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Tag Archives: honey

The Sweeny Family Gives Thanks

28 Sunday Jan 2018

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

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

cream, holiday, honey, lemon, travel, walnuts

Here is the original Norm and Marie Sweeny family, some years ago, bundled up for the snow and clearly in their element.

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In 2017, the Sweeny family celebrated many milestones including Grandmother’s 90th birthday, Aunt Susan’s 60th birthday, Mom and Dad’s 30th anniversary, Alex and Levi’s 30th birthdays, and Matt’s 21st birthday. We were happy to be able to gather in Illinois to share a Thanksgiving weekend of celebrations together!

The family has grown over the years, as you can see…the photo below is even missing 4.5 grandchildren/great-grandchildren who couldn’t make the trip out from California.

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Although many delicious desserts and savory items were made and consumed as part of the festivities, for the purposes of the blog I will naturally focus on the pie I baked for Thanksgiving: Maria’s Double Crust Walnut Pie. This pie is unique on several accounts, but, like many good things, begins with a bunch of butter.

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Maria must be a special lady, because she has a special pie crust recipe in Pie to be used with this very special and delicious recipe: Maria’s Shortbread Pie Pastry. It contains much more sugar than a typical crust, as well as an egg and lemon zest. In fact, the crust has about the same number of ingredients that the pie filling does. Due to the egg, the crust has a heartier, sturdier texture than average.

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Part of the uniqueness of this pie is that is meant to be baked in a springform pan. However, my aunt did not have a springform pan at her home (nor do I have one at mine–we’re more of a pie than a cake family clearly) so I slightly adapted the plan and used a deep dish pie pan. The recipe gives direction to add “ropes” of dough to the inside of the pan as pictured before pressing the dough flatly up against the sides of the pan. As far as I could tell, this just served to form a thicker pastry around the edges and hold the pie together more concretely. And the crust is such a delicious and important part of this dessert. I think it’s a good move.

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The pie filling is made from walnuts that get boiled with sugar and water and added to honey and cream. Nothing to object to there. The top crust is brushed with an egg glaze, and the final result is drool-inducing.

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If there was such a thing as Baklava Pie, this would be it. (Confusing picture below, that’s pumpkin pie on the plate there, also delicious, just not matching.)

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In this shot here you can see the true decadence of the filling.

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This pie is one of several to date that fall into the category of, “I don’t care if I still have roughly 150 pie recipes left in my cookbook and I probably won’t finish this project until I’m 53, this is a pie I would make again and again because it’s just that good.”

I’m sharing a few more pictures from the Sweeny family Thanksgiving weekend below. Enjoy and have a beautiful week!

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Cousin Alex’s Bacon-Wrapped DuckIMG_5748.jpg

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A little help with the candles!IMG_2134

Unwrapping a birthday birthstone gift. IMG_2153.JPG

Matt, the Jenga Master.IMG_2122

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Natalie’s 21st/Four and Twenty Blackbirds

12 Tuesday Jul 2016

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

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

blueberry, honey, lavender, nyc, travel

Happy birthday to my beautiful little Natalie!

Your last birthday was one of my favorite days in recent memory. We had a delicious brunch at Le Salbuen, and then after I stopped to visit my Nana at the rehabilitation center (she had fallen the week before) and sneak her some blueberry peach pie, we were off to NYC! I remember how hot and sweaty of a day it was…quintessential July East Coast weather. We made it to one of my ultimate pie destinations in Brooklyn, Four and Twenty Blackbirds, and ordered six pieces for five of us. One of each flavor, naturally. The lavender honey pie changed my life forever. You would later paint me a beautiful painting inspired by the picture below of all the pie slices on the table. We sat outside at Sycamore Bar and Flower Shop and you were given a birthday flower as we left. These activities were all my ideas, places I had been wanting to visit, and you were just so happy to do them on your birthday. This is one of the things I love about you; your sweet excitement over just being with friends and your enthusiasm for most things, whether it’s painting a porch, teaching children about the Bible, wandering and laughing. You are so good at showing up with no other agenda but joy.

We ate dinner-Italian-I don’t recall the name of the restaurant, where some more friends joined us. At Rockwood City Music Hall we heard versions of “Valerie” by two bands, then found ourselves sitting in a pedestrian street eating ice cream sandwiches from The Meatball Shop. A perfect end to a perfect day.

Enjoy the memories and I hope this year is full of even more beauty and wonder for you. xx

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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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