Lemon Custard Pie

In keeping with the past few citrusy recipes, I celebrated last week's National Pie Day with this recipe for lemon custard pie from Gourmet magazine's last issue.


I skipped the crust-making steps and used a pre-made graham cracker crust. The filling is pretty much a lemon syrup that is turned into a custard. I used meyer lemons for this since I've been wanting to use these lemons for years. They have a smoother exterior and are supposed to be sweeter than normal lemons. I needed about 3 lemons for this recipe.


The pie turned out wonderfully flavor-wise. It was sweetly lemony, the near-perfect balance of tart and saccharine. On problem was that the filling seemed to dissolve the pre-made crust (see the crack in the picture), so next time I'll definitely make and blind-bake my own. But that was the only slight drawback on presentation and it had no effect on the flavor. For as much as citrus flavors are used for "summer" meals (think of lemonade), nothing gets you going like a mid-day snack of lemony goodness. It brings the same satisfaction as a lemon bar, except pie is involved. And who can say no to pie?

Pumpkin-Apple Pie

All of the to-do of Thanksgiving and Christmas for me boils down to one question: apple pie or pumpkin pie? Very often I do not have to or want to choose. But every year when my waistline increases as the temperature decreases, I'm thankful for those small changes that make me feel like less of a glutton.


So this year I combined my pumpkin and apple pies into one Franken-pie. A recipe from a Nestle cookbook I had guided the way:

Pumpkin Dutch Apple Pie

Apple Layer
1 9" deep-dish pie shell, unbaked
2 cups green apples, peeled, cored, thinly sliced
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp flour
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Pumpkin Layer
1.5 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp butter, melted
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp nutmeg

Crumb Topping
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup walnuts, chopped
5 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp butter

For the apple layer, combine apples with sugar, flour, lemon juice, and cinnamon in a medium bowl; pour into pie shell.
For the pumpkin layer, combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and pour over apple mixture.
For the crumb topping, combine flour, walnuts and sugar in a medium bowl. Cut in butter until it looks like a coarse crumb.
Bake pie for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with crumb topping. Return to oven to finish baking for 20 more minutes, or until the pie does not jiggle in the middle when gently shaken. Cool completely.


When sliced, the pie looks like you took a pumpkin and an apple pie, sawed off the extra pie crust, and shoved them together. The taste, though, is wonderful. My family seemed skeptical at first about this creation as our only pie for Thanksgiving, but we all loved it! The cinnamon really unites these two while they both provide different textures. Plus the crumb topping really makes the pie feel whole and complete.


What do you do when you buy a two-pack of pie shells but only use one? What do you do when your first pie left you with some apple and pumpkin filling? The answer, of course, is to experiment! I tossed the remaining apples in the pumpkin filling, poured this into the pie crust, and, to get rid of the empty look of the pie, I folded the edges of the crust over to form a pseudo-crostata. It bakes in about the same amount of time as the pie (though I'm sure it was probably done a bit sooner), looks more rustic but tastes just as good. This is a good alternative for those who do not care for the full brunt of pumpkin pie's custardiness but still want to enjoy this interesting flavor combination. Plus it makes smaller slices, so you're gaining just as much enjoyment for less guilt. There's just no downside. It makes me wonder what other desserts need to be shoved together...perhaps banana-cherry jubiloster (jubilee-foster, that is)?

Magic Pie & Salmon Salad - 3/19/2009

I've been mostly eating last week's leftovers, but I did do some culinary work this week (I swear!). To continue my push to avoid eating sandwiches, I made this miso salmon salad.


I may have said this before, but I'm not a huge fan of salads. For me, while a pile of lettuce may relieve your hunger pangs, it is not, by any stretch of the imagination, satisfying. For instance, I only ever get the salad bar if I know it will have meat and/or hefty, dense add-ons (broccoli, chickpeas, olives, potato salad, avocado, boiled eggs, etc.). That's why Cobb salad is probably one of my favorites. Anyhow, this salad has some nice non-traditional add-ons along with lots of protein. After marinating salmon fillets in a combination of rice wine, soy sauce, grated ginger, white miso paste, sugar, and lemon juice, it is baked for about 15-ish minutes in a 400 degree oven until they are cooked to your liking. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. While cooling, make the rest of the salad by tossing fresh spinach, blanched and halved snow peas, cucumber chunks, and chopped scallion. Make salmon into chunks and put on top of salad. For the dressing, combine equal parts soy sauce, rice vinegar, rice wine, and sugar with 4 parts white miso paste. Drizzle on top of salad and enjoy. The salmon itself was moist and dense but not fishy in any respect, and there was a vast array of other flavors: salty/tangy from the dressing, aromatic from the green onion, and sweet from the snow peas. Nicely Asian but appropriately light for a lunch course.


Yes, yes, another baked good. I made it in honor of National Pi Day (3/14), celebrating the wondrous glory that is the transcendental number pi. This one is called "funny cake pie." It's claim to fame is two-fold: 1) it is part cake, part pie, and 2) it performs a bit of a magic trick while baking. While I'm sure everyone would love me explaining the magic of pi, I will have to save that for another day and settle for the magic of pie. The recipe is very simple and is split into two parts:
Batter
1.5 cups sugar
0.5 cups vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Beat the first three ingredients until well blended. Then add the remaining ingredients and beat on medium for 2 minutes. Pour into pie crusts (I used store-bought graham cracker crusts). Don't worry too much about overmixing the batter because it comes out a bit like pancake batter.


Pretty basic so far. Next, mix together 1 cup sugar with 0.5 cups cocoa powder and 1 cup of hot water. If presentation is important, be sure to mix this together well. I was a little lazy and didn't fully mix the cocoa powder into the water (It is hard to mix chocolate into water with all of the oils in the chocolate, another reason I like to make hot chocolate with milk.). Top the pie(s) with the chocolate mixture. As you can see from the picture, the watery chocolate mixture sinks right through the cake batter. My theory is the batter has been aerated from the mixing, so it allows the thin chocolate mixture to fall right through it's pores, invisible as they may be to the naked eye. As you can see, some chocolate residue was left on the top of my pies.


Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour for a full pie, about 30-40 minutes for minis (check with a toothpick or you can just eyeball it.


The inside of the pies turned out very good. The cakey portion had a nice vanilla sweetness, paired with a thinner layer of fudgey goodness on the bottom. A basic dessert, but very fun to make.

Ravioli, Meatballs & Chocolate Pie - 12/27/2007

One of my family members, Sandy, (I am not sure what the name is for our specific familial relationship), was intent on teaching me to make traditional ravioli, so here is what happened.


Every great pasta dinner needs a sauce and every great Italian dinner needs too much food, so here is the sauce with the meatballs that were the side dish to our pasta. The sauce started with sauteed garlic, some browned sausage and pork loin strips. To make more of a sauce, Sandy added crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. We let the sauce cook for a while before adding meatballs (prepared with beef, breadcrumbs, parmesan, parsley, garlic, and salt). Then this mixture simmered for many hours until dinner.


The first set of ravioli was made in half-moon shapes with ricotta-parsley filling. Let me tell you, creamy fillings are very tough to make into ravioli since they interfere with the seal-ability of the dough. I failed on about 6 of these because of this problem. But these ravioli, despite their simplicity, ended up very light and delicious.


The second set of ravioli were meant to be heavier so we made a slightly thicker dough. The filling is mostly beef, but it was surprisingly lighter because of some added spinach and lemon juice. These were made in a simpler fashion that yielded rectangular ravioli of varying sizes.


While making ravioli, I commented that I have had previous difficulty with doughs, especially pastry dough. So Sandy made it her mission to teach me to make a pie dough. We cut some butter into a flour-salt mixture, then slowly added water to make the dough. After some help rolling the dough out, I baked it until golden brown. The filling is sugar-free chocolate pudding (blech, I know but it was all we had at the time), topped with home-made whipped cream (with vanilla and cinnamon), some crumbled no-bake cookies (my stepmom made a batch that didn't turn into cookie, but makes a pretty good topping), and a sprinkling of hot cocoa mix.

Mini Mince Pies - 11/29/2007

For a Secret Santa gift, I was given the ideas of "something sports, something candy or something meat." I made some Gator-colored candy and peppermint bark (possibly pictured later) for the first two and I had to brainstorm for a while to cover the third. Then I remembered mincemeat pie. Old versions of this filling did contain meat, but modern versions are comprised of dried fruits, nuts, spices, and a little liquor.



I will admit that I Sandra Lee-ed this recipe. I bought the dough (after the fiasco with the apple pie) and the mince filling and "jazzed" up the presentation. I used a biscuit cutter to make rounds of dough that I put into cupcake cups. I filled each dough cup with mince filling. Then I made 12 different mostly holiday shapes (my Secret Santa recipient's name starts with W and we use piglets for our research, but otherwise they are holiday-themed) out of dough to put on top. Amazingly, I cut dough better than I draw, so these turned out quite well.


If we ever had leftover pie dough, my mom would always make a ladyfinger or two. I do not actually know how she made it, so I tried my best. I rolled out the dough (with my hands because I was too lazy to use my rolling pin) in an oval shape. Then I put a heap of sugar, some cinnamon and a few small cubes of butter in the center, followed by a wrapping it all up and baking it until golden. It probably needed some more sugar and cinnamon, but it was flaky and delicious anyways.

Fakesgiving - 11/17/2007

My roommates and I have our own version of Thanksgiving every year that we call Fakesgiving. In years past, we have large numbers of friends participate in a potluck while we provide the location and some staple foods. This year was less than spectacular, but I am proud of what I made for the occasion. First of all, it took me three years to do it, but I made a great gravy using some of the turkey drippings. Previously, I tried adding flour to the drippings as they heated and a couple of other tricks, all resulting in a gravy that quickly turned to Jell-O. The big change this year is I actually took some time to think, "How do you make gravy?" The answer is you use a roux. I was definitely proud of my accomplishment, no matter if it seems small.


I attempted to make my first home-made apple pie with a lattice top. I got the pie dough recipe from my mom, though I do not think I did it quite right. The dough set up, but it was not easily workable and fell apart rather quickly. But it still held the apples well, so I cannot complain. I made the pie with granny smith apples instead of the romas the recipe recommended. This resulted in a fine balance between sweetness and tartness that I enjoyed thoroughly. Next time, I want to get the dough right and make the pie a little more goopy, if you know what I mean.


This is the dessert I am more proud of: chocolate hazelnut (Nutella) cheesecake bites. I was struck by the idea to make a Nutella cheesecake the other day, so I put this together. It has an oreo crust (my friend always bemoans the fact that I throw away the cream centers) and a cheesecake recipe with a large helping of Nutella mixed in. Surprisingly, the cheesecake tasted more like cream cheese than Nutella, so I went through with my idea to make a Nutella topping as well. I heated some of the chocolatey stuff with a little bit of milk to make it more pliable. After adding this on top, I thought the bites looked a bit plain. To remedy this, I went to Fresh Market (the best grocery store ever as long as you do not need non-food items) and picked up some hazelnuts (filberts). I lightly toasted the nuts, crushed them with a rolling pin and sprinkled them on top. These do taste as good as they look with a nice crunch from the hazelnuts. If I don't stop baking soon, I'm going to weigh 300 pounds by my 25th birthday.

Halloween Birthday Party - 10/26/2007

My roommate's birthday is next week, so we had a get-together for her last night. There were some recipes I wanted to make to both pander to her tastes and show a little Halloween spirit.




First are Wicked Cupcakes, a recipe from Food Network. In the online pictures, the cupcakes were a bit cleaner and more intricately decorated, but I think mine looked just fine. They are chocolate cupcakes with a peanut butter and cream cheese frosting to make the head. The hats are Oreo wafers and their features are made with various candies. The birthday girl ended up helping me with these, so I do have to thank her for that.


Next was a chocolate fondue. I am not posting pictures of the fondue itself, since I think most people can imagine a pot of chocolate. Above are all of the "dippins" that I put out: pineapple, strawberries, pretzels, oreos, and bananas. The fondue was flavored with a hazelnut liqueur, but I could not taste it too much. Also, I think the heat source was too hot because the chocolate started to burn and separate. But it is really hard to ruin the taste of chocolate so people were eating it anyways. Not pictured is a frozen pound cake that I cubed which was quite delicious with the fondue.


The last dish I am showing is my own creation: S'mores Pie. I first baked a graham cracker crust. For the filling, I melted together chocolate chips, whipping cream and marshmallows. The filling ended up setting up very densely and it was almost like fudge, but it was pretty good. For decoration, I put dollops of whipped cream for each slice topped with homemade marshmallows. The marshmallows are a bit more slippery than normal marshmallows and they tend to melt more than they brown over an open flame, but they tasted just about right. For a final touch, I sprinkled the top with graham cracker crumbs and shaved chocolate.

I attempted to make a pumpkin panna cotta, but they did not set up fully in the ghost and pumpkin molds I had, so I did not take a picture. That recipe still needs a little tweaking before it is blog-worthy. Once most everyone arrived, I also started cooking midnight breakfast: pina colada pancakes (pancakes with pineapple and coconut), bacon and eggs benedict. It was an extremely stuffing night, but it was a lot of fun.