Personal Pecan Pies: Mini Tarts with a Heart

The Durham Food and Drink Club gathered for another bi-monthly potluck installment, this one with the theme of "Tiny Foods," which I like to call "PERSONAL CUPS." I made these personal pecan pies with a heart in the middle of the tart. Recipe adapted from Bake or Break.

PERSONAL PECAN PIES

Ingredients:
-3 eggs, beaten
-1/2 cup sugar
-1 cup light corn syrup
-1/4 cup butter, melted
-1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
-1 cup pecans, chopped
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-Pastry for one double-crust pie (recipe at right)

Using the mouth of a glass, cut mini-pie crust to fit in muffin tins. Press into greased and floured muffin tins. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together eggs, sugar, corn syrup, butter, and flour. Add pecans, vanilla, and salt. Pour into unbaked pie shells. Cut heart-shape with a heart cookie-cutter and place on top of filling. Bake for about 15 minutes or until done. Yields about 2 dozen mini pies.


They took their place at the table with other delicious tiny tarts, itty-bitty biscuits with pimento cheese, petit pizzas, stuffed cherry tomatoes, mini falafel(!), baby beers sipped from miniature mugs, whipped cream beat with a wee whisk, and so many other personal cups. WE FELT LIKE GIANTS!

One-Pie Pumpkin Pie

This can posed for me in the Rokeby back kitchen

Generally I am an advocate of using whole, local, and fresh foods. Baking from scratch. So I hope it doesn't seem blasphemous to confess that when it comes to pumpkin pie, I am all about canned purée. You should know that I arrived at this conclusion after many trials with both fresh and canned pumpkin. But when it comes down to it, I found that using fresh purée is overly laborious for its results--it's watery, and just doesn't taste as good! Even Martha Stewart says so. If you do insist on using fresh ingredients, though, I would opt for delicata or butternut squash over a pie pumpkin. The squash has a more delicate flavor (hence the name), and are less watery and stringy.

In the realm of the canned pumpkin, I DO have a definite favorite. One-Pie. Okay, so maybe it's only for the label and the fact that it's made in Maine. But seriously, it's real cute. And the recipe on the back isn't too bad either:

ONE-PIE New England Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients
1 can ONE-PIE Pumpkin
1 tbsp. Cornstarch
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Ginger
1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tbsp. Butter (Melted)
1 1/2 cups Milk or 1-12 oz. can Evaporated Milk
1 cup Sugar
1/8 cup Molasses
2 Eggs (beaten)
Nothing-in-the-House pie crust 

Directions
Sift sugar, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon, ginger, & nutmeg together. Mix this with contents of one can ONE-PIE Pumpkin. Add eggs, beaten, melted butter, molasses, & milk. Add a dash of lemon juice (if desired). Line a 9-inch pie plate with crust, pour in contents. Preheat oven & bake at 450 for 15 minutes. Then reduce temp. to 350 & continue to bake for 50 minutes.

This isn't necessarily my go-to pumpkin pie recipe, but I do like it for the molasses and the ginger.
ONE-PIE!

Read our One-Pie Pumpkin Pie, Revisited post here. 

Competitive Pie

I've been baking pies since I was a wee lass, but it was only this fall that I took my skills to the next level: competitive pie.

The place I work had a late summer BBQ. Part of the festivities included a dessert contest. Unfortunately that meant decadent chocolate cake was to be judged against delicious berry-filled pies. I was up to the challenge.

And so I toiled away to bake a berry-peach pie:

Before Baking

After Baking

I hopped on the bus, and then the train, my pie covered in tinfoil, hoping I wouldn't ruin the lovely lattice work.

The pie arrived in tact, and I awaited the big moment. The high-ups at the library made the decision (I balked at this: pie is a food of the people, not the Man!).

Honorable mentions were called, then third place. And then second.

Second place it was! Missing first place by a nose, I lost to a chocolate rum cake.
Later, an older man came over and told me I was robbed. Mine was the only dessert without a crumb left behind. People voted with their forks, he said. Indeed!

A few weeks later I went to a more professional pie contest in a park on a beautiful October day.

There were hundreds of pies! And for a hefty $3 per slice, you could take a taste.
There were also pony rides for the tots. A wholesome and depressing thing.

The best pie I tasted was not even in the competition. Hoosier Mama pie company povided some of the best apple pie I have ever tasted.

All in all, its been a great fall for pies here in the Windy City!

Pear Tarte Tatin

Apple pies, apple tarts, apple butter, apple cider... it's been all apples all the time these days. At the end of fall when you are apple bottomed-out (ha) but have perfected your apple-dessert skills, turn to the pear. When Lora and Joe invited me to a last-minute dinner at their Chicken Bridge house last night with the folks from the Blind Tiger String Band, I remembered seeing a plethora of on-sale pears at the co-op, and found this recipe for a pear version of tarte tatin from the Gourmet Cookbook:

Pear Tarte Tatin

Ingredients
4 large firm yet ripe Bosc pears
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Nothing-in-the-House Pie Crust Recipe (at right), using all-purpose flour

Directions
1. Peel, halve, and core pears (with a melon-baller). Heat butter in a 9- to 10-inch cast-iron skillet over moderate heat until foam subsides, then stir in sugar (sugar will not be dissolved). Arrange pears, cut sides up, in skillet with wide parts facing out. Sprinkle pears with cinnamon and cook undisturbed, until sugar turns a deep golden caramel. (This can take 15- 25 minutes, depending on pears, skillets, and stove.) Cool pears completely in skillet.

2. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 425°F.

3. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin into a 12-inch round and trim to a 9 1/2- to 10 1/2-inch round. Arrange pastry over caramelized pears, tucking edge around pears inside the rim of skillet. Bake tart until pastry is golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 5 minutes.

Invert a rimmed serving plate (slightly larger than skillet) over skillet and, using pot holders to hold skillet and plate tightly together, invert tart onto plate. Serve tart warm with vanilla whipped cream.
 
Though I was nervous about the flip, this recipe was delicious! The pear-carmelization was particularly tasty considering the minimal effort. We enjoyed it after an excellent porch-dinner of field peas, chicken and vegetables, corn bread, and Farmer's Daughter tomato chutney, sauerkraut, and green tomato pickles.


Then we headed to the Nightlight to watch Blind Tiger play some great Kentucky fiddle tunes!

I Northern Spy with My Little Apple of My Eye-Phone Pie

Picture taken by an I-phone taking a picture of an I-phone taking a picture of an I-phone taking a picture of a Northern Spy Apple of My Eye Pie

Northern Spies are my favorite baking apple. I picked up a few of them at Hardeman's Orchard in Red Hook, NY for this pie made for last weekend's Saturday night dinner in the Rokeby back kitchen. I used this basic recipe:

APPLE PIE:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

For filling, combine:
8 good size apples, cored and cut into 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch pieces.
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup (I used syrup tapped last year by Marina and Lou from Rokeby maples)
cinnamon and nutmeg to taste
3 tablespoon corn starch
I added a dash of vanilla extract, as M&L had some homemade with vodka and fresh vanilla beans.

Using the crust recipe at left, roll out crust and place in greased and floured pie dish. Spoon in filling and top with top crust, fluting edges and adding a crust design (EYE!). Brush on an egg wash (Shoving Leopard Farm fresh egg!) and sprinkle turbinado sugar on top. Put the pie in the oven, 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake 35 to 40 minutes longer. Filling will bubble and crust will be golden brown when finished. Apple of my eye!
Plate lickers in the PEZ!

Pumpkin Whoopie Inspiration: Maple-Cream Cheese Variation

Last Sunday I got home from brunch and the grocery store, all set to make pumpkin (actually butternut squash--the store had no pumpkin puree yet!) cupcakes for a pumpkin-carving party. But after peeking here and seeing Michelle's pumpkin whoopie pies, I had to divert my plans! I didn't have marshmallow on hand (and am not so much a fun of marshmallow creme in general), so I made a maple-cream cheese filling instead.

I used Michelle's recipe below for the cakes, and used this recipe for the filling:

Maple Cream Cheese Filling

Ingredients
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 Tblsp. maple syrup

Directions
1. In a food processor, beat the butter until it is smooth. Add the cream cheese and beat until combined.
2. Add the confectioners' sugar and maple syrup and beat until smooth. Cover the bowl tightly and put it in the refrigerator. Let the filling soften at room temperature before using.
A hit amongst the jack o' lanterns and at the WXYC new DJ filing party the next day!

p.s. if you've never experienced the whoopie or need some background check out this post and the linked NY Times article from last year.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pie Recipe

PUMPKIN WHOOPIE PIES with MAPLE-MARSHMALLOW FILLING 

1 c. powdered sugar, sifted
1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 7-oz jar marshmallow creme
2 t. maple extract
CAKE
3 c. all purpose flour
2 t. ground cinnamon
1-1/2 t. baking powder
1-1/2 t. baking soda
3/4 t. salt
3/4 t. ground nutmeg
3/4 t. ground cloves
6 T. unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 c. (packed) golden brown sugar
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 15-oz can pure pumpkin
1/2 c. milk
Nonstick vegetable oil spray

PREPARATION

FILLING
(1) Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add marshmallow creme and maple extract; beat until blended and smooth. DO AHEAD Can be made 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.
CAKE
(1) Sift first 7 ingredients into large bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter and both sugars in another large bowl until blended. Gradually beat in oil. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating to blend between additions. Beat in pumpkin. Add dry ingredients in 2 additions alternately with milk in 1 addition, beating to blend between additions and occasionally scraping down sides of bowl. Cover and chill batter 1 hour.
(2) Arrange 1 rack in bottom third of oven and 1 rack in top third of oven; preheat to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment; spray lightly with nonstick spray. Spoon batter onto baking sheet to form cakes (~3 T. per pie to make ~23 pies), spacing apart. Let stand 10 minutes.
(3) Bake cakes until tester inserted into centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through baking. Cool cakes completely on baking sheets on rack. Using metal spatula, remove cakes from parchment.
(4) Line cooled baking sheets with clean parchment; spray with nonstick spray, and repeat baking with remaining batter.
(5) Spoon about 2 T. filling on flat side of 1 cake. Top with another cake, flat side down. Repeat with remaining cakes and filling. DO AHEAD Can be made 8 hours ahead. Store in single layer in airtight container at room temperature.

The Painswick Dog Pie

While browsing old folklore journals for an annotated bibliography assignment for my Folklore Theory class, I came across this brief article, published in the December 1897 volume of Folklore, a British academic journal. The article, by A.B. Gomme, remarks on the tradition of baking small porcelain dog figurines into plum pies on Painswick Feast-Day, celebrated the Sunday after September 19th (as good a day for a feast as any, I suppose!). The story goes that this Painswick, England tradition apparently came about when some travelers from Stroud came a-visiting and ordered a meat pie. There was no more meat, so the village butcher looked around for a substitute-- and his eyes finally settled on his poor dog.

There is a varying explanation, but I thought you might like to go straight to the source (particularly because it makes great use of the word "bugbear"). Here's a snapshot of the 1897 article (click to enlarge):
If anyone ever finds a porcelain Painswick dog, do send it my way, and we'll put it in a bow-wow pie next time sunday-after-september-the-nineteenth rolls around!

Red Sky Trading Company

Though the weather has finally shifted here, and apple picking, pumpkin patching, and molasses-making excursions have been planned, I have been nostalgic for Vermont lately, homesick for a Northern fall. I came across this picture, taken by my mama, a little over a year ago, of me at one of my favorite roadside stands, Red Sky Trading Company in Glover, VT. Should you find yourself in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, perhaps attending a Bread and Puppet show, swimming in Lake Willoughby or beseeching Galway Kinnell for a poem, you MUST stop at Red Sky Trading along Rt. 16 in Glover. This put-your-money-in-the-coffee-can shop housed in a small red barn vends the dearest vintage kitchen items: aprons, tumblers, pyrex and melamine, flour sifters and cherry pitters; AND the most delicious homemade baked & canned goods: relishes and preserves, creampuffs and cheesecake, the best cider donuts I've ever had and of course seasonal fruit PIES. See here for more information and here for photos. The self-serve set-up and grandma's kitchen aesthetic makes feel as though you've happened upon some ginghamed treasure nostalgic dream.

Cantaloupe Pie: An Experiment

I was sorting through some old recipes the other day, and came across this card for Cantaloupe pie, from the Pie of The Month Club. Once a month, members of the club receive a quirky, historical, and/or rare pie recipe on a postcard with original pie art. Heather gave me a membership a few years ago, and perhaps one day Sue Anne, Pie-of-the-Month Club Maven, will post here herself!

I had half of a large cantaloupe in the fridge, so I decided to give it a try even though (as Sue Anne says on the card) the idea of cooking a cantaloupe sounded a little strange, as melons' most attractive attributes are their refreshing juicy coolness. But you don't know until you try. Here's the recipe from the POTMC...

Cantaloupe Pie:
9" pre-baked crust (used recipe at right)
1/4 c. flour
3 eggs, separated
3/4 c. sugar
2 tblsp. butter
6 tblsp. sugar + 1/2 tsp. vanilla for meringue
1 large, VERY RIPE cantaloupe or muskmelon

In a medium saucepan mix half the sugar with melon and cook until melon is tender and mash-able. Mash the melon to a lumpy pulp. Mix flour with remaining sugar, add beaten egg yolks and butter. Add to mashed melon and return to heat briefly until just starting to bubble. Remove from heat. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites until frothy. Add 6 tblsp. sugar and vanilla and keep beating until stiff peaks form. Pour warm melon filling into pie shell. Cover completely with meringue, sealing to edges. Brown in oven (10-20 min at 325 F). Cool. Cut. Eat.
The meringue set up nicely, but it took some effort to mash the cantaloupe and the butter sort of congealed (insert "can't elope" joke here).
I invited Neale and Emily to come over for dinner followed by a cantaloupe pie taste test where we documented our first bite reactions:Neale's first bite...don't let this face mislead you, the man had seconds! Emily's (W.) first biteMy first bite. PEZ?

Despite the trepidation in our expression, we all agreed that the flavor was great, but it was strange to be eating cantaloupe warm, especially still in chunks. Our consensus is that cantaloupe pie would make an excellent icebox pie, with the melon pureed, and the whole shebang chilled for an hour or two.

We followed our experiment with some bananagrams.

So Many Plums

Among the treasures Dan and Jane inherited from the previous owners of their 1950s ranch (including a "sausage formula" tacked to the wall in the basement), was a half-dead but very productive Italian plum tree.



Last year, a friend made plum wine with the plums, and the year before someone made prunes. This year, they've been giving a lot away, eating some raw, making pancakes and preserves. Last night, Jane and I decided to do a little baking.

Dan had collected some wild blueberries and huckleberries. We sprinkled them on top of plums tossed with cinnamon for a beautiful crisp. The wild fruit gave it a delicious tartness.


Then we decided to try for a rustic plum tart. The Italian plums are a good choice for tarts because they are naturally drier than regular plums, so they don't create a ton of juice during baking. I had made several rustic apple tarts last fall, but could never get the crust flaky enough, so I was glad to have Jane's expertise. We used a food processor to make the dough (very basic recipe), and Jane rolled it out while I watched, still a little nervous about the crust. Jane had a tart pan, so we first formed the dough up against the fluted edges, then arranged the plum slices that had been tossed with ginger and cinnamon. At the last minute, we decided to fold the edges over the plums, finished it with egg glaze and a little sugar. Thus, I decided to call the tart semi-rustic, as it started as a fancier french-style tart, but ended up a tiny bit more rustic.



After a chili dinner provided by Mike, we decided to eat both the crisp and the tart.

Yummm!!! I was particularly amazed by the tart and its perfect crust. Here is a pic of Dan and Jane in the TEZ (Tart Enjoyment Zone). Mike and I aren't big ice cream eaters, so we had to use our old freezer-burned ice cream, but no one cared.


And this morning we ate the leftovers for breakfast of course!

Wild Apple Pancake Fever

Up in the U.P., there was a wild apple tree.
I wanted to make a pie, but staying in a little cottage, didn't have much.



Just these apples, pancake mix, butter, cinnamon and maple syrup.
The pie crust wouldn't stay together, no matter what I did.



So what we caught was wild apple pancake fever!
A pie, spread out across a cookie sheet, puffy like a pancake and gooey like a pie. Weird and delicious. Kind of a failure, kind of a victory!

Mom's Apple Pie

My husband and I recently took a fabulous trip out to Napa Valley/Sonoma/San Francisco. It was a whirlwind trip filled with good wine, great food, driving along Highway 1, and spending time with the love of my life. I had heard about a little place in Sebastopol, CA called Mom's Apple Pie. While it was about 30 minutes out of our way leaving Sonoma wine country, my husband agreed to the adventure.

We drove. We turned around twice. We snaked our way through tiny towns in Northern California that made me drool. We started seeing acres and acres of apple orchards and I knew we were close. What could be better than a fresh apple pie from the orchards in wine country? And what could be more fun than adding a stop at a cute pie shop owned by a sweet lady named Betty?

I was so excited to try one of her fresh-baked pies right from apple-growing country. Made from Gravenstein Apples near the Sonoma Valley, Mom's apple pie was sweet and tart and bursting with cinnamon. I also LOVED her flaky crust. She had a beautiful selection of pies ranging from rhubarb to raspberry to lemon meringue to blueberry to cherry to peach - anything you could dream of! Just look at the perfectly formed meringue...

Enjoying my delicious apple pie, I was definitely in the PEZ. And I'm positive it would be great breakfast pie the next day. I highly recommend this side trip if you are ever in the area! And I am loving the link on here to Pie of the Month Club - they have a great map of Pies Across America!

Remembering Summer, Through Pies

It's early September, and up in Vermont I know friends are feeling the start of fall. I mistook the cooler weather this week here in North Carolina as the end of summer, but here we are again today with a high of 91 degrees, and highs in the 80s forecasted for the rest of the week. Perhaps it's premature to announce the end of the season, but I must say, I'm anxious for fall with its saturday visits to orchards for doughnuts, cider and apple-picking, leaves-a-changing, lots of Brit psych folk on the stereo, and sweater weather. In any (dessert) case, here are a few pies I made earlier this summer:

Twin open-top blueberry pies with berries picked by Nathalie and me, for ROCKBY 2009, Marina's music festival birthday party at Rokeby.

Another blueberry (bloobz) pie, I made for a burrito cookout during an August Baltimore visit. It was maybe the best blueberry filling I've ever made because it set up so well. I used this recipe, but added a half cup of flour or so to the filling. The crust, however, was a struggle, because of the heat!
And finally, peach-basil pie I made for a Folklore grad student cookout here in North Carolina. The basil came from Josh's herb garden in our backyard. The filling recipe I used was:

Peach-Basil Pie
3 lbs. peaches (maybe more)
1/4 c. lemon juice
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
2 Tblsp. corn starch
1/8 c. julienned fresh basil/lemon basil (I used a mixture)

 In the future, I would probably make a basil simple syrup (like in this pie) instead of just putting in the julienned basil leaves. I thought having a little leaf amongst the peaches was mildly unpleasant, but everyone else said they thought it was peach skin (it was dark). Please enjoy these last days of summer pie possibilities!

Mexican Chili Corn Pie

Hi all! My name is Michelle and I recently stumbled upon your delectable pie blog. I don't know who you are but I'm in love. I am also a pie enthusiast (although I clearly can't touch most of you with your pie passions). I'm here in Dallas, TX (where nothing of pie-like-ness exists on a delicious level unfortunately. No cute pie shops. No gardens can exist without great toil in this heat) but I was raised by my family to appreciate the goodness of pah. We grew up on my Aunt Pat's homemade apple pie (I think I can rival her now), home-made pumpkin pie, Grandma Pi's strawberry pie (yes, I have a grandma named Pi!) and in recent years my favorite apple strudel pie that I make for every holiday occasion. I will share the apple strudel miracle with you some other time closer to Christmas when you can warm up a mug of cider and put on Bing Crosby :) For now, just a little bit about me and my cooking. I'm a vegetarian going on my 1 year anniversary now. My husband and I decided to try it and it makes cooking a bit more interesting. In the old days I used real butter and eggs and I have tried most of my pies with the fake egg replacer (Ener-G can be purchased at Whole Foods) and even Earth Balance vegan buttery spread. I will say I can hardly taste a difference but I doubt I will continue my pie adventures without turning back to my old ways of real eggs and cholesterol laden butter from time to time. YUM!

For dinner last week we made this delicious Mexican Chili Corn Pie out of one of our vegetarian cookbooks.
You essentially prepare a bake of garlic, bell pepper, celery, kidney bean and corn mixture flavored with chile and fresh cilantro (if you're a fan of cilantro which I'm not). Place the mixture into a pie dish and top with a delicious crispy CHEESE cornbread. (no, I am NOT vegan. I doubt I can ever give up cheese).


Recipe:

Ingredients
1 tbsp corn oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 celery stalk, diced
1 tsp hot chili powder
14 oz/400 g canned chopped tomatoes (or go fresh if you can!)
1 1/2 cups corn
3/4 cup kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
salt and pepper
cilantro sprigs, to garnish
(can serve with a tomato and avocado salad)

Topping
2/3 cup cornmeal (i used white)
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 egg, beaten (or try the egg replacer, turned out just fine)
6 tbsp milk
1 tbsp corn oil (i just used vegetable oil)
generous 1 cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese

Heat the oil in a large skillet and gently cook the garlic, bell peppers, and celery for 5-6 minutes, until just softened.

Stir in the chili powder, tomatoes, corn, beans, and seasoning. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the cilantro and spoon into ovenproof pie dish (deep dish is best). To make the topping, mix together the cornmeal, flour, salt, and baking powder. Make a well in the center, then add the egg, milk, and oil and beat until a smooth batter is formed.

Spoon over the bell pepper and corn mixture and sprinkle with the cheese. Bake in a preheated oven, at 425 for 25-30 minutes, until golden and firm. Garnish with cilantro sprigs and serve immediately.

VOILA!