Pumpkin Pie

My family is always searching for the best pumpkin pie recipe.  It seems like every year someone tries out something different, in search of the perfect pumpkin pie.  For me, I hate cloves in my pumpkin pie, I like it cold, and I want whipped cream on top.

I wish I could figure out how to get that really creamy, chewy texture.  I think maybe adding extra eggs is the way to get that, but I’m not sure. 

Well, this year I tried out two new recipes.  I usually just make the recipe on the Libby’s pumpkin can, the one that calls for evaporated milk.  This year I came across a recipe in a little Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk recipe booklet.  I changed up the spices to suit my taste.

I don’t have a picture of this pie, but it was GOOD!  I will definitely be making these now, rather than evaporated milk pies. 

Here’s the recipe for that one:

Recipe: Eagle Brand Pumpkin Pie

Yield: 1 pie

Ingredients:

• 1 unbaked pie crust
• 15oz. can pumpkin (2 cups)
• 14oz. can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425. Whisk pumpkin, Eagle Brand, eggs, spices and salt in medium bowl until smooth. Pour into crust. Bake 15 minutes.

2. Reduce oven temperature to 350 and continue baking 35-40 minutes or until knife inserted near the center comes out clean or nearly clean. Allow to cool. Serve with freshly whipped cream.

The other recipe I found was from Taste of Home Magazine.  It was for a pumpkin pie made with eggnog!  If you love eggnog you will love this pie.  I liked it quite well, but what I loved most was the crumb topping.  I will be adding that to the Eagle Brand Pie from now on.  SOOOO GOOD!

Recipe: Eggnog Pumpkin Pie

Yield: 1 pie

Ingredients:

· 1 unbaked pie crust

FILLING:

• 2 eggs
• 1 can (15 ounces) solid-pack pumpkin
• 1 cup eggnog
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

TOPPING:

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions

• Place crust into a 9” pie plate.
• In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, pumpkin, eggnog, sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger, nutmeg and cloves until blended. Pour into crust.
• In a small bowl, beat brown sugar and butter until crumbly, about 2 minutes. Stir in pecans; sprinkle over filling.
• Bake at 375° for 50-60 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Cover edges of crust with foil half-way through to prevent over browning. Cool on a wire rack. Serve with whipped cream.

Question of the day: Does anyone know an easy way to post a printable version of the recipes I share?

Pie

I am the middle child of a family of seven girls, no boys.  As you can imagine (or some of you may know) raising seven kids is a lot of work!  My mom was lucky because her mom lived about 20 minutes from us when we were growing up.  My grandma, Bernadine, or Bernie for short, was a school teacher.  But when she retired, she dedicated her time to helping my mom to raise us girls.  She did not live with us, but she came to our house early each morning and stayed there till after dinner most days.  She cooked, cleaned, chauffeured, gardened, taught little ones to read and write, helped with homework, did laundry, etc.  She was an awesome and fun loving grandma and I miss her deeply.

One of my fondest memories of her was the way she taught me to bake pies each Thanksgiving morning.  She was so patient with me.  She showed me how to work the pie dough gently, touching it as little as possible to create a flaky crust.  I remember being in awe of how she could peel and apple with only one peel.  We loved eating those long curly-Q peels.  She would let us take the extra dough and roll it out to make little cinnamon rolls.  Those were one of my favorite things at Thanksgiving.  We would spread butter of the dough and lots of cinnamon sugar, then roll it up and slice it and bake the little rolls in a pie tin.  Thanksgiving morning was always a happy time in my home of cooking together and eating yummy appetizers, and just enjoying each other’s company.  I miss cooking with my grandma so much.  I just miss her.  A lot.  I wish so much she was around to see my kids and love them like she did me.  And out of all my parents’ son-in-laws I know she would have loved my husband the most.  In fact, I met him shortly after she passed away and I think she had something to do with bringing us together.

Well, I still love to make pies and every time I do I think of “Grammy” making pies right alongside me.

I made several pies for this past Thanksgiving.  I tried some new recipes and I loved them all.  I am going to share them with you.  I hope you know how to make crust by hand because it is just so much yummier and so much more fun.  I will give you my recipe for crust but if you don’t know how to do it I would suggest finding a tutorial online.  It is easy, but you may have to practice a few times to get the right amount of water added…that’s the only hard part.

Today I am going to share the recipe for this little beauty:

This was probably my favorite pie this year.  It has a consistency very similar to very moist cheesecake.  It was tart and sweet and just super yummy.

I found the recipe in Better Homes and Gardens.  You can find it HERE.  It called for lemon but I went with lime because I love key lime pies so much.  It was delicious!

Lime Velvet Cream Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 unbaked pie crust, pre baked half way using pie weights
• 1 tsp. unflavored gelatin
• 2 Tbsps. Cold water
• 6 egg yolks
• 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
• ¼ c. whipping cream
• ¼ tsp. salt
• zest of two limes (or lemons)
• ¾ c. lime juice (or lemon), fresh is best
• whipped cream for topping

Directions: In a small bowl, soften gelatin in water for 5 minutes. Microwave for 10 seconds. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine egg yolks and sweetened condensed milk. With an electric mixer beat on high speed for a couple minutes until well combined. Beat in gelatin, whipping cream and salt on law speed. Add lime juice and zest and mix to combine. Pour into prepared crust.

Bake 22-25 minutes or until center of pie looks set when gently shaken. Cool on wire rack. Cover loosely and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Top with sweetened whipped cream before serving.

 

Basic Pie Crust

Yield: 2 crusts

Ingredients:

• 3 c. flour
• 1 c. butter flavored shortening (Crisco) OR 1/2 c. butter flavored Crisco and 1/2 c. butter
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 9-11 tsps. ice water, drizzled one tsp. at a time

Directions: Chill all ingredients well.  Combine flour, sugar, and salt in bowl. Cut in shortening to make a coarse meal. Sprinkle a tablespoon of the water over the flour mixture. Stir with a fork. Keep adding a tablespoon at a time and stirring in between. Add just enough of the water to form a soft dough. Handle it as little as possible. Divide the dough into 2 balls. Flatten slightly and wrap in plastic. Chill in fridge for 30 minutes. Roll out the crusts on a lightly floured surface to about ¼” thickness and a diameter 2 “ larger than pie plate on each side.

 

I would love to know a fast and easy way I could add a printable version of my recipes to my posts.  I use Windows Live Writer.  If anyone knows how, please let me know.  In the meantime, you can print by highlighting the recipe and then printing your selection.

SPIDER CHEESE BALL {Recipe}

This is a super yummy cheese ball recipe.  I make it for Thanksgiving and Christmas as well as any other time I need a yummy appetizer.

For the web, I simply spread some cream cheese on a plate and then used pieces of red pepper to make a web.  The eyes were made with slices of cucumber and then slices of carrot, glued on with cream cheese.  The mouth is another piece of red pepper.  For the legs I took a stalk of celery and split it lengthwise.  Then I cut it about half way through in the middle and then carefully bent it, being careful not to let the stringy fibers break. 

Ranch Cheese Ball

Ingredients:

• `1/2 c. prepared double strength milk recipe ranch (This means mix together 1/4 c. milk, 1/4 c. mayo, and 1 1/2 Tbsps ranch dressing powdered mix)
• `8 oz. finely shredded cheddar cheese (room temp) Be sure to shred your own as it has much more flavor.  I use sharp cheese or extra sharp cheese.
• `8 oz. cream cheese (softened)
• `3-5 oz. toasted sliced almonds, or any other nut you like, toasted and chopped.

Directions: Mix salad dressing and cream cheese with mixer. Add cheddar and mix well. Scrape down sides of bowl so mixture is all together in bottom. Cover and freeze 30 minutes. Shape into ball and roll in almonds. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm. Serve with your favorite crackers. Note: 8 times this recipe will make 10 good-sized cheese balls for Christmas gifts. You could also shape into a log shape.

Serve with crackers.  I added in some veggies for our Halloween dinner to try to get some vegetables in.

BLUEBERRY BANANA BREAD with STREUSEL TOPPING {Recipe}

I’ve been seeing all these cute Pie in a Jar and Cupcake in a Jar ideas and thought it would be fun to make one of my favorite recipes in a jar.   My banana bread recipe is to die for.  It is super moist and sweet and really is more like a dense cake than a bread.  It won my husband’s heart when we were dating!  At least he likes to say that to get me to make it.  It is my favorite way to use up the oodles of bananas that go brown before we get around to eating them.

BTW, here is a tip for you.  Putting bananas in the fridge will turn the skins brown, but it will keep the actual banana from ripening as quickly as it does on the counter.

I decided to make banana bread in a jar, and while I as making them I decided to add some fresh blueberries and a streusel topping.  Let me tell you, these are dangerous!  I think I could have eaten half of them or more!

Here they are fresh out of the oven.  Aren’t they adorable?  Mason jars are made to be heated to high temps, so they are perfect for cooking in.  I had to search high and low for these 1 cup wide mouth jars and finally found them at Ace Hardware for $10 for 12 of them.

To package them I used my Silhouette to cut a scalloped circle with black vinyl.  I then wrote the name of them on the label with some chalk.  I have found that black vinyl works well for chalkboard.  If I had a chalk pencil (like you use for sewing) it would have made the writing much easier!

Here is my recipe.  Let me know how you like it!

Recipe: Banana Bread

Yield: 2 Loaves (or 12 8 oz. jars)

Ingredients:

• 2 ¾ c. flour
• 1 ½ tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3/4 c. butter, softened
• 1 cup dark brown sugar (packed)
• ½ c. white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 3 c. ripe mashed bananas (about 7-8 medium)
• 2 tsps. pure vanilla extract
• 1 c. chopped walnuts (optional) {I did not use these with the blueberries}
• 1 c. fresh or frozen blueberries {will need to cook longer if using frozen}

Streusel topping:

• 1/2 c. rolled oats (quick or regular)

• 1/2 c. packed brown sugar

• 1/4 c. flour

• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon

• 1/4 c. cold butter cut into cubes

• 1/2 c. chopped nuts such as pecans or walnuts (optional)

Directions: In a medium bowl combine first three ingredients with a wire whisk. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add eggs and beat for a couple minutes till it looks fluffy. Add bananas and vanilla and mix well. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl. Add the flour mixture and walnuts, then blend on low until just combined. Don’t over mix. Pour into bread pans or jars sprayed with cooking spray.

Make the streusel topping:  Mix the first 4 ingredients together. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter or even your fingers. Add the chopped nuts.

Top the banana bread with a layer of streusel topping.  If making bread in jars, you will have some topping left over.

Bake on center rack of a 325° oven for 60-70 minutes for loaves, or at 325° for 40-50 minutes.  Jars should be placed on a baking sheet to keep them from tipping.  A toothpick inserted in center should come out clean (unless it hits a chunk of banana).  Bread should pull away from sides slightly and it should be a medium golden brown. Cool in pan for 10 minutes.  Turn bread pans on their sides to allow them to cool completely.  Leave in jars until completely cooled before securing lids.

APRICOT PIE FILLING {Recipe}

We live in Las Vegas AND we grow fruit!!  Yes, its true.  A lot of people think you can’t grow anything in Las Vegas.  But, you can!  You can grow a ton of different vegetables and fruits.  We have an apricot tree and this was the week of harvest for it.  Well, I guess we started last week and finished this week.  We didn’t get to it quite soon enough and therefore lost a lot of the fruit to pesky birds.  But we did get about 5 cookie sheets of apricots.  So, I have frantically been trying to figure out how to use them all up because we just can’t seem to eat them fast enough.  Apricots get overripe very quickly.  But there is just nothing quite so yummy as a perfectly ripe homegrown apricot.  Store bought apricots are never very good.  So, even though dealing with the fruit can be a headache, I do love the tree and I’m glad we have it!

Here is one of the trays:

I decided to use some of them to make some apricot pie filling to freeze for the holidays.  I made an apricot pie last Thanksgiving but I believe I made it out of apricots that I had frozen, not filling I had frozen.  It was tasty but if I remember correctly it was a bit watery.  I am hoping making the filling now and freezing it will help the texture to be a bit firmer. 

Here is how I did it:

Wash all the fruit well and remove the pits.

Cut each half in half again lengthwise and place in a bowl.

Add lemon juice, sugar and quick cooking tapioca.

Stir well.

Place in pie plates, cover with foil, and freeze.  Once frozen, remove from plates and vacuum seal into bags.  If you don’t have a vacuum sealer, wrap them well in foil and then place in freezer zipper bags.  Use a straw to suck out as much air as possible before closing the bag completely.

You can find the recipe I used for the filling HERE on Taste of Home.  I will probably top mine with a lattice crust although the crumb crust is yummy too!