Key Lime Pie Recipe

Key Lime Pie

1 baked pie shell or 1 graham cracker crust ( 8″)
4 egg yolks
5 ounces lime juice (if you can find Key limes it is better), otherwise 10-12 limes
1 can condensed milk
2 tsp. grated lime peel
Green food coloring if desired

Combine the egg yolks and milk, stir in the juice; this takes a while.

Pour into the prepared pie shell, bake at 350: for 20 minutes.

Let cool on a rack for 20 minutes then refrigerate to set the filling.

Top with whipped cream topping:

1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. powdered sugar

Beat together until stiff. Can double.

Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Pumpkin Pie

1 – 15 oz. can pumpkin filling
1 – 14 oz. can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon cinammon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
Prepared, Refrigerated Pie Crust (only need one, but there are two in the box)

Heat oven to 425 degrees.

Take one of the pie crusts out of the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature. Set the crust into the bottom of a 9 inch pie pan.

In large bowl, combine all ingredients and pour into the pie crust. Bake for 15 minutes at 425F. Then reduce heat to 350 degrees, bake 35-40 minutes.

Serve with whipped cream topping or with vanilla ice cream.

Crumb Top Apple Pie

This Crumb Top Apple Pie recipe is just the thing if you don’t have enough apples to make a regular apple pie; the recipe originally called for three cups of sliced apples instead of the usual six cups. Of course, this recipe requires a lot more butter for the topping than the basic apple pie recipe too, but we actually HAD butter we needed to use up (long story involving a malfunctioning refrigerator) so it worked out for us.

I started with the recipe from the The Complete Magnolia Bakery Cookbook and made a few changes – you can see our modified version below.

And here’s the glorious outcome!

Crumb Top Apple Pie by FoodFollies.com

The topping was nicely crisp, and since the apple filling layer is thinner, it’s not QUITE as much sticky-sweetness as a normal apple pie. I’d recommend eating it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream to round out all the flavors nicely.

Crumb Top Apple Pie

This pie is two equal depth layers – apples on the bottom and crumb topping on the top.

Crust Ingredients
(or use one part of a prepared crust)
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cups butter, slightly softened
3 tablespoons ice water

Filling Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
3 cups tart apple slices (we recommend Granny Smiths)

Crumb Topping
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups lightly brown sugar, NOT packed
1 cup of unsalted butter, softened, cut into small chunks

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Crust: Measure the flour into a large bowl. Use a pastry blender
(or two knives) to cut the butter into the flour until you get very
small chunks. Add the ice water, by tablespoon – not all at once,
into the mixture, tossing with a fork until integrated into the dough,
and the dough is moist all around. Using your hands, form the dough
into a ball, and roll it out on a lightly floured surface, large
enough to fit the bottom of a 9-inch glass pie dish. Fold and crimp
the edges to finish.

Filling: In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Add the apple slices and mix gently until all of the apples are coated.
Scoop the apple mixture into the pie crust.

Topping: In a medium or large bowl, mix the flour and brown sugar together.
Using a pastry blender (or two knives), cut in the butter until the mixture
LOOKS like a coarse crumb topping. Sprinkle the mixture over the filling
in the pie pan – make sure it’s well covered.

Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 375 and
bake for 25-35 minutes longer, or until golden brown on top. Serve with
vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Chocolate Cream Pie

The other day I had just the right amount of the right ingredients to toss together a homemade chocolate cream pie – graham crackers and butter for the crust, instant pudding and milk for the filling, a cup of heavy cream for the whipped cream (with a bit of sugar), and a nice chunk of organic chocolate to shave on top. I love impulsive cookery when it works out!

I had a photo of the entire pie, but the up-close shot of the shaved chocolate was much more interesting that the ragged edges of the homemade graham cracker crust. 🙂

Quiche Florentine

John made a fantastically delicious Quiche Florentine the other day – it’s lucky I took a photo before we started eating it because it didn’t last long!

quiche florentine

He made a homemade crust, and then, to the best of his recollection, the quiche was a mixture of 5 or 6 eggs, a carmelized onion, chopped spinach, sharp and monterey jack cheese, tiny chopped pieces of about half of a small ham steak, parsley, a bit of milk, and maybe a little pepper. Sorry we can’t give any specific measurements, but he just eyeballed most of it when he was putting it all together. He does remember baking it for 45 minutes at 350 though -LOL! (Toothpick method for determining doneness works well since mostly you have to make sure the eggs are set.)

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Mini Apple Pies

A long time ago we’d found these terrific little individual serving glass pyrex dishes at the Dollar Store of all places, and the other day I got to use them for the first time when making a couple of mini apple pies! (I would have made a regular pie, but we only had three apples in the fridge – besides – what a good ready-made excuse to use the darn things.)

I cut our apple pie recipe (below) in half, and also cut our pie crust recipe (below) in half. I also have to admit that this is the first time I’ve actually made a pie crust from scratch! John’s made them from scratch, but I’ve grabbed the pre-made crusts in the past. But after doing this and seeing how easy it is, I’ll probably hardly EVER use the pre-made crusts again.

The final pies came out really cute, and just like a regular apple pie, although the ‘individual’ portions were pretty big, but we got over it.

One more point: as you can see in the photo, I sealed the edges of the pie like normal, but tucked the edges back in the glass pan a bit since I didn’t want them to get dried out or burned. Wallah!

Here are the recipes I adapted…

Apple Pie

6 cups thinly sliced apples (Granny Smith, MacIntosh do well)
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 package Pillsbury pie crusts (2 crusts)
or use a homemade double crust recipe

Bring crust to room temperature. Unfold crust and press out fold lines with fingers. If crust cracks, wet fingers and push edges of crack together to seal. Place crust in ungreased 9-inch pan, glass recommended. Press crust firmly against sides and bottom. Trim crust along pan edge. (Or follow homemade crust recipe)

Heat oven to 425 degrees. In large bowl, combine all filling ingredients; mix lightly. Fill pie crust. Place second crust over filling. Wrap excess top crust under bottom crust edge. Press edges together to seal – flute. Cut slits in top crust.

Bake at 425 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until apples are tender and crust is golden brown.

Note: Slice the apple pieces really thin to make sure they can be cooked through completely during baking. Also, when cutting up the apples, don’t get TOO close to the core. You want to cut off any section that has any core ‘string’ type stuff on it because that won’t get soft while cooking and can be annoying to bite into. Also, if you use Granny Smith apples you get more tartness than MacIntosh, FYI.

Pie Crust

1 cup Crisco (or butter)
2 and 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup ice water.

Mix Crisco, flour and salt with a fork until crumbly.

Add 1/2 cup of water to flour mixture and mix with a fork.
Add remaining water until mixture is moistened – you
probably won’t have to add ALL of the leftover water.
Roll out 1/2 of the dough on a board covered with flour.
Use enough flour to make it roll easily.

This makes top and bottom for a 9-inch pie.

Blueberry Pie

When I saw the 2.5 lb container of fresh blueberries for 5.99 I looked at it sort of lovingly and thought, “I could make a blueberry pie.” I’ve never actually made a homemade pie. Kristen usually is in charge of pies, while I’m normally in charge of grilling and making omelettes. When I worked as a cook, our pies were made with canned fillings, so there was no help there.

I did go the easy route and went with the pre-made pie crust. I’ve actually made my own pie crust before, for Shepherd’s Pie, but since I was starting this pie in the evening, I wanted to move things along.

Billions and Billions of Blueberries

It took all of thirty seconds for us to find some basic blueberry pie recipes on the web and tweak our own variation. Putting the ingredients together was a snap, and we have enough blueberries leftover for sprinkling on breakfast cereals, mixing in yogurts and possibly sharing with the local wildlife.

Kristen guided me through the proper method of sealing the two pie crust halves. When I made my Shepherd’s Pie, the edge was a bit on the crusty side. The baking took longer than we expected, about an extra half hour, but the results were delicious. This is the first homemade blueberry pie I’ve ever had and it beat every store or restaurant pie I’ve had hands down.

Mmmm pie

Hopefully, we can catch the other berry families on sale and live on pie for the rest of the summer. Oh, and here’s the recipe we used:

Blueberry Pie Recipe

Filling ingredients:
6 cups of blueberries, cleaned and stems removed
2 Tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed if possible
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp butter, cut into small pieces

Prepare crust. If you have already made dough, on a lightly floured work surface, roll out half of the dough to 1/8-inch-thick circle, about 13 inches in diameter. Drape dough over a 9-inch pie pan and put into the refrigerator to chill for about 30 minutes. If you have purchased pre-rolled circles, allow them to defrost (if frozen) and place one of the circles in the pie pan.

Put blueberries in a large blow. Sprinkle flour over the blueberries and stir until the blueberries are all coated with the flour. Then, add the cinnamon, sugar, salt, and lemon juice, to the blueberries and mix until blended. Place in the chilled bottom crust of the pie pan. Dot the top with butter pieces. Roll out the remaining dough to the same size and thickness. Place the other piece of dough on top, trim to 1/2 inch over the edge of the pan, and crimp the edges with a fork or your fingers. Put the pie in the refrigerator to chill until firm, about 30 minutes. Pre-heat oven to 425°F in the meantime.

Remove from refrigerator. Score the pie on the top with 4 cuts (so steam can escape while cooking) – add a baking ring or put foil around edges of pie to protect edges. Bake for 20 minutes at 425°. Remove pie ring/foil. Reduce heat to 350°F and bake for 30 to 40 minutes more or until juices are bubbling. Let cool before serving.

Makes 8 servings.

Pre-Holiday

We’re having an early Thanksgiving this year – tomorrow actually, as John is working on Thursday. I made the apple pie this morning (Just assembled, not baked yet.) and every time I make one I think, “This is so easy, I should do this more often!” and then promptly forget again. I use Granny Smith apples because I like the tang; they are also my ‘eating’ apple of choice too. (Although I also like MacIntosh and Cortland, but the latter seem to be only an Upstate New York thang and I can’t find them out here on the West Coast.) The squirrels and rabbits and raccoons are going to get a treat too, as I’m tossing all the peelings and cores over the fence. They’ll be completely gone by tomorrow morning, easy.