Lesson #166: Lemon Chiffon Pie

This pie is ULTRA lemony and has an AMAZINGLY silky smooth texture. We loved it so much in our house that we had to give some of it away so we didn't eat the whole pie. If you have a lemon lover in your life, this would be the perfect dessert to make for them.

The only thing that is a little tricky is giving yourself enough time to make the multiple components of this pie. You have to pre-bake a pie crust, whip up the lemon topping (which involves squeezing a bunch of lemons to get fresh juice), make a meringue to fold into the lemon filling, and top with homemade whipped cream. Trust me - it's worth all the effort!

LESSON LEARNED: Use fresh lemon juice to achieve to give this pie the lemon flavor it deserves.

Recipe for Lemon Chiffon Pie

Lesson #161: Peach Crumble Pie

I haven't made a peach pie since these vanilla bean peach pies last year, so I decided it was definitely time to bake a peach pie again. I really have a dislike towards runny, undercooked peach pie fillings, so I turned to a pie book I checked out from the library for help. In this peach pie recipe, the thickener is quick-cooking tapioca. I don't normally have this item in my baking pantry, so I had to go in search of it, but it really did the trick! The peach pie filling was perfectly set by the time it finished baking. :)

LESSON LEARNED: Use peaches which are ripe, but still firm. They are much easier to slice!

Recipe for Peach Crumble Pie

Lesson #159: Cherry Crumble Pie

I was perusing the library last week and I happened upon a cookbook entitled "Perfect Pies". It's written by Michele Stuart who owns a pie bakery and won a bunch of national awards for her pies. So far I've baked two of her pies and I'm completely in love with the book!

The first recipe I tried is for a cherry crumble pie. It combines fresh cherries over a flaky, buttery crust and topped with a brown sugar & cinnamon crumble. Really - it's like half cherry pie and half cherry crumble. We ate a few slices and then I had to give some away so we won't eat the whole thing! Trust me - you won't be disappointed with this pie :)

LESSON LEARNED: If the crumble topping isn't your thing, double the pie dough recipe and make a double-crust pie.

Recipe for Cherry Crumble Pie

Lesson #156: Triple Berry Pie

Eating freshly picked berries is one of my favorite summer desserts. I love them heaped in a bowl with a spoonful of yogurt for breakfast and mixed into my ice cream. If I'm going to cook them, they are amazing in a flaky, buttery pie.

This pie contains blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. The color is absolutely gorgeous! It was the perfect end to a lunch I shared with a friend!

LESSON LEARNED: Mix up the combination of berries in this pie to suit your tastes (and what's currently in season!).

Recipe for Triple Berry Pie

Lesson #152: Award Winning Apple Pie

Last weekend I decided to enter an apple pie contest at our local county fair. I entered just for fun and decided to not take the contest too seriously. In fact, I tried a new apple pie recipe that I thought looked good in a magazine and decided to enter the pie regardless of how it turned out.

The crust was an all butter crust (8 oz. of REAL butter!) with a touch of salt and sugar. The filling contained 3 lbs of apples - a mixture of sweet and tart - along with a healthy amount of cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg. The top of the crust is brushed with egg and sprinkled with a generous amount of sugar which results in deep golden color after it bakes.

Since I was entering the pie in a contest, I couldn't cut into it, but I did taste some the filling which bubbled out and it had an amazing sweet and buttery apple flavor. I almost decided to eat it instead of entering it! Here's a picture I took after it came out of the oven. It looked good to me!

Justin and I dropped off the pie at the fair building and showed up about an hour later for judging. We found out there were 16 pies in the contest and we could watch the 3 judges test the pies. We settled into our seats and immediately started chatting with the ladies around us. As far as I could tell, I was by far the youngest person to enter a pie :)

By luck of the draw, my pie was the last in line to be judged. On one hand, I thought this could be bad because the judges would be too tired of eating pie by the time they got to mine. On the other hand, the judges might recall my pie better because it was at the end and not in the middle of the pack (called the recently effect for any psychology nerds!).

After an hour of judging, the winners were finally announced.....and I received 3rd place! Here's a picture of my pie being uncovered at the judging table and myself waiting with the 2nd place winner.

The lady who won 2nd place was very nice and we talked about how she entered a peach pie into the Ohio State Fair 30 years ago and won first place. She also told me that the secret to her pie was making a homemade crust and she made me promise to buy something for myself with my prize money! She was so sweet!

Another highlight of the day was getting interviewed by the local news station. My interview didn't make the air, but they did announce my name as a winner on the evening news. Woo hoo!

LESSON LEARNED: I need to make this pie again to actually taste a piece of it! :)

Recipe for Award Winning Apple Pie

Lesson #143: Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Last week at the farmer's market, both strawberries and rhubarb were readily available. It wasn't too warm in Ohio, so I had the perfect excuse to make this SUMMERY pie.

I love the combination of tart rhubarb and super-sweet strawberries along with a touch of cinnamon. Combined with a perfectly golden, flaky, and uber-buttery crust, this pie is DELICIOUS!

LESSON LEARNED: Place your pie plate on top of a baking sheet in the oven. If you happen to over-fill your pie (like I do!), the bubbling fruit filling won't make a mess in your oven!

Recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Lesson #126: Mini Banana Cream Pies

One of my dad's favorite desserts is banana cream pie. He likes it so much that he asked if I could make it for Easter lunch. Instead of making a big pie, I decided to bake individual pies in mini mason jars. They were easy to grab and less messy than cutting into a pie to serve individual pieces. That's a big plus when you are hosting family events!

The custard recipe is my grandma's recipe. It's widely agreed upon in my family that this custard tastes the best. I've tried out other custard recipes and they don't measure up to this one! Plus, I have great memories of my grandma teaching me to make pies in her kitchen, so this recipe is extra special to me.

LESSON LEARNED: Bake the pie crust right in the mason jar - they will not break in the oven.

Recipe for Mini Banana Cream Pies

Lesson #118: Baked Apple Dumplings

For one week during the summer, you will find me working at my brother's concession stand at our local county fair. One of the biggest sellers are apple dumplings. Because of certain restrictions on what they are allowed to sell, the ones we use are frozen from a large chain store. They are OK (but nothing to get excited about if you are a foodie), so I decided to make my own version. These are heads and tails above the ones we sell at the fair. :)

Golden delicious apples are cut in half horizontally and stuffed with butter and raisins. The apples are wrapped around a pillow-y buttermilk biscuit dough which is sprinkled liberally with cinnamon & sugar. The apples are perfectly tender and surrounded by a soft tangy and slightly sweet dough. I would recommend making these just because they make your house smell WONDERFUL!

LESSON LEARNED: To make these fancy enough to serve to guests (or just yourself), drizzle a little caramel or butterscotch syrup on the plate.

Recipe for Baked Apple Dumplings

Lesson #43: Grape-Apple Pie

I took a quick survey of people I know and nobody heard of a grape-apple pie before. Almost everybody eats apple pie, but I got some confused looks when I suggested adding grapes to the apples. I saw a recipe in the current issue of Bon Appetit magazine, so I was sufficiently intrigued to try this recipe.

Let me start off by saying that this pie requires some love (that's my code word for hands on time!). There are quite a few steps, but I think they are completely worth it. You first have to make a double pie crust, chill it in the fridge, cook the filling, chill the filling, pre-bake the bottom pie crust, add the filling, and bake the pie. If you have a free afternoon and don't mind baking, this recipe would be perfect to try.

The pie is WONDERFUL! It's sweeter than a traditional apple pie and turns a fun purple/pink color. The extra step of pre-baking the bottom pie crust is worth the effort - the next day the pie wasn't soggy at all. I took the pie to my parent's house and a few people had a piece for breakfast the next day! :)

LESSON LEARNED: Pre-bake the bottom pie crust - it's worth the extra time!

Recipe for Grape-Apple Pie

Lesson #31: Maple Acorn Squash Pie

As much as I love pumpkin desserts, I decided to switch up a typical pumpkin pie recipe and use acorn squash instead. I've never had an acorn squash pie, so I was excited to try it (I was also excited to use my new mini pie dish too!).

The first step is to make a fresh acorn squash puree since it's not accessible like a canned pumpkin puree. I simply pierced the squash a few times, placed it in the microwave for a few minutes until soft, cut it in half & scooped out the seeded, and returned it to the microwave until it was cooked though. You could roast it in the oven, but I was too impatient to wait the hour it would take to cook. :) After the squash is cooked, food process the flesh it until smooth and - viola - you have acorn squash puree!

The maple syrup and pumpkin pie spice in the pie provide a touch of both SWEET and SPICE. The acorn squash has the same texture as pumpkin, and tastes like, well, acorn squash. This makes a WONDERFUL substitution in the pie! To finish the pie, I decorated the crust with little acorn cookie cutters.

LESSON LEARNED: Making acorn squash puree is super easy!

Recipe for Maple Acorn Squash Pie

Lesson #25: Fresh Picked Apple Pie

As part of my birthday celebration last weekend, my family and I went to an apple orchard. My friends and I started this tradition when we lived in Tucson and I wanted to continue it when I moved back to Ohio.

We had a blast picking apples and the next logical step, of course, was to make apple pies! It was tons of fun to bake with my family and the pies turned out FANTASTIC! Really, you can't go wrong when you pick the apples and two hours later they are baking in the oven.

We used a mixture of sweet and tart apples (Golden Delicious and Jonathan). There isn't a ton of sugar in this pie recipe and the apple flavor really shines. The crust was tender & flaky and we cut out some shapes using cute pie cutters I bought from Williams-Sonoma.We topped the pies with some vanilla ice cream and homemade caramel sauce!

LESSON LEARNED: Fresh picked apples taste the best!


Recipe for Double Crust Apple Pie

Lesson #2: Perfect Peach Pies

The last time I made peach pie I had amazing, in-season, juicy ripe peaches. I used my favorite recipe for pie crust, skinned and sliced the peaches, added sugar and a touch of flour and put it in the oven. About 45 minutes later, the crust was nice and brown and the pie smelled wonderful. I set it out to cool and a few hours later I sliced into it. What I found, instead of a picture perfect slice of pie, was a mess of overcooked peaches and runny (slightly raw flour-y) tasting syrup. What went wrong?

I thought maybe my method of tossing everything together (similar to what I do when I make apple pie) was not the best way to make a perfect peach pie. I knew I wanted to syrup in the pie to be thick and luscious and the peaches to maintain a little bite and their naturally juiciness. After some research, I came up with a recipe for Vanilla Scented Mini Peach Pies.

First, instead of tossing all the filling ingredients together, I let the fruit sit (or macerate) with sugar, flour, and a touch of nutmeg. Then I heated the resulting syrup in a saucepan until it was thick and mixed in the peaches at the last second. Second, I made mini pies using a mini-cupcake pan and lined the pan with liners for easy clean up. I was also able to cook the pies in a shorter time which lead to the peaches not being overcooked. Third, to give these mini pies something a little extra special, I used vanilla sugar which I always have in my pantry. I take my leftover vanilla bean pods (after I've scraped out the seeds) and stick them in an airtight container of granulated sugar. When you bake these pies, the house begins to smell like vanilla scented peaches - it's wonderful!

Recipe for Vanilla Scented Mini Peach Pies

LESSON LEARNED: Allowing the peaches to release their natural juices and cooking the syrup results in a thick pie filling. By adding the peaches after this process and shortening the baking time, keeps the peaches from being overcooked.