Pie #12: Peach Preserves and Applesauce Strudel Pie

So when you think of pie don’t you usually think of something round in a pie plate? Yeah I know so do I! Well in this case I did not use a pie plate instead I used a cookie sheet. Before I go into how I made it I will say I was really busy that morning (it was the morning of our Annual Easter Egg hunt at church). I am not sure what I was thinking to bake this for breakfast but I did.  I do that sometimes, thinking, “Oh, I got time so hey let’s make a pie!”

This pie called for a tender Cream Cheese Pasty crust. This type of crust was hard for me to work with. I prepped the crust a day before knowing that it needed to harden up. I let it set in the fridge for a day and overnight and the dough was still sticky. While working with the dough, I found out that the heat in the kitchen made the dough stickier and the kitchen was warm from the oven warming it up. I tried to roll out the dough in a nice rectangle but the dough kept sticking to the roller, so I ended up having to pound it out like play doh.  I did figure out that you need to work fast with this particular type of crust, I found this out real quick. 

Now here is the cool thing, the filling is only two things: 1 cup of peach preserves and ½ a cup of sweetened applesauce. That’s IT just two ingredients. If I could get the crust down I would be able to make this in a snap.  After pounding out the dough to a so called rectangle I spread the ingredients over half of the dough and then folded it over, it ended up looking like a calzone.

So the recipe says to heat the oven to 400, but then it says to turn it down to 375, well I was readying this AFTER I put it in the oven.  So I had to rush over there and turn it down to 375, so it was saved. Once again, read the entire recipe more than once all the way through. Someday I will be heeding my own advice.  READ ALL THE RECIPE BEFORE YOU START!

As you see below it was not one of my best looking “pies” but it tasted pretty good.

Hello Results: Cream cheese crust is a hard curst to make but the taste is well worth it.  I ate a lot of it and Joshua enjoyed the rest. I would fix this again if I could get the hang of the crust. Brings a quote to mind.. “If at first you don’t succeeded try, try again.” That really rings true in this case…. 288 pies to go!

Pie 11: Bev's Brownie Pie

When I read this title of a pie I was hooked without even reading the ingredients, who would not want a pie that had the word brownie in it, I mean come on… but I was curious of one thing who is Bev? Well Bev is the name of Ken Haedrich, the author’s, wife.  Apparently she has a real weakness for rich brownies. Call me sappy but I think that would be the coolest thing to have your hubby name a pie after you, to me that is a top honor. 

I had the privilege of making this pie with a dear friend of mine, Jessica Ihams. My family and her family got together at their house, as we made the pie the guys grilled out hamburgers. It was a great time; all I really did was the crust on this pie. Jessica did most of the filling and did this wonderfully. 

One thing I figured out after the fact was that this particular crust we were NOT supposes pre bake, all we needed to do was refrigerate the pie crust till the filling was ready. The crust was a Graham Cracker Crust, and I will say this is one of the easy crusts with little effort. Like I have said in many blogs before, it is crucial to read all the instructions FIRST then start making the pie.  I know someday I will learn this lesson.

As for the filling it was pretty easy. I got to use my double boiler, which I love by the way, to melt the chocolate. The rest of the filling was pretty easy, I am glad Jessica had  standing mixer, because there was a lot of mixing to be done.  One interesting thing about this pie is that after we poured the filling it called for confectioners’ sugar to be put on top. Jessica and I both thought it would sink in the filling while baking. After taking the pie out of the oven the sugar was still on top.

After letting it sit out for about 45 minutes, we could not take it any longer we had to dig in.

Let me just tell you it was some brownie goodness. It was amazing; it tasted great with ice cream too! It was rich warm and like a dazzling brownie in a pie plate.

Hello Results: I loved to be able to use a double boiler that is a GREAT invention for sure.  I think we could have waiting a tad bit longer to cut into the pie, but it was just too hard to wait. Again it would be a great idea to read all the instructions before starting the pie. Now this would be a fabulous idea, someday I will learn, someday I will learn.  So yeah, 11 pies down and 289 to go!

Pie #10: Rockin Apple Pie

Okay so pie 10! I wanted to make a pie but did not want to go the store, so off I went into the kitchen to see what I could find. Lucky me I found some apples and some yummy spices.

So introducing Rockin Apple Pie, why the name, well I did not go by a recipe at all, I “created” it all by myself.  So what better name than Rockin Apple Pie! Right?

In this pie I made a Basic Flakey Pie Double crust, without looking at the recipe, seems I have this pie crust down.  See below for the bottom crust.

You may be wondering why there is so much over hang on the bottom crust. Well let me enlighten you. The reason why is, you want to have and overhang so you can attach the top crust later, allowing for some room to mess with the crust allowing you to have what they call an Upstanding Ridge crust if you would like.

 After this I peeled some Gala apples and put in some sugar and corn starch and cinnamon and then the apples; then pouring the mixture in the pie dish.

After that I rolled out the top crust and put the top crust on, spread some milk over the top of the pie crust (this helps you get a good browning on top of the crust), then sprinkled some sugar on top. Since I had some wiggle room with the crust I decided to use what I will call the fork technique. To do this, you use a fork, (imagine that), with the fork you go around the edge of the curst and press the fork into the crust, this makes for a cool design; I will refer to as the fork print. 

Then I put the pie in the oven for 30-45 minutes. While the pie was in the oven I used the left over crust to make some cinnamon and sugar squares. These squares remind me of home. How my mom use to make them, oh the memories… Oh, these squares were a huge hit with my boys.

After the pie was in the oven for about 45 minutes I took it out and let it set for a while. 

Was there an occasions for this pie? Funny you should ask that, actually. I did this pie for a Woman’s Bible study; I was supposed to bring a dessert that night. So I thought I would surprise them with a homemade apple pie. Well as it turns out the meeting was cancelled and Joshua and the boys and I got to eat some yummo pie. So that worked out for our favor for sure!

Hello Results: I would have loved to share this pie with my gal pals but I know there will be another chance to do so. My boys, including my hubby, loved the pie and the cinnamon sugar squares. I strive to get to the point where I can walk in a kitchen and put some things in a pie crust and say … “There you go, the best pie you will ever have!”  What can I say I dream BIG.

10 pies down and 290 to go!

Update on my Pie Blogs

Some of you have been inquiring about my pie making and if I am still making pies. And I hope you are checking in every once in a while. Things have been crazy around here, I am still making pies, but the blogs are not getting done as fast as I would like to. My goal is to get them up really soon! I am working on getting the blogs up within two weeks.  Stay tuned, thanks for checking in!