pie – The Cookbook Experiment

Cranberry Apple Pie

Hello, and welcome to the Christmas season! I can’t believe that it has been a month since I wrote my last blog post! These last few weeks have just flown by, and now Christmas is just a week away.

This post is #400! It has taken almost 6 years to get this far, but I have persevered and have had 22,760 views to the blog in that time. Who knows? Maybe I’ll get to 23,000 by the end of 2016!

I love Christmas, but I am also often a sentimental puddle of mush during the season. My fondest memories of my dad are from Christmas. I miss him the most during this season. Actually, I miss my mom, dad, and brother the most during Christmas.

Christmas will be a little strange since there will be only 3 of us together. Our family of 10 going on 11 will be spread out from Chicago to Philadelphia to Orlando this year. However, I am very thankful that I had 9 of our 10-almost-11 here at Thanksgiving! This is what life is all about! We spend years training our kids to become independent adults, capable of surviving life without us! It is such a blessing to see our kids marry and become parents and begin new traditions with their own little families! I have two favorite passages of Scripture concerning children. One has also been my mother-in-law’s favorite…Isaiah 54:13–“All thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children.” The other is verse 4 of the little 3rd epistle of John–“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” If these are true of my children, then I feel that I was a successful mom, for this is what matters most!

Here are a few pictures that we had taken at Thanksgiving.

Now to this amazing pie recipe! Tomorrow evening we are having our special Lessons and Carols service at church. We always have a fellowship time after this service, and this year we are all supposed to bring side dishes and desserts. I had an extra bag of fresh cranberries that I needed to use, so I did a little searching for a cranberry pie. I found one on the Food Network web page that sounded really good! As usual, I made some changes by adding apples and using pecans instead of walnuts. It is not THM-friendly, but could easily be adapted. Delicious!!

2 c. fresh or frozen cranberries
1/2 cup sugar (I used 1/3 cup Truvia baking blend)
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Topping:

2 eggs
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp. almond extract

Spray a 10-inch pie pan to prevent sticking. Spread the cranberries in the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle with chopped pecans and sugar. Let sit while mixing the topping.

Cream the butter with the eggs and sugar. Add the flour and almond extract to the mixture until blended. This mixture will be thick. Spread the topping over the cranberries and nuts. Be sure to seal the edges. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

Serve warm with whipped topping or ice cream!

Strawberry-Peach Pie

I’m sitting here tonight in a very quiet house feeling a little bit sorry for myself. Today I had to say good-bye to child #2 (boy #1) as he headed out for basic military training in San Antonio, Texas. He is the third of my children to have left the nest in less than a year …9 months to be exact. Having to say good-bye was not any easier than it was when I had to say good-bye to Barbi when she moved to Savannah nor when we left Ben at The Citadel last fall. However, I do understand that this is all a part of life…children are not meant to stay in the nest forever. The time must come for them to spread their wings and fly on their own.

Since Sunday was the last Sunday dinner with Russ at my table, I wanted to make a nice dessert…but nothing too sweet. I discovered that I still had some peaches in my freezer and some strawberries in my fridge. Together they made an amazing pie!

pastry for (1) 8-inch pie shell

1-1/2 quarts frozen peaches

4-5 large fresh strawberries

2 tbsp. sugar

3 tbsp. corn starch

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Prepare pastry shell and drape over pie pan. Trim off any over-hanging dough. Keep this to make a lattice top.

Let peaches thaw and drain off any juices. In a large bowl combine peaches, sugar, corn starch, cinnamon and nutmeg. Spread in pie shell. Wash strawberries and cut off tops. Cut berries into fourths length-wise. Place strawberries on top of peaches in pie shell. Roll out remaining dough and cut into strips for a lattice top. Place on top of peaches and weave together; pinch edges around pie.

Bake at 425 for about 1o minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and bake for about 20 more minutes or until done. Serve warm with whipping cream.

Mile-High Lemon Meringue Pie

I grew up eating the best lemon meringue pie ever! My mom always made lemon meringue pies in the summer. They were the perfect treat on a hot day here in the south. Unfortunately, Mom’s recipe was in her head; it was never written down. So when I decided I just had to have some lemon meringue pie, I had to go searching for a recipe that tasted at least close to hers! This one is pretty good. It does take a bit of time to make, but the results are definitely worth it! When I make it again, I will probably use my deep-dish pie pan since I did have some filling and meringue left over. I found it helpful to separate the eggs, grate the lemon rind and squeeze the fresh lemon juice before I actually began to make the pie.

2 c. sugar

1/2 c. cornstarch

1/2 tsp. salt

2 c. cold water

8 egg yolks

1 tbsp. lemon zest

1 tbsp. lemon juice

6 tbsp. butter

2 tsp. vanilla

1 prebaked 9-inch pie shell

meringue (recipe follows)

In a large saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Gradually whisk in 2 c. water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; boil for 1 minute, whisking constantly. Remove from heat.

In a medium bowl, lightly beat egg yolks. Slowly add 1 cup hot sugar mixture to eggs yolks, stirring constantly. Add egg mixture to remaining hot sugar mixture in saucepan, stirring constantly. Stir in lemon juice and zest, butter and vanilla. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until mixture is thick and smooth. Spoon mixture into prebaked pie crust; cover and chill for about 4 hours.

Make meringue by whisking together 1-1/2 cups sugar and 6 egg whites in the top of a double boiler. Cook over simmering water, whisking constantly, about 4 minutes or until candy thermometer reaches 140 degrees and sugar dissolves. Pour mixture into a large bowl and beat on high for 10 minutes. Mixture will become stiff and creamy white. Spread meringue over chilled lemon pie. Serve immediately, or chill for several hours. If desired, broil pie for 1-2 minutes to gently brown meringue.