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