For most people, the day of eating and eating and gathering at the table, and sitting and talking, and eating some more, is over. You’re on to leftovers. My Thanksgiving food tradition is still two days away. This year, I’ll have just under 30 people to my pie party. Each person eats a half pie each. I kid you not. Well, that’s an average, taking into account a few teenage boys. Do the math. I need fifteen pies.
All year long I keep an eye out for pie recipes. I collect pie cookbooks, and I have a folder filled with clippings from magazines and newspapers. Each year I craft a menu that’s different from the previous years’. I like a variety and I like some of the pies to be ones that my guests haven’t had before. But, I also need to have classic apple pie (my specialty.) I never have pumpkin pie. I figure that everyone has had enough of that. My menu is balanced between custard and fruit, chocolate and nuts. In recent years, due to requests, I’ve added savory pies. Some of the pies are complicated. Very. Some pies can be made ahead. I have eight in the freezer right now. Some crusts can be made ahead. Here I’m rolling out a savory, peppery crust for a butternut squash galette.
This crust can be frozen, but the pie itself can’t be put together until the last minute. Other recipes have to be constructed at the last minute. A detailed to-do list is essential. I have a master list, and a schedule of when to prep what.
I fume and fuss, and yesterday I had a snit over a poorly written recipe for a ground peanut crust that was too heavy on the sugar, but I do love all of this baking. And I really love eating the pies.
Here is the pie list for 2010. It might change. You never know what will need tweaking as those last pies are made.
Bittersweet Chocolate Tart with Orange Marmalade
Cashew and Chocolate Cream Pie
Apple Pie with Crystallized Ginger
Orange Creme Brulee Pie
Cherry Clafouti Pie
Peanut Tart with Maple Syrup and Chocolate Moussse
Lemon Pie (straight off the frozen Minute Maid lemon juice box – perfect!)
Brown Sugar Pear Pie
Apple Pie with Cheddar Crust
Toll House Pie
Toll House Pie with Mint Chips and White Chocolate
Butternut Squash Galette
Shepherd’s Pie Made With Local Lamb and Beef
Did you have a special pie yesterday? Tell me about it! I might be able to find the time to make another.
The property where I grew up was filled with fruits of all kinds, and we had an overabundance of blackberries and blueberries. I used to make blackberry pie like this: One crust for bottom, not baked. Mix sufficient amount of blackberries to generously fill your size pieplate with a tablespoon of cornstarch, half a cup of sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon and/or nutmeg. Put into crust, top with streusel made of 1/3 cup flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 teas each cinnamon and nutmeg, 1/2 stick butter..use fingers to make a crumble and spread over top. Bake at 350 until bubbly at edges, then pour 3/4 cup heavy cream all over the top of the pie and bake for fifteen minutes more!
If you don’t care for streusel, the top can be lattice and the cream poured through the openings just as well.
This can be done with blueberries, raspberries, peaches, or pears. Or a mixture of berries. Let me know if you try it. Lucy Suitor Holt
I’ll have to wait for berry season to try it. That sounds like the perfect summer pie.
Gosh… what a nice tradition! They all sound wonderful! Good luck and have fun! =)
Anybody ever try “ginger pie”? I found some recipes by Googling…the best sounding one was a ginger peach pie.
I love putting ginger in pie, but I haven’t made a straight ginger pie…I’ll have to see what that is. Gingersnaps instead of graham crackers makes for a delicious crust.
Oh, Terry. Yet another admirable talent. You have inspired me to get over my pie crust mental block and just do it – with your tips. Like bread, I know you can only be come good at it by doing it. My 88 year old mother is craving a mince pie, so here goes!
Do it! If it doesn’t look great, turn it into cookies and try again.
To celebrate my first year as a beekeeper, I made Bee Sting Pumpkin Pie. Nom! Crushed Lorna Doone cookies make up the crust. The filling calls for a dollop of honey but it is the topping that sets this pie apart. A mixture of coconut, honey, butter and slivered almonds added to the last 15 minutes of baking crisps up nicely in the oven. It didn’t last long!
Love, love, love the name!
My mom always makes tourtiere (French Canadian meat pie) for either Christmas Day or New Year’s. I can’t say that her recipe is the best, but I do love a good tourtiere. (Sorry, Mom.) I remember it being delicious when we went to Quebec many years ago.
You have a great list, there. I’d be one of the first to line up for those savory pies.
I am familiar with the fuming and snits. I was asked last minute to make a Splenda apple pie. I was sure it would be awful. Then my dough actually stretched during roll-out (big snit) and my husband put his “dog shirt” on right near the pie after I added the apples (huge snit). Everyone lived and the pie was strangely beautiful.
P.S. I made your pie crust cookies with lingonberries and a dusting of sugar. My husband, daughter, and I loved them.
I’ve never cooked with lingonberries. Sounds delicious and pretty.