Blue Hawaii Pie

I have wanted to make a pie like this since I saw A Few Good Pie Places last summer on PBS.  À la Mode Pies in Seattle makes a pie like this, but I needed to figure out how to make it my own.  The answer came when I bought Maury Rubin's Book of Tarts.  Here was the result, after many not-quite-right attempts.

Ingredients: 

1 cup of heavy cream

3/4 cup of sugar

2 pints of blueberries

4 oz. can of crushed pineapple

1 1/4 cup of shredded coconut

2 tablespoons of King Arthur Flour's Pie Filling Enhancer

Directions:

Combine the cream and sugar is a small sauce pan.  Cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves.  Let the mixture cool a bit while you prepare the rest.  Combine the blueberries, crushed pineapple, and 1 cup of shredded coconut.  Stir in the Pie Filling Enhancer.  Pour in the cream mixture and stir.  Pour into a partially blind-baked pie crust and bake for 35 minutes at 375oF.  Allow to cool completely.  Because it has dairy, I also refrigerate it.

I really like this pie.  My mom really likes this pie.  People at my husband's work really like this pie.  And the judges at the Lake County Fair really like this pie: it was Grand Champion for pies this year.

Piece out!

Justin

Pi Day 2016

Happy Pi Day!

This year for my pi pies, I made the Jammie Dodger Pie with a pi crust (though it is hard to read, the numbers around the edge are 3.141592653589) and the Chocolate Truffle Tart with the chocolate wafer crust and used my new pi cutter to dust the symbol onto the top.

I also ran the Illinois Science Council's Pi Day Pi K Fun Run while wearing my Pi Day shirt from last year and a hat shaped like a slice of pumpkin pie.  I ran it 34 minutes and 36 seconds.  I also submitted this time for the Pi Day 5K Virtual Run, for which I should receive my swag in a couple weeks.

Since the start of this blog, one year ago today, it has been a big year for me and pie.  I won four ribbons at county and state fairs.  I won an apron in a pie contest at school.  I baked pies for local police officers for National Pie Day.  And as the whipped cream on top of it all, I ran a personal best for the Pi K.  I'm looking forward to what the coming year will bring!

Piece out!

Justin

Romeo and Juliet Pie

Today I created a pie based on the Brazilian dessert Romeu e Julieta.  That dessert is slices of guava pasta with a white cheese.  Portuguese settlers did not have quinces to make quince paste and substituted guava instead.  Quince paste was still used in other Latin American countries like Argentina, where it is used to make a pie called pastafrola.  In Italian, pastafrolla is a shortbread crust.  Instead of making a shortbread crust, I used a Tortafrolla di Verona, a giant shortbread cookie from Verona.  "The story has it that Tortafrolla was first made in Juliet's house and became a specialty from Verona, a city much loved by Shakespeare."  I also decided to use quince paste, instead of guava paste, since in Act IV, Scene 4 the Nurse says "They call for dates and quinces in the pastry."

Crust:
1 Tortafrolla di Verona
1 stick of melted butter

Cheese filling:
12 oz of Ricotta cheese
2 tablespoons of heavy cream
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons of sugar
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
3 tablespoons of brandy
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/4 teaspoon of salt

Quince topping:
15 oz of dulce de membrillo (quince paste)
1/4 cup of water

Directions:
Pulse the Tortafrolla in a food processor, like you would with graham crackers.  Add the melted butter.  Press into a tart pan, and place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Blend the ricotta, heavy cream, and sugar.  Add the eggs and yolks one at a time.  Add the brandy, vanilla, and salt.  Pour into the crust.  Bake for 35-40 minutes at 300oF.  Allow to cool.

Break up the dulce de membrillo into a medium sauce pan.  Add the water.  Cook over medium high heat until the dulce de membrillo has completely broken down and the mixture has the consistency of a thick syrup.  Immediately pour over filling and smooth it out with an offset spatula.  Allow to cool, then refrigerate for at least two hours.

The flavors that I wanted were all there, but the textures were all wrong.  The next time, I would do a shortbread crust instead of a cookie crust.  The cheese filling was also a little grainy.  It was not smooth like a ricotta cheesecake.  I think it would work better with marscapone cheese or cream cheese in the filling instead of ricotta.  Also, the dulce de membrillo really toughened up, it could be diluted with another 1/4 cup of water to make it more like a thin gel instead of a thick layer of fruit roll-up.  The recipe needs to be reworked, but the idea is definitely a winner.

Piece out!
Justin

Cranberry Ginger Pear Apple Pie

I made my first pie five years ago today.  I had been watching Pushing Daisies and was hungry for pie.  We had received a fruit basket from my in-laws for Christmas and some of the pears were about to go bad, so I decided to make a pie.  I had no idea what I was doing.  I mixed some flour, butter, sugar, and maybe an egg together and made something of a crust-like consistency that I then pressed into an eight inch cake pan.  The filling was pears, apples, dried cranberries, brown sugar, and ginger ale.

Today, I used actual pie making techniques and revisited the ingredients of the original pie.

Ingredients:

3 Granny Smith apples

3 red pears

8 oz of fresh cranberries

5 tablespoons of Pie Filling Enhancer

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons of sugar

1 teaspoon of fresh grated ginger

Directions:
Peel and slice the apples and pears.
Toss them in the two tablespoons of sugar.
Pulse the cranberries, 1/4 cup of sugar, and ginger in a food processor five times.
Combine the cranberry mixture, the apple-pear mixture and the Pie Filling Enhancer.
Pour into a crust.
Place a lattice crust on top.
Brush with milk and sprinkle with sugar.
Bake for 20 minutes at 425oF, rotate, reduce the temperature to 375oF and bake for another 30 minutes.
Allow to cool.

The original pie was more like fruit soup in a bread bowl as opposed to a pie.  My equipment has also improved.  I how have a Fruit & Vegetable Peeler, Corer & Slicer.  Instead of a cake pan that came in a bakeware set from Walmart, I have a handcrafted French pie dish from Emile Henry.  And I actually own trivets, instead of setting the pie on a pot holder to cool.

The new pie is really good.  The cranberries and ginger add a little bit of punch to flavor.  There is a bit of a crispness left to the apples and pears that add a variety to the texture.  There is nothing wrong with this pie.  I will probably make it again next year to celebrate the anniversary, but there is nothing outstanding about this pie that would make me want to make it all year round.

Piece out!

Justin

Mini Cranberry Eggnog Tarts

My husband had a potluck at work.  Since I often send him with slices of pie for his co-workers, I figured they would be expecting him to bring pie.  Also, our other go-to potluck dish, Buffalo Chicken Dip, was already taken.  So instead of making two pies, I made a dozen mini tarts using 4 inch tart pans.  Since the platter could only hold eight, I got to eat the other four myself.

In order to have enough dough for twelve crusts, I doubled the recipe, so here is the recipe I used.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups of flour
1/2 cup of sugar
1 tsp of salt
14 tbsp of softened butter
2 large eggs

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a food processor.  Separate into 12 small balls.  Roll out the balls and press into tart pans.  Prick and blind bake using pie weights at 350oF for 15 minutes, then remove the pie weights and continue to blind bake for another 15 minutes.

Then, instead of making my own cranberry jam, I heated a can of jellied cranberries with a 1/4 cup of orange juice.  Once the jellied cranberry chunks dissolved and started to thicken again, I added a few drops of red food coloring to fix the color.  I then spooned two tablespoons of the cranberry filling into each tart shell.

On top of that I poured a serving spoon of the eggnog filling over the cranberry filling that had cooled for 5 minutes.  Then I baked them at 300oF for 20-25 minutes.

The mini tarts are just as delightful as the full sized one.  They are not heavy or overly rich, they are the perfect combination of delicate flavor and wonderful textures.  I would definitely make these again.

Piece out!
Justin

Chocolate Truffle Tart

This is another recipe from Gourmet Holiday Baking magazine.  I really wanted to make this pie, but I knew that there was no way that I would be able to eat the whole thing in a timely fashion.  So, I made it for my neighbor.

Instead of a spring form pan, I used a free-bottom tart pan.  And instead of a crust made of chocolate wafer cookies, I made it with speculoos. 

Speculoos Crust:

7 oz of speculoos (This is one box from Trader Joe's.)

8 tablespoons of melted butter.

In a food processor, grind the cookies down to dust, then drizzle in the melted butter.  

Press with hands into the tart pan.  

Refrigerate for 30 minutes before filling.

The filling is made by melting 1/2 pound of 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate with 6 tablespoons of butter.  Whisk 2 eggs, 1/3 cup of heavy cream, 1/4 cup of sugar, 1/4 tsp of salt, and a teaspoon of vanilla.  Then whisk the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture until well combined.

Then bake the tart at 350oF for 20-25 minutes.  Then let it cool and sprinkle with unsweetened cocoa powder.

Since I gave this pie as a gift, I have no idea how it tastes.  However, the text I received from my neighbor said "the pie is Michelin 3 stars worthy!  Perfect!  Don't change a thing! Thank you!" followed by three tongue-hanging-out emojis.

Piece out!

Justin

Cranberry Eggnog Tart

I had a few people over from work last week and decided to make a Cranberry Egg Tart.  Luckily, this pie can be made over a few days; otherwise, I would not have had the time to make it on a weeknight.

As I made no changes to the recipe, I do not feel comfortable copying it here.  I would suggest that you go buy the Gourmet Holiday Baking magazine here, it is well worth the price.  It has other great recipes that I intend to try like the Crème Brûlée Tart and several non-pie recipes.  It will be available in stores until mid-January 2016 and it looks like this:

So, other than taking three days to make, this pie is fairly easy to make and, as a bonus, it looks really cool.  Making the cranberry jam seemed like a superfluous step, you could easily use canned jellied cranberries and then follow the recipe instead of making it yourself.  This would save you a lot of time if you are making it in a hurry.  Making the cranberry jam is not hard, but it is an extra step and then you have to wait for it to cool.  So, I leave that up to you.  The rest of it is a piece of cake, literally, it is basically cheesecake... with bourbon and nutmeg.

The result is amazing.  It is creamy, and sweet, and tart, and everything that you want.  The eggnog cheesecake filling is not heavy and adds a fluffy quality to the pie.  For something that I anticipated being super-rich, it was actually quite delicate.  I would gladly make this pie again, I would just cheat on the cranberry to save myself some time.

Piece out!

Justin