Cheesecake Crumble Pie

I have been highly absent from Daring Baker challenges due to work, baby, and difficulty converting to gluten free.  However, this month I thought looked like fun and would be a good conversion.  For the month of November Krista & Nicole of “Two Cups of Sugar.” challenged us to make our own version of cheesecake crumble pie.  Too late in the month, I realized that there was a savory option, which I think my family would REALLY enjoy.  But, I decided to make this for my contribution for THanksgiving dessert.  David wanted strawberry version.  I used a gluten free pie crust mix that I had purchased on clearance.  Then to convert the crumble, I just used gluten free flour instead of regular flour.  It turned out really good.  The biggest issue I had was that by the time the first 15 minutes were gone, the top had crusted over and there wasn't anywhere for the crumble to stick; so, I had to break the top of the cheesecake.  The flavor was great and David really liked it.  My favorite part was the crumble.  Of course, I've always had a weakness for crumble! :-)

Cheesecake Crumble Pie
Pie crust:
Preheat oven to 425°F.  Prepare desired pie crust recipe.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes.  Lightly flour working area and roll out dough to fit 1 - 2” / 2.5 - 5cm larger than the pie pan. Gently place in pie pan and fold under excess dough. Prick the dough several times with a small knife or fork and fill with beans, baking weights or an 8” / 20cm cake pan to help keep shape during baking. Bake for 9 minutes.

CheeseCake:
Ingredients
16 oz / 450g cream cheese
¾ cup / 150g white sugar
½ tsp grated lemon zest
¼ tsp vanilla
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
¼ cup / 60ml heavy cream
Directions:
Have all the ingredients at room temperature. Preheat oven to 500°F / 260°C / Gas Mark 10.
Beat cream cheese in a large bowl until smooth and creamy. Scrape down the sides and add sugar gradually while beating until smooth (about 1 - 2 minutes).  Beat in vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.  Beat in eggs on at a time until incorporated.  On low speed, beat in heavy cream. Pour half of the filling into prepared crust then top with desired fruit, chocolate, etc.

Put the remaining cheesecake batter on top, then place into oven.  Bake for 15 minutes at 500°F.  Meanwhile, make crumble.

Ingredients
1 cup scooped and levelled / 140g all-purpose (plain) flour
½ cup / 75g rolled oats
1 cup / 200g white sugar (if you don’t want this to be overly sweet you can cut the white sugar in half)
⅔ cup / 135g brown sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
½ cup / 1 stick / 113g cold unsalted butter
Directions:
Mix all dry ingredients together in small mixing bowl. Add butter and crumble together until it resembles a coarse meal (pea-sized).

Top cheesecake with crumble after the initial 15 minutes and return to oven at reduced temperature of 200°F / 95°C / Gas Mark lower than 1/2 and bake for 1 hour more. Turn the oven off, prop the door ajar with the handle of a wooden spoon, and let the cake cool in the oven for 30 minutes.  Then cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours before serving. Enjoy!

Tart Tatin

It has been really hard to do Daring Baker Challenges since Caleb was born.  But this month, I had the perfect opportunity.  We had a dinner party and I wanted to offer a couple of desserts.  I made strawberry pie because we had someone over who is allergic to peanuts, milk, and eggs - my strawberry pie is free of all that!  Then, I decided to make this month's challenge in a gluten free style. 

For the March Daring bakers’ challenge, Korena from Korena in the Kitchen taught us that some treats are best enjoyed upside down. She  challenged us to make a tarte tatin from scratch.  I went with the apple version because David really likes apple pie.  He said he like it but we both though that the apples were too mushy.  I cooked them in the pan until they started to get soft and, I think, I should have probably cooked them about five minutes less.  Also, my apples were really large, so I had some difficulty in using quarters as the recipe instructs, but I made it work.

The dough was actually really fun to work with.  Gluten free doughs are often crumbly and just don't do well.  However, this one actually did improve in "feel" with each turn of the dough. 

I felt that the caramel ended up tasting burned but I had to keep cooking it as it was separated for a while.  Another mishap - I burned my finger.  Smart one here decided to taste the caramel...directly off the whisk.  I allowed it to drip on my finger so I could taste and...hsssss...finger was burnt!  It hurt and STILL has bumps from it.  All in all, it was a fun challenge.  I think David probably prefers my regular apple pie but it was fun to try something different.

Recipe 1: Rough Puff Pastry

Servings: one single pastry crust

Ingredients
1 cup (250 ml) (4½ oz) (125 gm) all-purpose (plain) flour (or gluten free AP flour mix)
2/3 cup (160 ml) (5 oz) (140 gm) unsalted butter, cold
¼ tsp fine salt
¼ cup (60 ml) ice cold water

In a medium bowl, combine the flour and salt. Cut the butter into small cubes and add it to the flour. With a pastry blender (or two table knives) cut in the butter until the mixture in crumbly but even, with pea-sized pieces of butter. Make a well in the middle and pour in the ice cold water. Toss the flour/butter and water together with a fork until the dough starts to clump together.

Turn the dough out onto your work surface – don’t worry if there are still pockets of dry flour. Gently knead and squeeze the mixture a few times just enough to bring it together into a square (a bench scraper is helpful for this). Be careful not to overwork the dough: there should be visible bits of butter and it should still look very rough.

Lightly flour your work surface and rolling pin, and roll the dough out into a rectangle about 10” (25 cm) long. Fold the bottom third of the dough up into the middle, and fold the top third down, like you are folding a letter. This is one fold. Turn the dough a one quarter turn so that one of the open edges is facing you, and roll out again into a 10” (25 cm) rectangle. Fold again - this is the second fold. Repeat the rolling and folding 3 more times, for 5 folds total. Your dough will get smoother and neater looking with each fold (the pictures show the first and fifth folds).

If your kitchen is very warm and the dough gets too soft/sticky to do all the folds at once, chill it in the fridge for 20-30 minutes between folds. After the fifth fold, use your rolling pin to tap the dough into a neat square. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill for a least 1 hour, or overnight.

Recipe 2: Tarte Tatin

Servings: 8-10

Ingredients
6 large or 7-8 medium-sized apples (see “Notes” above for the best type of apple for this dish)
Juice of half a lemon
6 tablespoons (90 ml) (3 oz) (85 gm) unsalted butter (or use salted and skip the salt)
1-1/3 cups (320 ml) (9½ oz) (265 gm) granulated sugar, divided
pinch salt
Rough Puff Pastry, above

Peel the apples and cut them into quarters. Remove the cores in such a way that each apple quarter has a flat inner side: when placed rounded-side-up, it should sit on a flat base. Place the apples in a large bowl and toss with the lemon juice and 1/3 cup (80 ml) (2-1/2 oz) (65 gm) sugar. This will help draw out some of the moisture from the apples and prevent an overly runny caramel. Set aside for 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to moderately hot 375˚F/190°C/gas mark 5. Melt the butter in a very heavy, 9” or 10” (23 cm or 24 cm) oven-proof saucepan over medium heat, then sprinkle with the remaining 1 cup (240 ml) (7 oz) (200 gm) sugar. Stir with a whisk until the sugar melts and becomes a pale, smooth caramel. The sugar will seem dry and chunky at first, then will start to melt and smooth out. If the butter appears to separate out from the caramel, just keep whisking until it is a cohesive sauce. Remove from the heat.

Discard the liquid that has come out of the apples, then add the apple quarters to the caramel, round side down. They won’t all fit in a single layer at first, but as they cook they will shrink a bit. Cook over medium heat for 15-20 minutes, pressing down gently on the apples with a spoon to cover them in the caramel liquid. Move the apples around the pan gently so that they all cook evenly, trying to keep them round side down. When the apples have shrunk enough to mostly fit in a single layer and are starting to soften but still keep their shape, remove the pan from the heat.


With a wooden spoon, arrange the apples, round side down, in a single layer of concentric circles covering the bottom of the pan. Set aside until the filling stops steaming before covering with pastry.

Remove the pastry from the fridge, roll it out on a lightly floured surface, and trim it into a circle about 1” (25 mm) in diameter larger than your saucepan. Lay it over the filling, tucking in the edges between the apples and the sides of the pan, and cut a few steam vents in the pastry. Place the saucepan on a rimmed baking sheet (just in case the filling decides to bubble over the sides) and place in the preheated moderately hot 375˚F/190°C/gas mark 5 oven. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the pastry is puffed and golden brown, increasing the oven temperature to moderately hot 400˚F/200°C/gas mark 6 during the last 5 – 10 minutes of baking if the pastry isn’t browning properly.

Remove from the oven and let sit just until the caramel stops bubbling. Immediately place a serving platter (slightly larger in diameter than the saucepan) over the pastry. Wearing oven mitts, grab hold of the saucepan and platter and quickly invert everything to unmold the Tatin onto the platter. If any of the apples stick to the pan or come out of place, rearrange them with a spatula. The tarte Tatin can be served warm from the oven or at room temperature. Suggested accompaniments include vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, or crème fraîche.  Enjoy!

Pie in the Sky

Rachael from pizzarossa was our lovely June 2013 Daring Bakers’ host and she had us whipping up delicious pies in our kitchens! Cream pies, fruit pies, chocolate pies, even crack pies! There’s nothing like pie!   Now, I knew that David would LOVE the apple pie...but I wanted to make the crack pie!  Attempt #1...oops, gotta cool for an hour.  Not enough time, made cookies.  Attempt #2...must cool overnight and I have no cream.  Made the apple pie!  It was really good.  My mom helped cut the apples using our apple-peeler-corer-slicer.  It was great!  Unfortunately, my dad has the pictures and hasn't sent them to me yet!  Maybe I'll update with them later.  As for the crack pie...attempt #3 was a success.

 I ended up cutting them into little bars and took them to the ER with me.  OH SO GOOD!  They were gone very quickly.  They were definitely ooey gooey.  I preferred them straight out of the fridge but still good room temp.  I will say that I had a hard time cutting these even in bars...so, I'm not sure how it would have been trying to cut into pie slices.  Either way...make the crack pie.  That's an order!

Crack Pie
Crust
9 tablespoons (1 stick + 1 tbsp) (135 ml) (4½ oz) (125g) unsalted butter, room temperature, divided (6 & 3 tbsp; 85gm & 40gm)
5 1/2 tablespoons (85 ml)(2½ oz) (70 gm) (packed) light brown sugar, divided (4 & 1½ tbsp; 50 gm & 20 gm)
2 tablespoons (30 ml) (30 gm) (1 oz) white sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (210 ml) (80 gm) (2¾ oz) old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup (120 ml) (2½ oz) (70 gm) all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon (2/3 gm) baking powder
1/8 teaspoon (2/3 gm) baking soda
1/4 teaspoon (1½ gm) salt

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4. Line a 13x9x2 inch/33x22x5cm metal baking pan with parchment (baking) paper. Lightly spray or butter a 9 inch/22cm diameter glass or ceramic pie dish. Combine 6 tablespoons (85 gm) of the softened butter, 4 tablespoons (50 gm) of the brown sugar and the white sugar in medium bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Add egg and beat until pale and fluffy, about 1 minute.  Add oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and beat until well blended, about 1 minute.  Dump oat mixture into prepared baking pan and press out evenly to edges of pan.  Bake until light golden, 18 minutes. Transfer baking pan to wire rack and cool cookie completely, about an hour.

Using your fingertips, crumble the cookie a into large bowl - there should be no identifiable pieces of cookie remaining. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons (45 gm) butter and 1-1/2 tablespoons (20 gm) brown sugar. Rub in with your fingertips until the mixture is moist and sticks together when pressed between your fingers.
Transfer cookie crust mixture to pie dish. Using your fingers, press mixture evenly onto bottom and up sides of pie dish (about 1 inch/2.5cm up the sides if your pie dish is deep). If your pie dish is shallow, place it on a baking sheet in case of overflow.

Filling:
3/4 cup (160 ml) (170 gm) (6 oz) white sugar
1/2 cup (packed) (120 ml) (100 gm) (3½ oz) light brown sugar
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (8 gm) (¼ oz) dry milk powder
1/4 teaspoon (1½ gm) salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) (120mlk) (4 oz) (115gm) unsalted butter, melted, cooled slightly
6 1/2 tablespoons (100ml) heavy whipping cream
4 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Powdered sugar for dusting 

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4. If possible, use bottom-only heat, or the filling may brown too quickly.  Whisk both sugars, milk powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Add melted butter and whisk until blended. Add cream, then egg yolks and vanilla and whisk until well blended. Pour filling into crust.

Bake 30 minutes (filling may begin to bubble up). Reduce oven temperature to 325°F/160°C/gas mark 3. Continue to bake until filling is brown on top and set around edges but center still jiggles slightly, about 20 minutes longer. Cool pie completely in pie dish on wire rack. Chill uncovered overnight. Sift powdered sugar lightly over top of pie. Cut pie into thin wedges and serve cold.

Apple Pie
Crust
2/3 cup (160 ml) (150 gm) (5-1/3 oz) unsalted butter
1¾ cups (420 ml) (250 gm) (8-2/3 oz) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon (10 ml) (10 gm) (1/3 oz) sugar
1/4 teaspoon (1½ gm) salt
3-8 tablespoons (45-120 ml) cold water

 Weigh/measure out the correct amount of butter, wrap it in foil and freeze it for at least 30 minutes. Sift the flour, sugar and salt into a large bowl. Using the large holes on a box grater, grate the frozen butter directly over the flour in the bowl. Hold the butter by the foil to avoid warming it up too much and work as quickly as possible. Using a table fork, toss the grated butter in the flour until it's all coated. Alternatively, finely chop the butter and rub in with your fingertips, working quickly to avoid warming it. This is best left to those lucky folk with cool hands!

Sprinkle 3 tablespoons (45 ml) of cold water over the mixture and mix together with the fork. Add more water, spoon by spoon, as needed - it will depend on temperature, humidity and a million other factors, but the finished dough should be moist and starting to come together, but not wet. I used 7 tablespoons (315 ml). Use your fingertips to test if it's sticking together. Finish by using your hands to quickly bring the dough together into a ball. Just press, don't knead.  Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Filling:
1 – 1½ kg (2¼ to 3-1/3 pounds) apples (depending on the depth of your pie dish)
1 cup (240 ml) (200 gm) (7 oz) light brown sugar, lightly packed (more or less to taste)
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to hot 220°C/425°F/gas mark 7 . Lightly grease a deep 9"/24cm ceramic or metal pie dish. Take 2/3 of the pastry dough and roll out to fit pie dish, right up to the rim. Line the pie dish with it, prick all over the bottom with a fork and set aside.  Peel, quarter, core and slice the apples (or use apple-peeler-corer-slicer) and place in a bowl. How tightly you can pack them into the pie depends on how thinly they are sliced.  Sprinkle the brown sugar and spice(s) over the apples and toss well to coat.  Pack the apples tightly into the lined pie dish. The filling can come up above the rim of the dish in a mound. Roll out the remaining pastry dough to fit over the apples.  Place the dough lid on the pie and press the edges together. Trim the edges as necessary and crimp the seam closed with your fingers or the back of a fork.

Place pie dish on a baking sheet and put it into the center of the oven. Bake for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to moderate 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 and bake for a further 30 minutes. The top should be light golden brown.  Serve hot, warm or cold.

Sweet from My Sweet

Mid-September, I went to Ann Arbor for pediatric board review.  It started at 8am on Sunday and finished at 2pm o!n Friday with days ranging from 8-10 hours of lecture.  Sigh...but it was good.  Before I got back, D told me that he was working on a surprise for me.  I love surprises!  Well, after I got settled, he came over to my apartment with some groceries he had picked up for me and my surprise...a caramel pie that he made! 

He's so sweet!  He is definitely a chocolate kind of guy...and I am definitely NOT a chocolate kind of girl.  He made it just because he knows I like caramel.  It was REALLY good!  So rich and good...one of those desserts that you WANT to eat and eat and eat but just can't because it's so rich.  YUM!  And I must say, it makes me feel really special when he make something because he thinks I'd like it.  He's a keeper!  :-)

 

Graham Cracker Crust from Allrecipes
1 1/2 cups cinnamon graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup melted butter
3 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 350.  In a medium bowl, mix together crumbs, butter, and sugar.  Press into a 9-inch pie pan.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Remove to cool.

Caramel Pie
9-inch pie crust
2 14-oz cans sweetened condensed milk (no WONDER this was so rich!)
1 tub cool whip

Pour the milk into a heat proof bowl that will fit over your boiling pan.  Set over a pan of simmering water.  Cook, stirring occasionally...for about 2 hours, replace water as needed.  Don't run out of water!  When ready, the milk will be golden brown and thick.  Pour caramelized milk into crust and allow to cool.  Top with cool whip...and chocolate chips if desired. 

Enjoy!

Cast Iron Chocolate Chip Cookie

Ever wonder what you could do with your cast iron skillet?  There is the traditional use for cornbread.  Or you could go all Tangled and use it as a weapon.  OR you could make this recipe. 

It would be something you could make on the trail should you ever move cross country in a covered wagon, go camping, or just want to try a fun new recipe!  D loves chocolate and I figured this would be a hit.  Saw the recipe on Jenna's site.  The only thing I didn't do was add the salt, though I know it would be a great addition!  My cast iron pan was smaller than the one called for in the recipe, so I made some mini muffin cookies as well...some of the tops came off and looked like regular cookies.

  One of the interns on D's team had a birthday on one of their weekend calls, so I made this for his birthday and took it up there with dinner...though I must admit that seeing D was another reason I may have gone.  :-)

 Robert enjoyed the cookie.  D's response...."Mmmm, this is GOOD!"  I think I may have to make this one again!

Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie from Jenna at Eat, Live, Run

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt (plus more for sprinkling)
2 1/2 cups flour
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 325 and grease a ten inch cast iron skillet (I think mine is 8-inch) with cooking spray.  Cream together the butter and the sugar until fluffy, then add the eggs one by one—beating after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix until incorporated.  Add dry ingredients (I'm a bad baker and rarely whisk them together in a separate bowl...less dirty dishes the better!) and blend lightly. Add the chocolate chips and stir into dough. 
Press the cookie dough down into your greased skillet evenly and smooth the top with your hand.  If you have a smaller skillet, use the leftover dough to make mini cookies. Bake for 45 minutes until very puffy and golden. Enjoy!

Deep Dish Apple Pie

Happy Thanksgiving...a little late!  I hope you all had a wonderful time with those you love.  We had about 20 people at my parents' house.  It was smaller than usual but still very enjoyable.  At the end of the 3 days, we had so much food left over...now we know who REALLY eats the food...all the people who weren't here this year.  ;-) We always have tacos on Wednesday night and then a conglomeration of desserts.

  However, my aunt Jo Ellen decided to make a deep dish apple pie.  Let me tell you, it was beautiful and delicious.  She got the recipe out of a Southern Living magazine.  I would highly recommend it!  She used premade pie crusts, but you could make your own crust if you REALLY wanted to be hard core about it.

Easy Skillet Apple Pie from Southern Living Sept 2011
4 pounds of apples (the recipe suggests 2 eat of granny smith and  braeburn.)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 up butter (1 stick)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 package refrigerated pie crust (has two in the package)
1 egg white (we did not use this)
2 tablespoons sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350.  Peel and cut apples.  We used an apple-peeler-corer-slicer on some; so, we had wedges and thin slices.  I think the combination of sizes was actually a good thing.  Toss apples with cinnamon and the 3/4 cup sugar.  Melt the butter in a 10-inch cast iron skillet.  After it is melted, add the brown sugar and stir until sugar is dissolved.  Place one pie crust in the bottom of the pan on top of the sugar mixture.  Pour the apples over the pie crust and top with the remaining crust.  Brush with egg white if desired.  Sprinkle sugar on top.  Cut small slits in the top crust.  Place in over and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes or until golden and bubbly.  Remove from oven and cool for 30 minutes before serving.  Serve with ice cream or cool whip.  Enjoy!

A Pizza Pie

Well, not exactly, but when I was preparing the crust for this month's Daring Baker's challenge, my little cousin came up to help me and said that's what she was making...a pizza pie! 

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.  When I first saw the challenge, I started thinking about different options for fillings.  The one I really wanted to do was a cranberry pomegranate jam but I didn't ever get the ingredients and ran out of time once I was home.  After I finally decided to make the crostata for Thanksgiving dessert, I decided to see what other people had brought before I decided on a filling.  Well, we had chocolate cake, chocolate pie, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate chip cookies, and caramel bars.  I figured that something fruity would be a good option to have.  Unfortunately, after perusing the refrigerator and pantry, I determined that we didn't have any jam.  So, I went in search of a filling recipe and came across this one.  I ended up making one recipe and topping it with fresh fruit. 

Kind of reminded me of a fruit pizza...maybe this was a "pizza pie!"  All in all, I really liked the pasta frolla.  It was very simple to make and to work with.  The edges got a little hard after baking but the crust under the filling was nice and tender.  Everyone else liked it, too.  My cousin even asked me to send her the recipe...can't forget to do that!  Thanks, Simona for the challenge! 

Version 1 of pasta frolla

Ingredients:
•1/2 c. minus 1 tablespoon [105 ml, 100 g, 3 ½ oz] superfine sugar (see Note 1) or a scant 3/4 cup [180ml, 90g, 3 oz] of powdered sugar
•1 and 3/4 cup [420 ml, 235 g, 8 1/4 oz.] unbleached all-purpose flour
•a pinch of salt
•1 stick [8 tablespoons / 4 oz. / 115 g] cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
•1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten in a small bowl
Making pasta frolla by hand:
Whisk together sugar, flour and salt in a bowl. Rub or cut the butter into the flour until the mixture has the consistency of coarse crumbs. You can do this in the bowl or on your work surface, using your fingertips or an implement of choice. Make a well in the center of the mounded flour and butter mixture and pour the beaten eggs into it (reserve about a teaspoon of the egg mixture for glazing purposes later on – place in the refrigerator, covered, until ready to use).

Use a fork to incorporate the liquid into the solid ingredients, and then use your fingertips. Knead lightly just until the dough comes together into a ball. Shape the dough into a flat disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Place the dough in the refrigerator and chill for at least two hours. You can refrigerate the dough overnight.

Assembling and baking the crostata con la crema:


Heat the oven to 350ºF [180ºC/gas mark 4].  Take the pasta frolla out of the fridge, unwrap it and cut away ¼ of the dough. Reserve this dough to make the lattice top of the crostata...or give it to your little cousin to make a "pizza pie." Refrigerate this dough while you work on the tart base.

Lightly dust the top of the dough and your work surface (if you’re rolling directly on a work surface) with flour. Keep some flour handy to dust the dough as you go along. If the dough is very firm, start by pressing the dough with the rolling pin from the middle to each end, moving the rolling pin by a pin's width each time; turn the dough 180 degrees and repeat; when it softens, start rolling. Roll the dough into a circle about 1/8th inch (3 mm) thick.  Lightly fold the dough in half and in half again.  Pick it up an place it in the pan.  Gently unfold the dough and fit it to the pan.  Trim the excess dough hanging over the edges of the pan. Press the remaining dough around the border into the sides of the pan making sure the border is an even thickness all the way around. Prick the bottom of the dough with a fork in several places.

Cover the bottom of the crostata crust evenly with prepared pastry cream.  Put the tart in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, check the tart, and continue baking until the tart is of a nice golden hue. (Note: Every oven is different. In my oven it took 45 minutes to bake the tart until golden.)  When done, remove the tart from the oven and let cool. Top with fruit to garnish.  Place in the refrigerator to cool.  If you have used a tart pan with a removable bottom, then release the tart base from the fluted tart ring. Make sure the tart is completely cool before slicing and serving. 

For Pastry Cream (from CHOW via Pink of Perfection)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 large egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1/4 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped and reserved)

Combine sugar, flour, and salt in a small mixing bowl. Whisk gently to break up any lumps, and set aside. Prepare an ice water bath in a larger mixing bowl, and set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine buttermilk and egg yolks, whisking until evenly incorporated. Whisk in dry ingredients, and place the pan over medium heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 4 minutes.

New Toppings

And so begins a new month.  New month brings a new rotation, for me that is the NICU.  In celebration of this (HA!) I give you a new way to make blueberry pie.  I've always made the pie with a double crust.  However, when I went to my friend's house for Easter her husband said he liked crumb toppings...so I decided to give that a try.  When I pulled it out of the oven it looked perfect! 

I was so excited and couldn't wait to cut into it to see how the inside did.  Well, I had to use frozen berries because the fresh berries were SOOO expensive.  Unfortunately, it created a bit of a soupy pie.  I'm sure it was from the frozen berries. 

The funny thing is that everyone at lunch thought is was the most set blueberry pie they'd seen!  My friend's husband thought it was the best part of lunch!  And the topping...delicious!  I got the recipe from here.  I used the filling recipe from my Papa's pie and the crust from my Granny.

Crust
1 cup sifted flour (usually use AP but accidentally used self rising and it worked well.)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 T water
1/3 cup shortening

Sift flour and salt into bowl. Remove 1/4 cup flour and blend to a paste. Cut shortening into remaining flour until pieces are size of small peas. Add paste to flour mixture. Mix with fork until dough comes together and can be shaped into a ball (this is best done by putting a piece of saran wrap over the bowl, dumping it, and pressing the dough together.) Place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. Roll out crust to 1/8 inch thick to cover 9-inch pie pan

Filling:
1 quart (4 cups) or a little more blueberries
3/4 cup sugar
3 T flour
2 T corn starch
1/4 teaspoon salt
Mix dry ingredients. Fold in berries to coat. Place in deep dish pie crust.

Topping
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 tablespoons butter

In a medium bowl, stir together the brown sugar, oats, flour and cinnamon. Mix in butter using a fork until crumbly. Spread the crumb topping evenly over the pie filling.  Bake at 375 for about 40 minutes.

Summer Pie

his past week my Sunday School class had a get together.  I offered to bring a dessert and wanted to take something different and fun.  I thought about taking cheesecake simple because I LOVE graham cracker crust!  I also thought about taking cupcakes just because they're fun!  Then my mom reminded me of a DELICIOUS spring/summer pie. 

It is pretty easy, light, delicious, and ALMOST healthy!  Another bonus, it makes TWO pies, so this is great for a large group.  It is called strawberry, mandarin, pineapple pie.  This is a pie that my mom has been making since early in her marriage.  The recipe calls for two bakes pie crusts; however, you could probably use a graham cracker crust, though you might want to be careful as it has the potential to get soggy quickly. 

The sweetened condensed milk really gives the filling a wonderful sweet taste BUT if you wanted to make the pie less sweet or more healthy you could simply leave that portion out.  I hope you are able to enjoy this sometime with your family and friends!

Strawberry, Mandarin, Pineapple Pie 
2 baked pie shells 1 carton (1 lb) strawberries, cut into pieces 
1 can mandarin oranges (in juice)
1 can crushed pineapple (I'm pretty sure the SMALL can), drained 
1 container cool whip (I used sugar free)
1 cup (not the whole can) fat free, sweetened condensed milk 

Stir together fruit, cool whip, and milk.  Divide mixture between the two pie shells and refrigerate.  If you plan on serving the pie the next day, I would suggest making the filling but NOT putting it in the shells until an hour or so until you serve it to prevent the crust from becoming soggy; just store the filling in the refrigerator in a bowl.  This could also help keep so extra fluid that may "drain" from the fruit from causing a soupy filling.

A Gift from Christmas Past

For some reason, my family doesn't really have that many family recipes...at least not many that I think of as family recipes. However, I have had a recipe card in my grandmother's (MaG) handwriting since I moved. I was just waiting for the right time to use it. The recipe is for a chocolate meringue pie. Pretty simple but oh so good. A couple of weeks ago, my Sunday School class had our Christmas party; I decided this was the perfect time! The pie uses one pie crust...so I used the recipe from my other grandmother (Granny). Making a pie crust is really pretty simple, you just have to get used to rolling it out. I almost burned the chocolate but pulled it off in the (St.) Nick of time. Then I came to a dilema...the instructions say to put butter in the chocolate mixture and stir but has NO amount of butter. It also says to use 3 egg whites for the meringue but doesn't tell any other ingredients. I couldn't get in touch with my mom so I just assumed that the amount of butter was around 2 Tablespoons and looked up how to do a meringue online. It all turned out great. My meringue even looked good...until the next morning when it had shrunk! Oh, well. When I cut into the pie I was so pleased...it looked like MaG's pie. One person even said it tasted just like something her grandmother would have made! Perfect! Chocolate Pie
1 cup sugar
2 T cocoa (or 1 oz baking chocolate)
1/3 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
3 egg yolks (save the whites for the meringue)
2 T butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 baked pie shell (9inch) **

For meringue: 3 egg whites
3/4 cup (more or less - depending on your desired sweetness)
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

In sauce pan, combine first four ingredients (sugar, cocoa, flour, salt); gradually add milk and stir. Cook and stir over medium heat till bubbly. Cook and stir 2 minutes. Remove from heat, stir small amount of hot mixture into egg yolks; immediately return to hot mixture; cook 2 minutes longer. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla. Pour into cooled pie crust. *Spread merinuge atop pie and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until meringue browns. Cool.

*For meringue, whip 3 egg whites until stiff peaks form. Add sugar slowly. Then add cream of tartar for stabilization.

**Pie Crust

1 cup sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 T water
1/3 cup shortening

Sift flour and salt into bowl. Remove 1/4 cup flour and blend to a paste. Cut shortening into remaining flour until pieces are size of small peas. Add paste to flour mixture. Mix with fork until dough comes together and can be shaped into a ball (this is best done by putting a piece of saran wrap over the bowl, dumping it, and pressing the dough together.) Place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. Roll out crust to 1/8 inch thick to cover 9-inch pie pan.

For this pie, prick holes in the crust with a fork or fill with uncooked peas or pie weights. Heat oven to 400 degrees F and bake for 10 minutes.

A History Lesson

History was NOT my favorite subject in school; in fact, I don't really like it that much...but my favorite teacher was my AP US History teacher. This month's challenge came with a history lesson, and I must admit that I didn't read it all! However, I will give you a little of the background.

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England. This tart, like many of the world's great foods has its own mythic beginnings…or several mythic beginnings. Legend has it in 1820 (or was it in the 1860s?) Mrs. Greaves, landlady of The White Horse Inn in Bakewell, Derbyshire (England), asked her cook to produce a pudding for her guests. Either her instructions could have been clearer or he should have paid better attention to what she said because what he made was not what she asked for. The cook spread the jam on top of the frangipane mixture rather than the other way around. Or maybe instead of a sweet rich shortcrust pastry case to hold the jam for a strawberry tart, he made a regular pastry and mixed the eggs and sugar separately and poured that over the jam—it depends upon which legend you follow. Regardless of which story you believe, the diners loved it and an ensuing pastry-clad industry was born. The town of Bakewell has since played host to many a sweet tooth in hopes of tasting the tart in its natural setting. I always like when I can share my Daring Baker challenges with my family. For the second month in a row I got to do that as I went home, probably for the last time until Thanksgiving, for Father's Day. Since it was Father's Day I wanted to use flavors my dad chose...of course, he said he'd eat whatever I made, so I just made good suggestions! ;-) At first I was going to do half Nutella and half raspberry but we decided to do both on the whole pie (NOTE: I did Nutella to please my brother...who ended up not eating it because he "doesn't eat" nuts. Oh well.). I love the way the chocolate and raspberry looks in the crust...I could have just eaten the pie like that without the frangipane. I put the pie in the oven while we watched The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (which is SO sad!). When my timer went off I immediately took the pie out and didn't even think to check it because the crust and top was SO brown. WELL, fastforward to Sunday after lunch. I cut into the pie and it's quite soupy. Ugh! So, I put it back into the oven for probably 10-15 minutes. It did firm up and cook but I still don't think it was quite like it should have been. My dad really enjoyed it. His comment was that it was rich but really good. He loved the raspberries. I liked the raspberries but was a little disappointed with the texture of the frangipane. I ground my own almonds and didn't have a food processor...I was using my mom's "Oscar." It just didn't quite get as fine as I would have liked and left more of a nut texture that I thought it should have had. Overall this was a yummy dessert. I had never heard of it before and am glad that I've tried it. If you want to see more challenge results go here.

Sweet shortcrust pastry

Prep time: 15-20 minutes
Resting time: 30 minutes (minimum)
Equipment needed: bowls, box grater, cling film

225g (8oz) all purpose flour
30g (1oz) sugar
2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 (2) egg yolks
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional - I didn't use)
15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.

Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.

Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Frangipane

Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Equipment needed: bowls, hand mixer, rubber spatula

125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
3 (3) eggs
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (I didn't use this)
125g (4.5oz) ground almonds
30g (1oz) all purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.

When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

Pie and Pictures

I don't know if y'all have seen the picture meme going around, but I have and thought it looked like fun. However, I don't do memes unless I'm tagged. Well, I finally got tagged by Jill! So...here it is. I'm supposed to choose the fourth folder and fourth picture in my picture file. Unfortunately, it's not a very good picture. This is from my friend Rachel's wedding. I was trying to be artsy and get her in the picture with the cake; instead, it just looks silly! Oh, well! Now, I tag Red Dirt Mummy, Emily, Brilynn, and Jane.

Now, on to the pie! My family doesn't really have a traditional Christmas dessert. We do always have prime rib roast, though it's not my favorite, and squash casserole, one of my favorites! So, this year, when Mama asked what we were having for dessert, I said that I wanted to try an apple pie. I had never made one until now and have wanted to try for a while. When I think of apple pie, I think of a wonderfully layered pie, with yummy tart apples. Well, mine was NOT wonderfully layered...I used a pie plate that was too large in diameter. I wanted it's depth but should have gone with the smaller plate. I think that would have helped the topping more concentrated over the apples. In the end, I had fun and dressed it up a bit with caramel sauce and cinnamon. Despite it's original humble look, it turned out pretty good, and, as my dad said, looked homemade! I'm taking that as a compliment! Apple Crumb Pie (from Mama's recipe box)

Pie Crust (from Granny)

1 cup sifted flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 T water

1/3 cup shortening

Sift flour and salt into bowl. Remove 1/4 cup flour and blend to a paste. Cut shortening into remaining flour until pieces are size of small peas. Add paste to flour mixture. Mix with fork until dough comes together and can be shaped into a ball (this is best done by putting a piece of saran wrap over the bowl, dumping it, and pressing the dough together.) Place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes (not a must, but I find it works better this way). Roll out crust to 1/8 inch thick to cover 9-inch pie pan

5 to 7 tart apples (5 cups)
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 t. ground cinnamon
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
6 T. margarine

Pare apples, core, cut into eighths, arrange in unbaked pie shell. Mix 1/2 c. sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle over applies. Mix 1/3 c. sugar, flour, cut in margarine till crumbly. Sprinkle over apples. Bake at 400 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes 'til done. Serve warm with ice cream.

Pie in the Sky

It's Daring Baker time again! I was pretty excited when I saw the challenge this month. It's something that I've never made the "real" thing; I also thought, "Too bad Daddy doesn't live near me anymore...he love this dessert." What is it...this challenge this month was lemon meringue pie! The form I have always had is the the form made with sweetened condensed milk. Still good, but I guess more of the semi-homemade form. At the beginning of the month I had hoped to make this for a get together with friends. Weeeelllllll, both of my options for that fizzled out and I was left wondering who I would make this pie for. Cue chimes! My parents came to town this weekend for a wedding and I got to make the pie for them...so, Daddy ended up getting to try it. Making the pie took longer than I thought, only because I didn't read the instructions before I started. The most time consuming part was the crust because it requires two sets of chilling and two sets of baking. Other than that, this was actually easier than I thought. The crust for the pie is more of a shortbread, which I love even though it has so much butter! I decided to use my food processor that I got for Christmas to make the crust...LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the food processor! The dough was kind of hard to roll with the rolling pin; so, once I got it to a decent thickness, I just placed it in the pie plate and pressed it out. I don't know if that is why, but after the second baking, the center of the crust had puffed up quite a bit. It didn't really have any detrimental effect on the pie but kind of had me worried at first. On to the custard. SO much easier than I thought. To me, the hardest part was juicing the lemons as I don't have a juicer yet. I was concerned that the lemon wouldn't be strong enough. HA! This had such a strong, wonderful lemon taste. And the meringue...I love meringue. It turned out perfectly. I wish I hadn't cooked it quite as long as I did, but it still tasted fine and was nice and tall. Time to serve it up!!! What did my reviewers think? Mama really liked the crust, while Daddy says he prefers his Mama's (a traditional, thinner pie crust). I think that the thinner crust would be really leaky and probably wouldn't hold up to the moisture of this filling. Daddy just loved the pie as a whole. He thought the lemon flavor was really strong but was not disappointed in that. The texture of the custard was perfect. Daddy even went back for seconds! He said to give this pie glowing reviews! I enjoyed the pie, too. Lemon is one of those completely refreshing flavors that I just love. Honestly, this is probably the first recipe that I've made as a Daring Baker that I would say I'd like to make again. Thanks for choosing this recipe, Jen!!! WONDERFUL! If you want to see other DBs and their pies, check out the blogroll here. Lemon Meringue Pie (from "Wanda's Pie in the Sky" by Wanda Beaver)

Makes one 10-inch (25 cm) pie

For the Crust:

3/4 cup (180 mL) cold butter, cut into ½-inch (1.2 cm)

2 cups (475 mL) all-purpose flour

1/4 cup (60 mL) granulated sugar

1/4 tsp (1.2 mL) salt

1/3 cup (80 mL) ice water

To Make the Crust:

Make sure all ingredients are as cold as possible. Using a food processor or pastry cutter and a large bowl, combine the butter, flour, sugar and salt. Process or cut in until the mixture resembles coarse meal and begins to clump together. Sprinkle with water, let rest 30 seconds and then either process very briefly or cut in with about 15 strokes of the pastry cutter, just until the dough begins to stick together and come away from the sides of the bowl.

Turn onto a lightly floured work surface and press together to form a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 20 minutes.Allow the dough to warm slightly to room temperature if it is too hard to roll. On a lightly floured board (or countertop) roll the disk to a thickness of 1/8 inch (.3 cm). Cut a circle about 2 inches (5 cm) larger than the pie plate and transfer the pastry into the plate by folding it in half or by rolling it onto the rolling pin. Turn the pastry under, leaving an edge that hangs over the plate about 1/2 inch (1.2 cm). Flute decoratively. Chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line the crust with foil and fill with metal pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and continue baking for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden. Cool completely before filling.

For the Filling:

2 cups (475 mL) water

1 cup (240 mL) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (120 mL) cornstarch

5 egg yolks, beaten (save the whites for meringue)

1/4 cup (60 mL) butter

3/4 cup (180 mL) fresh lemon juice (this was about 5 lemons for me)

1 tbsp (15 mL) lemon zest

1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla extract

To Make the Filling:

Bring the water to a boil in a large, heavy saucepan. Remove from the heat and let rest 5 minutes. Whisk the sugar and cornstarch together. Add the mixture gradually to the hot water, whisking until completely incorporated. Return to the heat and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture comes to a boil. The mixture will be very thick.

Add about 1 cup (240 mL) of the hot mixture to the beaten egg yolks, whisking until smooth. Whisking vigorously, add the warmed yolks to the pot and continue cooking, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in butter until incorporated. Add the lemon juice, zest and vanilla, stirring until combined. Pour into the prepared crust. Cover with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming on the surface, and cool to room temperature.

For the Meringue:

5 egg whites, room temperature (mine were cold and worked fine), use the white from the yolks used in the custard

1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) cream of tartar

1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) vanilla extract

3/4 cup (180 mL) granulated sugar

To Make the Meringue: Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC). Using an electric mixer beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar, salt and vanilla extract until soft peaks form. Add the sugar gradually, beating until it forms stiff, glossy peaks. Pile onto the cooled pie, bringing the meringue all the way over to the edge of the crust to seal it completely. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a rack. Serve within 6 hours to avoid a soggy crust.