My approach to pie mostly starts with a small dose of panic and the knowledge that every pie is a learning experience. The word “pie” conjures a toasty, lattice-topped apple dessert in my mind, so logically I decided to try my hand at an apricot pie. My main personal hurdle here was the crust. I had yet to make a viable crust from scratch, but looking back on this little experiment, I think I know the reason — about half of my ingredients were the wrong temperature. Somehow, I always trip while crossing the Chasm of Chemistry with every cookie, banana bread, and pie I make.
Alton Brown has a fairly medium-to-hard difficulty level pie crust recipe, which I may or may not have followed to the letter — probably not judging by the sheer amount of dough stuck to my rolling pin. The strategy of shaping the crust with two pie tins was pretty genius, or at least it would have been if my crusts would have stayed together long enough to be shaped.
One standard filling idea that has worked for me countless times is just fruit, sugar, spices, and a dash of salt. The combination lightly spices without overwhelming the fruit, and lets the fruit shine through in the end. The recipe started as an apple pie recipe from Adam’s side of the family, but I started to improvise from what I could remember. The results are a reliably tasty filling for a pie shell, phyllo dough cups, or a galette.
Despite the dough situation, a simple brown sugar walnut granola was a solid crown for this pie. There is plenty of room to be creative with the granola to personal taste, and the granola can be stored in an air-tight container to later be used as a topping for snacks like cereal, ice cream, or yogurt.
Great American Pie Festival Giveaway
Visit the American Pie Council website for some award-winning pie recipes of all difficulty levels, or if you just want to skip right to the eating part and drop by the Great American Pie Festival in Celebration, Florida, from April 27, 2012, through Aprill 29, 2012..
The Council has also generously provided a family four-pack of tickets to the Never Ending Pie Buffet, which Forkful readers can enter to win if they just comment on this post with their favorite pie memories! I look forward to hearing about everyone’s fantastic pies and announcing a winner on Tuesday, April 24, 2012.
[Edited April 24, 2012: The giveaway has been extended to April 25, 2012. The winner will be announced April 26, 2012!l ]
Good luck!
[highlight color=”yellow”][Edited April 25, 2012: The winner of the giveaway is Stephanie! Thank you everyone for taking the time to share your pie memories on Forkful! Participants can verify their entry by entering their email in the Random.org box below.] [/highlight]
- 1 Cup Rolled Oats
- 1 Cup Walnut Halves
- ¼ Tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 Tbsps Cold Salt-Free Butter
- 1½ Cup Brown Sugar
- ¼ Cup Water
- 1 Cup Sliced Frozen Apricots (Can Substitute Sliced Apples or Peaches)
- ⅔ Cup Granulated Sugar or Sugar Substitute
- ¼ Tsp Nutmeg
- ¼ Tsp Cinnamon
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
- ¼ Lemon Juice
- ⅛ Salt
- 3 Tbsps Salt-Free Butter, Cubed
- 1 Ready-made Pie Crust (In Lieu of Homemade Pie Crust)
Tip: If the crust browns too quickly, cover the pie with aluminum foil.
I have an excellent pie crust recipe that I use, if you’d like it, let me know.
I tend to make pies around the holidays, typically apple, pecan, peach, or some other variation. But I can say that hands down, everyone’s favorite is a dark chocolate espresso pecan pie. I always cut way back on the corn syrup and practically smother it in pecans. It’s sweet, but the crust is salty enough that it tempers it and the espresso gives it that kick. Now I want to go bake!
Adam would LOVE that dark chocolate espresso pecan pie! We stopped at a Village Inn during a late night drive from Saint Pete, and Adam’s pie choice was a chocolate silk pie while mine was a strawberry-rhubarb.
I would love to have that pie crust recipe! The simpler the recipe, the better at my current pie novice stage. 😀
Thank you for entering the giveaway!
~Marilyn
hmmm, favorite pie moment…. Ever since I was a little boy my aunt Brenda has been making butterscotch pies from scratch. With a meringue topping. She would always make 3 pies, two for the family and one for me. yes, a WHOLE pie for little ole me!
its hard to explain just how amazing the pie is when i can’t really explain the taste. its light, almost like a pudding, but not identical to butterscotch, so its not overly sweet. I always told her she needed to sell them, she’d probably be a millionaire by now if she did. They’re that good. Very addicting.
Anyway, as we grew older she stopped making so many pies because she’s always been the main cook of the family. so the pies took up too much of her time and she figured I didn’t need my own. Honestly, i think it had to due with the jealousy from my other cousins.
So, every year for our family reunion, its a race “back home” to see who can get into the butterscotch pie first. Being her favorite nephew (sssshh don’t tell anyone) she always lets me have a little more. 😉
Its become an icon in our family and focal point. its brought us together late at night over a cup of coffee. we’ll all sit at the kitchen table, talk of the past over a slice or two of that amazing butterscotch pie!
btw, end of may is our next reunion. im prepping my belly for it now! wish me luck!
I haven’t had the pleasure of enjoying a butterscotch pie. Your description helped me piece together the next grail of my pie-eating quest! Remember to ask for a butterscotch pie next time to bring home and freeze for a rainy day. Please share a photo of that mysterious pie after you get back form the reunion!
Thank you for entering the giveaway. 😀
~Marilyn
Our first Christmas together, I made my husband an awesome Dutch Apple Pie. Maybe that’s why he ended up marrying me? Haha. Now all I make are cupcakes!!
Oh my goodness, Dutch Apple Pie is the only pie I used to buy from Publix fresh from the oven! So irresistible.
Cupcakes could be considered a smaller commitment than a whole pie, but I see no reason to give up either. =3
Thank you for entering the giveaway. <3
~Marilyn
My sister and I used to bake peach pies and sell them to old man Buford. We would pick the peaches from his tree and mess up my grandmas kitchen making the pies. He would buy them for $5 each. As ten year olds, this was great money and great fun!
Pie stands would win over lemonade stands any day! Maybe kids would be better at chemistry in school if they start baking from scratch at an earlier age. 😀
Thank you for entering the giveaway!
~Marilyn
My favorite pie memory is one of major over indulgence. I don’t recommend doing this since it resulted in me having to drive around a really sick husband 😛
Ben and I took a road trip to Prince Edward Island in 2008. One of the highlights was a New Rustico’s infamous Fisherman’s Wharf Lobster Supper (http://www.fishermanswharf.ca/lobster.cfm). During the 40 minute drive from our B&B in Charlottetown and the 20 minute wait to be seated Ben filled me in on his strategy.
To start, he had eaten minimally all day so he would “have plenty of room” for the occasion. Our supper would include one lobster, unlimited seafood chowder, unlimited mussels and access to a 60 foot buffet containing locally grown produce and tons of dessert options. Ben immediately wrote off the buffet as a way to keep people from going after the seafood. I am not joking, he spent an entire hour trying to convince me that the buffet was just a ploy to keep people from the “good stuff”.
Ben stuck to his strategy. While I sampled all sorts of wonderfulness like local new potatoes and creative salads, Ben had bucket after bucket of mussels and cup after cup of chowder. And the lobster, of course. It was hilarious because he kept giving me dirty looks and mumbled about me going after the “filler”. Those were seriously some of the most amazing potatoes I’ve eaten and he refused to go anywhere near them.
Anyway, eventually the seafood conquered him and he decided he was done. I got myself some ice cream for dessert and while I was eating he got his second wind. This time for pie. He started with cherry pie. After the first bite his eyes kinda rolled to the back of his head and he told me it was amazing. The most amazing pie he’d ever eaten. So amazing that when he finished, he needed another slice.
While on the second slice of cherry pie he realized there were blueberry and lemon meringue pies that might be equally amazing. He was obviously getting close to being TOO full… but the idea of not trying what could possibly be the best pie of his life was one he refused to embrace.
Unfortunately, both the blueberry and lemon meringue pies left a lot to be desired. They weren’t bad, but they just could not live up to the rest of the meal. Ben genuinely seemed sad about this – like the mediocre pie was going to ruin his so perfectly planned and executed experience.
So clearly, in order to end the night on a high note, there was another slice of cherry pie. He was definitely too full for that slice of pie but it was like he had to eat it just on principle. In hindsight, we both know that some awful choices were made that night… but at the time it was so funny at the time that it ended up being a really positive memory.
Ben’s theory about the filler buffet could be applied to places like Texas de Brazil, but avoiding pie? ¡No es posible! Now I know never to come between Ben and pies, and that lobsters at Fisherman’s Wharf Lobster Supper must go on my restaurant wish list. 😀
Thank you for entering the giveaway!
~Marilyn