Black Forest Pie (4 Stars)

26
Black Forest Pie
12/28/11

We tried a couple of pies ( Coconut Cream and Banana Cream) since our last post which failed miserably and resulted in a search for a double boiler at JC Penney's, Dillard's, the Bosche Center, Sears, and online. We finally picked up a Paula Dean set at Sears. We will revisit those pies in the future hopefully with better success. We really liked the Black Forest Pie from the Lion House Pie Book, kind of like a brownie in a pie shell. It takes several steps to make but it wasn't that difficult. We made it for the annual trek to Aspen Grove and had to divide it into 12ths to give maximum tasting coverage. Brad tried to get the first slice by using his cute baby Paisley as a distraction and it nearly worked.

Crust: Buttermilk bottom shell

Filling:
3/4 cup butter
6 Tablespoons cocoa
1 cup sugar, divided
2/3 cup ground blanched almonds
2 tablespoons flour
3 eggs, separated
2 Tablespoons water

Topping:
1/3 cup sour cream
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup canned cherry pie filling

Glaze:
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1-1/2 teaspoons shortening

In a saucepan, melt butter, stir in cocoa and 3/4 cup sugar. Remove from heat and cool for 5 minutes. Stir in almonds and flour. Add egg yolks and stir well then add water and stir. Beat egg whites in a separate bowl until foamy, add 1/2 cup sugar, beat until soft peaks form. Fold chocolate mixture into egg whites until blended. Pour mixture into unbaked shell. Bake in preheated oven at 350 F for 35 to 45 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes. In a separate bowl, combine sour cream, sugar, and vanilla. Spread over warm pie, spoon sherry pie an return to oven for 5 minutes. Melt chocolate chips and shortening in a saucepan, stirring constantly. Drizzle over pie and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Reed

Kerry

Adding Chocolate Glaze

Rebecca, Melissa, Melissa, Paisley, & Kevin

Rebecca, Melissa and Melissa taste testing

Neil Reed tasting the Black Forest Pie

Stayman/Winesap Apple Pie (5 stars)

25
Stayman/Winesap Apple Pie
12/18/11

Okay I cheated with this pie. We went to Pennsylvania for Nathan's graduation (MS in nuclear engineering from Penn State). The best part was spending time with Nate, Nicole, and Katie. We went to the Way Fruit Farm, which was established 1826. It's a great place, big wood barn full of good stuff, especially apples. The first thing you notice when you walk in is the smell of apples and there are apples all over. They have a huge variety of apples including Granny Smith, Cortland, Northern Spy, Ida Red, McIntosh, Jonagold, Honeycrsip, etc. We asked about cooking apples and chose Stayman/Winesap which I'd never heard of before. They turned out to be crisp but much sweeter than Granny Smith. The problem was that Nate and Nicole are in the process of moving to Chicago and the movers had already taken just about everything so we ended up cheating by using a ready made pie crust and Apple Pie Spice. The crust was pretty workable, probably because it used lard. The pie flavor was excellent but the bottom crust just didn't brown probably because we used a tinfoil pie tin which resulted in an undercooked crust. I'll keep my eye out for these apples but try to avoid using anything but a Pyrex pie plate and homemade crust.

Crust: Weigman's ready made crust

Filling:

7 Stayman/Winesap Apples
3/4 cup sugar
1-1/2 teaspoon Apple Pie Spice (Blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice)
3 Tablespoons Tapioca
2 Tablespoons Lemon juice
1 Tablespoon Lemon Zest

Peel, core, slice apples. Add lemon juice and zest and mix. Blend sugar, tapioca, Apple Pie Spice, then add to the apples. Pour into pie shell, cover with top crust, brush edge with egg-water mixture then seal. Brush top with egg-water mixture and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in pre-heated oven at 425 F for 20 minutes, rotate pie 180 degrees, then reduce heat to 350 and bake for 40 minutes or until filling is bubbling thickly. Cover with foil if it browns too quickly.

Raisin Cream (5 stars)

24
Raisin Cream Pie
12/11/11

Sunday was Grandma Elison's birthday and we went to Kip and Diana's to celebrate. We decided to make a Raisin Cream pie for the party. We have tried other recipes that called for the raisins to be ground-up but we like this version the best which keeps the raisins whole. Grandpa Elison said it reminded him of his mom's raisin pie. If fact he was the biggest fan. I agree with him it was good.

Crust: Buttermilk Crust

Filling:
1 cup seedless raisins
1-1/2 cups water
3/4 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Tablespoon butter
1 cup heavy cream

Rinse and drain the raisins. Place in pan with 1-1/2 cups ware. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Mix dry ingredients: sugar, salt, and cornstarch together in a bowl then add to raisins. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until mixture is clear and thick. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla, butter, and cream. Allow mixture to cool. Place in pastry-lined pie pan, cover with top crust. Bake at 400 F for 30 minutes.

Key Lime Pie (5 star)

23 - Key Lime Pie
12/8/11

This is one of the easiest pies to make and one of my favorite's, in fact its probably in my top 10 list. We had been so disappointed in store-bought  and restaurant key lime pies. In fact, we were having dinner with Ramon and Marcy at Frontier Pies and we ordered key lime pie. When it came it was green, that was the first clue that it was not key lime pie, but I tasted it anyway. It was pistachio. What followed was an argument with our server where she insisted it was key lime. She never backed down and I didn't eat the pie. So, I had to make our own. We use Nellie & Joe's Key West Lime Juice and always have at least one bottle in the fridge and a graham cracker crust in the pantry. We brought this to the DOI Christmas Lunch too. One taste of real Key Lime Pie and you start to sweat - its great.

Crust: Store-bought Graham Cracker Crust

Filling:

One 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
3 egg yolks (whites not used)
1/2 cup (and a little more) Key Lime Juice


Combine condensed milk, egg yolks, key lime juice and blend until smooth. Pour filling into pie shell and bake in pre-heated oven at 350 F for 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes before refrigerating. Before serving, top with whipped cream and lime slices.

Annette and pies

DOI Christmas Lunch

Real Key Lime Pie

Jumbleberry Pie (5 Star)

22 - Jumbleberry Pie

12/8/11

Every year since 1993 our office has put on the "DOI Christmas Lunch." It started as a small lunch where, just five of us brought our favorite dish to share and then whatever was left over was shared with the rest of the building. It morphed into a way for us to thank everyone for their help and support during the year. Many other people help out now bringing their favorite dishes including Ron's Burrito Casserole and Linda's stuffed mushrooms. I decided to add a Jumbleberry pie which is one of my favorites. We've tried a variety of berry mixes and found out that Strawberries do not work well, they just go mushy. This pie had frozen Boysenberries, Raspberries, and Blueberries.

Crust: Buttermilk Crust

Filling:

4 cups mixed berries

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

1 Tbs Lemon Juice

Thaw frozen berries. Prepare bottom crust and refrigerate while preparing filling. In a large bowl add lemon juice to berries. Mix cornstarch and sugar together dry and then add to berries, gently mixing to avoid mashing the berries. Pour berry mixture in pie shell, cover with top crust, brush with heavy cream and sprinkle with sugar. Preheat oven to 425 F and bake pie for 20 minutes on lowest rack. Reduce heat to 350 F, rotate pie 180 degrees, bake for 35 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Bruce sneaking a piece of pie

Jonathan with Jumbleberry Pie

Jumbleberry Pie

Linda, Chris, and Kerry 

Jumbleberry Pie

Pie With a Little Pumpkin (5 star)

21 - Thanksgiving Pie
11/24/11

This recipe is from the "Lion House Pies" by Deseret Book. It is pretty complicated pumpkin pie with 4 layers, in fact we call it pie with a little pumpkin. The recipe requires a deep-dish pie pan or else there is a lot of pumpkin filling left over. This a great pie, it is really good, but hard to make. It was a favorite at Thanksgiving Dinner.

Kerry

Bottom Crust: Buttermilk

Filling:

Layer 1
2/3 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup corn syrup
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup evaporated milk
3/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts

1st layer

Layer 2
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg, beaten
Layer 3
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
1-1/2 cups melted vanilla ice cream
3 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup packed brown sugar

Adding 2nd layer

1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Top Layer
1/2 cup shipping cream
1 teaspoon powdered sugar
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk chocolate chips
1 Tablespoon butter
1/3 cup crushed nuts

Place crust in deep-dish pie pan and refrigerate while preparing filling. Preheat oven to 450 F.

Layer 1: Over medium heat, cook sugar, butter, corn syrup, evaporated milk, and vanilla. Bring to boil and stir continuously for 6 minutes. Remove from heat. Pour 1/3 cup plus 1 Tablespoon over chocolate chips. Strip and then pour on bottom of crust and smooth. Stir macadamia nuts into remaining mixture, cool before spreading over chocolate.

Layer 2: Beat cream cheese until smooth, beat in sugar, add beaten egg and vanilla and beat until smooth. Chill for 20 minutes and spread over first layer.

Layer 3: Combine pumpkin, melted ice cream, beaten eggs, brown sugar, sugar, ginger, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground cloves in a medium bowl and mix thoroughly. Pour over second layer. Bake at 450 F for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 F and bake 50 minutes. Remove and let cool.

Top Layer: Once pie has cooled, beat together whipping cream and powdered sugar until stiff and then set aside. In another bowl, cream the cream cheese and sugar until smooth and fluffy. Fold in the shipped cream. Dollop on pie. Melt chocolate chips with butter in the microwave, drizzle chocolate over pie, sprinkle with crushed macadamia nuts.

Adriel's Sour Cream Lemon Pie (5 star)

 20 - Thanksgiving Pie
11/23/11

We looked for a good sour cream lemon pie recipe for a while and finally found this one from Crisco. The secret is to add the sour cream after the filling is cool. It's Kerry's favorite pie.

Bottom Crust: Buttermilk

Sour Cream Lemon With Wax Paper

Filling:
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
3-1/2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1 Tablespoon grated lemon peel
1/4 cup butter
1 cup sour cream

Prepare bottom crust by baking at 450 F and cool crust completely.

Finished Sour Cream Lemon

In a medium, heavy saucepan, over medium heat, stir together sugar, milk, egg yolks, lemon juice, cornstarch and lemon peel. Cook, stirring, until mixture becomes thick. Remove from heat, stir in butter and allow mixture to cool at room temperature. When filling is cool, stir in sour cream. Pour filling into prepared pie crust and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Refrigerate pie at least 4 hours before serving. Garnish with whipped cream and lemon peel strips.

Kerry

Autumn

Thanksgiving Pies

Pies

Classic Apple Pie (5 star)

 19 - Thanksgiving Pie
11/23/11

Cutting the leaves

One of our favorite pies is the classic apple pie. We have used many different recipes but our favorite is from a newspaper article in the Salt Lake Tribune from February 7, 1996 by Vera N. White.She calls her pie "Creekside Classic Apple Pie." We made some adjustments to the recipe with the addition of Grandpa Murray's current berries and using half Braeburn and half Granny Smith. We also made a fancy top from pastry cutters. It takes quite a while but its worth the effort.

Crust: Buttermilk
3 cups flour

Adding top crust

1 Tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup buttermilk

Filling
4 medium Granny Smith Apples
4 medium Braeburn Apples
1/4 cup red current berries
Fresh zest from one lemon

Finished Pie

2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 Tablespoon four

Preheat oven to 425 F. Core, peel, and slice apples and place in large bowl. (We use an apple peeler.) Add zest, lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and flour. Stir and set aside. Place bottom crust in pie plate and pour in filling. Add top crust, brush with buttermilk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake on lowest rack at 425 F for 15 minutes, reduce heat to 350 F, rotate pie 180 degrees, and finish baking for 35 minutes or until filling bubbles thickly.Use tinfoil to tent pie if it browns too quickly.

Brent, Christian, Colin

Jil

Marie

Michelle, Chris, Gaige

Mini Apple Pie (4 star)

18
11/13/11

Abby mentioned to a couple of her teachers that we were doing the 52 pie challenge and they have been after her for a sample of our pies. I'm not sure if there is a grade on the line but we decided to try a mini-pie with a basic apple pie recipe. I think her teachers liked it. I've always thought Granny Smith apples were the perfect pie apple. They are nice and tart and stay firm after baking.

Mini-Pies

Crust: Basic Buttermilk

Filling:
6 medium Granny Smith apples
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon zest
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Mr. Steadman

Peel, core, and slice apples into small inch size pieces. Combine apples and all ingredients in bowl. Prepare crust and place in 3 - 5 inch  foil bake pans. Pour in filling and cover with top crust. brush with milk, cream, or egg for glaze ans sprinkle with sugar. Preheat oven to 425 F, place pies on lowest rack and bake for 15 minutes, reduce heat to 350 F and bake for another 20 minutes. Makes 3 mini-pies.

Chocolate Angel Pie (2 star)

17
11/13/11

I thought we needed to branch out a little bit and even though I don't think pudding in a shell is a "real" pie I gave in and decided to go with chocolate. This is a real easy pie to make and it really is good.

Chocolate Angel Pie

Shell: Graham Cracker Crust

Filling
2  - 4.25 oz Hershey Chocolate Bars with Almonds
1-1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla



Whip cream with vanilla and set aside. Break up most of the chocolate bars into pieces and melt in microwave in a glass bowl. When chocolate is just lukewarm, fold into whipped cream and vanilla. Turn into shell and chill for two hours before serving. Grate remaining chocolate to garnish pie.

Natalie serving pie

Natalie and pie

Marylyn's Pie Story

Jerry, Marylyn, and Lisa

Well...the story isn't all that long. It all started when I was growing up and my mother didn't really teach me how to cook or let me help me in the kitchen. I am the same way...I hate messes...not good because your children don't learn how to cook until they go away to college or get married and are forced to learn. Anyway, Jerry and I were very serious about getting married and I went out to Myton for a little visit with my future mother and father-in-law. Well, of course, I wanted to make a GREAT impression...right? We all know what a fabulous pie maker Grandma Murray was and how much we all loved her pies. I wanted to be a good pie maker like her so that I could always make Jerry proud and make him and my children pies that were every bit as good as Grandma's. Jerry and Grandpa left the house and went up to the farm. When they returned, I was trying my best to roll out a pie crust. I had absolutely NO experience at doing this, but I didn't think it could be too hard. I was rolling up and down and back and forth doing this when Jerry and Grandpa came in the door. I was having a bit of a struggle, but was determined to do it. All of a sudden, Grandpa spoke up - and, he hardly ever spoke up - especially to me - and told me that I had to roll the pie crust perfectly round to fit the pie plate. Because I had had no experience, because I was naive, because I believed him and wanted very much to show him I could do it, I rolled and rolled and rolled and tried my darndest to get that stupid pie dough perfectly round to fit over the pie plate. After watching me struggle for a while and probably getting a good silent laugh between them ( I can just see Grandpa's face now) they finally let me in on the joke, after Grandma came to my rescue and told me I really didn't have to roll it round because you could just place the dough in the round pie plate and then cut the excess dough off. Because of this one very traumatic event in my life, I have never become a pie maker. In fact, I never even try. If a pie is ever made in our house, Jerry makes and rolls out the pie crust and I make the filling. I decided to let Grandma Murray, my wonderful mother-in-law, remain the legendary pie maker in the Murray family and I focused on becoming a good cookie baker! 

Pecan - Apple Pie (2 star)

16
11/6/11

Piecrust Cutters

Pecans are expensive but this pie looked interesting. Annette found it in a magazine and passed it on to us. In the recipe's photo it had decorative cut outs so we decided to do the same. We bought two sets of "Piecrust Cutters" from Williams - Sonoma a couple of years ago and they were just right for this pie. It's an interesting variation on apple pie using brown sugar and pecans. Steve and Travis were in town with their family and were willing to be our tasters.

Basic Buttermilk Crust
3 Cups Flour
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 Tbs sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk

Me

Filling

2 Tbs butter

8 medium Granny Smith Apples

¾ cup plus 1 Tbs Brown Sugar, packed

1 Tbs cornstarch

1 cup pecan pieces

1 tsp vanilla

Prepare crust, refrigerate while preparing filling.

Ready for baking

Combine sliced apples, butter, ¾ cup brown sugar into pan, cook until just tender – 8 minutes. Mix cornstarch and 1 Tbs Brown Sugar in a small bowl, sprinkle on top of apples, stir and cook for another minute. Remove from heat, add pecans and vanilla, stir and let cool. Preheat oven to 375 F.

Line 9” pie plate with bottom crust and spoon filling into prepared pie plate. Cover with top crust, brush with buttermilk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes.

Travis and Steve

Abby and a slice of pie

Grandpa and pie

Swiss Apple-Cherry Pie (3 star)

15
10/29/11

This recipe won 1st place in the Deseret News 1950 Centennial Celebration. It was submitted by Mrs. Hugh E. Bunnell of Slat Lake City, Utah and compiled in the Book "Pioneer Recipes." We were lucky to inherit this book from Kerry's Grandmother Josephine Neeley. There are several pie recipes in the book but we decided to start with the first place submission. I used my own modified crust recipe that I am beginning to like it holds together better than others.

Here is an excerpt from the book: "A little old Swiss lady, a distant relative of my husband's was quite famed for this recipe and I was one of the fortunate few who secured it before she passed away. She was a Mormon convert and came to this country as a young girl. Up to the time she was 80, her busy fingers cooked tasty dishes, among them this Swiss Apple-Cherry pie."

I really liked this recipe, we even talked our home teachers, Bishop DeMille and Daniel (a District President from China) into trying it.

Deseret News Book

Double Crust Buttermilk Crust
3 cups flour
1/2 cup cold butter
1/2 cup cold shortening
1 Tbs sugar
1/2 cup cold buttermilk

Filling
4 tart apples (Granny Smith)
6 Tbs butter
1 can (2-1/2 cups) pitted sour red cherries
  make sure cherries are packed in water
  not "filling"
1 cup sugar
2 Tbs flour

In the Oven

2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Bishop DeMille and Daniel

Pare apples, core and slice. Melt 2 Tbs butter and brush on bottom of shell. Arrange a layer of apples on bottom of shell.  Mix dry ingredients and sprinkle portion over layer of apples. Arrange layer of red cherries - sprinkle with portion of dry ingredients. Repeat layers and end with layer of apples. Top with dots of remaining butter. Cover with top crust, rub with cream and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 425 F for 15 minutes then continue cooking at 350 F for 30 minutes.

From Anna's Diary

Wednesday, November 25, 1981

"I made 5 pumpkin pies, 2 gooseberry and raspberry mixed and a mince meat with dried apples and cherries and a little one for us to try. We went to deliver the pies to Ludie Cooper and Peggy Sorensen. Went back to Legier’s for celery and eggs. Fred went with us again. We also got Dad’s vitamins. We have been to Roosevelt every day this week. Darrell called to ask about the wagon cover."

Thursday, November 26, 1981

"It is overcast, looks (like a) dreary Thanksgiving. I was up at 5:30 a.m. Prepared the turkey and got it in the oven at 6:30 a.m. Fixed the dressing, washed the potatoes and yams. Dinner was almost ready at 12:00. Oh, I dug the big table out of the little house. Had to move some of Clyde’s wheat to get it. Dad said I should have called him. At one o clock the Darrells were here. The turkey wasn’t done but by (the time) everything else was ready and Darrell took the turkey out, the little red thing popped out. We all enjoyed ourselves."