Pies
I've loved pies as long as I can remember. To that end, here are six pie recipes to help you through the day, including Dulce De Leche Banana Pie and Chai-Spiced Pear Pie. Enjoy!
GINGERBREAD WHOOPIE PIES WITH TAHINI CREAM FILLING
This is from Anita Schecter in The Spruce Eats. She wrote, " Whoopie pies might be the state treat of Maine, but that doesn't mean they can't be enjoyed everywhere. Typically made with two soft, round mini chocolate cakes with a marshmallow cream center, the dessert lends itself to a whole host of delicious variations.
"It's common to find a pumpkin version in autumn, and a gingerbread one during the winter holidays. In addition, although less traditional, the marshmallow cream filling is sometimes substituted with a cream cheese frosting.
"Adding tahini to the cream is definitely not traditional, but it is greats an amazing taste that you should treat yourself to. The buttery marshmallow filling can be overly sweet due to the amount of powdered sugar needed to thicken it. The sesame paste tones down the sweetness a bit and brings in a wonderful nutty, sesame flavor. It's a great match to the gingerbread flavor and it's so good you may find yourself slathering it on everything."
Prep Time: 25 minutes; Cook Time: 12 minutes; Total Time: 37 minutes; Makes 10 servings
To view this online, go to https://www.thespruceeats.com/gingerbread-whoopie-pies-4154741.
Ingredients
For the Gingerbread Whoopie Pies:
1 egg
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter (melted and slightly cooled)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon salt
For the Tahini Cream Filling:
4 ounce marshmallow fluff (homemade or store bought)
1 cup powdered confectioner's sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter (melted and cooled)
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon sesame paste (tahini)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pinch of sea salt
Directions
Gather the ingredients.
To make the gingerbread whoopie pies, pre-heat the oven to 350 F.
Add the egg and light brown sugar to a large bowl. Using a stand or hand mixer, beat until smooth and slightly lightened in color. Beat in the molasses, melted butter and vanilla extract.
In a separate bowl, sift together the all purpose flour, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground nutmeg and salt.
Stir the dry ingredients into the wet batter.
Using a 1 ounce cookie scoop, scoop the batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a baking mat, and keep the scoops at least 2" apart because they will spread in the oven. You can use a couple of baking sheets or just work in batches, but you should end up with about 20 scoops.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Allow to cool thoroughly before handling.
To make the tahini cream filling, whisk together the marshmallow fluff, powdered sugar, melted butter, milk, sesame paste, vanilla and sea salt until smooth. Let sit for a few minutes while the whoopie pies cool to let the filling set and thicken a bit. This will help the filling stay put when you spread it between the two pies.
To assemble the whoopie pies, place about a tablespoon of tahini cream in between the bottoms of two of the cookies (use more if you want them thicker) and gently sandwich together.
Enjoy!
CRANBERRY PIE
My dad loved to cook, and usually came up with decent recipes. He sent this one in a letter dated “18 No 79”. He wrote, “Here is a recipe for a pie. 1st the way it was in the paper and the way I made it.” (It can be found in my e-cookbook Off the Wall Cooking.)
Note: While Dad's recipe called for only the bottom crust, this pie can be made with either one or two crusts. If making with one crust, make a collar of foil for the edge of the crust that peeks out from the filling, keeping it on for the first 10-15 minutes. If using two crusts, cover with foil (again, for the first 10 minutes or so), then remove for the remainder of the baking.
Ingredients
2 T cornstarch
1 C sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1-1/4 C hot water
1 C raisins
1 T butter
2 C cranberries
Pie crust
Directions
Blend 1st four ingredients & cook in double boiler until thick. Add next 3 ingredients & cook 10 minutes. Put in pie shell & bake at 450 degrees for 20-30 minutes, covering pie with foil for the first 10-15 minutes. (Crust can be any kind you want, whether double crust or simply a bottom crust.)
VARIATION
Ingredients
2 Tbls cornstarch
3/4 C honey + 1/4 C molasses
1/4 tsp. salt
1-1/4 C hot water
1 C raisins
1 T margarine
1-1/2 C cranberries + 1 C canned cranberries (kind with berries in sauce)
Pie crust
Directions
Make as above.
CHAI-SPICED PEAR PIE
This is from Audra, otherwise known as The Baker Chick. If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you might remember me posting quite a few recipes from Audra (although it’s been a while). Her blog rocks! If you haven’t checked it out, you really should. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
This recipe begins, “I can’t possibly let you enter Thanksgiving week without another pie recipe. As the person in charge of desserts in my family, I’m always looking to make something classic with a twist and this gorgeous pie is just that apples get all the attention in the fall, but baking with firm, sweet pears is in my opinion just as good but way more unique and impressive.
“This pear pie is tossed with warm chai spices like cardamon, cinnamon, ginger and even a crack of black pepper. The result is just a bit more kick than what you’re probably used to with apple pie, but that same warm, melt-in-your-mouth goodness just waiting for a scoop of vanilla.”
Yield: 1 9-inch pie
To view this online on Audra’s blog, click here.
Ingredients
2-3 single layers of Pie Crust (see note)
10 cups of peeled, thinly sliced pears (from about 8-10 pears depending on size, use something firm like bosc)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3-4 twists of freshly ground black pepper (1/8 teaspoon, optional)
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons butter
Instructions
Keep crust chilling in the fridge while you prep the pears.
In a large pot or dutch oven, toss together the pears, brown sugar, flour, and spices. Stir in water and dot with the butter.
Cook on medium heat, stirring frequently, tossing everything around to par-cook the pears a bit. Keep checking to see when a pear slice is "bendy" and slightly tender, but for me I cooked them for 10-15 minutes.
Allow pears to cool while you prep your dough. If you are doing a lattice or braided crust, roll some of the dough out now, form the braids, and freeze them until pie is ready to be assembled. If you are just doing a double crust- wait until the pears are mostly cool.
Roll out one layer of crust and drape over the bottom of a 9- inch pie pan leaving a bit of overhang. Pour the cooled pears into the crust and top with another sheet of pie crust, a lattice top, or the braids.
Trim and crimp edge of crust and pop the whole thing in the freezer for 10-30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 425.F. Place pie onto a cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes, then reducing the heat to 350F and baking for another 45-50 minutes.. If the crust seems to be getting too dark you can drape some foil on top for the remainder of the baking.
Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
Notes
*If you want a little extra pie dough to work with for a decorative crust, I like to have a bit extra and usually make 3 batches of crust. If you are just doing a classic top, two single layers is fine!
APPLE PIE
I got the original recipe for this from an old Betty Crocker Cookbook, years ago. I've tweaked the recipe quite a bit; the original called for butter, which mine doesn't, while I add apple cider or apple juice, which isn't in the original. I also added several other changes to this, changing it to the way my family loves it. Here's the tweaked version of apple pie.
Ingredients
Crust for a 9-inch two-crust pie
3/4 + 1 tablespoon cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour (do not use self-rising flour, but if you must use it, omit salt)
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
dash salt
6 to 7 cups apples (6 to 8 apples), peeled and thinly sliced
1/4 cup apple cider or apple juice
Directions
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare crust and line pie pan with bottom crust.
Placed cut up apples in large bowl. Add sugar, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and (lastly) apple cider or juice. Mix apples and additions with hands, then pour apples and additions into crust-lined pie pan.
Cover with top crust, cut slits into top crust, then seal edges of crusts. (Note: You can replace top crust with a lattice crust.) Cover top of pie with aluminum foil to prevent excess browning; remove foil last 15 minutes of baking.
Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust.
DELAWARE CREAM CHEESE-PINEAPPLE PIE
This is from the infamous long-since-forgotten emailing list.
Ingredients
1/3 C Sugar
1 tbs Cornstarch
8 oz Crushed pineapple w juice
8 oz Cream cheese; softened
1/2 C Sugar
1 tsp Salt
2 Eggs
1/2 C Milk
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1 9" unbaked pie shell
1/4 C Pecans; chopped
Directions
Combine sugar, cornstarch and pineapple plus juice in a small saucepan. Cook over med. heat, stirring constantly until mixture is thin and clear. Cool; set aside.
Blend cream cheese, sugar and salt in a mixer bowl. Add 2 eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Blend in milk and vanilla. (If mixture looks slightly curdled, don't worry--it bakes out.)
Spread cooled pineapple layer over bottom of pie shell. Pour cream cheese mixture over pineapple; sprinkle with pecans.
Bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes. Cool.
DULCE DE LECHE BANANA PIE
This yummy recipe, from Old El Paso, begins, “A flaky homemade pie crust complements a caramel and banana cream filling.”
Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes; Prep Time: 20 minutes; 8 Servings; 10 Ingredients
To view this yumminess, go to https://www.oldelpaso.com/recipes/dulce-de-leche-banana-pie.
Ingredients
Crust
1 cup Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon shortening
2 to 3 tablespoons cold water
Filling
1 can (13.4 oz) dulce de leche
3 ripe medium bananas
1 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
Instructions
Heat oven to 450°F. In medium bowl, mix flour and salt. Cut in shortening, using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through ingredients in opposite directions), until particles are size of small peas. Sprinkle with water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and dough almost leaves side of bowl (1 to 2 teaspoons more water can be added if necessary).
On lightly floured surface, shape dough into a ball. Flatten ball to 1/2-inch thickness, rounding and smoothing edges. With floured rolling pin, roll dough into 11-inch round, rolling from center to edge. Fold dough in half; place in 9-inch glass pie plate. Unfold; gently press in bottom and up side of plate, being careful not to stretch dough.
Fold and roll edge of dough under, even with plate; flute edge. Prick bottom and side of dough generously with fork. Bake 9 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
Spoon contents of can of dulce de leche into center of cooled crust; gently spread to edge. Thinly slice bananas; arrange over dulce de leche.
In medium bowl, beat whipping cream and powdered sugar with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Spread over bananas.
In small resealable freezer plastic bag, place chocolate chips and oil; seal bag. Microwave on High 30 seconds; knead bag to mix melted chips and unmelted chips. Microwave 15 to 30 seconds longer or until all chips are melted and smooth. Snip off tiny corner of bag. Pipe melted chocolate mixture over whipped cream. Store pie in refrigerator.
Expert Tips
Dulce de leche is a traditional Spanish confection made from milk. It's a popular culinary reference to rich caramel flavors. Look for canned dulce de leche in the Hispanic section of the supermarket.
GINGERBREAD WHOOPIE PIES WITH TAHINI CREAM FILLING
This is from Anita Schecter in The Spruce Eats. She wrote, " Whoopie pies might be the state treat of Maine, but that doesn't mean they can't be enjoyed everywhere. Typically made with two soft, round mini chocolate cakes with a marshmallow cream center, the dessert lends itself to a whole host of delicious variations.
"It's common to find a pumpkin version in autumn, and a gingerbread one during the winter holidays. In addition, although less traditional, the marshmallow cream filling is sometimes substituted with a cream cheese frosting.
"Adding tahini to the cream is definitely not traditional, but it is greats an amazing taste that you should treat yourself to. The buttery marshmallow filling can be overly sweet due to the amount of powdered sugar needed to thicken it. The sesame paste tones down the sweetness a bit and brings in a wonderful nutty, sesame flavor. It's a great match to the gingerbread flavor and it's so good you may find yourself slathering it on everything."
Prep Time: 25 minutes; Cook Time: 12 minutes; Total Time: 37 minutes; Makes 10 servings
To view this online, go to https://www.thespruceeats.com/gingerbread-whoopie-pies-4154741.
Ingredients
For the Gingerbread Whoopie Pies:
1 egg
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter (melted and slightly cooled)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon salt
For the Tahini Cream Filling:
4 ounce marshmallow fluff (homemade or store bought)
1 cup powdered confectioner's sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter (melted and cooled)
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon sesame paste (tahini)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pinch of sea salt
Directions
Gather the ingredients.
To make the gingerbread whoopie pies, pre-heat the oven to 350 F.
Add the egg and light brown sugar to a large bowl. Using a stand or hand mixer, beat until smooth and slightly lightened in color. Beat in the molasses, melted butter and vanilla extract.
In a separate bowl, sift together the all purpose flour, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground nutmeg and salt.
Stir the dry ingredients into the wet batter.
Using a 1 ounce cookie scoop, scoop the batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a baking mat, and keep the scoops at least 2" apart because they will spread in the oven. You can use a couple of baking sheets or just work in batches, but you should end up with about 20 scoops.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Allow to cool thoroughly before handling.
To make the tahini cream filling, whisk together the marshmallow fluff, powdered sugar, melted butter, milk, sesame paste, vanilla and sea salt until smooth. Let sit for a few minutes while the whoopie pies cool to let the filling set and thicken a bit. This will help the filling stay put when you spread it between the two pies.
To assemble the whoopie pies, place about a tablespoon of tahini cream in between the bottoms of two of the cookies (use more if you want them thicker) and gently sandwich together.
Enjoy!
CRANBERRY PIE
My dad loved to cook, and usually came up with decent recipes. He sent this one in a letter dated “18 No 79”. He wrote, “Here is a recipe for a pie. 1st the way it was in the paper and the way I made it.” (It can be found in my e-cookbook Off the Wall Cooking.)
Note: While Dad's recipe called for only the bottom crust, this pie can be made with either one or two crusts. If making with one crust, make a collar of foil for the edge of the crust that peeks out from the filling, keeping it on for the first 10-15 minutes. If using two crusts, cover with foil (again, for the first 10 minutes or so), then remove for the remainder of the baking.
Ingredients
2 T cornstarch
1 C sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1-1/4 C hot water
1 C raisins
1 T butter
2 C cranberries
Pie crust
Directions
Blend 1st four ingredients & cook in double boiler until thick. Add next 3 ingredients & cook 10 minutes. Put in pie shell & bake at 450 degrees for 20-30 minutes, covering pie with foil for the first 10-15 minutes. (Crust can be any kind you want, whether double crust or simply a bottom crust.)
VARIATION
Ingredients
2 Tbls cornstarch
3/4 C honey + 1/4 C molasses
1/4 tsp. salt
1-1/4 C hot water
1 C raisins
1 T margarine
1-1/2 C cranberries + 1 C canned cranberries (kind with berries in sauce)
Pie crust
Directions
Make as above.
CHAI-SPICED PEAR PIE
This is from Audra, otherwise known as The Baker Chick. If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you might remember me posting quite a few recipes from Audra (although it’s been a while). Her blog rocks! If you haven’t checked it out, you really should. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
This recipe begins, “I can’t possibly let you enter Thanksgiving week without another pie recipe. As the person in charge of desserts in my family, I’m always looking to make something classic with a twist and this gorgeous pie is just that apples get all the attention in the fall, but baking with firm, sweet pears is in my opinion just as good but way more unique and impressive.
“This pear pie is tossed with warm chai spices like cardamon, cinnamon, ginger and even a crack of black pepper. The result is just a bit more kick than what you’re probably used to with apple pie, but that same warm, melt-in-your-mouth goodness just waiting for a scoop of vanilla.”
Yield: 1 9-inch pie
To view this online on Audra’s blog, click here.
Ingredients
2-3 single layers of Pie Crust (see note)
10 cups of peeled, thinly sliced pears (from about 8-10 pears depending on size, use something firm like bosc)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3-4 twists of freshly ground black pepper (1/8 teaspoon, optional)
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons butter
Instructions
Keep crust chilling in the fridge while you prep the pears.
In a large pot or dutch oven, toss together the pears, brown sugar, flour, and spices. Stir in water and dot with the butter.
Cook on medium heat, stirring frequently, tossing everything around to par-cook the pears a bit. Keep checking to see when a pear slice is "bendy" and slightly tender, but for me I cooked them for 10-15 minutes.
Allow pears to cool while you prep your dough. If you are doing a lattice or braided crust, roll some of the dough out now, form the braids, and freeze them until pie is ready to be assembled. If you are just doing a double crust- wait until the pears are mostly cool.
Roll out one layer of crust and drape over the bottom of a 9- inch pie pan leaving a bit of overhang. Pour the cooled pears into the crust and top with another sheet of pie crust, a lattice top, or the braids.
Trim and crimp edge of crust and pop the whole thing in the freezer for 10-30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 425.F. Place pie onto a cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes, then reducing the heat to 350F and baking for another 45-50 minutes.. If the crust seems to be getting too dark you can drape some foil on top for the remainder of the baking.
Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
Notes
*If you want a little extra pie dough to work with for a decorative crust, I like to have a bit extra and usually make 3 batches of crust. If you are just doing a classic top, two single layers is fine!
APPLE PIE
I got the original recipe for this from an old Betty Crocker Cookbook, years ago. I've tweaked the recipe quite a bit; the original called for butter, which mine doesn't, while I add apple cider or apple juice, which isn't in the original. I also added several other changes to this, changing it to the way my family loves it. Here's the tweaked version of apple pie.
Ingredients
Crust for a 9-inch two-crust pie
3/4 + 1 tablespoon cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour (do not use self-rising flour, but if you must use it, omit salt)
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
dash salt
6 to 7 cups apples (6 to 8 apples), peeled and thinly sliced
1/4 cup apple cider or apple juice
Directions
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare crust and line pie pan with bottom crust.
Placed cut up apples in large bowl. Add sugar, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and (lastly) apple cider or juice. Mix apples and additions with hands, then pour apples and additions into crust-lined pie pan.
Cover with top crust, cut slits into top crust, then seal edges of crusts. (Note: You can replace top crust with a lattice crust.) Cover top of pie with aluminum foil to prevent excess browning; remove foil last 15 minutes of baking.
Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust.
DELAWARE CREAM CHEESE-PINEAPPLE PIE
This is from the infamous long-since-forgotten emailing list.
Ingredients
1/3 C Sugar
1 tbs Cornstarch
8 oz Crushed pineapple w juice
8 oz Cream cheese; softened
1/2 C Sugar
1 tsp Salt
2 Eggs
1/2 C Milk
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1 9" unbaked pie shell
1/4 C Pecans; chopped
Directions
Combine sugar, cornstarch and pineapple plus juice in a small saucepan. Cook over med. heat, stirring constantly until mixture is thin and clear. Cool; set aside.
Blend cream cheese, sugar and salt in a mixer bowl. Add 2 eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Blend in milk and vanilla. (If mixture looks slightly curdled, don't worry--it bakes out.)
Spread cooled pineapple layer over bottom of pie shell. Pour cream cheese mixture over pineapple; sprinkle with pecans.
Bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes. Cool.
DULCE DE LECHE BANANA PIE
This yummy recipe, from Old El Paso, begins, “A flaky homemade pie crust complements a caramel and banana cream filling.”
Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes; Prep Time: 20 minutes; 8 Servings; 10 Ingredients
To view this yumminess, go to https://www.oldelpaso.com/recipes/dulce-de-leche-banana-pie.
Ingredients
Crust
1 cup Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon shortening
2 to 3 tablespoons cold water
Filling
1 can (13.4 oz) dulce de leche
3 ripe medium bananas
1 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
Instructions
Heat oven to 450°F. In medium bowl, mix flour and salt. Cut in shortening, using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through ingredients in opposite directions), until particles are size of small peas. Sprinkle with water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and dough almost leaves side of bowl (1 to 2 teaspoons more water can be added if necessary).
On lightly floured surface, shape dough into a ball. Flatten ball to 1/2-inch thickness, rounding and smoothing edges. With floured rolling pin, roll dough into 11-inch round, rolling from center to edge. Fold dough in half; place in 9-inch glass pie plate. Unfold; gently press in bottom and up side of plate, being careful not to stretch dough.
Fold and roll edge of dough under, even with plate; flute edge. Prick bottom and side of dough generously with fork. Bake 9 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
Spoon contents of can of dulce de leche into center of cooled crust; gently spread to edge. Thinly slice bananas; arrange over dulce de leche.
In medium bowl, beat whipping cream and powdered sugar with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Spread over bananas.
In small resealable freezer plastic bag, place chocolate chips and oil; seal bag. Microwave on High 30 seconds; knead bag to mix melted chips and unmelted chips. Microwave 15 to 30 seconds longer or until all chips are melted and smooth. Snip off tiny corner of bag. Pipe melted chocolate mixture over whipped cream. Store pie in refrigerator.
Expert Tips
Dulce de leche is a traditional Spanish confection made from milk. It's a popular culinary reference to rich caramel flavors. Look for canned dulce de leche in the Hispanic section of the supermarket.
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