"Pumpkin" Pie

This recipe is one I've adapted from a couple of different recipes. My husband loves pumpkin pie that uses cooked pumpkin not the canned variety. I love getting away with lower calorie ingredients that don't sacrifice flavor. Here's my favorite "pumpkin" pie recipe. You can use canned pumpkin if you insist but I use whatever flavorful winter squash I can get my hands on. I usually roast squash in my oven to cook it. This particular pie was made with butternut squash. It was cut into fairly even chunks drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with kosher salt. I baked it at 425 for 20-25 min until it was fork tender and browned on some of the edges. It is very easy to scrape out of the skins and eat as a side dish for dinner or let it cool and use it in this recipe.

"Pumpkin" Pie Recipe
1 3/4 cups cooked squash
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk


I find the easiest way to combine these ingredients is in my blender. The squash must be pureed anyway because home-cooked squash can be somewhat chunky and that is not desirable in this pie!
Bake 15 min @ 450. Reduce heat to 300. Bake until knife inserted near center comes out clean. This usually takes around an hour for me but check at 45 min. 

I couldn't remember what size pie plate this recipe fits so I did it in my spring form pan.

After I poured the filling in I folded down the crust to give some room for the pie to swell a little as it does but not be too tall. Now after making it again I will make a note that it fits a normal 9" pie plate.

Here it is unformed. I do like the tart-like look of it.

A word to the wise, for those who tend to get heavy-handed with the spices, I rounded up all of them and the result (my husband gently pointed out) was a little too flavorful. It was good after the first couple bites but after eating a whole slice it was just too much. I will follow the recipe more exactly next time! The method is a winner, though, I have made this recipe many times and the result always has a good "set up" texture and is smooth and velvety in your mouth. 

Crust

For some time now I have been making my crust wrong! I discovered my error when I was making chicken pot pie for my sister who had just had a baby. I had cut the recipe in half to just make enough crust for one pie and was accidentally using a quarter of the amount of Crisco. I don't know how I came up with the fraction that I did but no wonder I haven't been satisfied with my crust!

If you were looking forward to a recipe I hate to disappoint but I'm just not sure if I want to give it away. I will tell you the components, though, just not the measurements. How's that? I use a recipe given to me by my mother and it has:

flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, Crisco, egg, lemon juice, ice water.

This way, if you want, you can probably find a comparable recipe.

I will say also that I only mix with a fork after adding the liquid. Just until the dough pulls together and there isn't a dry pile of flower in the bottom of the bowl. Then I try to handle it as little as possible. I only roll it out once and if it it's uneven I just patch it or if it tears I just squeeze the tear back together. I flour often and make sure it doesn't stick to the counter. If it starts sticking I lift it and dust more flour underneath.

Concord Grape Pie

I came across this recipe in the Canadian Heritage Cook Book back in 2000. It looked good enough to try and since then grape pie has been one of our family favorites. Here's the recipe:

Concord grapes
4	tb	Flour
1 1/4	c	Sugar
2	tb	Butter
		Pastry for 9" pie & extra for lattice top

Wash enough grapes to fill a 9" pie plate and make a rounded mound.

Squeeze the pulp from the grapes into a saucepan, reserving the skins. Bring pulp to a boil, strain out the seeds, and mix in the skins. Stir in 2 Tbsp of flour and 1 cup sugar. Line a pie plate with the pastry. Combine the 1/4 cup sugar and 2 Tbsp flour, sprinkle on to the crust. Add grape filling. Add butter as a dollop in the center of the filling. Cover pie with a lattice topping. Bake at 450 F. for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 400 F. for 10 minutes, then bake for 30 minutes at 350 F.

From: The Canadian Heritage Cookbook, by Edna McCann

I ended up with maybe a cup and a half too much pie filling. So next time, I won't mound up the grapes quite so high.

The seeds are neatly left behind with this cone shaped sieve. It comes with a dowel. I found it at a yard sale and I've seen them in stores too. I suppose it works a lot like a food mill.

Here's the grape pulp ready for the skins to be mixed back in.

Grape pie filling.

For me, this took quite a bit longer than the recipe says to cook. It was in the oven for about an hour at the 350 stage. I think next time I'm going to add a little extra flour and I might try cooking the filling in a sauce pan before baking it in the oven. It was good just the way it was, though.

Apple Pie from my own Tree!

This summer we bought a house across the river and moved into our own place. No more renting, yay!
I live in apple country but I've never had my own tree before. Our new house has two apple trees. The previous owner told me one was a pie apple (he couldn't remember which variety) and the other is a Cameo.
Once I thought the apples looked ripe enough my boys and I picked them all and I made pie.

Yes, I used all 12 apples in the pie. I like to make big apple pies. Also, I have two large glass dishes I use for pie that I got from Ikea ages ago that are able to fit all these apples. Even if I use a regular sized pie dish I really like to pile the filling high.

I did my crust a bit different this time. I made the top crust fit (by cutting it after draping it over the filing to fit) and then folded the bottom crust up and over. My husband loves crust and liked it but I thought it was a little thick... I then sprinkled the crust with milk and brown sugar.

These babies take a while in the oven to bake. I baked it at 350 and I think it was in there a total of 1 hour and 30 to 45 min. I just bake it until a knife inserted through a slit at the top goes in smoothly. You can feel the doneness of the apples by poking at them with the knife.

Whatever kind of apples these are they tasted fantastic!

Two Pies from this Summer

Well, I had to revisit the cherry pie with the terrible crust. We often do something called "______________ redemption" in our family with things that fail. So, this was cherry pie redemption. The filling was great on the first one but not the crust. Also, I found more pie cherries and this time for free. (Actually, that's not entirely true but we won't go into that :)

 In late July I heard of a local u-pick blueberry farm called Crazy Larry's. This turned out to be a fabulous place and the owner was wonderful. We went on an evening during the week and had a wonderful time picking berries. We picked 10 lbs in 15 minutes. This is definitely not the work that picking raspberries can be.

We ate a LOT of the blueberries fresh but I did save some to make a pie. (Of course!) I have made a couple blueberry pies from frozen berries before and wondered how different one could be from fresh berries. Well...BIG difference. Here's the recipe I used:

Crust for double crust pie
6 cups of fresh blueberries, rinsed and stems removed
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
2 Tbsp butter, cut into small pieces

Mix together the flour and sugar and gently toss with the berries. Dot butter on top. Bake it at 425 for 20 min and then reduce heat to 350 and bake for another 30 - 40 min or until the juices are bubbling. Let it cool completely before serving.

Raspberry Jam

I just want to write this entry so I can share pictures of how beautiful raspberry jam is when you make it yourself. Or, is beauty just in the eye of the beholder?
We tried out a local u-pick farm called Blueberry Hills in Mason, WA. Raspberry picking started last Thursday and we went on the following Sunday so the bushes were pretty picked over. We picked for a while and then went inside for milkshakes and root beer floats. So, it was a nice family experience. If I was to do some serious picking, though, I would have to go first thing in the morning when the berry patch first opens.

I did end up with enough raspberries for jam, though.  I was a bit of a miser and did not let anyone eat any more than one raspberry each. We had also picked blueberries and strawberries so it wasn't too much of a hardship. After rinsing the fruit and letting it dry a little on a kitchen towel I mashed it and then measured it. I needed 5 cups of mashed fruit and ended up with exactly that.  Weird.

All about the fruit

For me, it's all about the fruit.
I've kept my eye out for pie cherries for a while now. I live in fruit country and there's farmer's markets and roadside stands everywhere but I haven't come across any real pie cherries until a few days ago. We followed some signs on 3rd street in East Wenatchee near Costco and arrived at a little 2 acre cherry orchard. We bought Bings (my favorite) and Raniers (my husband's favorite). I happened to ask if they knew who might have pie cherries and was told that they did. I'd have to place an order and they could be picked by the next day. yay!
The next day, which happened to be the 4th of July, I went and picked up 5lbs of pie cherries. I paid $10 for them but was very pleased to have such beautiful, real PIE cherries.
Yesterday, I made my dough and pitted my cherries.
Today I assembled the pie and baked it.
I have never actually made a real cherry pie before so I looked up some recipes. After my normal amount of too-detailed-deliberation, I chose a recipe with no flavorings; just cherries, sugar and flour. The last time I made pie I used cornstarch and wasn't too happy with it. My hunch is that I'm not sure I like cornstarch in pie...
Well, I'll have to get back to you after my family and I "review" the pie tonight :)
In the meantime, here are some photos chronicling my adventure:

Dough Assembly

Let the pitting begin! Half of the cherries' pits pulled out when I pulled the stems off and the other half I pitted with a handy tool.

My notes. 

Here's what I decided to do:

5 c cherries

1 1/4 c sugar

1/3 c flour

Floured and sugared

Lattice top (of course!)

Ooops, I forgot the butter. I think putting it on top (instead of under the crust like I was supposed to) will still work...

The boys are excited that there's a pie in the oven.

Baked it for 30 min at 400 and then 65 min at 350. Definitely needed the pie crust shield.

Hope it turned out!

(and Momma, if you read this, don't you say anything about my crust! I know it looks awful. It didn't turn out and all because I tried cutting the recipe in half and also used the food processor... It turned out too dry and then I absolutely man-handled it! Ugh!)

July 6, 2011 7:33 PM It did turn out rather well. Yay! The crust was nasty but at least I know why. I really did prefer the flour thickener. The pie set up well but wasn't totally "gelled".