Pie-atius

This is probably completely obvious by now but we are taking a short haitus for the summer. Living in Arizona is not exactly condusive to summer pie baking and when you combine that with fun summer travel it's time for a bit of a break! See you soon with more yummy pies. In the meantime check out our previous posts...here are links to some of my faves. 

Fruit Tart

Strawberry Icebox Pie

Coconut Cream Pie

Cherry Tarts

Crumbly Blueberry Pie

Key Lime with Gingersnap Crust

I hope you all have a lovely summer!

Fruit Tart

Hey everybody! This is Amy coming at you with this week's pie. 

This fruit tart was a huge hit! Easy, fresh, and beautiful to boot. 

The recipe is here: Fresh Fruit Tart

Crust:

• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened and sliced
• I mixed all of this in my food processor and pressed it into a 9" tart pan. the recipe calls for a 12" pan so I had left over crumbs. Bake in a 350 degree oven until lightly browned. This was about 10 minutes and I did this step the night before. 

Fresh fruit:

pick out some beautiful fresh fruit. We used strawberries, blueberries, kiwi and mango. Wash and slice any large fruit. Take your time and make the slices pretty.

 Glaze:

• 1/2 (6-ounce) can frozen limeade concentrate
• 2 tsp cornstarch
•  2 tsp fresh lime juice
• 1/8 cup granulated sugar

I cut this in half and my quantities are noted above. 

Mix all ingredients in a small saucepan and simmer until thickened slightly. Cool and set aside to glaze tart. 

Filling:

• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix. I didn't even bust out my mixer for this. Seriously this recipe has a lot of steps but it was WAY EASY.

Spread the cream cheese filling into the cooled tart shell.

Arrange the fruit artistically.

Brush with glaze.

Chill for 30 minutes to an hour. Cut and serve.

Verdict:

This was crazy pretty and really yummy. I would say you can make it earlier in the day and serve it for dinner but I think there was a lovely crisp element to the shortbread crust that i think would be lost if you kept the completely made tart in the fridge longer than a few hours. 

Oh, we skipped the whipped cream on top entirely. 

Mushroom Spinach Polenta Pie

Hey all, this is Lou bringing you this weeks SAVORY pie.

Mushroom Spinach Polenta. This pie was so delicious!

I started with a recipe but then Amy and I kind of went off script. Best improv ever!

Here is the original receipe-

http://www.keyingredient.com/recipes/14206/mushroom-and-spinach-polenta-pie/

I used fresh spinach rather than frozen.

I just think the tase quality is better than way.

I also sauteed in a sweet yellow onion.

The recipe only called for 8 tablespoons of parm, and I think that is skimpy.

I never skimp on good cheese!

We probably ended up using like a cup to a cup and a half.

This turned out SO GOOD! It is definetly one I will be making again.

I am going to try and get a firmer consistency with the polenta.

Grasshopper Pie

This pie came from Martha Stewart's New Pies & Tarts book, which was a gift from one pie blogger to another. Thanks Amy! I FULLY recommend this book, even if you don't bake, just to look at the pictures. It's truly decadent. I can't wait to make more pies from this book!

In case you can't wait to get your cook book, you can also find the recipe here, Grasshopper Pie. 3 layers of minty goodness, with a chocolate cookie crust, this pie was tasty!


First we steeped fresh mint in milk. The milk turned green & tasted of spearmint. Mint layer #1.


While the mint milk was on the stove, the crust was made. Instead of chocolate wafers that Martha uses we used mint chocolate cookies (aka. grocery store thin mints- see photo above.) because I couldn't find chocolate wafer cookies in our small town. It gave another layer of mint to the pie ( #2). My fave thing about this crust was the coconut in it, it gave the pie great texture. :)


We mixed some plain Gelatin with a few tablespoons of Creme de Menthe. Mint layer #3.

It got all green and groovy looking... :) Oh I spy piebakers!

Then we had to mix the green milk with the green gelatin...minty goodness.


That baby had to cool in an ice bath... which took forever... and which was when we learned the true reason why it's called grasshopper pie.

Not because it's green, but because it takes
"PATIENCE GRASSHOPPER! "


Finally thickened we added some whipped cream to it to make it fluffy!

Refrigerate for a while and then ENJOY!



This pie was probably the fussiest pie we've ever made at the Pie Hole, but I thought it was worth it. It tasted just like the grasshopper cookies my mom used to buy when I was a kid. Some of us however thought the mint flavor overpowering, so it may need to be adjusted according to taste.

Jamaican Meat Patties

I think it's fairly obvious that a lot of the pies I want to try and make are products of nostalgia. I have no idea how Jamaican Patties became a common quick meal or afternoon snack but they were totally our version of hot-pockets growing up. This is another thing that we never really cooked at home. No secret family recipe...they were strictly from the box in the freezer section. Flaky pastry surrounding a spicy meat filling. Yum!

Here is where I found a recipe to try.

JAMAICAN BEEF PATTY INGREDIENTS: Below is a delicious recipe for Jamaican Beef Patties: PASTRY 2 cups Flour 1/4 teaspoon Salt 1/2 tablespoon curry powder 1/4 cup Solid shortening 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) margarine 1/3 cup Cold water Recipe by ©eatjamaican.com Sift the flour, curry powder and salt into a large bowl. Cut in the shortening and margarine until crumbly. Add the cold water to make a stiff dough. Lightly flour a wooden cutting board and roll out the dough until about 1/8-inch thick. Cut out 8-inch circles. Cover with wax paper or damp cloth until ready to use. You can place the dough in the refrigerator overnight. If you do refrigerate, remove the dough at least 15 minutes before using. MEAT FILLING Recipe by ©eatjamaican.com 2 tablespoon oil 1 Small white onion, Finely chopped 1/4 teaspoon Chopped Scotch Bonnet pepper 1/2 lb. Lean ground beef 1/2 teaspoon Salt 1/2 teaspoon Freshly ground black pepper 1/2 teaspoon Curry powder 1/2 teaspoon Dried thyme 1/4 cup Breadcrumbs 1/4 cup Beef or chicken stock 1 Egg, beaten 1/4 cup Water In a heavy skillet, melt the margarine and sauté the onion and Scotch Bonnet Pepper until they become limp. Add the ground beef, salt, pepper, curry powder and thyme and mix well. Brown the meat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the breadcrumbs and stock and combine all the ingredients well. Cover the skillet and simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. When all the liquids have been absorbed, the filling is ready. It should be moist but not watery. Remove the skillet from the stove and preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Uncover the dough circles and place 2 to 3 tablespoons of filling on half of each. Moisten the edges of the dough with water and fold the dough circle over the meat filling. Pinch the edges closed with a fork. Lightly brush the pastry with a mixture of the egg and water. Bake on a lightly greased baking sheet for 30 to 40 minutes or until the pastry are golden brown. Serves: 10 Patties

The bad:
The pastry was really hard to work with and to be honest, I wasn't in love with the texture after baking. It had a hard, crispyness as opposed to the thicker, tender, flakiness I wished for.

The good:
I liked the flavor of the filling and other than the pastry being annoying they were fairly easy to make. You could make a double batch and freeze them for heating up later.

The verdict:

These didn't really live up to my memories. Sometimes the texture of mass-produced goods is really hard to replicate and I think this was one of those times. 

Note to self:

Add these to your grocery list for two week trip to Canada this summer. Multiple boxes for late nights catching up with family and after swimming/running snacks. Extra spicy please.

S'Mores Pie

Over Spring Break Lou & I went camping (well as "camping" as I get) in a cabin.
We decided to do a camping inspired pie while there.
What says camping more than S'Mores? Nothing!?


For our pie we combined 2 cups of heavy cream with a box of devil's food chocolate pudding.


Though we wished we'd brought a handmixer becuase it ended up a little grainy.


We piled that mixture in a premade graham cracker crust.


Then we tried toasting some marshmallows over the fire in the woodstove (see above) but that was taking forever and they seemed too big on the middle of the pie. So we cut the marshmallows in half and covered the pie. By then we were too full with other camping food, so we didn't feel like eating the pie (plus we'd left our long lighter for toasting the marshmallows back home...) so we stuck it in the fridge overnight. It traveled to Mesa with Lout where the marshmallows on top were toasted with a lighter and then it was devoured by her family, who she said liked it very much. :)




Lou would be making this post, but she has been sick in bed all week. :( poor thing.

Chocolate Chess Pie

We like Chess Pie, so we thought we ought to try a chocolate variety.

Recipe HERE.

Here is the cast of characters.

We melted the chocolate in the melted butter. It was just easier. I would suggest a little more chocolate personally. It wasn't very chocolatey. But I think the others liked it just like it was. So it depends on your tastes.

Above you see the dry ingredients and the butter, below you see the finished filling. It was really runny, and we were kind of worried, but it turned out fine. However, this was supposedly only enough filling for one pie. Not so. We filled two. If we had tried to stuff it all into one it would have been a major disaster.

This is the finished product. Looks kind of strange. Kimmy and I kind of dubbed it "wrinkly old man pie" but it tastes good.

The perfect slice. Amy and Kimmy think it kind of tastes like hot chocolate. I liked it.