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Tag Archives: Christmas

Visions of Sugar-Pies

27 Sunday Dec 2020

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Sugar Pie

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Canadian, Christmas, French, holiday, maple, sugar, tart

This Christmas was the first I’ve celebrated while also having my own child able to really see and articulate the wonder and delight surrounding the season. Watching her watch sparkling lights, try special holiday foods, search for new “decorations” around our neighborhood, and express real gratitude for the gifts she received has been extremely lovely. Now that she fancies herself a ballerina, she’s learned about the Nutcracker and pretends to be Clara often; sometimes I’m the sugarplum fairy. Good deal.

Now, there is no Sugarplum Pie among the many recipes in Ken Haedrich’s Pie collection. (Italian Prune Plum, yes, which is on a short list of pies I’ve started called THE HIGHLY ELUSIVE ONES. Marionberry is on there too. And Balaton cherry. Anybody got any leads?!) But, there is a Sugar Pie; more formally known as Tarte au Sucre. As the name might give away, this pie is of French Canadian origin. In fact, I was first introduced to this dessert about five years ago at the home of some wonderful friends of ours who dwell in Quebec; it was April, but very snowy, and I remember it as one of the coziest moments – we had a double pie meal, a French Canadian style meat pie first, followed by Tarte au Sucre.

P.S. This is what I miss the most right now.

Tarte au Sucre stars one of the tastiest forms of sugar – maple syrup. I baked one for our Christmas Day 2020, and since this pie isn’t terribly well known (at least, outside of Canada), I’ll go into some detail about how it comes together!

Essentially, after making and pre-baking a single crust pastry, two separate components of the filling are prepared: crumbs and syrup. For the crumbs, flour, light brown sugar, salt, cinnamon and butter are combined much in the way you’d make a crumb topping for a fruit pie. The syrup mixture contains warmed maple syrup, baking soda, an egg, an egg yolk, and vanilla, whisked together. The pie is then assembled in three layers: crumbs, syrup, more crumbs. It’s quite a simple process, but I moved through the steps slowly and deliberately because a) the method was fairly foreign to me and b) I recently made a fruit pie that I forgot to put any cornstarch in until the pie was in the oven for ten minutes, so my confidence is a little on the rocks but I’m gonna be okay thanks for asking.

While I’m confessing past pie foibles I may as well bring up the Shoofly Pie I made 8 1/2 years ago (Have I really been doing this for that long?!) Shoofly Pie is made in a similar manner to Tarte au Sucre; I’d call the two each others’ Southern and Northern cousins. I never tasted the Shoofly Pie, as I sent it off to a bake sale. (Side note: I’ve learned enough in the past 8 1/2 years to know that that’s really NOT the kind of pie to send to a bake sale. Too unusual, too gooey. Has “fly” in the name.) In Ken’s book, the filling of the Shoofly and Tarte au Sucre only bake for 30-35 minutes. In my version of history, the Shoofly Pie was sent to that bake sale after perfectly following the recipe; nevertheless, it was underbaked. My friends were kind enough to not tell me that expressly, but, well, there were some veiled comments about it being difficult to cut and serve. I’m telling you, I know in my heart that it needed ten more minutes. And when I was baking this tender little Sugar Pie, I vowed to learn from the past.

Pie said, “Don’t be tempted to bake the pie much more than 30 minutes, even if the filling seems loose.”

Jessica Gelineau said, “I’m baking this puppy for a full 45.”

Et voila!

Truly, this was a yummy treat. Gooey, almost cookie like in flavor and consistency, with a real emphasis on the maple flavor. Let’s all take a quick moment to note that I’ve begun making more of an effort to crimp the edges on my single crust pies. I attended a virtual Pie Academy with Ken Haedrich in November (which was fantastic – more to come on that in a future post!) and basically was just inspired after watching his fluting technique to give my own pies a bit more oomph in the visual department.

(Note for the nerdiest pie nerds amongst you: This particular crust got a bit too brown and also didn’t hold its fluting perfectly, as you can see. This was a situation where my little silicone pie crust shields should have been employed.)

Now, back to that Christmas wonder and joy I was talking about earlier. One of my written goals for this year, before any of us knew what 2020 would bring, was, “Foster a sense of wonder and delight in my little girl”. The credit isn’t mine to take, but that wonder and delight is growing in her every day. One of Levi’s Christmas presents to me was a book called Awaking Wonder: Opening Your Child’s Heart to the Beauty of Learning, by Sally Clarkson. I’m so excited to read it! Book club, anyone?

One of my gifts to Pippa was a child-size rolling pin. ❤

Did you have a favorite moment of Christmas Day this year? Here are a few of mine: Levi reading to Pippa about Jesus’ birth, Pippa pretending to be baby Jesus (yes, all those stuffed animals are the ones in the manger…the lamb is a little more accurate than Paddington Bear…), and Pippa enjoying the trains and Christmas villages at her great-grandparents’ house.

I’ll be back in a few days to share the rest of 2020’s pies. Hasta luego. xox

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The More, the Merrier

11 Wednesday Dec 2019

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Apple Pie, Pear Pie

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

Christmas, collaboration, five-spice, holiday, pie-in-a-jar, Thanksgiving

Good morning my friends,

I am honored to have been recently featured on my friend Jolie’s blog, The Forgetful Files. Jolie is a freelance writer (currently working on a novel), a mom of five, and generally amazing human being. I highly recommend checking her blog out if you enjoy tales of real life family adventures (and foibles, as Jolie puts it!)

This weekend I’ll be baking up some Five Spice Pear-Apple Pies in Jars, and one will be heading towards Mark Ishman from Texas, whose little rhyming ditty of a comment on Jolie’s post Pie Giveaway Time made him a winner! (Check out all the comments on this post, there are several poetic gems present.) For the recipe, read the Sweet As Pie Winner follow up post.

Since my sleeves will be rolled up to bake and I’ll be braving the post office during Holiday season ANYWAY, I’ve decided: The More, the Merrier. Here’s another chance to win a Pie-in-a-Jar! Any comments left on this post before Friday (December 13th) at 9 pm PST/12 am EST will be put into a vessel (likely a pie jar) and a name drawn at random…for winner #2!

For fun…in your comment, will you please tell me either 1) your favorite pie 2) a pie you baked or ate for Thanksgiving 3) a pie you plan to bake or eat this holiday season (presumed Five Spice Pear-Apple Pie excluded ;)) 

Here’s a picture of the fourth pie – the apple pie – that my family ate this Thanksgiving week (is it cheating that my mom made it, not me?)

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I look forward to hearing from you and selecting a second Pie-in-a-Jar Giveaway Winner!

Happy Holidays, be easy on yourself, and get enough rest! ❤

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Pregnancy Pies

22 Thursday Feb 2018

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Berry Pie, Custard Pie

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

cherry, Christmas, custard, holiday

By this past Christmastime, I had moved fully into maternity jeans and baby Gelineau was rolling with multiple nicknames. We know she is a girl now, but at the time we weren’t sure, so we bounced back and forth between Geliniño, Geliniña (we hope she’ll learn Spanish) and Jelly Baby, once I found out that those were a thing.

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We were blessed to be able to spend time back on the East Coast this holiday season. Besides the obvious joys of Christmas with friends and relatives, we also had a beautiful wedding to attend on the 28th of December (officiate, in Levi’s case) and my younger cousin Daniel put on the saving name of Christ through baptism on Christmas Eve. Amazing!

On Sunday morning, before the baptism, my “Aunt” Chris walked into church carrying a picture perfect pie festooned with red ribbon. I assumed it was part of the morning refreshments that would be served in between Sunday School and the Memorial Service (“Coffee And” as it’s called in New Jersey), but instead she handed it to me, saying, “Congrats, Honey. I made you a pregnancy pie.”

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The “pregnancy pie” turned out to be Aunt Chris’ specialty: a fresh cranberry and walnut filled pie with a gooey, sugary layer right above the filling and below the top crust. I have no idea how to make it. I’ve never made a pie like it. It’s super magical.

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Being a known pie baker, there’s always something very special about when someone else makes you a pie. ❤

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As it turns out, even when you’re pregnant, it’s not in good taste to eat a pie by yourself. We were able to share it over the most hilarious round of Saboteur I’ve ever played. Hilarity largely thanks to cousin Nate and his wild accusations.

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Our Christmas Eve pie had been lovingly provided, and it was my turn to make a pie for Christmas Day. I decided to go with Cherry Custard Pie for this occasion, knowing that there were lots of good, fresh, backyard eggs to be found at my Uncle Alan and Aunt Ruthanne’s house.

Trader Joe’s pulled through again; while the pie instructions let the baker know that it is acceptable to use either canned sweet cherries or fresh sweet cherries, I was very pleased with their JARRED Dark Morello Cherries that I’m not sure why I’m advertising to you now because I’ll bet they’re only stocked around Christmas time. (I could be wrong. You should still try to find them if you want to.) The recipe doesn’t say this explicitly, but I would imagine frozen cherries would be a bad idea and make little pools of water amongst the custard. You’ll see what I mean shortly.

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This recipe also calls for an optional addition of kirsch, Grand Marnier, or triple sec. No one wants to buy bottles of those things unless they’re already hanging around, am I right? But since there was Kijafa on hand, I threw a splash of that in instead. (The only reason I’ve even heard the word Kijafa before? Our favorite pancake house in NJ has Cherry Kijafa Crepes on the menu, and it’s been my cousin Leanna’s go-to order since she was little. I’m thinking she has tried to replicate them at home? This is at least a feasible explanation for having this very obscure tipple on hand.)

Here’s the really fun part of this recipe. After filling the crust with custard, the cherries get dropped in evenly, gently, throughout the whole pie! The effect is awesome.

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Once the pie has been thoroughly polka-dotted with cherries, it’s baked until set (like any custard pie), cooled, and chilled.

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We woke up on Christmas morning to snow (albeit light), which is always the dream. Christmas was spent trying to eat as much delicious antipasti as humanly possible and playing Family Feud (at which Nana was not half bad).

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Oh, and naps. Holidays are for naps too.

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Thanks for keeping up, friends. See you soon.

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Pears of Yore

19 Tuesday May 2015

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Pear Pie

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

brandy, Christmas, christmas eve, holiday, pear, streusel

Why have I not posted for two months? Why have I not posted the pies I made for CHRISTMAS when it’s MAY?!

These are the burning questions that I constantly struggle with.

I made the delightful Streusel-Topped Pear Pie with Walnut Crust last Christmas Eve. Levi’s family has a get-together on that night and I’ve brought pies to the celebration for as long as I’ve been grafted into the Sommerville clan…Pear and Fig with a Pine Nut Crust and Chocolate Cream with Cinnamon Meringue were last year’s stars. Dried Cranberry and Walnut Pie the year before that…

I love it when pies have secret ingredients.

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Yes, very often “secret ingredient” is synonymous with liquor. After adding this pear brandy to the pie, we sipped it alongside the finished product and it was not at all a bad plan.

Nutty Pie Pastry made with walnuts…check. IMG_5267

Christmas Eve Morning Piefie…check. IMG_5268

Along with brandy, these pears are tossed in lemon, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a pinch of salt and are warmly luminescent in the morning light.

(Sometimes I just make up flowery sentences to see if you’re still paying attention.)IMG_5269

The pears are topped with what Ken calls a “blond streusel” which basically just means it has none of the dark ingredients that often make it into a pie topping (brown sugar, cinnamon…) and all of the white ones (cream, butter, white sugar, you know, all the healthiest food groups. If you know me you know I have no fear of the butter.)

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What’s next??

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What a trick! That’s not a pie, that’s a baby nephew on his first Christmas!

Here’s the pie, in all it’s pear-ish resplendence. I’d heartily recommend trying this recipe at any time of year. IMG_5277

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“So, this was Christmas…

09 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Chocolate Pie, Cream Pie, Mixed Fruit Pie

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

chocolate, Christmas, christmas eve, cream, fig, meringue, pear, pine nut

…and what have you done?”

Not kept my blog up to date, that’s for a surety.

Let’s not dwell on the fact that these pies were made at Christmastime. Just ignore Levi’s “Merry Christmas, Ya Filthy Animal” sweater in the picture below, which was supposed to be a selfie with a pie (the pie was in the basket) but instead you can just see Levi and I, so I guess instead of a piefie, I ended up with a spousie.

IMG_2422Also, please forgive the fact that nearly every picture below, taken while putting together the astonishingly beautiful Pear and Fig Pie with a Pine Nut Crust, shows off my glittery holiday manicure.

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This pie is made with dried figs, which I don’t love half so much as the fresh figs that my Great-Uncle Benny somehow grew every summer in his concrete backyard. Still, the combination of fig, pear, honey, and pine nut is really a delight.

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Trader Joe’s should pay me for all the advertising I do for them. HONESTly. IMG_2418 IMG_2419

To make the crust, just roll out a standard crust and then sprinkle the pine nuts over the top and gently press them in, your fantastic fingernails guiding the rolling pin.IMG_2420

When glazed with milk and sugar and baked, this pie truly looks like a masterpiece. Studding the top crust with nuts would be a fun trick for a variety of pies…just keep an eye out for burning and be prepared to tent the pie with aluminum foil for part of the baking if needed.

So here’s something that happens often. (As in, every time I make more than one pie at a time.) I do a swell job documenting the process of whatever pie I start first. Then, by the time I remember that I still have a whole other pie to make and it’s probably past my bedtime already, I don’t bother with all the pictures and just take one token one of the finished product. I have way fewer pictures of this Chocolate Cream Pie with Cinnamon Meringue. 

Point to ponder: Is that what’s going to happen when I have two children…?

IMG_2421Let it be known; this was MY FIRST EVER MERINGUE. I kid you not. I’ve been making new pies for going on five years now and I’ve never made a stinkin’ meringue before. And look how purty it turned out. I’m such a proud mama.

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Pies, Pies, and More Pies

08 Saturday Mar 2014

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Apple Pie, Berry Pie, Mini Pie, Mixed Fruit Pie, Original Pies

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

apple, blueberry, Christmas, ginger, honey, pear, pie-in-a-jar, raspberry, travel

It’s March already? You’ve got to be kidding me.

Let’s get down to business. First of all, I would like to announce that the Five-Spice Pear-Apple pies I mailed out during Thanksgiving week made it safely to their destinations.

timIronically, I’m pretty sure that standard mail to Australia is faster than priority mail to Georgia, Illinois, or Virginia. What in tarnation?! Lesson: The United States Postal System is an abject failure.

Eric Lange, my official domestic tester in Virginia, sent me this lovely ditty after receiving and consuming the pie:

“O Apple-Pear 5 Spice

You are so good and nice

You make my taste buds sing

You are the greatest thing!

A brown box in the mail

Delivered, without fail

A complete, delish pie

I was one lucky guy!”

Eric, you are the greatest thing.

eric pie

Following that mini-pie episode, I embarked on another of epic proportions before Christmas, making about 30 pies to give as holiday gifts to the wonderful and devoted teachers I work with and some of my faraway family in New Jersey and Georgia.

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Just one of the fillings I used was a recipe from Ken Haedrich’s book: All-Pear Pie with Maple and Candied Ginger. I’d been meaning to try this pie for so long (it’s one of my cousin Carly’s favorites, and she gave me the cookbook so she ought know). Funny thing is, I didn’t gift myself one of these pies, so I’ll be no doubt re-doing this recipe so I can actually have some. (I did have one bite of a friend’s, to be fair. But it wasn’t enough.)

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The next two fillings were my own made-up combinations. Here’s the Cran-Apple Spice; I love how beautiful the fresh cranberries are and the sourness they bring to the table. I choose sour flavors over sweet every time and I have to say that I thought this pie was a win-win combination of both.

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And here is the Honey-Apple-Raspberry filling, looking like a bit of a mess. But yum.

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Mini-pie manufacturing is no piddling job. By the time you make multiple batches of crust, a few fillings, crumbs for the topping, labels for the tops…you’re looking at a long night.

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The three pies below traveled not by car, not by mail, but by carry-on. This conversation happened.

TSA agent: I’m going to have to re-run your bag, miss.

Me in my head: Crap.

TSA agent: What are these?

Me: They’re pies….in jars.

TSA agent: Pies in jars?? That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!! (Calls other TSA agents to marvel over the coolness that is pie-in-a-jar.)

TSA agent: I think I’m going to have to keep one of these…*laughs*

Me: I’ll make an extra one just for you next time I come through *smiles*

Would this have happened at any other time besides Christmas? Doubtful. But I loved it.

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While we’re on the subject of mini pies (which, as it turns out, is more often then not…) for the third year in a row, I had the opportunity to contribute pie to a bake sale supporting my students. (Last year I sent this batch of minis…the year before I had not yet perfected the art of sending pie traveling and sent two whole pies to be sliced and sold.)

I made another Honey-Apple-Raspberry filling (since they had been pretty popular the last time ’round) and a Blueberry-Pear filling with cardamom and maple syrup, both my own recipes. I think I have figured out a pretty exact ratio for mini pie filling; the amount of filling that would fit into one largish normal pie fits roughly into nine jars. Okay, perhaps “exact” isn’t the right word, but it’s a helpful rule to follow. So the filling below made 18 mini pies. And the filling overflowed, so I really could have done 19, or 20.

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This was the first year I was able to see the bake sale in person (and I forgot to take any pictures, wouldn’t you know!) By the time I got there, the sale had been going on for perhaps two hours and most of my pies were already gone. I hope they were thoroughly enjoyed. Thanks so much to those who bought them or supported the Palm Springs bake sale in any other fashion. Over $1600 was raised for the Christadelphian Heritage School!

As always, thanks for reading. I’ll leave you with a reminder…PI DAY IS NEXT FRIDAY!

122 - i math math-jokes pi

Let me know if you’re planning on celebrating.

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A Christmas Milestone

15 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Dried Fruit Pie, Nut Pie

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Christmas, christmas eve, cloves, cranberry, DIY, funeral pie, holiday, ken haedrich, lemon, orange, walnuts

Pie 100! I put off baking this pie because I thought, “Pie 100 has to be the best yet.” “Pie 100 deserves a really special occasion.” “Pie 100 has to be over-the-top and awe-inspiring to all who encounter it.”

Then all of a sudden it was Christmas and I had to make a pie for Christmas. So I just made something I thought sounded yummy, and Christmasy. You can’t force this kind of thing.

My commonwealth friends will know what I’m talking about when I say that I think the most Christmasy taste in all the world is mince pie. I guess to be specific, that taste is cloves. But yes. Very Christmasy.

Ken Haedrich calls this pie Dried Cranberry and Walnut Funeral Pie, which doesn’t sound very Christmasy, or even slightly cheerful. But it definitely tasted like the holidays. It was eaten without fanfare, on a cozy Christmas Eve. 200 pies to go. I wonder how many will be baked in 2013?

IMG_1195Some of the key players.

IMG_1196Stirring the filling/crying in anticipation for Les Mis. Typical.

IMG_1197Sneakin’. Also typical.

IMG_1219This pie was such a good poser, I couldn’t help myself.

IMG_1221Pie in a sleigh.

IMG_1222Pie with a Levi.

IMG_1225Pie waiting to become a ghost of Christmas past.

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Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night. I hope you all had fantastic Valentine’s Days, by the way. One of these days I’ll start being seasonally accurate. But really, would that be as fun?

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