly for re-use.
Makes 24 pies. Keep refrigerated.

To decorate, melt chocolate in a heat-proof bowl in the microwave on medium. Heat in 30 second intervals, stirring in between until melted. Add a little vegetable oil to make the chocolate more fluid. Transfer to a re-sealable plastic bag and cut the corner off. Drizzle or draw faces on pies.

Deluxe Sugar Cookies

This sugar cookie recipe is my all time favorite. If you don't cook them too long, and cut them thick enough, they are super soft, and oh so good.

Cream together:
2 c. butter, softened
3 c. powdered sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. lemon or almond extract
Blend in:
4 ½ c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cream of tartar
Cover and chill dough for 2-3 hours. Roll dough to desired thickness, about ¼-3/8 inch thick. Cut with cookie cutters, and then place on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake 6-8 minutes at 375, then cool and frost.

Decorators Icing
1 lb. Powdered sugar (3 ¾ c.)
1 tsp. cream of tartar
½ tsp. salt
¼ water
1/3 c. shortening
1 tsp. almond or lemon extract
Beat at least 5 minutes on medium high speed

Red Velvet Cake

I learned a very important lesson today. Replace your baking soda every now and then. I just haven't used it that much, so it's a kind of old box. I have made this recipe several times, but this time, I guess my baking soda was just too old. The cake layers sunk in the middle, so sorry about the bad picture.

I don't have three 8" cake pans, so I make this a two layer cake instead of three and pour the remaining batter into a 9" square pan .

Cake Batter:
1 cup butter, softened
3 cups white sugar
6 eggs
1 ounce red food coloring
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon white vinegar

Frosting:
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
12 ounces white chocolate
1 cup butter, softened

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour three 8 inch pans.
In a large bowl, cream 1 cup butter with sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix food coloring with cocoa and add to mixture.
Add flour alternately with buttermilk. Add vanilla and salt.
Mix baking soda with vinegar, and gently stir into mixture. Be careful not to over mix.
Divide batter into three prepared 8 inch round pans. Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 25 minutes. Allow to cool.
To make the White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing: Melt the white chocolate and allow to cool to lukewarm. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in melted white chocolate and softened butter. Beat until it is the consistency of whipped cream, then use to fill and frost the cake.

Apple Pie

Apple Pie Filling
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling
Freshly ground nutmeg, to taste
7 medium apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
1 lemon, zested and juiced

3 tablespoons butter, diced
Egg wash, for brushing
Sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Mix together the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small bowl. In another bowl, sprinkle apples with the juice of 1 lemon and toss. Stir in the sugar mixture to evenly coat the apples.
Set aside. Roll out chilled dough into 2 circles and use 1 round to line a 9-inch pie pan. Chill the other round.
Mound the apple and sugar mixture into the pie pan lined with dough. Dot with the cubed butter.
Using a pastry cutter, cut an even number of strips from the remaining rolled out dough. Transfer every other strip to the pie top and weave in the lattice by folding every other strip back onto itself and laying another strip perpendicularly. Fold the strips back across and repeat until completed.
Brush the top of the pie with egg wash and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Trim the overhanging dough and crimp edges.
Bake pie for 45 minutes. Let rest 20 minutes before slicing.

*I made the top crust of this pie by using a cookie cutter on the rolled out dough. Lightly place the cut-out shapes (I did apples) in a pattern on top of the pie before crimping the edges.

Pie Crust

I have always had a hard time getting pie crusts just right. My first Thanksgiving that I did not go to my mother's house I tried to make pies, and failed! I made three batches of pie crust and ruined every one of them. I have finally found a recipe that works well and I find pretty easy. My sister gave this recipe to me last year.
Easy Pie Crust (for a 2-crust pie)
2 1/2 c. flour, plus extra for rolling out the dough
2 T. sugar
1 tsp. salt
8 T. shortening, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled
12 T. unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces and chilled (I didn't have unsalted so I used salted and a tiny bit less salt, and it turned out great too)
6 to 8 T. ice water

Process the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor until combined. Scatter the shortening over the top and process until the mixture has the texture of coarse sand, about 10 seconds. Scatter the butter pieces over the top and, using short pulses, process the mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs, about 10 pulses. Transfer to a bowl.

Sprinkle 6 T. of the ice water over the mixture. Stir and press the dough together, using a stiff rubber spatula until the dough sticks together. If the dough does not come together, stir in the remaining water, 1 T. at a time, until it does.

Divide the dough into two even pieces and flatten each into a 4-inch disk. Wrap the disks tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Let the chilled dough soften slightly at room temperature before rolling it out and fitting the bottom crust into a pie plate. (I didn't really let it soften, and it was still great for rolling.)

To Make Ahead: The dough can be refrigerated, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 2 months. Let the frozen dough thaw on the counter top until malleable before rolling.

White Chocolate Mousse in Chocolate Dessert Cups

Chocolate Dessert Cups
1 c. semi sweet chocolate chips
1 Tbsp. shortening
In microwave or double boiler, melt the chocolate chips and shortening, stirring often to make sure it doesn’t burn. Brush evenly onto the inside of 8 paper muffin cup liners. Chill until hardened (about 30 minutes). Remove liners. Fill with desired dessert.

White Chocolate Mousse
1 C. white chocolate ¼ c. whipping cream
1 Tbsp. Raspberry sauce
1 ½ c. whipping cream, whipped
Combine chocolate and cream in heavy saucepan. Heat until chocolate melts, stirring constantly. Cool. Stir in raspberry sauce, then fold in whipped cream. Raspberry Sauce: 1 10 oz. pkg. frozen raspberries, thawed 2 Tbsp. sugar Blend raspberries until pureed. Strain to remove seeds. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. To serve: Pipe or spoon into serving dish or molded chocolate. Serve with remaining raspberry sauce. Garnishes: Mint leaves, fresh raspberries.

Here is a step by step picture how-to on the chocolate dessert cups.

Now this is a double boiler. This is something I did not learn how to do until I was out of my parents' house. You take a saucepan and fill it with some water. Bring to a boil and place a glass or metal bowl on top. The steam and heat will evenly melt your chocolate.

There are two different ways that I have made the chocolate dessert cups. The first way is cutting waxed paper into circles. Put the waxed paper circles on the backs of a muffin pan.



I am not a huge fan of the way these look. They aren't as clean cut as the other way, and it's hard to get the wax paper to go around the muffin cups to form enough of a cup to fill. The second way I have made these is on the insides of paper muffin cups. This way is kind of tricky. I will give you a few pointers.

If the chocolate is not thick enough, they WILL break apart when you take the paper off of them.

I put a large spoonful of melted chocolate in the bottom of the paper muffin cup. Then, using a basting brush, brush chocolate up the sides of the paper cup, leaving a little bit of space at the top for peeling off the paper.

I found that the best way to brush the chocolate up the side is to first "push" the chocolate up from the spoonful . Then go back over the sides pulling additional chocolate up to coat the first layer. Then let the chocolate set in the freezer.

You have to be very cautious in handling the chocolate once it sets. The best way to remove the papers is to not touch the chocolate AT ALL. This is why it is best to leave a little space at the top. I just handled the papers at the top, not holding the sides. It is a little difficult to manage the cups gently enough.

Fill the chocolate cups with White Chocolate Mousse and drizzle with raspberry sauce. You can either do this with a piping bag or a baggie with a small whole cut into a corner.

It sure makes them look pretty!

Garnish with fresh raspberries (or when in a pinch, thawed frozen raspberries!) and mint leaves.

What a great looking finished product!