Apple Pie Pops

Baked goods on a stick are super trendy right now it seems. I know that because Starbucks has cake pops now. Inspired by some finds on Etsy, I decided to try out some apple pie pops!

Classic Pumpkin Pie

Figured it was about time I finally wrote my pumpkin pie post. It's from an old cook book I photocopied from my mom and grandmother called Pies Husbands Like Best. Aaaahhahaha! But seriously, it's really simple, classic pie recipes, and they will never fail you!

Strawberry Lemonade Icebox Pie

This pie looks super impressive and sexy, but it's actually super easy! It is also super sweet, be warned. And, it's a touch hard to cut because of the graham cracker crust, but the slices don't need to be neat to taste good!

This is only the second pie I've made from my Martha Stewart summer of pies magazine article. Making them all may have a been a bit ambitious, but this was a good one!



Strawberry Lemonade Icebox Pie
Adapted from Martha Stewart

For the crust
Vegetable oil cooking spray
9 to 10 graham crackers, broken into pieces
1/4 cup sugar
Salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the filling
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
2/3 cup strained fresh lemon juice
2 large egg yolks (reserve whites for meringue), plus 1 large egg, lightly beaten
Coarse salt

For the topping
12 ounces strawberries, sliced (2 cups)
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 large egg whites, room temperature

1. Coat a 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray.
   
2. Pulse crackers in a food processor until finely ground; measure 1 1/3 cups, and discard excess.
   
3. Pulse cracker crumbs, sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in food processor to combine.
   
4. Add butter, and pulse until mixture is moist and holds together when pressed between 2 fingers.
5. Press crust evenly into bottom and up sides of pie plate using the bottom of a dry measuring cup.
   
6. Freeze for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 while crust freezes.
   
7. Bake crust until firm and turning darker around edges, 10 to 11 minutes.
   
8. While crust bakes, start the filling. Whisk together condensed milk, lemon juice, egg yolks and egg, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.
9. Remove crust from oven, and reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees.
10. Pour filling into warm piecrust. Bake until center is set, 25 to 30 minutes. (Note: I baked mine longer, probably closer to 35 - 40 min, I think my pie plate was smaller than 9 inches and therefore deeper!)
11. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
12. To make the topping, slice up the strawberries and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons sugar and the lemon juice.
    
13. Give a stir and let stand for 30 minutes.
14. Meanwhile, heat egg whites and remaining 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar in the heatproof bowl of a mixer set over a pan of simmering water until sugar dissolves and mixture is warm to the touch, 2 to 3 minutes. (Note: If you're worried about making meringue from raw egg whites, heat the egg whites to 160 at this point while you dissolve the sugar! I didn't bother checking the temp so I don't know if mind really got to 160, but I've safely made meringues and swiss meringue buttercream frosting using this method before!)
    
15. Transfer to mixer, and whisk on high speed until medium peaks form, 8 to 9 minutes.
16. Position an oven rack in the lowest position and preheat the broiler while your meringue whips.
    
17. Spoon strawberries over pie.
    
18. Spoon meringue over top of strawberries and place pie under broiler AND DON'T LEAVE IT until meringue is just browned.
19. Eat the pie!

Blackberry Plum Potpie

I bought a Martha Stewart Living magazine with a piece all about pies. I've decided this will be the summer of the pie, and I shall make them all.

Dave helped choose the first pie, and it turned out to be a good one because you don't even have to make and roll out crust. It's a potpie, which means you put the filling right in the pie dish then cut out puff pastry for the top crust. Blackberry plum potpie, yum!



Blackberry Plum Potpie
From Martha Stewart

For the crust
1 package (14 ounces) thawed frozen puff pastry, chilled (Note: Phyllo dough is NOT puff pastry)
All-purpose flour, for baking sheet
1 large egg white, lightly beaten, for egg wash
Coarse and fine sanding sugar, for sprinkling (optional)

For the filling
1 pound 4 ounces black plums, pitted and cut into 3/4-inch-thick wedges (about 4 cups)
6 ounces blackberries (1 1/4 cups)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
Coarse salt
Freshly ground pepper (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
   
2. Unfold pastry on a very lightly floured baking sheet, and roll out to a 1/8-inch thickness.
3. Set a 9-inch pie plate, upside down (do not press down), on 1 side of pastry, and cut around plate using a sharp paring knife.
   
4. Remove dish. Cut five 3/4-inch-wide strips from scraps. (I only had enough for 3, clearly I'm not Martha)
5. Brush round with egg wash (do not let drip down sides)
6. Adhere strips to surface, and brush again with egg wash.
   
7. Cut out a 2 1/2-inch hole in the center of pastry round using a biscuit cutter.
   
8. Sprinkle with sanding sugar.
   
9. Freeze for 15 minutes.
10. Mix together plums, blackberries, granulated sugar, cornstarch, five-spice powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper.
11. Pour filling into pie plate, and cover with parchment-lined foil. (I didn't know what parchment lined foil meant... I layered the parchment paper and foil and covered the dish, parchment side down)
    
12. Transfer to a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet.
13. Bake pastry crust on top rack and filling in bottom third of oven for 30 minutes.
    
14. Transfer crust on baking sheet to a wire rack (it should be golden and cooked through). Let cool slightly.
15. Continue to bake filling until starting to bubble in center, about 30 minutes more.
    
16. Remove from oven, uncover, and top with pastry crust.
17. Bake pie until bubbling vigorously in center, about 10 minutes more. (If the crust looks like it's getting too dark, cover it with tin foil!)
    
18. Transfer pie to a wire rack, and let cool for at least 1 hour before serving.

The Apple Pie Post

The holidays are busy, cut me some slack... See the flickr page for Christmas photos until the blog catches up with the holiday baking and crafting! There are new photos of my epic gingerbread adventure and crafty holiday cards!

But this post is about apple pie! I made two apple pies this Thanksgiving. One for my fam and one we traveled to Maine with for Thanksgiving with Dave's fam. Here's the one that came to Thanksgiving at my mom's house with us.


I made my first unsupervised apple pie this year (featured in this post of fall baking) and it turned out so well, my mom asked me to handle the apple pie for Thanksgiving. I really was very pleased with it. I got the recipe from a book my mom photo copied for me, Aunt Jenny's Pies Husbands Like.

It's all about how to hook a man with pie, I think it was published in the 50s? So it has to be good. ;o) And the pie did go over well with everyone who tried it! It makes a big deal about the "water whip" method for pie crust that involves pouring boiling water over something called Spry...the same thing as shortening...and then adding the flour etc. I used butter flavored crisco and it did turn out lovely.

I also used my William Sonoma fall pie crust cutters!


Cute! I colored the dough with different color food coloring and cut the leaves out of that. I'm such a nerd. Here's pie 2 that went all the way to Maine. I came home after Thanksgiving and made this that night (hence the bad lighting) since we were leaving the next morning, so glad I had something to bring though, and again everyone seemed to enjoy it. :o)


My crust got a little burnt although I covered it with foil towards the end. I hear there are pie crust protectors that take care of this, but I have yet to see one.

I had some extra pie crust (I had to double Aunt Jenny's recipe for my giant pie dish) so I made some cinnamon and sugar pie crust swirl cookies. My mom and grandma always made these when I was younger with left over pie dough. We snacked on them in the car on the way up to Maine. :o)

Fall baking round up

work has me stressed out, so haven't been keeping up with my little blogger or much baking/crafting for that matter. Flickr has been updated thought!

Here's some cool photos from the season!


Pumpkin muffins!


Apple cider mini donuts! Yes! I got a mini donut pan! <3
My first apple pie all by my big self. With apples we picked from the orchard.


Sexy apple pie slice with homemade ginger ice cream, without and ice cream maker. Still a success! Doesn't go as well with the apple pie as I thought but it's tasty. :oD


Homemade apple butter, would of been great except don't use black pepper in your all spice substitute, worst idea ever.


Vanilla and apple butter swiss meringue buttercream macaron. That's cinnamon on top, did it taste like apple cinnamon? No...just sugar. Still looking for a decent macaron recipe, baking instructions are all wrong for the ones I tried so far!


Ghost shaped Count Chocula cereal treats for a halloween party. They were awesome.