Archive for the Category ◊ Pies & Tarts ◊

13 Sep 2010 Drunken Pear Crisp with Cherries
Author:  |  Category: Fruits, Pies & Tarts, Sweets  | Tags: , , , , , , , ,  | Leave a Comment

Everyone who tried this last night (last night refers to one night in the fall of 2009) loved it…, except for me.  I didn’t fall in love with it until about an hour ago, when I had a bite of the leftovers.  Soooo GOOD!  What was I thinking earlier?  I had to scrape the bottom of the serving dish to get a leftover helping for myself.

This crisp is made with almost a full bottle of Zinfandel. I’ve served the crisp  with small scoops of homemade vanilla ice-cream, and with whipped cream.  I am going to have to make another batch to figure out which option I like better! Besides that, the picture above is horrible and I definitely need a new picture… (if you make this, can you send me a picture to use in place of this one?)

I made one change to the “Pear Crisp with Dried Sour Cherries”  recipe from “The Top 150 American Recipes” cookbook (aside from renaming the recipe), I thought the filling needed a thickening agent, it did.  I’ve added it into the recipe below.

Start this one day before you plan to serve it—the cherries need time to get drunk.  Kids probably won’t like this…. Let them eat the ice-cream!

Drunken Pear Crisp with Cherries

1 cup dried SOUR cherries (I bought mine at Trader Joe’s)
Approx ¾ bottle of Zinfandel
5 cups thickly sliced pears (about 2 ½ lbs, 8 medium)
1 T. tapioca or cornstarch
½ cup sugar (divided use)
1 ¼ c. flour
1/3 cup toasted sliced almonds
1 T. finely chopped toasted sliced almonds
¼ c. firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/8  t. ground nutmeg
¼ t. cinnamon
8 T. (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled

In a small saucepan over medium heat combine cherries with enough Zinfandel to cover by 2 inches.  Bring the mixture to a simmer, then remove from heat and let cool.  Place cherries in the refrigerator and let soak overnight (or, at least 8 hours).  Drain the cherries, but reserve the wine.  In a large bowl combine the sliced pears, drained cherries,  ¼ cup white sugar, and cornstarch or tapioca.  Toss well.  Add ½ cup of the cherry-Zinfandel liquid and then let stand for 30 minutes.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In another bowl combine flour, remaining ¼ c. sugar, 1/3 cup toasted almonds, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Slowly drizzle in the melted butter.  Stir with a fork until mixture comes together in crumbles. (Do not over-mix and get a big ball of dough-break up any clumps bigger than one inch).  Spoon fruit mixture into a 2 qt. baking dish (8 x 8).  Evenly sprinkle crumbs on top of the fruit mixture. Sprinkle 1 T. finely chopped almonds over the crumbled topping. Bake until mixture is bubbling and topping is browned, about 50 minutes.  Serve hot or warm, with or without ice-cream or whipped cream. Guard the leftovers with your life!

Inviting friends over this fall?  Serve this for dessert.  Trust me.

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today! 

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07 Sep 2010 Mixed Berry Pie
Author:  |  Category: Fruits, Pies & Tarts, Seasonal, Sweets  | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,  | 6 Comments

Been to the Farmers’ Markets this weekend? Did you buy a bunch of berries? Time for a Mixed Berry Pie! It is still cool enough that it’s OK to turn on the oven making it the perfect time to make this delicious pie. The orange peel sets this pie above all other berry pies, and the cornstarch-flour thickening is perfect. The pie is great served slightly warm for dinner, with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream or a bit of whipped cream on the side and absolutely divine room temperature, with a cup of hot coffee on the side, for breakfast.

I haven’t mastered pie crust yet, so use your favorite recipe, or that Pillsbury unroll and bake stuff (like I did) which will enable you to get this pie in the oven in 20 minutes or less. Ready, set, goooooo! You’re going to knock the socks off your dinner guests!

Mixed Berry Pie

1 double crust pastry
1 c. sugar
3 T. cornstarch
2 T. flour
grated zest of 1 medium orange
pinch of salt
6 c. mixed fresh berries*
1 T. cream or milk
pinch of sugar

Prepare pastry. Roll out half the pastry and line the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate. Refrigerate the lined pie plate and the leftover pastry while you mix up the berries. In a large bowl mix sugar, cornstarch, flour, orange zest and salt. Add berries and toss gently to coat each berry. Pile berry mixture into pasty lined pie plate. Roll out second half of pastry. Cut slits in pastry. Lay pastry over berries and tuck into bottom pastry. Decoratively crimp and trim the top and bottom crust to seal together. Brush top pastry with a bit of cream or milk. Sprinkle with a pinch of white sugar. Refrigerate for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place pie on a baking sheet, and place in oven. Bake 50-60 minutes or until pastry is golden and filling is bubbling. Cool completely on rack before serving (juices need to cool to thicken).

*recipe originally came with these proportions: 2 cups blueberries, 2 cups blackberries, 1 cup fresh raspberries, 1 cup quartered fresh strawberries. I wouldn’t use any more strawberries than 1 cup (they don’t hold up well) but the rest of the proportions are mix-and-matchable. Do what I do, buy one or two baskets of everything at the farmer’s market and what makes it home gets put in the pie. If you are a bit short of the required six cups of berries, peel and chop an apple or pear to add into the mixture.

I made the berry pie at the top and my friend Louise made the beautiful berry pie below.  Both of us believe that Mixed Berry Pie is most people’s favorite pie, if it’s not, it’s because they have never tasted this one!

Thanks for stopping by our kitchens today, see you tomorrow!  What shall we make…??

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01 Sep 2010 Fresh Peach Pie
Author:  |  Category: Fruits, Pies & Tarts, Seasonal, Sweets  | Tags: , , ,  | Leave a Comment

2019 UPDATE: I like this pie even better with Mango Jell-O which seems to be easier to find than peach Jell-O, neither of which is particularly easy to find, but not impossible. In our area, Safeway doesn’t carry either, but Lucky carries both.  If all else fails, peach and mango Jell-O can be ordered from Amazon (in packs of six, with a price premium unfortunately). I like the color of the mango Jell-O better, it’s orange, than the peach Jell-O, which is pink.  As for the taste, I think the sweetness of either Jell-O flavor just accents the peaches.  You could try this with raspberry Jell-O, after all, peaches and raspberries are the classic Peach Melba duo.

I found two good recipe for fresh peaches this year!  I’ve shared the recipe Peach Crumble Bars, now I’m sharing this recipe which has even more peach flavor and crams even more fresh peach into each serving.  There is some bad news about this recipe though. One of the ingredients in the glaze is Jell-O.  I am not a big fan of processed food, so I would rather not use the Jell-O, but as of today, I don’t have a good substitute, and this pie is too good not to share.  Summer is almost over, you just have to make and enjoy one more good fresh fruit pie before delving into pumpkin, apple and mince!

Oddly enough, I found this recipe on the “Fix-It and Forget-It” cookbook site, which is a crock pot cookbook!  Oh, wait, now I get it, this recipe was posted as a preview for the authors newest cookbook, “Fix-It and Enjoy-It”, which I am guessing is not a crock pot cookbook.  Here’s a link to the book, if you are interested.   This recipe is on page 250.

Now getting back to the Jell-O issue.  This recipe calls for the smaller box of peach Jell-O, the 3 oz size. I have not been able to find it where I live, and I have looked everywhere.  I have used the larger box, the 6 oz. size.  I just measure the Jell-O powder out and use half of it in the recipe and save the other half for next time. One time my son came home with  Sugar Free Peach Jell-O (which is available in the 3 oz size).  I used it, surprisingly enough,  and it did not kill me!  (I find sugar free Jell-O to have one of the most horrible aftertastes of any food on the planet).  Then, another time (I have made this pie quite a few times this summer), I forgot to measure the Jell-O and used the full 6 oz. box!  That worked too! (The pie was a bit sweeter, though.)  So, what we have here, might be an infallible recipe!  If you can’t find the 3 oz. box, I’d suggest getting the 6 oz. box and measuring out half of the powder to use in this recipe.  I am pretty sure it won’t be long before you are using the other half!

Fresh Peach Pie

¾ cup sugar
½ tsp. salt
1 cup water
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. white corn syrup
3-oz. pkg. peach or mango Jell-O (if you can’t find a 3 oz pkg, use half of a 6 oz. pkg.)
6-8 large peaches
9″ baked pie crust

Make the glaze first. In a saucepan, combine sugar, salt, water, cornstarch, and syrup. Cook over medium heat until clear (clear as in “not cloudy”, the mixture does not get glassy) , stirring constantly. Add peach gelatin and stir until dissolved.  Remove glaze from heat and cool in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

While glaze is cooling, peel peaches and slice into a large mixing bowl. Slice enough peaches to mound nicely into your pie crust.  You can quickly place the peaches in the crust to measure how many you have/need, then quickly dump the peaches back into the mixing bowl to proceed.

Pour cooled glaze over peaches. Stir gently to combine. Pour mixture into baked and cooled pie crust. Chill until ready to serve (at least an hour).  I serve with whipped cream.  Ice cream would be good too, I am sure.

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today. I hope you make this pie soon, if you do, I guarantee you’ll finish up the summer on a high note!

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22 Jul 2010 Fresh Blueberry White Chocolate Pie
Author:  |  Category: Fruits, Pies & Tarts, Seasonal, Sweets  | Tags: , , , , , , ,  | One Comment

I make two no-bake pies in the summer, a Fresh Strawberry Chocolate Pie and this Fresh Blueberry White Chocolate Pie. Fresh pies are quick to pull together, don’t heat up the kitchen, and are real crowd pleasers. Just remember to start early in the day to allow a few hours for the filing to set before serving. This pie usually doesn’t keep well, but maybe I say that because I never have any left over! And my daughter Abby made this pie 3 days ago, which still looks good enough to eat tonight.

The white chocolate graham cracker crust aspect is my own idea (got it from my Strawberry Chocolate Pie) but the blueberry filling part came from Epicurious a few years ago. I haven’t mastered crumb crusts yet (mine are always too hard) so while I am still working on getting the right recipe and the right technique, I use a pre-made crust.

Fresh Blueberry White Chocolate Pie

4 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup water plus 2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
grated zest, to taste (one lemon, or half of a lemon)
pinch of salt
1 or 2 tablespoons butter

1 graham cracker or shortbread crust (I prefer shortbread)
Approx. 1/2 bag white chocolate chips (Ghiradelli or Guittard–don’t use Nestle or a store brand they don’t taste right)
1 – 2 teaspoons Crisco (optional, just helps with melting and spreading-sometimes I use, sometimes I don’t)

whipped cream (make fresh if at all possible)

Prepare the crust first. Melt the white chocolate with the optional shortening in the MW on 50% power for about 2 minutes. Stir well after every 30 seconds. Do not overhead. Carefully spread a THIN layer of white chocolate onto the sides and bottom of the pie crust. You need to cover all the crust, so the filing can’t seep through and make the crust soggy, but you need to keep the chocolate covering thin enough to not make the pie too sweet! So…, as THIN as you possibly can while covering the crumbs completely! Put prepared crust in refrigerator to set (pssst…, if you have any melted white chocolate left, drizzle it on some pretzels and then put them into refridgerator to harden… Yummeeeeee.  White chocolate covered pretzels will keep, covered, in the fridge for, well, probably longer than they will last!).

Measure out 1 cup of the blueberries, choose the softest most imperfect ones. Put these berries in a medium saucepan with 1/2 cup water. Cover the pan and bring mixture to a boil. After the mixture comes to a boil, remove the lid, lower the heat, and simmer, stirring constantly, for 3 – 4 minutes.

In a small bowl mix the additional 2 tablespoons water with 2 tablespoons cornstarch. Add this cornstarch mixture plus the sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice and salt. Simmer mixture for a minute, or until the blueberry mixture becomes translucent. When the mixture becomes translucent immediately remove from heat and stir in remaining 3 cups fresh blueberries, lemon zest and 1 – 2 tablespoons butter.

Spoon blueberry mixture into white chocolate covered crumb crust and let sit at room temperature for 2 hours before serving. When set, the blueberries will remain very juicy, but will not flow out of crust.

Just before serving pipe or spread whipped cream around the sides of the pie, leaving the center unadorned and brilliantly glistening.

According to the original recipe, the pie can be kept at room temperature (minus the whipped cream) for two days. (I keep mine in the RF though)

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