December 25 2016

The Ultimate Cinnamon Cream Pie

Cinnamon Cream Pie

Cream pies are amazing creamy goodness. There is, granted, probably not much redeeming benefit health-wise (unlike fruit pies – those are totally healthy, right?), but they are delicious.

You can add as much or as little cinnamon to this recipe as you like to give it some flavor. Otherwise, its all cream – and its very very important that you make it with cream! I’ve tried a lot of variations with less cream, more milk, or buttermilk, and its just not worth it. If you are horrified at the thought of a pie with cups and cups of cream and then some butter added for good measure, this pie is not for you. Just. . . don’t make a cream pie. Make some other kind of pie.

In other news, I realize that I’ve missed a few weeks here. Christmas bustle got to me. I will be resuming regular scheduling as of. . .now!

Merry Christmas!

Cinnamon Cream Pie
The Ultimate Cinnamon Cream Pie
Print Recipe
Cream pie made with heavy cream, cinnamon, and butter.
Servings Prep Time
8 people 20 minutes
Cook Time
1 hour
Servings Prep Time
8 people 20 minutes
Cook Time
1 hour
Cinnamon Cream Pie
The Ultimate Cinnamon Cream Pie
Print Recipe
Cream pie made with heavy cream, cinnamon, and butter.
Servings Prep Time
8 people 20 minutes
Cook Time
1 hour
Servings Prep Time
8 people 20 minutes
Cook Time
1 hour
Ingredients
Servings: people
Instructions
  1. Mix together your dry ingredients - sugar, flour, and salt - in a medium sized bowl. Make sure they're well combined.
  2. Add two (2) cups of heavy cream. Mix well.
  3. In another bowl, mix together egg yolks, 1/2 cup of cream, the 1/2 cup of milk, and vanilla extract. Add to original cream and sugar mixture. Again, mix well, but don't beat it! You don't want whipped cream.
  4. Pour the cream mixture into your prepared pie crust. Dot with butter. Sprinkle Cinnamon across the top.
  5. Bake for about 1 hour at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. You'll know the pie is done when its bubbling ALL the way across the top. Let it do this for about 10 minutes before taking it out of the oven.
  6. Let the pie cool completely in the fridge for optimal creaminess.
Recipe Notes

You can also use half and half instead of 1/2 cup cream and 1/2 cup milk, but then you will be buying 3 dairy products instead of 2. This seems silly to me, unless you already buy half and half.

If you really can't get enough cinnamon, you can add cinnamon to the cream mixture as well as sprinkling it across the top. Nutmeg and Ginger also taste good. Add as much or as little spice as you like.

Based on Old Fashioned Sugar Cream Pie from Loaves and Dishes. Apparently its an Indiana thing!

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Category: Pies, Sweet Things | 2 Comments on The Ultimate Cinnamon Cream Pie
December 4 2016

Sweet Potato Pie with Pecan Crust

As part of my great pie experiment, I decided to try Sweet Potato Pie. The verdict? Its yummy, but very heavy. . . in a potatoey way. If I were to make it again, I’d probably try to go lighter on the sweet potato part.

If you too decide to try out Sweet Potato Pie, I definitely recommend having it cold, and with whipped cream. Mmmmmm, yummy!

Sweet Potato Pie
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
8 people 15 minutes
Cook Time
40 minutes
Servings Prep Time
8 people 15 minutes
Cook Time
40 minutes
Sweet Potato Pie
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
8 people 15 minutes
Cook Time
40 minutes
Servings Prep Time
8 people 15 minutes
Cook Time
40 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: people
Instructions
  1. Peel and chop your sweet potatoes, and start them cooking with a little water on the stove over medium heat.
  2. While your sweet potatoes soften, put the pecans, 2 tbsps of butter, and 2 tbsps of karo syrup in the food processor. Pulse until the pecans resemble crumbs, and press into the bottom of a deep dish pie plate.
  3. Once the sweet potatoes are soft, mash them. Add butter, brown sugar, karo syrup, eggs, evaporated milk, vanilla extract, and salt. Mix well.
  4. Pour your filling into your pie plate.
  5. Cook at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for about 40 minutes. The pie should be firm, and not like a custard.
  6. Serve with whipped cream and enjoy!
Recipe Notes

Based on a recipe from the Sage Trifle.

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November 30 2016

Almond Custard Upside-Down Pie

In my pie making adventures, I’ve tried quite a few recipes whose results were questionable (Shoofly Pie with blackstrap molasses; do not do this!) or which mysteriously morphed into something else. Such it was that I started with the notion of making chess pie and ended up with this Almond Custard Pie.

I’m not entirely sure how one thing led to another anymore, but this is a delicious almondy confection. I’m not entirely sure it counts as a pie, as the almond crust has the interesting habit of rising to the top of the pie instead of remaining on the bottom as crust.

Almond Custard Pie
Print Recipe
A delicious almond custard which may or may not be a pie. . .
Servings Prep Time
8 people 15 minutes
Cook Time
60 minutes
Servings Prep Time
8 people 15 minutes
Cook Time
60 minutes
Almond Custard Pie
Print Recipe
A delicious almond custard which may or may not be a pie. . .
Servings Prep Time
8 people 15 minutes
Cook Time
60 minutes
Servings Prep Time
8 people 15 minutes
Cook Time
60 minutes
Ingredients
For Crust
For Filling
Servings: people
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
  2. Chop your almonds up in a food processor. Once they are finely chopped, add the butter and almond extract and continue processing until well mixed. If the butter starts out soft, then the almonds should start clumping together in a loose dough.
  3. Press your almond dough into the bottom of a pie plate, and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
  4. While your crust is cooking, cream together your butter and sugar until smooth.
  5. Add in the eggs, flour, whey, almond extract, and nutmeg. Mix well.
  6. Pour the filling into your pie plate, and bake for an additional 60 minutes.
Recipe Notes

On the whey - the first time I made this recipe, I had really thick whey from one of my cheese-making experiments.. It was a bit like soft yogurt. You can also use buttermilk, OR 1 cup of whey/milk with 1/2 cup of yogurt.

On the pie crust - 1 cup of almonds only makes enough to cover the bottom of the pie plate. I like limited crust, but if you want it to go up the sides as well, double the crust recipe.

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Category: Custards and Puddings, Pies, Sweet Things | LEAVE A COMMENT
November 27 2016

Caramel-Apple Cranberry-Cherry Pie

Quite a mouthful, right? I found this pie recipe in a Better Homes and Gardens magazine a few years ago, selling itself short as caramel apple and cherry pie. But there’s serious cranberry and orange going on here too!

I’ve made this pie two Thanksgivings in a row now. Its perfect for the holidays!

Caramel-Apple Cranberry-Cherry Pie
Print Recipe
This pie combines two completely different fillings together for a delicious festive dessert!
Servings Prep Time
8 people 45 minutes
Cook Time
45 minutes
Servings Prep Time
8 people 45 minutes
Cook Time
45 minutes
Caramel-Apple Cranberry-Cherry Pie
Print Recipe
This pie combines two completely different fillings together for a delicious festive dessert!
Servings Prep Time
8 people 45 minutes
Cook Time
45 minutes
Servings Prep Time
8 people 45 minutes
Cook Time
45 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: people
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. You are going to want to cook your piecrust a bit before adding the filling, so go ahead and put it in your pie plate and poke the bottom and sides with a fork. You will want to leave some dough for the top crust. Cook the crust for a maximum of 20 minutes while you work on the filling.
  2. For the cranberry cherry mixture, combine your cranberries, white sugar, orange juice (and some orange zest if you want extra oranginess). Cook until the cranberries burst. Add your cherries to the cranberry mixture. If your cherries were frozen (its not like they're in season in November. . .), you might want to cook them for a bit all together. If not, you're done! Set the mixture aside.
  3. For your caramel apple filling, peel and chop your apples, adding your lemon juice and zest to keep them from browning too soon. Mix together your flour, sugar, and cinnamon, and then add your dry mix to the apples. Mix until well coated. Melt your butter in a saucepan on the stove, then add your apple mixture (the pan should be large enough for all the apples with some room to spare!). Cook for 5 minutes, or until the apples are tender. Add your whipping cream and vanilla, and continue cooking, stirring frequently. In about five more minutes, the mixture should thicken. Take it off the heat.
  4. Alternately layer your apple and cran-cherry fillings in your (partially cooked) pie crust. You should start with a layer of caramelized apples, and end with the cranberry cherry mixture.
  5. Cover with your top crust. You can do cute shapes made of pie dough, or a lattice top. You may want to brush some egg white on your top crust to make it pretty. Feel free to also sprinkle it with sugar.
  6. Bake your pie another 40 or so minutes. Its done when the filling is bubbling and the top is golden brown!
Recipe Notes

Please note, the cute leaf shapes for a top crust sounds great, but they never come out as pretty as a magazine pictures. I will definitely be doing a lattice top next time around.

This recipe is based on Caramel Apple-Cherry pie from Better Homes and Gardens.

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November 16 2016

Deep Dish Coconut Vinegar Pie

When I was growing up, pie was made with fruit. There was peach pie, cherry pie, apple pie, and maaaaybe berry pie (that was exotic!). But then, one day, I ventured into the wilds of Indiana and discovered that not all pie was fruit. Some pie was weird. Some pie was. . . vinegar.

Rock Run Cafe & Bakery - the place of the inspirational Vinegar Pie.
Rock Run Cafe & Bakery – the place of the inspirational Vinegar Pie.

Intrigued, I ordered the mysterious vinegar pie. It smelled like vinegar, but it didn’t taste like vinegar. It was creamy, and different, and interesting! So I decided to make it for myself.

While searching for vinegar pie recipes I discovered a whole host of different pie ideas that I’d never heard of; chess pie, mock apple pie, oatmeal pie, etc. I resolved there to broaden my pie horizons!

So first up, in the Great Pie Experiment is Vinegar Coconut Pie. I ran across this recipe under the name “French Coconut Pie” and it seems to basically be vinegar pie with coconut. Its definitely outside of Vinegar Pie’s “poor man’s pie” roots, but its delicious.

Deep Dish Coconut Vinegar Pie
Print Recipe
Buttery coconut pie, with just a hint of vinegar. Delicious!
Servings Prep Time
8 pieces 30 minutes
Cook Time
1 hour
Servings Prep Time
8 pieces 30 minutes
Cook Time
1 hour
Deep Dish Coconut Vinegar Pie
Print Recipe
Buttery coconut pie, with just a hint of vinegar. Delicious!
Servings Prep Time
8 pieces 30 minutes
Cook Time
1 hour
Servings Prep Time
8 pieces 30 minutes
Cook Time
1 hour
Ingredients
Servings: pieces
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  2. Melt butter. I did this in the heating oven, but the microwave will do just as well.
  3. Beat eggs, then add the coconut, sugar, vinegar, vanilla extract, and salt.
  4. Pour a little of the coconut mixture into the melted butter to cool it down (otherwise you might start cooking the eggs with the hot butter!). Mix the butter into the coconut mixture.
  5. Pour the filling into the pie crust, and put it in the oven for 1 hour. The top should be golden brown and firm.
Recipe Notes

I made the crust with 2 cups flour, 2/3 cup shortening, a bit of cold water. Rolled it out, put it in the deep dish pie plate, and forked the bottom. It came out really well!

Based on French Coconut Pie.

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