Tag Archives: orange

Orange You Glad

16 Saturday Aug 2014

Posted by in Ice Cream Pie

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…that I’m finally posting again? Well, I am. Feels good.

Honestly, if I had a dollar for every picture I’ve taken of Obi gazing wistfully upwards towards a pie…

20140620-090925-32965235.jpgI’d be rich.

Have you ever noticed that some kids’ faces just look cheeky no matter what? Like, look at Josiah here. He isn’t even doing anything except sitting in a chair getting ready to eat a big piece of Creamsicle Ice Cream Pie and yet his face is just undeniably cheeky.

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See what I’m talking about?

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Let me back up for a second. As the great summer/spring/2014 pie catch-up continues, I’m having a great time reminiscing about this delicious pie, the first ice cream pie I’ve made from Ken’s book (Truth: I will always love fruit pies the most, but it’s time to start digging a little more heavily into the meringue/chiffon/ice creamy world when it comes to my pie choices.) The flavor of Creamsicles takes me back to being eleven at Bible School in Vermont and pretending for a week that I wasn’t dairy-intolerant because there were ice cream bars after dinner every night and what was a girl to do?!

To make this pie, you just have to make a killer graham cracker crust and then fill it with vanilla ice cream and orange sherbet and swirl it all together.

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Okay, and then put homemade whipped cream on top. And buy some of those little mandarins that come in syrup in a can to serve with it. (Did I just say that? Fruit in a can? Yeah, just this once, do it.)

Since the rest of the assembly takes approximately zero effort, please promise me that you WILL make the crust and the whipped cream by hand. Really though.

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Here’s a tangent that I think is actually somewhat relevant to the discussion of ice cream pie. Cause Ice Cream Pies are good. Real good. But what makes them good? Let’s break it down. Take a moment and think about Ice Cream Cake. Now, if you are from New Jersey (as I am) and you picture an ice cream cake, what comes to mind?

Carvel Family Size Ice Cream Cake - Confetti Happy Birthday

Absolutely. Carvel, first of all. A layer of ice cream and a layer of ice cream, covered with frosting and separated with the chocolate crunchies. There was a day I would have started a fight over those chocolate crunchies.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, if you didn’t already know this. California is super, super confused about ice cream cake. I remember the day when I first discovered the Californian definition and I was just…flabbergasted. Mind-boggled.

They think it’s cake. With some ice cream inside. But mainly, cake.

The. Worst.

And absolutely no trace of chocolate crunchies. The thing that makes ice cream cake something you want to eat in the first place. I will never understand.

Back to why ice cream pie is so good: It’s made out of pure unadultered ice cream. (No nasssty cake, precious.) And if you want to go ahead and call the crust “crunchies,” no one is going to stop you.

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This is the kind of huge creamy showstopper that absolutely requires sharing. Thanks to our friends Josiah and Micah, Tiffany and Jonathan for making the consumption of this pie possible. (And for sharing a wonderful evening at your home!)

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P.S. What is with tangents today? Tangent: I wanted to name this post California Creamin’, then I remembered that idea was totally unoriginal cause that’s the name of an awesome beer brewed by Mother Earth Brewing Co. Which would actually go so well with this pie. If you like to pair beer with ice cream pie. Which I can’t say I regularly do.

That is all.

Small Packages

20 Friday Sep 2013

Posted by in Berry Pie, Mini Pie

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Okay. Get ready. There’s a lot going on in this post.

Main topic is: Mini Pies. Pies-in-Jars. Back in March, I did this post where I talked about how I’d recently fallen in love with the concept of pies in jars and had made some for a bake sale and they were fabulous and adorable. I told you all to leave comments and I would randomly choose a few to ship pies to. Then, back in April, I announced who those lucky few would be. 

So I made them. I made these mini pies. The last time I made Pies-in-Jars, I made up the recipes. Not this time. This time I used Ken Haedrich’s Orange-Berry Pie recipe. (I have to say, I’ve gotten into a terrible habit this summer. Once I realized that I could make pretty great fruit pies without following recipes, I started getting creative all over the place. You can imagine that this does absolutely no good in helping me towards my goal of baking all 300 pies in Ken’s book.) Never fear. I went back to my book on this one.  I just slightly altered it by turning it into multiple little pies- one destined for Thamar, one destined for Eric, and one destined for Jen.

IMG_0997I used a regular pastry crust, which I slightly rolled out and then basically pressed it into the bottom and up the sides of the jar.

Holes: they happen. It’s no biggie. Just patch them up with your fingers.

IMG_0998Before I started making these pies, I found out a bit of an ironic situation had come up. My international tester (Jen) was heading to the USA for the summer, while my domestic tester (Eric) was heading to Brazil. I’m told the postal system in Brazil is kind of a joke. I knew I’d be away for most of the summer myself, so I went ahead and made the pies, planning on freezing Jen and Eric’s unbaked.

IMG_0999IMG_1001Putting a crumb topping on Pies-in-Jars is great because there ends up being a high crust to filling ratio in the jar situation. So it’s nice to have something besides more crust on top.

IMG_1002These three got baked right away, while the other two aforementioned went straight to the freezer to await the return of their owners to their respective places in the world.

IMG_1003I mentioned these labels before in my original Pie-in-a-Jar post and this time I actually used them. Shout out and thanks to LollyChops!

IMG_0996Adorbs.

IMG_1004I packaged this little friend up with some bubble wrap and a box and probably took other precautions I have forgotten about now.

This was Thamar’s email to me the following week:

Dear Jess,
More pie photos!

We were so eager to eat the pie that we forgot to take a picture of ourselves with the pie! We paired it with a local vanilla ice-cream and it was delicious!

We had lightly covered the pie with tin foil and then warmed it in the oven at 350F for 30 minutes (I had put it in the refrigerator for a day after receiving the pie). Perfect pie for two!
Thank you again for such a lovely surprise! It was just what we needed!
Love,
Thamar
SONY DSCYou are wondering how this story ends for the two pies in the freezer. Jen and Eric, you will still get pie, all being well, but it will not be those two. A few weeks ago, something tragic happened to some of my best friends. It was (and is) the type of thing that there are just no words for. There was (and is) no way to talk about it. There only was (and only is) shock and disbelief. I am bad at talking in the best of times, and so when I had the opportunity to make a meal for these friends (because, strangely, we still need to eat) and they asked if there would be pie involved, the best thing I could think to do was pull these jars out of the freezer.
photo(18)Even when the small things I can offer (hugs, tears, pie) seem so ridiculously inadequate, I am glad to have something to offer all the same.

Summer Solstice

30 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by in Apple Pie, Mixed Fruit Pie, Original Pies, Summer Fruit Pie

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On the afternoon of the Summer Solstice, Grandmother was taking her well-earned daily nap, Aunt Sarah and cousin Matt were swimming off the dock, and Levi and Uncle Joe were shopping til they dropped at Gander Mountain. Granddad and I worked on a puzzle and made this pie. He has Alzheimer’s and doesn’t remember much of anything these days, but I think baking is a relatively familiar territory for the following reasons.

1.       He has eaten possibly hundreds of my Grandmother’s delicious pies (blueberry and apple are the best kinds.)

2.       “Grandfather bread” is a term used in my family to refer to the amazing bread he used to make every week in his bread machine. Grandmother has since taken over the breadmaking (Zante currant is the best kind.)

3.       He used to be a research chemist, and what is baking, really, other than edible chemistry? (Post-Its and Scratch and Sniff were some of the best projects he worked on.)

IMG_0941I told Granddad that we were going to make an “Experiment Pie,” meaning that I had no recipe to follow. He laughed and stirred the filling: rhubarb, an apple, a pear, a little bit of pomegranate-lime juice, a squeeze of lemon juice, lemon zest, orange zest, powdered ginger, and nutmeg.

IMG_0939Butter pats go on top, because more butter is more better.

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IMG_0944IMG_0955That evening–the sun didn’t set until ten–there was a Summer Solstice feast of epic proportions at the cabin.

There was a strawberry jicama salad from neighbor-friend Jackie.IMG_0951IMG_0952There was a pile of crispy walleye and bass straight from the St. Croix.

IMG_0953IMG_0954And to top it all off, we enjoyed a trio of pies (Experiment Pie, the Nectarine-Lime Pie of yesterday’s post, and a Grandmother Marie Apple Pie).

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A Christmas Milestone

15 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by in Dried Fruit Pie, Nut Pie

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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?