A Pie Per Week: Banana Cream Pie

Banana Cream Pie

Brian:  Ever since we have started our pie blog, our friends frequently post recipes on our pages for inspiration. My friend Jennifer posted this banana cream pie recipe to my page, and while mulling around ideas, this is what we decided on.  Besides, we wanted to make a pie that my son didn't particularly care for, because he just had his wisdom teeth extracted on Friday.

Early Stages of Crust

Angie:  I feel so bad for my son as he is recovering, but we are trying to do everything we can to allow him to heal quickly.  We are also trying to prepare him whatever he would like, within the framework of the limited cuisine he can eat.  Yogurt, pudding and soup have been staples.  Though Brian is good with pie, his claim to culinary fame is his mashed potatoes, and those have been requested twice this week.

Bananas!

Brian:  I've kind of been slacking lately, so I wanted to be a bigger contributor to making the pie this week.  I found the recipe and ran point on this one, though Angie was also an active participant as well.

A Unique Father's Day Gift

Angie:  Last week my crust just didn't turn out as well at all.  It was like a leather strap.  So this week I tried a new one.  I have found that making crust, and rolling it out have become quite easy.  I just haven't found a recipe that I love with the right amount of flakiness.  This week I tried more butter than shortening and used a food processor.  I've tried a food processor before but not this particular amounts of ingredients.  I also purchased parchment paper this week and rolled the crust out in between two pieces.  It was easy to turn out the rolled crust into the pie pan after the first attempt.

Playing with Parchment

Brian:  There were a couple of fissures in the first crust she laid out, but she was able to piece and fill in those areas.  The second crust laid out perfectly.  We also used one of my Father's Day gifts, pie weights, which are supposed to keep your crust from bubbling up as much.

Pie Weights in Action

Angie:  Both crusts baked pretty evenly, so I'm not sure if the pie weights made a difference or not.  A couple of things we learned about them.  You need to set them on something, be it a large circle of parchment paper, or an oversized coffee filter.  This will prevent them from actually being baked in the crust, and makes them easy to remove.  You also want to make sure to distribute the weights evenly on the crust.

The Parchment had creases, which you can see.

Brian:  We started the filling by scalding some milk.  We've mentioned this on our custard pie blogpost.  It used to be used to kill impurities, before pasteurization was invented, but it also is supposed to help better bring out flavors.  We decided to try it, and I placed the candy thermometer on the side of the pan so we could monitor the temperature.  You try to shoot for about 180 degrees.

Angie:  I stirred the milk while Brian mixed together the dry ingredients.  The recipe stated to have two different saucepans ready, with one being used to scald milk, and the other to have the dry ingredients.  We just opted to mix together the dry ingredients, and then we added them to the scalded milk.

Brian:  You cook until it thickens, and then you cover with a lid, and let it cook for 2 minutes.  We then tempered in the egg yolks and cooked for one more minute.  The last ingredients to add were the vanilla and butter, and then we had to wait until the mixture reduced to a lukewarm temperature.  Here is a video showing some of the final touches.

Angie:  You cut the bananas up right before adding the filling, and place them on the bottom of the crust.  You then put the pie in the refrigerator to cool completely.

Brian:  We decided to put Cool Whip on instead of a meringue, and I thought this pie was delicious.  My mother makes a great dessert called banana torte, and this was reminiscent of that.  As a matter of fact, we may experiment with combining the recipes one day.

Angie:  The only thing about this pie I didn't like was all the banana's on the bottom.  I'd rather have them throughout the filling.  The filling was amazing and the crust turned out great, flaky, flavorful, and I just loved it.  I really really liked this pie!


Pie Recipient of the Week:

Mackenzie and Tegegn

My sister-in-law's brother just relocated back to Indianapolis.  Chris and Sarah are top drawer individuals that you just love being around.  Their kids, Tegegn and Mackenzie pictured above, are a trip and oh so much fun to hang out with.  They were all painting today when we arrived, taking a brief pizza break, but we were happy to provide some dessert.

Recipe

Old Fashioned Banana Cream Pie

9 inch pie shells, baked 

3 cups whole milk 

3/4 cup white sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 egg yolks, slightly beaten 

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 bananas

Prepare a 9-inch pie crust, prebake.  In a large saucepan, scald the milk.   (To scald milk stir constantly in a  saucepan until a temperature of 180 degrees is reached)  Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl and gradually add to the milk after scalding.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, cook until thickened.   Cover saucepan with lid, stirring occasionally, cook for two minutes longer. 

In a small bowl, have the 3 egg yolks, slightly beaten, ready; stir a small amount of the hot mixture into beaten yolks; when thoroughly combined, stir yolks into hot mixture.  Cook for one minute longer, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and blend in the butter and vanilla. Let sit until lukewarm.  When ready to pour, slice bananas and scatter in pie shell; pour warm mixture over bananas.

If desired, make a meringue (you'll have 3 leftover egg whites) to top the pie, or just let the pie cool until serving and top with whipped topping.

About Your Bakers

A Pie Per Week: Hershey's Chocolate Pie

Chocolate Pie

Brian:  How can you not like Chocolate pie?  This is another pie that invokes a sea of recipes with a Google search.  And like always, we try to evaluate what we like from different recipes, and whittle it down to a favorite. Things got off to a bit of a rough start as you can see below...

Poor Burnt Crust

Angie:  Brian's parents have been awesome in helping us lay tile in our house this week, and we have been spending lots of our time towards that project.  The grocery store I went to didn't have any foil pie pans so we were going to use some pre-made crusts, but we, (and when I saw "we" I mean I, darnit!) just didn't hear the timer go off.  So, I ended up making them from scratch.

Dry ingredient mixture 

Brian:  I rode in an 18 mile bike ride Saturday night in Indianapolis called the N.I.T.E. ride with my son.  It is a cool event that starts at 11 pm, and you make your way through downtown with well lit streets and lights on your bike.  Since I didn't get in until 2 a.m., it was a late morning for me, and Angie was the primary cook again on this pie.  

Adding in the Egg mixture

Angie:  This pie requires adding ingredients in proper intervals, as you will see from our photos.  And like all pies, it requires some patience.  Right when this pie comes to a boil, you cook for one minute, and then you are ready to pour in.

Melting in the Chips

Angie: One key tip from the recipe is to immediately apply plastic wrap to the pie.  Have you ever seen a film left on the top of pudding?  This helps eliminate that.  If you wait for the pie to cool completely the filling will not stick to the plastic wrap at all!

Apply Plastic wrap immediately to avoid a skin on top

Brian:  Do you want to know the worst grade of my life?  8th Grade.  Why?  Well, they made us take Home Economics, Industrial Arts, Drafting, and Art.  I don't have an artistic bone in my body and can barely write my name.  Angie definitely adds some artistic qualities to the pies in the decorations.

Pie Before Garnish

Angie:  Our youngest daughter, Emilee, helped me garnish the pies with chocolate. I just used a vegetable peeler and created the shaved chocolate as decoration.  One of the things I love about watching cooking shows is how much effort is put into presentation.

Adding the chocolate garnish

Brian:  I absolutely loved this pie.  I love dark and rich chocolate and I tend to prefer it over sweet chocolate.  With this pie you can almost feel the cocoa entering your veins, and since it is an anti-oxidant, I felt like I was contributing to good health.

Care for a slice?

Angie:  The pie was really rich but not overly sweet.  I was thankful I decided to use straight whipped topping instead of a marshmallow topping I thought about using to help cut the richness.  I tried an all butter shortening crust this time and it turned out like leather.  I won't be trying that again!

Pie Recipient of the Week

Bo Knows Chocolate Pie

Brian:  Our pie recipient of the week is my good friend Bo, and I know that he shared his pie with his fellow colleagues.  Why did he share the pie?  Well, he is a top notch guy, and that is the sort of thing a person of his caliber would do.  He was part of one of our college interns who landed a permanent role with our company.  He and many of his friends attended one of my Improv Showcases.  My daughter likes his name and made him a special note, which he hung above his desk.

Bo and I also share a love of music and recommend different artists to each other.  Recently we both attended the Japandroids concert here locally, and we have blogged about music together here.  His only major shortcoming is going to Purdue, but I have chosen to look past that.

Angie:  Bo went to Purdue, no one told me that?

Recipe

  1 9-inch pie crust

 3/4 C Sugar

 1/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa

 1/3 cup cornstarch

 1/4 teaspoon salt

    3 eggs, beaten

    3 C milk

 3/4 C HERSHEY's SPECIAL DARK Chocolate Chips or HERSHEY's Semi-Sweet

       Chocolate Chips

    3 Tablespoons butter

    2 teaspoons vanilla extract

       Whipped topping

       Additional HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Chocolate Chips or HERSHEY's Semi-Sweet 

       Chocolate Chips

Directions

1 Prepare Pie crust, cool

2 Stir together sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan.  Combine eggs and milk; gradually stir into mixture, blending well.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with wire whisk, until mixture begins to thicken and just comes to a boil.  Remove from heat.

3 Add chocolate chips, butter, and vanilla.  Stir until chips and butter are melted and the mixture is smooth.

Pour into prepared crust.  Immediately press plastic wrap onto pie surface.  Refrigerate three or four hours or until firm.  Garnish with whipped topping and chocolate ships.

    

A Pie Per Week: Heath Bar Pie

Heath Bar Pie

Brian:  Well, as it was Father's Day, I was given the day off in pie baking.  I'm assisting with the

blog, and I took pictures, but I did little else today.

By the slice

Angie:  Happy Father's Day to my wonderful husband and fantastic father of our 3 children!!  I needed to make three pies today, to help take care of three great fathers, and I found a recipe that could be used to make any kind of candy bar recipe.  So if you don't like Heath bars, try snickers, or whatever your pleasure might be!  It calls for a graham cracker crust, so no crust to make, and it was a really simple pie to assemble.

Want a bite?

Brian:  My mother-in-law sells real estate in Bloomington, IN, and they have had their "Parade of Homes" the last two weekends.  I always help my mother-in-law for this event, so I was out of the pocket much of the day.  Angie got up this morning and whipped it together.

Beat until creamy

Angie:  This is an extremely easy pie to make.  You mix together the powdered sugar and softened cream cheese first until smooth.  Next you add the vanilla and cool whip, and then you stir in the candy pieces.  Pour it into a graham cracker pie shell, top with reserved candy pieces and voila!  You just have to place it in the refrigerator for the pie to set up.

Fold in the candy

Brian:  I actually tried to do something new, and I've posted a couple of videos with the Vine application.  If you have never heard of it, it allows you to easily record 6 second videos, and easily post them to Facebook and Twitter.  Here is the first video and you can view the second one as well.  Tell us what you think.  Would you like to see more Vine videos in the future?

Gets an 8 inch shell very full

Angie:  I really liked this pie.  The base recipe reminds me a lot of a dessert my mother in law taught me to make, banana torte.  I used the Heath pieces that you find near the chocolate chips at the grocery store.  I like that they weren't rock hard like the actual candy bars.  This is a very rich pie!!

Really comes out in nice pieces if you chill

Brian:  The taste for this pie was just okay for me.  I love Heath bars, so I enjoyed that part of the pie.  I also dig a graham cracker crust.  However, the filling was just a little too "cream cheesy"for me.

Pie Recipients of the Week

Nelson and Brian

We have two great fathers we are paying tribute to today.  Brian's father, Nelson, is pictured with him above.  It is difficult to imagine a better father than Nelson.  He has always been a part of his kids and grandkids lives and he is just such a good person.  He's the kind of guy who would help you if you are stranded on the side of the road, and our youngest has affectionately dubbed him the nickname "Pappy."  We love you, Happy Father's Day!

John

Our second pie recipient is John.  He has been a great father figure for Angie and our children as well.  A very positive and generous man who truly enriches our lives with his presence.  John has really encouraged us to continue with our blog and to even write a book!  His favorite candy growing up was Heath Bars and this was the inspiration for today's pie.  We are so fortunate to have these two men in our lives, and we salute all of the great fathers today!

Recipe

Ingredients

1  Ready made graham cracker pie crust

2 pkg  (8 oz.) cream cheese softened

1   (8 oz.) container of frozen whipped topping, thawed

2 C   powdered sugar

1 tsp  vanilla extract

1 pkg  (8 oz.) Heath bar baking chips reserving 1/2 C for topping.

Directions

Beat together the 2 cups powdered sugar and 2 packages softened cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth.   Mix in 1 tsp. vanilla extract and 8 oz. container of whipped topping.  Fold in candy pieces with a rubber spatula.  Pour into prepared graham cracker crust and spread smooth.  Top with reserved 1/2 C candy pieces and chill in refrigerator for 2 or more hours.  Serve chilled.

About Your Bakers

A Pie Per Week: Custard Pie

Custard Pie

Brian:  We made custard pie this weekend, one of my all time favorite pies.  It also helps that my favorite band, Led Zeppelin, also has a song entitled "Custard Pie."  I had a chance to learn what "scalded milk" is, so each week offers a learning experience for me.

Many of the old recipes called for scalded milk, and there were varying explanations on how to make it, and what the purpose of it is for.  Essentially it is milk that is heated up to 180 degrees, which is just short of boiling. Some explanations state that it is no longer necessary to scald the milk, because it was a form of pasteurization, and others say that it makes a difference in the taste or texture.  So if you have ever heard of the term but didn't know what it meant, hopefully you are now enlightened.

Here are the ingredients

Angie:  When you type in "custard pie recipes" and do a Google search, you are going to find an extensive array of recipes.  The ingredients and amount of ingredients varied drastically.  For example I saw some recipes for as little as one egg for the filling, and others had as many as six. I decided to combine multiple recipes, aiming towards the middle, in an attempt to make the perfect custard pie.  I circled the amount of ingredients we ultimately decided to use, so I would be able to later assemble my recipe.

Angie's 4 recipes, circling ingredients used

Brian:  Since we were on the road, we decided to go for frozen crust, and we are at least two weeks away from sharing the crust recipe, which we keep promising to (and failing to) share.  Figuring out which recipe to use was the hard part, but it is largely a recipe where you load items into the mixer and let it rip.

Eggs.  Remember when Rocky drank this?

Angie:  The different recipes called for milk, evaporated milk and water, and cream, I decided to use cream (half and half) instead of milk, because I figured it would be thicker, and we could avoid the process of scalding milk.  Some of the recipes offered a binding agent, like cornstarch or flour, while others advised nothing.  I opted for flour in this recipe.

Cream... much easier than scalding milk.

Brian:  There was literally no preparation we did outside of the mixer with the ingredients, with the exception of softening the butter.  The eggs, vanilla, nutmeg, cream, flour, butter, and sugar all get added into the mixer one measurement at a time.  Be sure to scrape the edges and add in any flour that doesn't get mixed in.

Scrape the edges and mix again

Angie:  My mother had warned me that the custard would be a little soupy when you pull it out of the oven, and it needs to cool completely before it sets.  You also have to keep your eye on it, because it does rise a bit during the cooking process.  In order to avoid a "soggy bottom" crust, I recommend pre-baking the crust, which is what we did here. 

They plump when you cook 'em

Brian:  I thought the pie was delicious.  I don't see custard pie offered very often, and I can't remember the last time I had it.  Now that we have a pie recipe, I predict that will change.

Angie:  Here it is...  I didn't really like this pie.  I've never liked custard pie and though this has tasty flavor, it's a texture thing for me.  It was like a sweet quiche to me.  For those of you who love custard, you will love this recipe!

Pie of the Week Recipients

Angie and Mark

Angie's brother Mark and his wife Angie are our pie of the week recipients.  They are posing with an "Alfred" mannequin, but he did not partake of the pie.  They are great people, and Mark is quite the chef himself.  One of the joys Angie has is cooking with Mark, her brother Brad, and her mother.  There are no microwave cooks in the Figg family, and they have a good time doing it.  Angie (our sister-in-law) is just a blast to be around and we are so glad she is a part of our family. 

Custard Pie Recipe

1/4c Butter

3/4c Sugar

3 Eggs

3T  Flour

1 1/2c  Half and Half

1t  Vanilla

1/4t Nutmeg

Cream together butter and sugar then add flour.  Beat in the eggs, add half and half, vanilla and nutmeg and mix completely.  Pour into a pre-baked pie shell, sprinkle top with nutmeg, place on a baking sheet and bake in oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for 15 more minutes.  Remove pie from oven.  Pie will need to cool to set completely.  Refrigerate for 4 hours or more.

A Pie Per Week: Mango Pie

Mango Pie

Brian:  The only thing I contributed to this pie is the purchasing of the mango.  It looked like it might rain today, so I went out to  do some yard work.  When I came back inside, Angie was already halfway there, so I just decided to make myself the taster.  :)

A Microplane is great for zesting lemons

Angie:  I looked through several recipes, and borrowed from several to come up with the final pie.  Some of the pies featured a single crust, others featured a top crust as well, like many fruit pies have.  I decided to go with the single crust.

Adding confectioners sugar to flour for the crust

I didn't use my standard crust, which I know we are behind on blogging about, because I found a specialty crust recipe just for mango pie.  The crust featured confectioners sugar and lemon zest, so it was fun to venture out from the norm.  I also pre-baked the crust, which is something I learned about from watching the new Jeff Foxworthy show "The American Baking Competition."  This helps keep the bottom of your crust from getting soggy.  The judges kept going on about "soggy bottom" and that doesn't sound like a good thing!

Crust performs best with real butter and nice cold ingredients

I love this mat my mom gave me for rolling out the crust!

For the filling, we decided to use frozen mangoes because we couldn't find any decent mangoes today, but you can use fresh if you would like.  Another nice thing about frozen mango is that they are difficult to cut and the frozen came in the perfect size cut pieces.  We thawed the mango in a colander, and then I started adding the other elements of the pie filling to the mangoes.

Mangoes thawed and ready for the filling

The first ingredients you add are cinnamon, sugar,lemon juice, lemon zest, and almond extract.  Mix those together well.

Add all ingredients except for the flour

You then add some flour to keep the mixture from getting too moist.  I think the frozen mango are a bit moister than fresh would be.  The flour is a drying and bonding agent, and it keeps the texture from being too soupy.

Add the flour to dry some of the moistness

After I added the flour, I added to the pre-baked crust to finish baking the pie in the oven.

Pie ready to enter the oven

The next part is our favorite... sampling the pie after it has cooled!  I like fresh mango, but I don't love it.  I did like this pie though, it reminded me of peach pie in texture.  After tasting it I would have preferred the double crust.

Brian:  I absolutely love mangoes, and often make them in smoothies, so I thought this pie was awesome.  It really reminded me of a peach pie, with the flavor of a mango substituted for the peach.  Mango has a real piny aftertaste that you either love or hate, and I'm on the side of the coin that really digs it.  I advise topping with whipped topping to balance out that flavor, it is a good combination.

Pie Recipient of the Week:

Our pie recipients of the week are Tim and Katherine.  Brian actually attended high school with Tim, who like Brian, has a twin brother.  They have known each other for years and are involved in a long standing accountability group with other members from church.  

Katherine and Angie are good friends and have also worked together in the women's ministries at church.  They have a family of 8, so that probably only means one slice of pie per person.  When we mentioned the possibility of a mango pie, Katherine's eyes lit up, as their three children from Ethiopia are big fans of mangoes.  They are an awesome family, and it was great to send a pie their way.  

I contacted Katherine on Facebook asking her if she was home, which prompted  "Are we the pie people this week!?!?" from her.  I love that!  They were so busy running to meetings and kid events tonight the only time they had before late tonight was a switch off of kids and going in different directions.  They came by our house to pick it up instead of us delivering it!

Recipe

Crust - This is enough for a double crust pie!

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1/4 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces

3/4 cup vegetable shortening, chilled and cut into small pieces

15 T ice cold water

Filling

5 cups mangoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 to 3/4 inch pieces (4-5 large)

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoons almond extract

1 teaspoons cinnamon

2 tablespoons flour (or more depending on how wet mixture is)

1 teaspoon lemon zest

2 teaspoons lemon juice or 2 teaspoons lime juice

For egg wash

1 egg, beaten with 2 tablespoons water

whipped cream or ice cream, for serving if desired

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Prepare pie crust by mixing together flour, confectioners sugar, salt and lemon zest.

Cut butter and shortening into flour mixture to form coarse crumbs.  Sprinkle ice water over and stir with a wooden spoon until mixture starts to come together.  Gather it up by hand and press to form ball.  Divide into 2 parts, form disks and wrap each in plastic and place in the freezer for 15 minutes.  

Roll out half of dough on a floured surface and place into a 9 inch deep dish pie pan.  Trim edges.  Prick crust with a fork and bake in oven for 10-14 minutes until just turning golden brown.  Allow to cool while preparing filling.

Prepare filling by combining mango pieces, granulated sugar, almond extract, cinnamon.

Add flour, lemon zest and lemon juice.  Mixture should be moist but not wet.  Pour into pre-baked crust.  Roll out remaining half of dough and fit over pie.  Crimp edges and brush top of pie with egg and water wash.  Cut vents in top and cover edges with foil or pie guards and bake 45-50 minutes until crust is golden and filling is tender and bubbling.  

Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.

About Your Bakers