Week #15 December 6 - 12

After a few lackluster weeks of pies, I felt pressure to step up my game this week. This pressure came squarely from me. I made two new pies this week.

The first, was an apple pie, with a cheddar cheese crust. Eating apple pie with a slice of cheddar cheese is popular in New England, and I thought that this might be an interesting recipe. Here is the one I used.



The pie turned out alright. The crust was good, but unfortunately the filling wasn't stellar. There was too much juice, and the apples didn't cook enough.

Onto pie #2, the chocolate pie for the week, rum-walnut chocolate-chip.

Here is the recipe:

Rum-walnut chocolate-chip pie
Total time: About 1 hour
Servings: 10 to 12

Note: Adapted from Cold Springs Tavern. If using a homemade pie shell, blind bake the crust (lined first with foil and weights, then with weights removed) just until set, about 10 to 15 minutes. For store-bought pie crust, par-bake the pie shell just until set, using the instructions on the package.

3 eggs
2 tablespoons rum, preferably Puerto Rican white rum
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
Scant 1/2 cup (2 ounces) flour
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 (12 ounce) bag semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
1 1/2 sticks ( 3/4 cups) butter
1 par-baked pie shell

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs with the rum and vanilla. Whisk in the sugar and brown sugar until incorporated, then whisk in the flour. Fold in the walnuts and half of the chocolate chips until evenly incorporated.

2. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter. Remove from heat and stir in the remaining chocolate chips until melted and combined.

3. Fold the melted butter and chocolate mixture into the large bowl with the rest of the filling. Pour the filling into the par-baked pie shell. Place the pie in the oven and bake just until the pie sets (it will jiggle just slightly when tapped), 30 to 45 minutes.

4. Remove and cool completely before serving.


I redeemed myself with this bad boy.



A co-worker gave me the recipe. It had somewhat of a brownie consistency, but was slightly more fudge-like. The walnuts were good, but I couldn't really taste the rum. Overall though, it was pretty solid all-around.

Week #14 November 29 - December 5

So it seems that more people are actually reading this thing. I hope you all are enjoying it, and that you find some of my recipes and commentary useful. Now, onto the show.

Having read the NY Times article I posted last week, I was very interested in making the Butter Pie. I had some cranberries left over, and I decided to give it a shot. It was relatively easy to make and bake.



Boy, was this pie sweet. I cooked it for the time allotted, and even an extra 5 minutes because I thought it needed it. But for some reason it didn't cook all the way through. I was hoping that the center would have a gel-like consistancy, similar to that of a pecan pie, but it was a little runnier than I would have liked. It also tasted very sugary, which I know some people enjoy, but not my cup of tea.

Earlier this week, I decided to make a different chocolate pie each week for the month of December. I'm not the biggest chocolate fan, but we are leaving fall behind, and winter pies are upon us. This is a pie that comes from my fiance's family. The recipe goes back a long time, and I've had her dad's version. It's out of this world. Almost too rich for me. I figured, why not give it a shot. Here is the recipe:

French Chocolate Pie

1/2 pound of butter ( 2 sticks margerine)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 squares bitter choc melted
2 tspn vanilla
1 tspn instant coffee
4 eggs
1 pie crust (frozen store crust works)
cup of whiping cream (cool whip works)
choc bar for topping


1) soften butter and cream with sugar

2) add choc, vanilla,and coffee

3) add eggs ONE AT A TIME beating 5 MIN. between each egg

4) pour into (cooked) pie crust

5) cover with wipping cream and chill for at least 4 hours

6) shave choc bar with peeler for decoration on top


I didn't cover with whip cream, but rather let people put as much as they wanted on it. The flavor was the same as I remember, but the texture wasn't. I felt like it was somewhat grainy, which makes me think I didn't beat it long enough, or perhaps should have used less sugar. But who knows. I gave it my best shot.



I also wanted to show one of the tools that makes pie baking much easier, my pie weights. These can be bought for under $10, and help when you try to blind-bake pies. This is when you bake the crust prior to adding filling. What's nice about using the weights is that they conduct heat to the top of the crust, and help even out the baking.