A Pie Per Week: Creme Brulee

Creme Brulee Pie

Brian:  We recently went to a nice restaurant and somebody in our dinner party ordered creme

brulee.  It is one of my favorite desserts, and one day while thinking about possible pie ideas, I thought to consult my good friend Google.  It turns out there are quite a few great recipes out there to choose from.

Angie:  I was torn between two pie recipes this week.  Since I'll be away with my mom next weekend I thought we should make the more involved pie recipe when I would be around to help!  We had some fun making this pie and it even involved experimenting with my embossing gun.  :)

Brian:  Angie will not be here next weekend, so if I choose to make a crust, I'll be on my own.  I decided to dive in and try my hand at it.  It is funny, when I first read about making pie crust, I was convinced that the key to success was not overworking the dough.  After watching Angie mastering the art, I'm convinced that there is a different secret... ice water.  If the crust starts to crack, you need to add a little water, or it will continue to break up.


Angie:  The crusts are finally getting to be pretty automatic for me after having many challenges in the beginning.  I've found a recipe that really works for me after adjusting it.  We normally use a pastry cutter to cut the ingredients in, but today I actually utilized the "2 fork" method which I've read about.  The two forks really worked well today.

Brian:  For the Creme Brulee recipe, you bake the crusts first, and then you have to cool completely.

Adding the ingredients to the saucepan over medium heat

Angie:  I went to work on adding the
ingredients.  The recipe calls for dissolving the cornstarch into the cream to begin with, and then you add the beaten egg yolks, and the sweetened condensed milk.  The next directions were pretty vague, because it says to cook until thick and bubbly.  Since it didn't specify a temperature, I went for a medium temperature.  Be careful as it will start to burn on the bottom of the pan if you overcook.  The mixture did thicken up nicely.  After you remove from heat, you add the vanilla and butter.

The pie before cooling and the broiler

Brian:  The pies had to cool for two hours before adding the final touch of the sugar.  I love breaking the texture of Creme Brulee, and all this time I had no idea that it was pure sugar!  No wonder it is so good!

Embossing Experimentation!

Angie:  I put the first pie in with the broiler on high, and within as little as 2 minutes the pie started to brown.  I only left it in for a total of about 3 minutes b/c I was afraid it was going to have more of a burnt taste.  I just didn't have as much control of the heating process as one would with a kitchen torch.  I did use my embossing heat gun to add some touch ups to the pie, and for a moment tried to use it exclusively for the second pie.  However, it was just taking too long.  I opted to go with a Lo broiler setting for the second pie.  It was a longer time to cook, but I think it was the better overall result.  I need a torch, or whatever it is one uses to properly burn sugar on top.

Brian:  The family really enjoyed it!  The reviews for the pie, as with any pie, were all over the board.  It had a really great flavor, and happiness is the feeling of your fork breaking the top layer of some creme brulee!

Angie:  I loved this pie.  I loved the texture, the crunch of the sugar on top.  It had a very rich flavor but not overly sweet.

Pie of the Week Recipient

Our pie of the week recipients are Kris and Ken.  They are the parents of our son's girlfriend, and he said that Ken's favorite dessert was creme brulee.  This made our recipient an easy choice.  Their daughter Kennedy is a delightful young lady and it was a pleasure to make the delivery.

Recipe (From Food Network)


Ingredients
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 2/3 cups heavy cream
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
3 egg yolks, beaten
1 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 (9-inch) pastry shell, baked and cooled
1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar
Sweetened whipped cream, to garnish

Directions
In a heavy saucepan, dissolve the cornstarch in the cream; stir in sweetened condensed milk and egg yolks. Cook and stir until thick and bubbly. Remove from heat add butter and vanilla. Pour into pastry shell and chill for 2 or more hours. Top with sugar and brown under the broiler. Garnish with sweetened whipped cream around the edge. Refrigerate leftovers.


About Your Bakers

A Pie Per Week: Cheese Pie

Brian:  One of the common questions we get about our pie blog is "When are you going to stop?"  And the conversation turns to "How many different pies can you possible make?"  And ultimately, I'm not sure how long we will blog or continue "pie day," but the options are seemingly endless to me.  There are probably at least 52 different apple pie recipes out there, and that would be a year of pies alone.  However, I must say I am intrigued by trying unique pies that one normally wouldn't hear of, and cheese pie certainly fits the bill.

Angie:  People are often curious about what puts the "cheese" in cheese pie, and the ingredient is cottage cheese.  However, it also has a secondary tie in that I will discuss later.  Brian pretty much did this pie all on his own, so I'll let him continue.

Brian:  This will definitely go down as the easiest pie we have made yet.  All you need is cottage cheese, sugar, eggs, vanilla, a graham cracker pie crust, and a blender.  You put all the ingredients into the blender and then you blend well.  The biggest piece of advice I was given by by friend Nick, who provided the recipe, is that a hand mixer will not do a sufficient job.  You need to get a blender and blend the heck out of it to achieve the desired consistency.


Once you have the ingredients blended, you simply pour the contents of the blender into the pie shell, and bake the pie for about 40 minutes.  One thing we did find is that for us, 40 minutes was not enough.  The pie was still a bit soupy, so I baked it for an additional 20 minutes to make sure the pie set.  Some cottage cheese pie recipes you will find add flour as a thickening agent, and also lemon zest if you are going for a slightly different flavor.  I liked the pie as is, but would like to experiment with those different variations in the future.  It is a very unique pie, but I really enjoyed it, and you worry about that a bit when you are making it.  It is like, am I really making a cottage cheese pie?  :)

Angie:  The pie had a great flavor, but the texture really is different.  It has a consistency that is reminiscent of baked ricotta, but the flavor was fantastic!  Everybody in our family that tried the pie gave it the thumbs up.  The taste of the pie was a cross between sugar cream pie and cheesecake.  This explains why it is poured into a graham cracker shell, and the similar taste to cheesecake may be another way the pie received it's name.

Pie Recipient of the Week:

Our pie recipient of the week is my friend and colleague Nick.  Nick and I worked together in the home building business, and we now work for a software company specializing in digital marketing.  We often see each other for coffee in the morning, and one day we talked about the blog. He mentioned he had this unique family recipe.  I think we was worried that we may not like it, because it is so unique, but I must say we found it to be quite tasty.

Recipe:

1 Pint Cottage Cheese (small or large curd)

1 Cup Sugar

2 Eggs

1 Tsp Vanilla

Pinch of Salt

Mix all ingredients well with a blender.

Pour into a graham cracker crust, dot with butter and sprinkle lightly with cinnamon.

Bake for 10 minutes at 350, then 30 minutes at 325.

About Your Bakers

A Pie Per Week: Cherry Pie

Paul and Mariliyn

Angie:  When we were trying to figure out what kind of pie to make this week I thought it would be fun to pose the question on Facebook "What is your favorite pie?"  I had several responses, but one from our friend Paul Smith really excited me.  "Cherry"  I'd heard his wife Marilyn had an amazing cherry pie recipe so I reached out and asked her for the recipe.  One things that was for sure, we had to go to GFS to get fresh frozen tart cherries.

GFS Cherries

Brian:  We will take a recipe from anywhere, but it is always special when we can find one from a friend or a relative.  We know you can go and search for any pie recipe on Pinterest or All Recipes, but if we can find a family favorite, we are bringing something unique to the party.

Angie:  The other fantastic thing I found was a crust recipe from my grandmother's recipe collection.  It was really easy to work with.  Our pie recipient of the week, whom we will mention later, asked for cooking classes and described the crust as unbelievable.  Pie crust, I may finally be getting the hang of it.  I even did a lattice top on one of them!

My first lattice pie attempt

Brian:  The pie filling was super easy to make.  You add some cherries, sugar, cherry pie  filling, almond extract, and cinnamon.  I have to admit, I never thought I'd ever see almond extract or cinnamon in a cherry pie recipe.  However, the recipe strongly encourages it, and the flavor of the pie turned out great.  It was a little "soupy," so we will use a thickening agent like cornstarch next time.

The only bad thing about making cherry pie, is that it reminded me of the awful song made by Warrant in the 80's.  I do love 80's metal, that particular song is just like nails on a chalkboard for me.  However, I was able to overlook it for the deliciousness of pie!

Angie:  I've actually seen Warrant in concert performing that song!

Pie Recipient of the Week!

We really have come full circle with our church on this week's blog.  The pie recipe came from one of the former staff members of our church, and the recipient is from our church as well.  Dee plays music in the church and has been our daughter's piano teacher for the last three years.  She is one of those kind of people who gives selflessly of herself.  She and her hubby have three gorgeous, smart, talented daughters.

Dee and her beautiful daughter!

I must admit, this was probably the funniest delivery we've ever had.  I went driving looking for her, because we like it to be a surprise, and I thought I would find her working at the church tonight with the high schoolers.  When I couldn't find her there I had another friend offer to take it off my hands ;)   I drove to her house and knocked on the door.  First her daughter came to the door, and then her husband.  Her husband was joking that she didn't even want to come to the door, but she was so surprised and so thankful.  They were just craving something sweet and about to make some cookie dough, so our timing couldn't have been better.  It couldn't happen to a nicer person than Dee, so I'm glad they enjoyed the pie.

Do you know somebody in the Indianapolis area that deserves a pie?  Do you have a recipe that you would like to share?  If so, please comment, we'd love to hear from you!

Recipe

2 1/2 cups, approximately, frozen cherries

1 can cherry pie filling

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp almond ext (optional - but tasty)

2 crust pie shell - unbaked

Place cherry mixture in unbaked shell - sprinkle w/cinnamon

Dot w/butter

Place top unbaked crust on top of cherries - sprinkle slightly w/sugar

Bake 400 degrees - 45 min. (I put strips of foil around edge of crust to

keep from getting too brown before pie is done)

About Your Bakers

A Pie Per Week: Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

Brian:  Well if you have read any of our previous blogs, you will know that my wife is typically the chief talent around here.  However, this is the week I decided to step up.  One of the major reasons that I did this one from start to finish, is that my wife has a flaw.  Her flaw is that she does not appreciate that peanut butter desserts are the most amazing desserts ever!

Angie:  So yeah, I love peanut butter cups, but I'm not fond of peanut butter desserts.  Brian taking charge of this week's pie was fine with me!  I bought a pecan pie for our daughter Andrea and I to enjoy while Brian and our 2 other peanut butter loving kids have peanut butter pie.  I also, prepared 4 freezer meals.

Nothing bad starts out with 24 Oreos!

Brian:  I gathered a couple of different recipes and the fillings were very similar.  They each called for a package of cream cheese and Cool Whip, and similar amounts of powdered sugar.  One recipe featured twice the peanut butter, and recognizing that more peanut butter is always better than less peanut butter, it was an easy choice to make.

Drizzle the butter onto the cookie mixture

As with most recipes I make, this one is quite delicious and very simple to make.  The first thing you do is to grab 24 oreo cookies and pulse them in a mixer until it is processed completely.  You transfer the cookie mixture to a bowl, and drizzle some butter before adding to the pan.

Angie:  My daughter Emilee helped take most of the photographs today and also pressed one of the pie crusts into the pie pan.  The recipe allowed for several options, but we used the bottom of a measuring cup to press in the crust.

Peanut butter, cream cheese, and powdered sugar.

Brian:  The next thing you do is combine the cream cheese and peanut butter together.  This needs to be processed smooth and then you add powdered sugar.  After the powdered sugar is processed you add the Cool Whip and whip until smooth.

Adding the Cool Whip and getting fluffy

Angie:  Make sure you turn the mixer up high and process it until it is whipped nice and fluffy.  It is advised to scrape the sides mid-way through mixing, stir the mixture, and then continue processing.

Brian:  WARNING!  Don't taste the beaters or you may be derailed for an extended period of time.  It is very easy to consider abandoning the pie all together and having a bowl of peanut butter pie fluff.  You will miss out on the combination with chocolate, and the true joy that comes from sharing.

Angie:  Today at church our pastor was talking about men and how most of them are not able to share their feelings.  I have the greatest husband.  He is in touch with his feelings and he makes pie.

Brian has mad pie skills.  They are more than just pies... they are works of art.

Denzel the Bulldog!

Brian:  Our pie recipient of the week is our neighbors Duane and Tonya.  They had a tough week this week with a utility line break, and we found out that they had never tried peanut butter pie.  They have the cutest bulldog, Denzel, and pie makes everything better right?

Utility Line Blues

Tonya and her cute blinking daughter.  :)

Recipe from Pioneer Woman:


Ingredients

 FOR CRUST
25 whole Oreos
4 Tablespoons Butter, Melted
 _____
 PEANUT BUTTER FILLING:
1 cup Creamy Peanut Butter
1 package (8 Ounce) Softened Cream Cheese
1-1/4 cup Powdered Sugar
1 package (8 Ounce) Cool Whip, Thawed

Preparation Instructions

Crust:
Crush the Oreos until they’re fine crumbs. Pour melted butter over the top and stir with a fork to combine. Press into pie pan and bake at 350 degrees for 5 to 7 minutes, or until set.
Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

Filling:
Beat the peanut butter with the cream cheese until smooth. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Add in the thawed Cool Whip and beat mixture until smooth, scraping the sides as needed.
Pour filling into crust, evening out the top with a knife or spatula. Chill for at least an hour before serving.

About Your Bakers