real pie

American households all over the world are rolling out pie crust, adding spices to pureed pumpkin, chopping nuts and baking lovely pies for Thanksgiving.  I made seven pies today!  Yup, seven!  Some pumpkin and some pecan.  Five of them are for customers who placed orders with me.  Two of them are an order from my husband for our Thanksgiving meal.

Everyone has their preference for pie. People get really defensive about their pies.  I get it. I personally like both pecan and pumpkin, because who can go wrong with pumpkin pie or pecan pie?  But how do you make the most amazing pie?  Do you line up your corn syrup and your can of evaporated milk next to your pumpkin puree?  Many do, and I'm not going to fault you for it.  It's better than picking up a pre-made pie at the store.  Baked at home, no matter how many fake ingredients, it's bound to taste better than fake from the local Safeway.  Just simply for that fresh out of the oven flaky crust and the lovely smell that permeates your home while it bakes.

So here's the deal.  I know Libby's has the monopoly on canned pumpkin and therefore the majority of folks are making pumpkin pie from the recipe on the Libby's can wrapper.  Canned pumpkin is awesome and even Martha Stewart's test kitchen admitted to preferring canned pumpkin from roasting and pureeing your own.  Fine, use the canned pumpkin, I do.  But have you ever looked at the ingredients in a can of evaporated milk?

Ingredients in Carnation evaporated milk: milk, dipotassium phosphate, carrageenan, vitamin D3.

Three out of four of these ingredients are in this product to that the milk can sit in a can on a shelf for a year or more.

So let's make real pie this year.  Use heavy cream in place of the evaporated milk.  It's fresh and the pie turns out lovely.

Sara's take on Libby's famous pumpkin pie recipe
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1/4 packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
2 eggs
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree (or if you're a purist-roast and puree your own)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream (12 ounces)
1 tsp homemade vanilla (vanilla beans soaked in bourbon for 6 months)
pie crust (I like to make my own and refrigerate it until ready for baking)

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees
Mix the sugars, salt, and spices in a small bowl and set aside.  Whisk the eggs in a larger bowl, add the pumpkin, sugar combination and whisk until combined.  Add cream and a dash of homemade vanilla bourbon extract if you have it.

Pour in your pie crust and bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.  Then turn down your oven to 350 degrees and back for 35-40 minutes.  If you live at 7,000 feet or above like me, plan on cooking your pie for about 10-12 minutes longer.

My pecan pie is the BEST. EVER. HANDS DOWN!  I love it so much because it's real.  No gross corn syrup and corn starch to thicken the juices which creates that unnatural jelly layer under the nuts.  Not in my pie.  Pecan pie is best when it's simple. Just butter, brown sugar, salt, eggs, flour, milk, vanilla bourbon and pecans.  I'm not going to divulge my best selling secret on the internet but if you search for pecan pie without corn syrup there are some awesome options.  Like this one. Or this one.  Cut the sugar a bit on either of those though, wow!  No one needs a cup and a half of sugar in a pie.  Sheesh!  Sprinkle course sea salt on top of the pie after it comes out of the oven.  The salt brings out the brown sugar flavors.

Promise you won't get out a can of that spray whipping cream after going to the trouble to make a real homemade pie.  Right next to the gallons of milk (Lord, I've forgotten what buying an entire gallon of milk is like-how convenient), is the little cardboard cartons of fresh whipping cream.  Buy one of those and keep it in your refrigerator.  Or if you live in Addis Ababa like me, pick up a bag of Mama's heavy cream. Right before you plan on serving your pie (either a bit warm or room temp), pour the whipping cream into your stand mixer or a mixing bowl.  Whip it on high for a minute or so.  When you start seeing the lines in the cream, add a tablespoon of powdered sugar and a dash of vanilla.  Keep whipping until it's big and fluffy but not too dry.  Taste it and whip in a little more sugar or vanilla if needed.  Dollop it right on top of your slice of pie.

Enjoy your pie!  No matter what's inside.  I'm just saying, you might enjoy real pie just a little bit more!

The Crust Addendum:
After I posted this, I received a few questions from friends about how to get the best crust possible.  And if we're being real here, the crust is truly the hardest and most crucial piece of pie! I thought it would be wise to include some tips for preparing and baking fantastic pie crusts.

1. Make the dough in advance, refrigerate it and then the next day roll it out into your pie plate.  If you don't make the pie right away, cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate the entire thing.  I froze a few of my pie crusts this year and I like the results of the refrigerated ones better.
2.  When rolling out pie crust, take care to keep the dough even thickness.  Roll out the circle much bigger than your pie pan.  When you tuck your edges under it will give you a nice thick amount of crust on top to crimp.  The crust will not burn when thick and it will not bake unevenly if the crust is a consistent thickness.
3. Do not pre-bake your homemade crust.
4. Make you filling and pour it into a cold pie crust.
5. If your recipe asks you to bake the pie at a high temp for 15 minutes, watch the pie and after 10 minutes at the high temp go ahead and turn the temperature down.  It's OK to cut 5 minutes off that hot bake time.
6. Keep an eye on your pie as it's baking.  Rotate it periodically so the crust that is a the back of the oven doesn't brown too fast.
7. If you do see some dark spots, tear a piece of aluminum foil and fold it over that portion of the crust.
8. If you're extremely concerned about the browning of the crust too soon, turn the temp even further down.  Just plan on your pie taking longer to bake overall.
9. You can leave pecan pies out at room temp for up to two days.  Pumpkin pies should be refrigerated if you don't plan on serving them that day.

strawberry rhubarb pie

When I saw the gorgeous red stalks of rhubarb at the NGO bazaar, I snatched up a few bunches for strawberry rhubarb pie.  In college, I had a roommate from Amarillo, Texas and one spring break three of our best friends flew to Texas to visit her granddad's ranch.  My friend's mother made two strawberry rhubarb pies that will forever be etched in my mind.  They were sweet but not too sweet and the crust was perfectly buttery and flaky.  My girlfriends and I used forks and just took bites out of the pie until it was gone.  Or at least that's how I remember it.  It was probably the best pie I've ever eaten.

I did my best to recreate that wonderful memory!

I made mini pies for Market Day so I used double the amount of pie crust needed.  If you wanted to make one 9 inch pie you only need a single batch of pie crust.  I ended up with more strawberries than rhubarb but you could definitely swap the 4 cups for rhubarb and cut down on the strawberries.  Just keep tasting until you've got the sweet tart combination right.  I like using cardamom in place of cinnamon for recipes because it adds a unique flavor and still has that warmth of cinnamon.  Here I used cardamom in the crumble topping.

get your daughter to help and give you a smirky grin when you ask her to smile for the photo

Sara's Strawberry Rhubarb pie (adapted from here)
Double batch of your favorite pie crust (mine's a secret)
3 cups chopped fresh rhubarb
4 cups fresh strawberries sliced in half
3/4 cup sugar + 1/4 cup sugar (keep it separate)
2 Tbsp corn starch
2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp melted unsalted butter

Crumble topping
1 1/3 cups flour
3/4 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter
large pinch ground cardamom
1 tsp salt

First I cooked the rhubarb with 3/4 cup sugar on medium heat until it was juicy and bubbly (use a dutch oven with a lid).  Cook only until the juices start coming out of the vegetable.  You don't want mushy rhubarb.  It's nice if it still has structure-not crunch, but structure.  Set the rhubarb aside in a bowl and add half the amount of juices left in the pot.  Sip the rest or add it to seltzer water for flavoring.  Rhubarb syrup is so yummy!

Add the flour, cornstarch and melted butter to the rhubarb and stir gently to mix.  It will become thick and gloppy.  Add the halved strawberries and gently fold in so you don't crush the fruit. Taste the mixture and then sprinkle in the remaining sugar if you like.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees

For the crumb topping you can use a food processor or if you're like me and sometimes just don't want to go to the trouble to get the thing out and then clean it all for 3 seconds of pulsing; just get out a bowl and use your fingers or a pastry cutter to mix the ingredients for the crumble.  Simply mix the dry, then add the butter.  Add a bit of butter and mix, then add a bit more until it's forming small crumbly balls.  You don't want soggy crumble.  Just add enough butter until it's crumbly but still a bit dry.  The consistency you can easily sprinkle on top of the pie.

To assemble your pie, roll our your crust either for a 9 inch pie plate or in small circles for muffin tins like I did.  For a large pie pour in the fruit mixture and then top with the crumble.  If you are making mini pies, I used about 1 1/2 Tbsp of filling for each mini pie.  Then sprinkle on 1 Tbsp crumble.

Bake your 9 inch pie at 400 degrees for 10 minutes then turn the temp down to 350 and bake for an additional 30-35 minutes.

For mini pies bake at 400 degrees for 5 minutes then turn down the temp to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 18-20 minutes.  You want the crust a nice tan not brown.

Let the pie sit for 2-4 hours.  Room temp is a good way to serve this pie.  Top with ice cream or just slice and enjoy.  I didn't even get a chance to eat one.  They sold out at Market Day but Justin said they were perfection.  Not too sweet and not too tart.  And they sure are pretty!

a week of baking

I feel like I've done little else but bake this week.  My feet are tired and I grated my fingers a few times but it was a lot of fun.

Whoever is attending this Thanksgiving feast next week is lucky enough to enjoy my pecan pie for dessert.  It's going to be a big gathering.  I made three pies for this customer.

The sweet little girl who is turning 5 next week (and we will sadly miss her birthday party), will have a delicious pink ice cream cake.  This cake has a graham cracker walnut crust and EIGHT alternating layers of vanilla cake that has been brushed with strawberry puree and strawberry ice cream.  The top is vanilla ice cream and the strawberries have been candied and frozen.  It almost didn't fit in my cake box. Seriously yum!

I baked for Market Day tomorrow as well.  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to feature traditional Thanksgiving baked goods.  I made sixty mini pies.  Not kidding. Pecan and pumpkin.  Mini pies take THE. MOST. TIME.  All the butter grating and rolling and shaping. Phew! It's so time consuming. Making the big pecan pies are a piece of cake compared to all the tiny ones.

I adore pumpkin pie with whipped cream on top though. Don't you? It's so perfect for Thanksgiving and I never make it because I'm a good wife and make pecan pie instead since it's what my husband loves.  But you know what? I think I'm going to make a pumpkin pie just for myself from now on during the holidays  I love it that much.  I'm going to plead with my folks back at home to not buy their pumpkin pie at the grocery store this year but instead roll their own crust and make their own filling.  Please!  It's so much better from scratch.  But honestly, if I were in a pinch, store bought pumpkin pie is better than no pumpkin pie.

I also made ginger sandwich cookies with date filling because I loved them so much last week and had numerous people compliment them when we ran in to one another at the Marine Ball.  My favorite comment was from a friend's husband who was sick last week.  He said that he ate one of the ginger cookies and felt like he was at home.  I had a few people ask me if I am originally from the South (I guess that gives my pecan pie props) and a few others that said the ginger cookies were "off the chain".  Awesome huh?!  I love hearing stories about people eating my food.  One friend said that his wife "doesn't like scones" but she broke off a piece of the scone her husband took home that afternoon and a few minutes later came back to break off another piece.  That happened for awhile until she ate the whole thing.  People like talking about food and there isn't a whole lot of great food here in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia worthy of food conversation among friends.  I love that some of the things I'm creating is filling that gap.  

Of course I also made scones but I'm bracing myself because I just couldn't muster any more energy or time to bake my chocolate chip cookies.  People get a little touchy when these aren't available.  Some people are aghast when they get to the head of the line and see that their favorite whatever is already gone.  No lie.  

Did I mention I love doing this so much?  Ashlynn loves it when I make ice cream and her sisters are at school.  She's learning really quickly if she hangs around Mom in the kitchen she gets handed spatulas, spoons, and paddles covered in sweet delicious concoctions.  So she has her PJs on in this photo which means she's licking that ice cream paddle before her first nap this morning...which means Mama needs a vacation from the kitchen.  

And just because I can't help myself...Ashlynn with spaghetti face.  Adorable.