Tag Archives: pecan

Pi Daze

15 Sunday Apr 2018

Posted by in Chocolate Pie, Custard Pie

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Hi friends, I thought I’d write you a nice post right after Pi Day this year to share how we celebrated, but then my (very new) MacBook started doing this cute thing where it would randomly turn CAPS LOCK on internally by itself and refuse to turn it off, making it impossible to type ANYTHING THAT DIDN”T LOOK RIDICULOUS and locking me out when I would try to restart the laptop because it didn’t recognize the password (since it was wrong, being in CAPS, naturally…) Happily it has just returned from Apple with a new keyboard and we’re on our way again here!

Levi and I have been living in a 735 sq. ft apartment in downtown Los Angeles between Little Tokyo and the Arts District since this past September. It’s been a great experience for a number of reasons. Living in a city can be exciting; there’s so much to see and do and most importantly EAT. We have been able to spend more time together just as the two of us, as a couple, and really feel like best friends more than ever. And we have absolutely loved the opportunity to attend a small Spanish-speaking church in Koreatown regularly. My Spanish still isn’t what I ultimately hope it will be, but the members of the ecclesia are great about helping me practice and speaking slowly when we talk!

We have also been able to host visitors in our new place–though it’s small, our couch is comfortable and our spirits are willing. For their Spring Break this year, we were able to have my cousins Leanna and Daniel and friends Ari and Mara with us. It is pretty cool when your cousins who are ten years younger than you actually want to spring break near/with you, I have to say. The day they arrived we had a plethora of visiting friends at church downtown!

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On the Wednesday of the Spring Breakers, 3/14 (we all know the significance of this day by now I should hope), I was realizing that I had yet to make a new pie from the Pie cookbook in our DTLA apartment (I’ve made new ones during this year, like Cherry Custard Pie, Maria’s Double Crust Walnut Pie, and New Hampshire Raspberry and Red Currant Pie, but all while traveling). This was a serious issue, especially as I had the audacity to bring my “Fresh Baked Pies Made Daily” sign downtown with us to hang in my kitchen.

I settled on Bittersweet Chocolate Turtle Pie for our Pi Day celebration. Ken’s description of this one suggests “Serve this kid-pleaser for a pajama party,” and while they’re not kids anymore, a week of six people in a one-room apartment is basically a non-stop pajama party come to think of it. I baked the pie in a beautiful dish that the “kids” brought to me carefully stowed in their luggage-a belated Christmas gift from my Aunt Ruthanne!

Here is the progression of the Turtle Pie:

1. New empty beautiful pie dish!

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2. Homemade Graham Cracker Crust

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3. Bottom is covered with a layer of toasted pecans.

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4. Layer of pre-bought caramel sauce that you’re a little embarrassed of but it was really hard to find a normal bag of caramels to melt down for a homemade sauce anywhere in or near Little Tokyo.

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5. Whipped cream cheese with some added vanilla and powdered sugar gets “spread” on as the next layer as best as possible.

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6. Best part…lots of bittersweet chocolate whipped cream gets piled over the top, covering the messy layers beneath.

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7. Prior to serving, the pie is decorated with whipped cream, and makes a statement about the importance of the day if/when appropriate.

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We wrapped up in blankets and took our Pi Day celebration up to our rooftop, where we could enjoy a stunning view of downtown between bites of pie!

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I’m quite behind on sharing the pies I baked last year and wanted to take this opportunity to time travel quickly back to Pi Day 2017, when I made a Tyler Pie to bring to one of my school sites in Orange County. I had no idea what a Tyler Pie entailed before I made it, and I’m guessing you probably don’t either. Apparently it is named after John Tyler, the 10th president (maybe he had a sweet tooth?) and it is essential a sweet custard pie with a caramelly flavor (in keeping with the theme of caramelly pies for Pi Day, it seems).

Tyler Pie is very easy to make. If you can melt a bunch of butter in a pot with cream and brown sugar and salt, you can make a Tyler Pie.

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(There are some other steps too…mixing and adding a few dry ingredients and spices, and whisking eggs, but yeah. It’s kind of a no-brainer. And it tastes as good as you would expect, given that the starting point is a stick of melted butter.)

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Thanks for reading and happy Spring or Fall, depending on what part of the world you’re reading from. ❤

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Where to Begin?

21 Monday Mar 2016

Posted by in Nut Pie

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Hi friends! I’ve been busy. Life is so sweet. Our friends have been getting married, having very hard times, getting sick, needing help, moving houses, having babies, needing encouragement. This year, I’ve been better at listening to and playing meaningful music, going to yoga classes, and reading books but worse at keeping up with my pie blog and learning Spanish. Everything goes through its cycles.

It’s in the height of California springtime now. IMG_7941

I recently bought a sign from my good friend Emily to hang in our bedroom. It says “Life is hard, God is good.” I want that to be my new answer every time someone asks me how I am.

Since I don’t have very much time tonight, I’ll just start with a small little post.

I saw this new product at Trader Joe’s. (So far, not unusual.)

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I thought I’d better test it out and let you all know whether it’s worth buying for yourself. The first thing I noticed was that there is NO corn syrup in the ingredient list. If you’ve made pecan pie before you’ll know that this is truly unusual. I don’t imbibe corn syrup too often in my life, but I will make an exception for pecan and certain other pies, as it’s hard to get the hallmark gooey texture without it. That being said, the best pecan pie I ever had was this one, made with maple syrup…and so I was excited to try another non-corn-syrupy variety.

When I lack the time to refrigerate my crust before rolling it out, I love breaking out this really nice pie crust recipe that uses no butter or shortening, only oil and cold water. This is the crust my mom uses, and we got it from a dear Schooley’s Mountain sister.

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The ingredients in the Trader Joe’s jarred filling (cause I know you wanna know what IS in it, not just what isn’t) are cane sugar, water, pecans, brown sugar, bourbon, lemon juice, vanilla extract, cream of tartar, salt and citric acid.

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To make the pie filling, you just mix the jarred filling with four eggs and some melted butter. Easy peasy. So far, so good!

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So far, still good. Like, really good. The smell at this point=fantastic.

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Overall comments: Great flavor. Would buy again. Ease of baking worth every penny. Filling cracked apart more than I would have wanted. You CAN taste the bourbon. Slightly sweet for my tastes-I’m used to the super low sugar content of Ken’s recipes at this point-but definitely not egregiously slow. High quality vanilla ice cream should go on top. 8/10

Optional: Share with super squirrelly, dessert-crazy little girls.

Mixed Feelings

20 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by in Apple Pie

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It’s always a little bittersweet, baking pies for auction. I imagine it must feel like when painters sell their art; there is consolation in knowing that someone else will enjoy your creative work, but isn’t that joy sometimes mixed with the sentiment, “but…but…I want to keep it!”?

I’ll be honest, it’s borderline maddening when you’ve made your whole house smell like apples and caramel and cinnamon and know you aren’t getting a single bite.

It’s okay though. Really, it is. Not only did someone else (my super-fun 3rd grade student Sam’s uncle, Jeff) have the kindness to place the highest bid on this pie and support a wonderful school in the process, I got to bake it. And if that sounds like a paltry comfort, let me put it this way; if the only part of the pie-making process I cared about was the eating, I would have given up on this whole thing a long time ago. Baking and sharing are at least two-thirds the fun.

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Jeff requested an apple pie, and since he was open to a few tweaks on the old classic, I decided to start with a recipe I’d done once before in 2011 (it’s #56 in the gallery)…Liz Reiter’s All-Granny Slug-O-Bourbon Spiced Apple Pie. To that, I made a few more changes: a pink lady apple mixed in with the grannies, a pecan crumb topping, and a little bourbon pecan caramel sauce on top of THAT! (Caramel sauce made by the lovely Carmel, who you’ll meet in a post in the very near future.)

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I have a feeling you’ll be seeing a lot more of this beautiful craftsman cutting board that we recently bought from Karveware, our good friend Jamil’s company. All of their boards are fully made from end-grain wood pieces (scratch-resistant, as they’re self-healing), fitted together to create what almost looks like a wooden mosaic. I’m loving having enough space to chop everything I need for pie/dinner/etc. on my extra-large board. If you’re interested in getting one for yourself, scroll down to the bottom of the page and send me an email, and I’d be happy to get you more details. (Mental note: maybe I’ll post a Karve giveaway someday when I’m a full-time blogger and have more time to generate interest and amass followers and that sort of thing…)

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Here’s the finished product, and as I alluded to before, the smell coming out of the oven towards the end of the hour it baked was just mean. Cruel. 

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I heard tell that this boozy pie may have been destined for Jeff’s bachelor party (he’s getting married soon!) Here’s hoping it was a big hit. And thanks again, Jeff, for supporting a great group of kids.

North, South, East, and West

12 Monday Jan 2015

Posted by in Nut Pie, Pumpkin Pie

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Of his Maple Pecan Pie, Ken Haedrich writes, “I’m a former Yankee with a wife from Charleston, South Carolina, so this pie is right up my alley. I think it’s a truly elegant pie, an arranged marriage of northern sweetness and southern charm that never fails to make pie lovers weak in the knees.”

My parents live in the South, now–an hour out of Atlanta, to be more precise–and I think the maple syrup/pecan hybrid is somewhat descriptive of their new life. To carry this idea further: I don’t particularly identify as a Yankee, but I consider myself an East Coaster, though my driver’s license has been Californian for four years now. Thanksgiving with Levi and my parents, in a place relatively new to all of us, was therefore a serious meld of North/South/East/West. We talked to my grandparents in Minnesota on the phone. We stuffed the turkey with herbs from our very drought-tolerant front yard. We sorted through many of my old notebooks and toys from my childhood in New Jersey. We drank a red blend called Family Tree from our favorite Central Coast winery. We hiked up a waterfall near the border of Tennessee and the head of the Appalachian Trail. I chose this arranged marriage of a pie for Georgia Thanksgiving 2015 not only because it seemed super delicious, but also because it seemed super appropriate.

I made one other pie during our visit, because we arrived on a Tuesday and Thanksgiving wasn’t til Thursday and it seemed a shame to waste all that potential pie-eating time. It was a pumpkin pie–a recipe from my Great-Aunt Sally who lives in that great Maple state of Vermont. For this pie, I made a crust with half butter and half coconut oil for the first time. I wouldn’t recommend a repeat of this tactic if it’s 30 degrees out and your coconut oil has been refrigerated (East), but I’m guessing it would be just fine if it’s 70 degrees out and you keep your coconut oil in the pantry (West). I had to handle the mixture a bit too much for my liking in order to break up the cold oil and even resorted to sunning the bowl, as you’ll see below. Although, I have to say, all’s well that ends well and the pumpkin pie disappeared quickly with no known complaints. 🙂

Without further ado, here are some pictures from our lovely Thanksgiving festivities. Thanks, as always, for reading.

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Festivities

23 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by in Chocolate Pie, Nut Pie, Pumpkin Pie

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Today is National Pie Day (not to be confused with Pi Day, March 14th). I didn’t bake today. I didn’t even eat a piece of pie today. That being said, I like to think I embody the spirit of National Pie Day a good deal in my life; I’m not feeling too guilty about my lack of celebrations.

In fact, I did one good pie deed today…I delivered a Pie-in-a-Jar. Did any of you “celebrate”?

In honor of the holiday, I wanted to share with you the pies I baked for Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday) this past fall.

The Triple-Layer Pumpkin-Chocolate Pie is pictured below. 1. Empty crust  2. The first layer, cheesecakey pumpkin filling with chocolate mixed in  3. The second layer, the same pumpkin filling without chocolate added  4. A tangy sour cream topping to finish it off.

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Here’s what it takes to make a Jellied Cranberry-Pecan Pie.

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Have a happy weekend!

A Beautiful Mess

16 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by in Chocolate Pie, Cream Pie

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Okay…if Green Tomato Pie didn’t get you too excited…from the poll results it looked like about 30% of you had serious doubts…maybe this one will.

The Hammett House Famous German Chocolate Pie. I’ve never been to the Hammett House Restaurant (namely because it is in Oklahoma) but I get good feelings about it. Really good feelings.

First let’s just take a look at the way the coconut and pecans are being folded into the chocolate cream filling here…it’s a thing of beauty. Literally, this picture makes me drool.
IMG_1803As if the homemade graham cracker crust and luscious chocolately filling weren’t enough, the pie gets topped with chocolate whipped cream with more pecans and coconut mixed in. It’s almost too good to be true.

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IMG_1805The end result just looks like a mess. A beautiful mess. It’s also MONSTROUS in size. The hugest pie you will probably ever encounter.

It tastes even better than it looks.

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We got to share this pie with our friends Jenny and Tyler, who are not only lovely people but some of our favorite musicians. Check them out here if you haven’t listened to their music before. IMG_1809You may remember that J&T did a house show at our place back in March, so we felt pretty lucky to get them back for another one only about half a year later. I think it has something to do with the pies…

IMG_1814Thanks again, guys. It was a beautiful night. But no more pies unless you bring baby Jane next time. 😉

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Pies Are Just Delicious Circles

29 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by in Dried Fruit Pie, Nut Pie

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There is one list of holidays commonly recognized throughout the United States by the average citizen. This list includes the like of the fourth of July, Halloween, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, perhaps Hanukah, maybe Easter…etc.

Then there is anOTHer set of holidays that only teachers know about. It’s true. Secret list. Teachers, in addition to decorating their classrooms seasonally and being more likely to wear holiday-specific attire than anyone else in the world, have created a whole slough of extra holidays to celebrate. This phenomenon occurs because teachers don’t have anything else to do with their time (sarcasm.) It actually occurs because teachers are just such fun and fantastic people.

Holidays that fall in this category, at least at my school, include the following:

  • Read Across America Day/Dr. Seuss’s birthday
  • Pajamas and Pancakes Day
  • 100th Day of School
  • Crazy Hat Day
  • Pi Day (March 14th)

Pi Day is a great holiday because pi has everything to with circles, and circles are shaped like pie, and pie is a homonym for pi, so Pi Day really usually ends up as another cleverly disguised excuse to eat Pie. (I find there are so many of these excuses in life.)

On Pi Eve (3.13) I baked Ken Haedrich‘s Chewy Medjool Date-Nut Pie.

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Just one little tip from Ken about chopping dates: it’s much easier if you sprinkle a little flour over them first. Cause they’re really sticky, dontcha know.

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Dates: one of those food items people either love or hate. I love ’em.

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Levi took it upon himself to make sure the flavor was up to par. The description that I heard was, “This is basically a better pecan pie.”

Obi would gladly have taken the job of taste tester upon himself had he been granted the opportunity.

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Here are a few peeks of Pi Day gluttony in action. I love pie and all, but I’m telling you, this is a no-fail recipe for a stomachache.

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If you’d like to check out my post about LAST Pi Day (3/14/12), go here.

If you’d like to watch a video my students made last year in response to the question “What is Pi?” you can find that here.

If you commented on my last post (about Pie-in-a-Jar) thank you so much for your enthusiasm! I will be randomly drawing the names of at least one domestic and one international helper and will announce the winners in my next post. Here’s hoping the jars can hold up to the journey!

Meet the Real Housewives of Simi Valley

31 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by in Chess Pie, Chocolate Pie

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Did you know that making pie is an occasion for playing dress-up?

It’s true!

My lovely friends Elona and Janine and I had rather too much fun taking these photos on Thanksgiving morn, as we made a Fancy Chocolate Chess Pie (Thanksgiving, I know. Ouch. What a slacker.) I had also made a Louisiana Browned-Butter Pecan Pie the night before, which I proudly showcase below.

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And now for the nonsense…

IMG_1019It is very important that one wears pearls when baking.

Also that one has all of the proper ingredients on hand.

IMG_1023As well as the proper tools.

IMG_1024Begin melting butter and chocolate in a double boiler. This will only work if you wear heels at the same time

IMG_1027What puts the Fancy in Fancy Chocolate Chess Pie? Fine yellow cornmeal.

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Don’t be alarmed if chocolate accidentally gets on your face amidst all of the whisking.

And another thing…spare aprons make excellent capes.

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It would be rather a sin to let any Fancy Chocolate Filling go to waste. Just don’t let your dog lick any up.

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IMG_1054This has been a real, honest-to-goodness portrayal of what it looks like every time I make pie.

(Just kidding.)

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Pie-vember

23 Sunday Dec 2012

Posted by in Apple Pie

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November was the month for Visitors. In fact, I think there were only a couple of days in total that our guest room was free. It was fantastic.

One thing about Visitors: they often expect Pies. Even the smallest ones.
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When you see these items in your kitchen, it’s time to get excited. A Caramel Apple-Pecan Pie is likely on the way.

A total of 40 caramels are required for this pie. I love the saltiness of Trader Joe’s Fleur de Sel caramels, so I used those. No regrets. When I first read the recipe, I thought I was going to have to unwrap and chop each caramel into quarters. Then I realized that I only had to cut up ten of them…the ones that go into the pie crust…and I stopped banging my head against the wall.
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This isn’t the fastest pie ever to make (1. Pastry 2. Apple Caramel Filling 3. Pecan Crumb Topping 4. Caramel and Pecans) so be forewarned. 1000% worth it, though.

Would you look at that beauty?!

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There are few things I enjoy more than a table full of good food, friends and family. And this night was especially special because it’s not often that I get a table full of New Jersey all the way in California.
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Mike works for M&M’s/Mars, so his taste in sweets is impeccable.

His face here says, “I am Mike Robinson, and I approve of this pie.”IMG_1191

Even Obi tried to get his paws on a slice. Little rapscallion.

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Pie Sold Here

21 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by in Berry Pie, Chocolate Pie, Freeform Pie, Mixed Fruit Pie, Nut Pie

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And for a good cause!

If you back up a few posts, you’ll find the flyer I posted prior to the auction. It went off pretty much without a hitch, I’d say, and we raised about $500 for the Glendale Relay for Life. Thanks so much to everyone who baked, bought, or just came and participated in some good, ol’ fashioned fun.

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P.S. If you’re interested in seeing close-ups of the 5 pies I baked, move on over to the Pie Gallery page and check out pies 91-95. Which one would you have placed a bid on?