Week #21 January 17 - 23

National Pie Day is celebrated on January 23 each year. This year it fell on a Sunday, so I decided to organize a Pie Day at my work for Friday the 21st. We were able to have about 8 different people bring in pies, and we had quite the great Friday afternoon samples each others goods.

I made a Pear Ginger Maple pie that turned out great. The ginger definitely gave it a nice flavor, but the maple syrup kept it all in check. I've said it before, but I think pears are a very underrated food to cook with. Here are some pictures from our pie day.







We had a deep-dish apple pie, lemon meringue, chocolate peanut butter, strawberry cream, cherry rhubarb, pear ginger maple, chocolate raspberry, and banana cream.

Week #20 January 10-16

Since I started this project, my step-dad, Mike, has always asked when I was going to make a Shoo-Fly Pie. I told him I would eventually. The Shoo-Fly pie originated with the Pennsylvania Dutch, and the sweetener in the pie is molasses. I like pies that tend to have stories behind them, as this one does. Although the story can be debatable, it's nice to continue on traditions through cooking. Here is the recipe that I used.




The pie turned out to be somewhat cake-like. I think this was because it called for baking soda. It wasn't necessarily sweet, the molasses gave it a nice deep flavor. This isn't a pie to make all the time, but once in a while, it could definitely hit the spot.

Week #19 January 3 - 9

While home, my mom gave me an article from Better Homes and Gardens about pies. I decided to make one from a recipe that I found in there. It is a Lemon Velvet Cream Pie. Here is the recipe:


1 Pie crust
1 tsp unflavored gelatin
2 tbsp cold water
6 egg yolks
2 cups sweetened condensed milk (1½ 14oz cans)
¼ cup whipping cream
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup lemon juice
Whipped Cream

1) Preheat oven to 375. Roll out pastry to about 12 inches on floured work surface. Transfer to 9 inch pie pan. Trim excess to ½ inch, and fold excess under pastry. Crimp edge if desired. Prick bottom and sides with fork. Place in freezer for 10 minutes. Line pastry with aluminum foil or waxed paper, and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Place on foil lined baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and weights. Bake for 15 minutes longer. You want the pie to get to be a slight golden brown. Remove and cool. If using a pre-made crust, bake according to package directions.

2) In a small bowl soften gelatin in water for 5 minutes. Heat in microwave for 14 seconds. Set aside.

3) In a large bowl combine egg yolks and sweetened condensed milk with electric beater for 2-3 minutes.

4) Beat in gelatin, whipping cream, and salt at a low speed.

5) Add lemon juice and beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Pour into cooled crust.

6) Bake for 22-25 minutes or until center of pie looks set when gently shaken. Cool on wire rack for 1 hour. Cover loosely and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

7) Topped with whipped cream.

This pie was great. It was essentially a key lime pie, except there was a lemon flavor instead of lime. I had a lot of positive reviews from co-workers when I brought it in. What was nice was that even though there was custard for the filling, it didn't taste too rich. It was light, without that fake "cool whip/frozen yogurt" affect.



Also this week I went and bought a pie tin at Bed Bath and Beyond. I have two glass pie pans, but wanted to try using a tin.

I had dinner at Comet this past Friday night, and had a good slice of peach blueberry pie. My friend that I was with said that she knew that was going to be the pie that I got. Even though it had a crumb topping, I think it worked better on this pie than the mixed berry that I had last time I was there.

Stick around.

Week #18 December 27 - January 2

Took this week off while home in NY for the holidays.

Week #17 December 20-26

This week I changed things up, and made a chocolate orange buttermilk pie with cranberry topping. It was basically a orange custardy type pie, with chocolate chips, and a cranberry topping. This was a great holiday pie. The chocolate/orange combo is often overlooked, but when used correctly can be a real winner.



I got the recipe from a magazine, so eventually I'll type it in here. The cranberry topping was made by using whole cranberries and mixing it with boiling maple syrup. This is a great concoction that is going to taste wonderful on pancakes.

Week #16 December 13 - 19

I'm running behind on updating. The holiday's were busy, and I just got back to Wisconsin today where I'm catching up on things I've been putting off. During week 16, I made the same pie twice. The classic chocolate cream pie. My old way of making this pie was by using a pre-made crust, chocolate pudding, and cool-whip. As you can imagine, that isn't the way I made it now. Here is the recipe I used.

This pie was a winner. Exactly what a chocolate cream pie is supposed to be. I actually made it twice, and the second time substituted a 1/3 of a cup of bitter sweet chocolate for the semi-sweet. Again, no pics. My bad.