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.

Pie Article

Here is a great article in the New York Times from last week about Pies.

Week #13 - Off

Happy Thanksgiving!! I had a nice time in Michigan with Sandy and her family. No new pies this week. I decided to take the week off, and make pies that I had already done. Chocolate Peanut Butter and Pumpkin were in order. We also had Apple, Pecan, and Minced meat. A great time was had by all.

Week #12 November 15 - 21

I wasn't sure what type of pie I was going to make going into this week. I was looking at the calendar, and I realized it was the middle of November. I always tell people that I'm trying to make more seasonal pies, which is why I'm not making lemon meringue in the cold weather. That being said, I decided to make a sweet-potato pie for this week. Here is the recipe.

And I know I said that I would remember to take pictures, but I forgot again. At least I have a picture of the filling.



As for the taste of the pie, it was alright. To be honest, I felt like I couldn't taste the sweet potatoes enough. I've said it before, I don't have a sweet tooth. Sweet potatoes have a lot of natural flavors that I felt like didn't come out quite as much as I would have enjoyed. They seemed to be too overpowered by the spices. Also, I felt like it tasted a lot like pumpkin pie.

After making the apple pear pie a few times this fall, it is going to be tough for a regular apple to compete in my mind. But, I had extra apples laying around, and I'm a firm believer that to be a good cook, athlete, student, etc, you need to get the basics down. Well, apple pie is about as basic as it gets. I know I don't have a picture, but the top crust baked very nicely, and had a cracked, weathered look to it. This is still one of my favorites. I used a recipe that my friend Victoria mailed to me. Thanks, Ror.

Week #11 November 8 - 14

It has become commonplace for me to make two pies per week. Even though it is more work, it's good to refine my skills in the culinary art that is pie-baking. Also, because there is a stampede when I bring in the pies to work each week, two are basically needed to feed the natives. For my new pie this week, I made an oatmeal pie. I'm a big fan of oatmeal, and just wondered if there would happen to be an oatmeal pie. When I saw that there was, I figured it would be a good pie to make.

Described on some recipes as the "poor man's pecan pie", I can't really comment if it was a poor man's pecan pie because I don't really enjoy pecans. But what I can comment on is that it was a great pie and definitely a keeper. It had a nice cinnamon flavor, and was custardy inside. This can be from the corn syrup I used. Here is the recipe.

The other pie I made was the apple-cranberry pie that I made last week. This week I took the ambitious step of trying a lattice crust. Overall it turned out well. I can't say it was the best looking pie, but I'm confident that with more practice, I'll get better at the lattice crust.

Speaking of crust, I also tried using half Crisco instead of butter in one of my crusts. Turned out well. I'll give more feedback when I try more variations of the crust.

Lastly, a friend of mine, Jenna, that happens to be a phenomenal chef has been posting about her experience as a camp cook. Here are a few of her rules that I think most people should think about when eating/cooking/dealing with food. I noticed this week that my pies aren't made quickly. I think that's a good thing, and something to remember. Good, wholesome food takes time to prepare.

Here is the excerpt:

- Food should be homemade, as much as possible. We will know exactly what goes in it (ingredients we can pronounce!) and equally important, we will be a crucial part of the process. This connects us physically and spiritually to our work and gives one a sense of humble pride in work well done.

- Food should be whole and fresh. It’s no nutritional secret that the more fresh and the closer to whole our foods are, the greater the benefit to our health. Included in this I wanted to reduce the amount of sugary offerings (bug juice, some desserts, etc.)

-Operating sustainably. We composted some items already, but the kitchen had a lot of room for improvement in terms of producing food that could be composted as well as controlling leftovers and waste overall. In addition, it was important that we think about global sustainability in terms of choices and purchases, so cooking less meat and choosing a natural foods distributor.

PS - I forgot to take pictures of my pies this week.

Week #10 November 1 - 7

I bought way too many cranberries this week, and being as it was my 10th week, I decided to double down and make two new pies.

Pie #1 was an apple cranberry. Here is the recipe. This was a great pie. It was my first time cooking with cranberries, and it gave the pie some tartness, without too much bite.

Pie #2 was called a Nantucket Cranberry Pie. Because I'm a fan of most things New England, I decided this would be my second pie. This pie didn't call for a crust, but I decided to put one on. It was good, but I think it felt more like a cake than an actual pie. I also added some orange zest, to balance out the tartness in the cranberries.