Lemon Cream Pie

...make a lemon cream pie! A neighbor of ours, gave us a 10 pound bag of their lemons fresh from their tree. Wow! Immediately the kids wanted me to make lemonade. Well I knew it wouldn't take all of these lemons so what else could I make? I've made lemon bars last time with all of my lemons so I wanted something different. PIE! I found this recipe and it sounded great. I used my gluten free pie crust recipe and decided to use my tart pan instead (I love that it's easier to remove the slices). I also opted for a chilled pie because our oven heats up this little house so the less time I have to use it, the better. You do use a pre baked pie crust though, but it doesn't take too long in the oven.

This pie is just wonderful!! It's cold, creamy, fluffy and melts in your mouth. I really loved it. It's not too tart, it's perfect. A perfect end to Summer and to welcome Fall. Oh, and yes I made them lemonade, and I'll blog that soon too. 

Lemon Cream Pie
adapted from Welcome Home 

1 pie crust recipe, pre baked and cooled (gluten free recipe here)
1 cup sugar
3 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3 egg yolks slightly beaten
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup frozen butter, cut into small cubes
1 cup sour cream

Combine sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest, lemon juice, egg yolks and milk in saucepan, and cook over medium heat until thick (should take a few minutes). Stir in the frozen butter until melted, remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. Stir in the 1 cup of sour cream and pour into baked pie shell. Chill 6 hours or more, top with whipped cream before serving.

enjoy,

Gluten Free Pie Crust

I found this recipe last year just in time for my Holiday baking. I wasn't going to miss out on dessert being gluten free. I've made quite a few pies with it already and just made it again for my quiche (with a little less sugar in it). This crust comes out pretty good, it doesn't get really brown like a gluten crust would so that's good for me (since I always seem to burn crusts). It comes out flaky and delicate and no one can tell it's a gluten free crust. I make the GF flour blend mix and keep it in a baggie in the freezer so I at least always have some to get started on a new crust or use in another recipe.

Gluten Free Pie Crust
Directions adapted from Art of Gluten Free Baking

Jeanne’s Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour Mix:
1 1/4 C (170g) brown rice flour
1 1/4 C (205g) white rice flour
1 C (120g) tapioca flour
1 C (165g) sweet rice flour (also known as Mochiko)
2 scant tsp. xanthan gum

Combine all really well, keep stored in a dark place. You'll use some of this for the pie crust recipe below.



Gluten-Free Pie Crust
(makes a double crust for a 9-10 inch pie)
2 1/3 C (350g) Jeanne’s Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour Mix (above)
1 TBL granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 C (8oz; 230g; 2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
1 TBL apple cider vinegar
5-7 TBL cold water
extra tapioca flour for rolling out

To make the crust:
Place flour, sugar, and salt into a food processor. Pulse until combined. Add butter pieces to the dry ingredients mixture and pulse until the mixture looks like dry crumbly sand. 
Add the vinegar into the mixture. Add water a TBL at a time, pulsing into the mixture. You want to add enough to create a dough that holds together well, but isn’t wet but holds together (for me it's about 5-6 Tbl).

Divide the dough into two fairly equal pieces, shape into disks, and wrap each disk separately in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the disks for 20-30 minutes (or until the disks are cool and nicely firm but not hard).

Prepare your rolling surface. I lay a sheet of plastic wrap down, then the dough disk and another piece of plastic wrap over the dough and roll it out between the sheets of plastic. Then I carefully pull the top sheet off and gently pick up the bottom layer with the dough and carefully lay it over the pie dish.
If the crust cracks, just piece and press it together, if it's horribly cracked just reroll it. This is a very delicate crust and takes getting used to. I have not tried to lattice with this and not sure you could being so delicate.

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enjoy,

Key Lime Pie Tart

For Easter this year instead of my traditional carrot cake I made, I decided to try a Key Lime Pie. I found a recipe for gluten free graham crackers and made it (here), then crushed them for my crust (like this recipe) and added it to a tart pan. You may have some leftover mixture if your pie dish is shallow. If so, try halving this recipe or use a deep dish. I did intend for these to be mini tarts, but that idea flopped so I'll just say that this recipe for a whole tart is super easy and tastes really really good, I especially preferred it chilled. It set up nicely, slicing beautifully and was so smooth and creamy. I found it to be more tart at a room temp than chilled.


Key Lime Pie Tart {Gluten Free}
adapted from allrecipes

4 egg yolks, beaten
2 (14 ounce ea.) cans sweetened condensed milk
1 cup key lime juice (Nellie & Joe’s)
Zest of two limes
1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust (I made a gluten free crust)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Combine the egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, lime juice and zest. Mix well. Pour into unbaked graham cracker shell.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Allow to cool. Top with whipped topping and garnish with lime slices and zest if desired.

*For mini tarts, divide crust crumbs evenly into 24 cupcake liners, press bottoms and up along side , add about 1/4 C. of key lime pie batter to each. Bake for 10 minutes 350'. Let cool and chill.

* You may also add about 3-4 TBL of unsweetened dried coconut to your crust mixture for more flavor.

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enjoy,

Pumpkin Pie with a Coconut Pecan Crust {Gluten Free}

(I love the DOF my new camera gives)

Here's a great recipe for a nutty crust, perfect for a pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving. I thought this would be a nice change from the usual pastry crust we have with pumpkin pie. This crust is chewy from the coconut and a lovely nuttiness from the pecans. I used my favorite pie filling from Libby's site. I suppose you could use regular all purpose flour if you are not gluten free.

Coconut Pecan Crust
from Gluten Free Goddess

Prepare a 9-inch Springform pan by lining the bottom with a piece of parchment paper.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

1 cup flaked unsweetened coconut (Bob's Red Mill)
1 cup pecan pieces
1/2 cup all purpose gluten-free flour blend (I used my bread mix)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
5 tablespoons butter

Place all of the dry ingredients into a food processor bowl and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse sand. Add in the butter and pulse several times in short bursts until the crumbs are moist and begin to fall away from the sides of the bowl.
Dump the crumbs into the cake pan and spread them evenly. Using your fingers gently press the crumbs across the bottom and up the sides- about 2/3 of the way up.
Bake in the center of the oven for about 7 minutes- to set.
Remove the pan and set aside. Make pie filling.

(the lens I have is hard to focus sometimes)

Libby's Famous Pumpkin Pie
from very best baking

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 large eggs
1 can (15 oz.)  Pure Pumpkin
1 can (12 fl. oz.)  Evaporated Milk
1 9-inch (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie shell (above)

Mix sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.
Pour into pie shell.
Bake in preheated 425° F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. Top with whipped cream before serving.

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enjoy,

A Peanut Butter Pie for Mikey

This is a special post for a fellow food blogger, Jennifer Perillo of In Jennie's Kitchen. Her Husband suddenly passed away last week leaving behind two beautiful little girls and Jennifer. I don't know Jennifer personally, and I only first heard of her a week before of some good news that came her way, then sadly the next I heard was this sad terrible news. News spread fast in the blogging community through Facebook and Twitter. She posted a beautiful sweet home video of her Husband dancing with his little girl, and my heart broke as I watched. My heart goes out to Jennifer and her girls, she has been in my thoughts all week.

Jennifer announced in a recent blog post that we should all make a Peanut Butter Pie in honor of him. Everyone came together and there was a Facebook event made for Mikey's memory and hundreds joined in. I reckon the grocery shelves are bare of peanut butter and chocolate tonight, for you Mikey.

Come and check out the growing list of bloggers who also made a pie for Mikey or read along on Twitter hashtag #apieformikey.

I made Jennifer's Peanut Butter Pie today to share with my family. You may find the recipe for this Peanut Butter Pie at Jennifer's blog.

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enjoy,

Dorie Greenspan's Alsatian Apple Tart

 We were sent some Piñata apples for review, so I decided to try Dorie Greenspan's Alsatian Apple Tart. I finally found not one, but two tart pans (thanks Marshalls!) so I was really happy to be making this. If you don't have a tart pan, with a removable bottom, then you could use a spring form pan as well. This recipe is SO easy, once the tart crust is cooled it's oven ready in just minutes. This tart is delicious (as many of Dorie's recipes are) and the kids especially  loved it.

Alsatian Apple Tart

Dorie Greenspan, BAKING FROM MY HOME TO YOURS

1 9" tart shell made with Sweet Tart Dough, partially baked & cooled (see below)

1 pound apples - about 3 medium apples (I used Piñata apples)
3/4 cup heavy cream
6 tablespoons sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk
3/4 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Put the tart pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.

Peel the apples, cut them in half from top to bottom and remove the cores. Cut the apple halves lengthwise into thick slices (about 1/4 to 1/2" thick), I got 12 wedges from one apple. Lay them in the tart shell, overlapping a little.

Whisk together the cream, sugar, whole egg, yolk and vanilla and pour over the apples.

Bake the tart for 50-55 minutes or until the apples can be easily pierced with the tip of a knife. Transfer to a cooling rack. Serve at room temperature with a powdered sugar dusting.

Sweet Tart Dough

Dorie Greenspan, BAKING FROM MY HOME TO YOURS

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (4 1/2 ounces) very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 large egg yolk

To make the dough: Put the flour, confectioners' sugar and salt in the work bowl of a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is cut in coarsely - you'll have pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and pea-size pieces and that's just fine. Stir the egg, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses - about 10 seconds each - until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. Just before your reaches this clumpy stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change - heads up. Turn the dough out onto a work surface.

Very lightly and sparingly knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.

Butter the tart pan and press the dough evenly along the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Don't be stingy - you want a crust with a little heft because you want to be able to both taste and feel it. Also, don't be too heavy-handed - you want to press the crust in so that the pieces cling to one another and knit together when baked, but you don't want to press so hard that the crust loses its crumbly shortbreadish texture. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.

To partially bake the crust: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit the foil tightly against the crust. Bake the crust 25 minutes, then carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. Bake for another 3 to 5 minutes, then transfer the crust to a cooling rack; keep it in its pan.

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enjoy,

Tuesdays with Dorie: All-American, All-Delicious Apple Pie

Please check out this week's TWD pick from the blog of Emily called Sandmuffin for this recipe to All-American, All-Delicious Apple Pie. It's REALLY good, you'll want to bake one! I made this while my Parents are here visiting with us and they loved it too! Did you know this is my first ever apple pie I've made? Do you want to know that this will be my go-to apple pie for now on!

It was great, the flavors were perfect in this. I loved the thick sauce it made (see it oozing out the side in the photo?). I used Granny Smith green apples and Golden Delicious in my pie. Dorie even suggested using pears and apples which sound really good too. The crust came out perfect and flaky (I'm telling ya, check out Dorie's crust recipes! They are really good!). I brushed the top of the crust with some heavy cream and it came out such a pretty golden color (I usually use an egg wash when baking like that, but I think cream is the way to go now!). I served this with a vanilla yogurt blend and it was just delicious, not a single complaint from all seven of us!

Go check out the link to Emily's blog for this recipe. It is DELISH! By the way, this was Dorie Greenspan's Birthday weekend, so Happy Birthday to her! =)

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enjoy,

Tuesdays with Dorie: Caramel Pumpkin Pie

Janell of Mortensen Family Memoirs picked Caramel Pumpkin Pie for TWD this week. It's perfect for Fall! I love pumpkin pie too so I was not going to skip this week! For this one, you have to make a caramel, don't worry it's easy and takes just minutes and a watchful eye. Dorie did mention the darker the caramel turns as it's cooking, the richer the flavor, so keep that in mind.

This was a gorgeous pie, I baked it in my stoneware deep dish, and it came out of that dish in just a perfect slice, nothing fell apart and the crust was really flaky too (I just love Dorie's crusts!!). Even though I kept the pie covered with parchment while baking, the crust still got a little darker than I like.

The pie was even still a touch warm even after sitting on the counter for 4 hours after baking! The texture was creamy, the flavor was great (I did used a little less of the spices) and I even topped it with a little crumble as Dorie suggested we could. While I thought the pie was pretty good, I myself could taste the "burnt sugar" in it while it was still warm. But then, I had my photo piece, cold the next day...and it was even better! I could not taste that burnt sugar flavor as much.

PS. I used apple cider in mine, and I have to say I LOVE it! I've never had it before (OK maybe once long ago) and don't really care for apple juice, but apple cider! Mmm!

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enjoy,