Pie #4: All Pear Pie with Maple and Candied Ginger

When some people here “All Pear Pie”, some people think “Wow that sounds awesome!”, while other might think “Pears in a pie, hum, that’s interesting.”; but I think “Pears in a pie, why not!”  Pie four was yet again an interesting venture, and I love that with each pie there is something new to learn.

I should call the title of the pie “All Pear Pie with Brown Sugar and Ginger” because instead of using maple I used light brown sugar and instead of using candied ginger I used a ginger spice.  All the measurements worked out well this time and the pie pan was the right size for it. I think unless it asks for a larger one, I am going to stick to my 9 1/2 in. pie pan.  This pie did seem a little rushed for me and I could not figure out why, but after making it I figured out why. I usually get my ingredients ready before I even start preparing the pie, but this time I didn’t. I just did a ‘prepare as you go’ kind of thing. To be honest I was not a fan of that, so lesson learned there. This pie was not as relaxing to make because of that, but I still loved it.

So the first question I had, not being an avid pear fan, was what kind of pears to use. Apparently you want to use green ripe ones. I do not remember ever cutting a pear so it was interesting to see that they have a really small core.  So let me ask you this, do you know how many pears equal 7 cups of sliced pears? I did not have a clue how many I would need, so, I got about 7 pears ready for the food processor. After slicing 6 1/2 pears and having an almost full food processor bowl I stopped slicing and measured it out to be about 8 cups (A side note, if you want thicker slices when using the food processor, you need to push what you’re chopping through fast because it will make a thicker cut). So, factoring in the air space that should equal the 7 cups I needed. The pears started to turn brown after slicing so I started to freak out. Joshua saved the day by suggesting putting some lemon juice on them. I did not want to because I did not read that in the recipe yet (Another side note, right now I follow the recipes to the T, no skipping over steps and I go in order.) That idea drove me a little crazy but I did it, and of course, the pears stopped turning brown. Yeah, thanks Joshua.

While putting all of the ingredients in, I learned that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to zest a lemon that has been already cut. Joshua assisted me on the lemon zest, and we had to improvise because we did not have a zester. He had to use a small grader and that took him forever just to get a little lemon zest. Also, right after making the filling I looked at my fingernail and noticed my red nail polished was chipped. Eek! I did check the filling thoroughly and I did not find it. I hope it just washed it off into the sink…

The crust turned out great, and this will be the fifth time I’ve had to make the “Basic Flakey Crust”. I have actually got the hang of it, so this time I decided to try the top crust that Ken Haedrick calls “Lattice Top Pie”.  I thought the directions that Ken gave were great, along with illustrations to help you visualize what you’re looking for. I will say that I was very nervous to do this because the crust looked overwhelming. As I said earlier, I did not read ahead this time so I ran yet again into another hick-up. I made sure the crust was rolled in a circle and ready like I have with all the other pies. Well guess what, the first thing it said was not to roll it into a circle, but a rectangle instead. Great… so, I franticly rolled it out into a “rectangle”, well close to one at least.  Then there were at least four lines in the book about how to get the right measurements, and I totally did not get it.  Thankfully at the end of the instructions it had language that I could get, “make sure there are at least eight strips”, got it! Were the strips even? Not even close, but I figured next time I could use the edge of a measuring board for a straighter edge.  Now, after all that, I finally finished the crust and the pie was ready to go in the oven.

After cooking the pie 30 minutes, I turned the oven down and turned the pie 180° so the pie would brown evenly, and cooked it for an additional 35 minutes. After that, I took it out and let is set for two hours, the whole 2 hours.

This is a picture of my friend Jane who joined Joshua and me for the first taste of the “All Pear Pie”.

Next pie for me will be the “Louisiana Browned- Butter Pecan Pie”. Yummo!

Hello Results: Although I am not a fan of pears, it was a great pie. It looked great, and I am glad that I tried the “Lattice Top Pie” crust because it sure did look and taste great. I must prepare ingredients before I start making the pie so I don't feel so rushed.  Lemon keep the pears from turning brown and I need to order a lemon zester. That makes four pies, so only 296 to go!

Hello Extra: I am not counting this as a "pie", but the same day I made the “All Pear Pie” I also made this chicken pot pie from scratch, crust and all. It was SO yummy!

Pie #3: The Easiest Apple Pie

When I hear the words Easiest Apple Pie I think it would take just a few minutes to prepare and then pop in the oven and, ta-dah, it’s done... well that was the case, for the most part. 

My son Tyler, who is almost 4 years old, helped me with most of this pie. We first rolled out the store bought crust and put it in a 9 inch pie pan then popped it in the freezer. While the crust was in the freezer, Tyler and I worked on the filling.  I have noticed that each of the recipes, so far, ask you to freeze the crust for 15 minutes while you are working on the filling. The recipe called for a tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice. So while squeezing the lemon for the tablespoon of lemon juice, I told Tyler to cover his eyes, in a joking matter, and wouldn’t you know it the lemon juice squirted right in his eye. At first he just laughed so I thought it missed his eye, but within seconds he felt the sting of lemon juice in his eye and he was not happy at all.  After he recovered, we continued to mix in the ingredients of 1 chopped apple, a can and a half of apple filling, sugar, raisins and cinnamon. We put in the filling in the crust from the freeze and then I put the pie in the oven. I will say, although the recipe called for a 9 inch pie pan, I would recommend using a 9 ½ inch pie pan.  I followed the recipe to the T and the filling still seemed to be packed too full, without the top crumb crust.

While the pie was cooking it was time to do the topping.  The topping was a crumb topping which I am finding are not that hard to make. The key to a good crumb topping is to not over-process the flour, sugar and butter. I guess I got a little too food processing happy and processed it for too long. By doing that it caused the crumbs to be too “crumby”. After the pie cooked for about 30 minutes it was time for the crust. I poured the crust on the pie and knew that the pie might not turn out like I had planned. When looking at the crust you could not tell it was supposed to be a crumb crust; but, It looked like someone just dumped a mixture of sugar and flour on top of it.  I was almost sure the pie would boil over.

After waiting the required time of 25 minutes, with no boil over, I tried to take the pie out and here is where pie handles on the pan would come in handy. I did not have much to grab onto, so yeah… the pie almost fell, but I caught it at the cost of cracked and messing up the pie crust. So unless I can’t avoid it, I will be using pie pans with handles to avoid that from happening again.  The crust was nowhere near being done, so I put it back in the oven for another 10 minutes, then another 10 minutes and then again for for 10 minutes. After about 30 minutes of extra cooking time to get the crust done, while being positive the bottom crust would be toast, I called it quits on the pie and took it out to cool.

The pie only had to set one for an hour instead of two, so we made the hour mark. It turned out to taste really good. The crust was okay, but not one of my best pies for sure.  An interesting side note, if you use pie filling in a pie you do not have to let the pie set as long due to the thickness of the pie filling.

Hello Results: Even if it has the word “easy” in the title of the pie, don’t let it fool you.  Don’t over process crumb crust and use a pie pan with handles. I think it would be a good idea to invest in some safety glasses for the fresh juice requirements of pies.  I loved spending time with my son and look forward to all the times he will be able to help! Oh, and on second helping it turned out to be ever better cold!  That makes three pies! Only 297 to go.

Pie #2: All Strawberry Pie

I have finally figured out how I am going to choose the order of pies I will cook in this book. Ken Haedrich has broken the “Pie” book into 10 different categories of pies and I am going to do the first pie from each category and then repeat categories doing each pie in sequential order.
That being said, I introduce you to the All Strawberry Pie from the “Berry Good Pies” category. Let me tell you, that is a great name for this category of pies because they do sound berry berry good!
Upon reading the recipe I found that this particular pie calls for “mint oil”. Yeah, um, do you know what that is? I sure didn’t, so I went to the store assuming I could just buy it. To my surprise and disappointment you could not. I had to make it. So, here I am an hour before I even start the crust (that has to set for an hour) and I am making mint oil. “How?”, you ask. Well, I put some water in a big pot and then put a small metal bowl in the pot with chopped mint and olive oil. Once brought to a boil I turned down the heat and let it simmer for about an hour. Then I drained the oil and strained the mint, and there you have it, mint oil.

Now, with the mint oil out of the way, on to the dough, only this time I have to make a double crust! I used my food processer this time and it worked great. It was much quicker, but I had to work faster with the dough. The bottom crust turned out great, but while making the top crust I tried to roll it out on wax paper (I now would not suggest that) and it stuck like glue. So while I was trying to put on the top crust it fell apart, luckily I saved it with some quick thinking and cold water. I also used the slicer blade on my processer and the strawberries turned out great, it looks like a pro did it if you ask me.

So the filling smelled and tasted great, even before I put it in the oven to bake. Before I put the top crust on I used my new Pie Vent Bird and it worked out great. Oh, a pie bird is something you put in the middle of the bottom crust, fill in the pie, and put the top crust on around it to create a hole to allow for the air to vent out of the bird instead of the crust, which can cause cracks and spill over. I loved the way it worked!

As I was putting the finishing touches on the crust before putting it in the oven, it has you sprinkle the sugar around the crust and then, get ready for this, sprinkle milk on it. So can you tell me how to sprinkle milk? I had no idea, so I improvised by using a basting brush to fling milk on the pie. Fun! “I fling milk!”
Oh, my first injury of the pie journey is a nice big burn on my arm! This happened as I was turning the pie in the oven, per instructions... Ouch! It hurt.

The crust turned out great! We had to wait for a while for it to cool down. It suggested that you wait for 2 hours, so it was done at 9pm and we’ll need to wait till 11pm for it to set completely. Here is the final product.

Hello Results: Food processor is working out great! Don’t use wax paper. Watch your arm when you turn the pie, or pull out the oven rack first and then turn! We didn’t wait the whole two hours and it didn’t set completely, so I need to have patience and let it set long enough. But it tastes awesome, and the mint adds an interesting twist on the flavor! Two pies down, 298 to go.

Clafoutis #1: Cherry & Chocolate Clafoutis

So, I know this is suppose to be a pie blog; but, I have a book by Love Food called “Crumbles & Cobblers” with recipes that I wanted to tryout while I had some cherries on hand.

Good news! I used the cherry pitter and pitted one pound of cherries in about 10 minutes with no fuss and no mess, last time that took about 40 minutes with plenty of fuss and mess. With all of these extra cherries I decided to make cherry and chocolate clafoutis.  What is a clafoutis? Great question, I didn’t know either till I looked it up, it’s a tart made of fruit (like cherries) baked in a thick sweet batter. That’s why I thought it sounded good. It was pretty easy to make with only one hang up for me, and you will be shocked by this, it was the measuring part. At one point I could not figure out what 1 ¼ cup was (there was no marking on the measuring cup), so I did what every pie maker would do… I put a cup of milk in the measuring cup then I got out another ¼ measuring cup and filled that up, then dumped it in with the cup I already had. Tada! 1 + ¼ cup. So, I just mixed up all the ingredients and followed the directions to the T. Well, besides putting in kirsch, which was optional, and come to find out, that was a type of brandy that would have enriched the flavor a tad.

Hello Results: I was not sure what the consistency of a tart should be so I looked it up and found out it should be the consistency of a flan. It worked out. Joshua and I tasted it and it was pretty good. I will say that it needs a glass of cold milk or hot coco. Not sure I can count it as a pie, but it was all made from scratch. So I’ll say 299 pies to go and 1 clafoutis down for extra credit.

Pie #1: Fresh Sweet Cherry Pie with Coconut-Almond Crunch Topping, with Basic Flaky Pie Pastry Crust

The first pie was supposed to be the All-Rhubarb Pie, but everyplace we checked rhubarb was out of stock with shipments coming the following week, and we wanted to make a pie tonight for date night. So, sixty dollars and twenty miles later (had to drive about 15 miles to a ‘wet’ county for cherry liqueur), we finally have all the ingredients for this pie. So, let my pie journey commence! It seems we may have picked one of the hardest pies to start with. In “Pie” by Ken Haedrich, he says it’s expensive, requires cherries to be pitted, splashing juices and a large time commitment. So far, that definitely rings true.

My first crust was a success. It was way easier than I thought it would be, even though I decided to do it by hand and not in the food processor. I don’t know why I was so nervous! “Me conquer flaky crust!” The edges weren’t pretty, but hey, it got the job done.

Now for the filling, uh, is “tbsp” teaspoon or tablespoon? Why don’t they just spell it out? I’ll just have to remember that the “b” is in tablespoon. Instead of 2 tsp of lemon juice I was measuring out 2 tbsp’s! Good thing I caught that one! That could have made a huge taste difference, thank goodness for double checking. Oh, by the way, pitting cherries SUCKS! We used a bent up paperclip and our hands are still hurting and stained deep dark cherry maroon. Cherry pitter purchased on Amazon… Check!

I put the pie crust with filling in the oven and started on the coconut-almond crunch topping. It was really easy in my new Cuisinart 14-cup food processor! Thank you, hubby! I will say it was difficult figuring out what he meant by “gravelly crumbs”.

Side note: Did you know that the shelf life of most fruit pies is about 2 days at room temperature? If you want to buy another day you are supposed to refrigerate it rather than leaving it out. So, yeah, um… in the past we have kept pies out for a week, at least…Oh well, now I know. It just means someone will have to eat it faster. Whoever the lucky person may be…

Hello Results: So I started the pie around 9pm and finished the pie at 11:35pm, man am I TIRED, but it is totally worth it! It looks great right out of the oven. We’ll let it cool for about 25 minutes, and take our first bite at midnight! With a small scoop of ice cream this pie makes one heck of a midnight snack! Yummo!

Pay attention to measurements! The pie crust only had one crack! Don’t wait till after 9pm to start making a pie from scratch! Feeling proud of my accomplishment, I can do this! First pie down, 299 to go!

My Pie Making Journey: Intro

Have you ever heard the saying "Easy as pie"? Or my all time favorite, "Pie fixes everything". Well, through the holidays I have been doing a lot of soul searching and discovering a strong desire to try new things. My wonderful, and most understanding, husband bought me the book "Pie", by Ken Haedrich. This is pretty much the bible for pies. It teaches you everything from how to make the dough from scratch, making all types of crust and to making just about every flavor of pie... this book has over 300 recipes. After reading the intro to the book (yes, I'm reading it all), it really felt like something I would like to try, and who knows maybe I will soon be known as the "Pie Lady", or even better, the "Rockin Pie Lady".

A little insight on the name of this blog, Hello Rockin Pies. If anyone who knows me is reading this blog, then they know that I LOVE Hello Kitty! So that is where the "Hello" came from. "Rockin" came from the nickname I gave myself long ago, "Rockin Krizty", because let's face it, I want to be a rockstar. "Pies" came fom, well, pies. Duh.

The plan for this blog is to write about every process of my pie journey. Why do I call it a "pie journey"? Well, I don't bake that much and I sure don't make anything from scratch. While learning different pie stuff I plan to post pictures of pies and the people that receive them. I plan on letting you know how each pie making experience turns out and I'm sure there will be some funny installments for sure and my measuring skills suck, so some of that too. So this being my first blog I hope that you will join me in this journey, at least reading about it and checking out the pictures. My hope is for this blog to make people laugh and have a fun read...

The book is set up to take one pie at a time.. and I am going to start on the first pie and work my way through the book. First pie... (drum roll please...) All Rhubarb Pie... (okay.. should be interesting, stay tuned).