The one with all the pie tips . . .
- You all know I make my pie crust from scratch but you may not know that I make it ahead of time. I made all the crust for the Thanksgiving pies last Sunday and I wrapped them in plastic wrap and stuck them in the freezer. It made things much easier on Wednesday, aka Pie Baking Day.
- When I make apple pie I use about 8-9 apples. I peel them and slice them and mix them with flour, sugar, and cinnamon. Then I let them sit in the mixing bowl, stirring every now and again, for about 30 minutes. This allows the apples to soften a bit and then there is no shrinkage of the filling while the pie cooks.
- I use One Pie canned pumpkin to make my pumpkin pie. I’ve done the whole bake-the-pumpkin-from-scratch thing and I just don’t think it’s worth the extra work.
- There is no meat in my mincemeat pie. I use the little box of mincemeat pie filling and I reconstitute it with water. It’s apples and raisins and spices and it’s a very rich and delicious pie, especially when it’s served with vanilla ice cream.
- When I make chocolate cream pie I use the cook and serve chocolate pudding from a box. It’s honestly better than my homemade chocolate pudding. When I make banana cream pie I make the vanilla pudding from scratch and then add sliced bananas. It is fabulous and rich and just about the best pie of all the pies I make.
And that’s that! Four Saturdays, each with five things about me, for a total of twenty new things about me.
Now I think I will go have some leftover pie. Mmm. Pie.
I made two pies this year, a French Silk and a Pecan. Both were pretty successful (may need to rethink the crust on the French Silk), and fun to make … I really should bake pies more often.
Thank you for your mom’s receipe for pie crust. It’s the best and your hint on freezing the crust is great. I’ve been using that receipe for about two years now.
What crust recipe do you use? The one we tried this year was NOT flaky.
My MIL and I were talking about how mincemeat pie filling has changed over the years. I didn’t realize that it once did, in fact, contain meat…well, I guess still does for many!
Your pies are beautiful!!
What a festive photo montage! Reminds me of the movie, The Waitress. I hope you enjoy the final days of the holiday weekend with a bit of pie left overs! We (read “jill”) polished off the last of ours yesterday.
I agree, those are beautiful pies.
Wednesday night I made a tarte tatin and I helped my daughter make the pumpkin pie recipe from the Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook. It has bourbon in it. That pie stole the show. Mine was very good, too. I just love the taste of caramel.
My mother made her own mincemeat and it had suet in it. I wish I had the recipe. I loved its tangy taste.
So what pie crust recipe do you use? I always used to use the one in Fannie Farmer, but used half butter and half crisco… and then my friend gave me hers, I think from Rose Levy B. It uses cream cheese rather than crisco, and you do it in the food processor. It is very easy to roll out, and it tastes great. I tried to do a side by side compare this year, but didn’t have enough water in the old fashioned one, and it was too crumbly. So I totally winged it and ran water over the dough balls, covered them back up, in the fridge for half an hour, then was able to more or less roll them out. At that point, the other crust was a day old, and no comparing fresh to day old!
Since I’m only able to dream about Thanksgiving at your house, please pass a slice each of apple and banana cream pie, please.
I have always wanted to be able to make pie crust. Yours looks
amazing. Would you be willing to part with the recipe ?
Gail
My husband is our pie baker. We ran into a problem, we love mincemeat and had a hard time finding it in our stores ( live in CT).
Finally got a jar at the last moment. My mother used to use the little box of mince you refer to. Where do you buy your mincemeat? I’d love to try that kind again after all these years.
Thanks, Mary
Great looking pies! I make my chocolate cream the exact same way…why work at something from scratch when the packaged pudding tastes better? We decided this year that we like the graham cracker crust better than a regular pie crust for chocolate cream pie, so that will be our new tradition.
Great tip about letting the apples soften first. Thanks! And I wondered what you put in your mincemeat pie.
Didn’t make my own pie crust this year, but my sister in law did. She brought two pies and I made an extra pumpkin. Would definitely be interested in knowing the recipe you use. When I do make it I use butter and Crisco.
Thanks for the tip on the apples, I never thought of that. Did you have a post that deals with making pie crust – and perhaps a recipe? I’ve never been able to make a decent crust. You have a wonderful blog that is so full of life.
My stomach is growling reading this post. That’s more pie than I’ve made in two years. But ask me about my risotto 🙂
Gorgeous pies! Is it usual not to have meat in a mincemeat pie? I’ve never had it and truthfully, since I thought it would include meat, I never wanted to but you make it sound delish! I always learn such good stuff from you. Someday maybe you’ll share your crust recipe.
Delicious pie!
I had a flubbed peanut butter pie attempt and I just shoved the entire thing into the ice cream maker with some extra cream and it was a very delicious ice cream. Of course, I still need to make pie. Maybe I’ll make eggnog pie.
My butt is getting bigger just reading about all the pie. /sigh