pie

Sweet Potato Meringue Pie

November 16, 2017

Sweet potato pie is one of those Thanksgiving traditions I was completely oblivious to until I moved to the South. The extent of my knowledge of sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving started and ended with sweet potato casserole. You know, that super sweet “casserole” that is topped with loads of marshmallows and somehow always gets served as a side dish and not as a dessert. Yeah, I never quite understood sweet potato casserole.

I totally understand sweet potato pie! If you are going to dress sweet potatoes up with sugar and butter, call it what it is! Dessert! Put it in a pie crust and call it a pie. It’s delicious. And, if you just can’t seem to get on board with sweet potatoes without the marshmallows, I’ve got you covered! Just top that baby off with a healthy meringue topping that is just as good (dare I say, better?) than a marshmallow topping.

It’s the best of both worlds!

Here’s how I made it:

Starting with the pie crust, I rolled out my favorite pie dough and transferred it to my pie dish.

Then I covered the pie dough with tin foil and filled it with pie weights to partially bake (par-bake).

Note: I was a little hasty in par-baking the crust and didn’t freeze it beforehand so it ended up shrinking. To prevent shrinkage (hold the jokes), freeze the pie dough in the pie dish before placing it in the oven.

While the pie crust baked, I microwaved the sweet potatoes until they were completely soft and I could easily spoon the potato away from the skin.

I added the sweet potatoes, along with sugar and butter in a large bowl and gave it a good whisk until it was smooth. Then I added the egg, egg yolks, cream, vanilla, and spices and gave it another good mix until it was completely smooth. Then all of that got poured into the par-baked pie crust.

Custard pies can be a little tricky to know when they are completely done baking. The pie should still have a little wiggle in the middle, but the top should be totally dry and the pie closest to the crust should be set.

Once the pie reached that point, I removed it from the oven and let it cool to room temperature. It will continue to set as it sits out and cools.

I used the waiting time to clean up and make my meringue. I used the French method, which I describe in detail in this buttercream post. Once the meringue formed semi-stiff peaks, I just dumped it right onto the pie.

You can spread your meringue out however you like. I wanted it to look a little spiky so first spread the meringue our across the pie, then used the spatula to form little peaks across the top by pulling the spatula up in short quick motions.

Finally, I placed the pie back in the oven under the broiler to caramelize the meringue. You could also use a kitchen torch if you wanted to have more control over your caramelization.

But, you know, I like to live life on the edge sometimes. I just stick my pie under the broiler and wait to see what happens.

I loved cutting into this and seeing that meringue piled high on top. The meringue may be my favorite part of this pie!

Meringue is just so perfect on top of a dense custard pie like sweet potato pie. That super soft meringue just balances everything else out. It’s like a lighter version of a whipped cream topping. It provides a little extra sweetness, but not nearly as much as a marshmallow topping would, and helps cut through the richness of the pie itself.

Have I convinced you to make this for Thanksgiving? Well, I certainly convinced myself!
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Chai Spiced Pumpkin Pie

November 10, 2017

A Thanksgiving table isn’t complete without pumpkin pie, right?

Well, can I admit something to you? This is a safe space right? Pumpkin pie….is not….my favorite.

There, I said it. If this were grade school and we were picking teams for kickball, pumpkin pie would be the kid in class I picke last.

I think it’s because I had a bad experience with pumpkin pie as a kid that I just haven’t completely gotten over. But I have made some major progress over the years. For instance, I have jumped on board the pumpkin spice bandwagon, just like every other millennial female. Also, I do a lot of baking with pumpkin. It’s just when it’s in pie form, well, that’s when I lose interest.

Until….

This chai spiced pumpkin pie. This pie was a turning point for me. While chai spice is essentially pumpkin pie spice with some cardamom, the added cardamom takes the average pumpkin pie to the next level!

This chai spiced pumpkin pie would not be picked last for my kickball team.

I will also admit to you (again, safe space), that I was debating over whether to use store-bought pie crust or make my own. Clearly, you can see which one won. And I am glad it did. It offered me the opportunity to add ever more chai spice to the pie crust!

Making pie crust really isn’t all that hard. Actually, my version is pretty easy because I let the food processor do all the work for me (work smarter, not harder, kids). After the pie dough has a chance to chill in the fridge for a bit, all you got to do is roll it out and trim it.

Next is a very crucial step. How crucial? Well, do you want a soggy bottom pie or a not crispy crust pie? No one wants a soggy bottom, so to avoid that you must partially bake your pie crust. It only takes a few minutes. Just cover your pie crust with a layer of foil or parchment and fill it with pie weights. Pop it in the oven for about 20 minutes, and you will have a just barely cooked pie crust. But it’s enough that once you add your super wet filling, it will be able to crisp up even more while it bakes.

Meanwhile, you can make your filling!

The filling for this pie is almost exactly like the classic pumpkin pie. Except in place of pumpkin pie spice, I added chai spices. For those of you who aren’t familiar, chai spice contains:

Cardamom
Cinnamon
Ginger
Clove

Sometimes it also contains nutmeg or allspice. In this case, since I was adding it to a pumpkin pie, I did add both. I also added a bit of tumeric to boost that color. It doesn’t add a whole lot of flavor, so you can easily leave that out.

Once all the filling ingredients are mixed up and smooth, pour it into your partially baked pie crust and then pop it back into the oven.

While the oven bakes, kick back and relax. Have a glass of wine. Or get back to work concocting some sort of pie cruat design to put on top.

It’s clear which one I did.

If you are like me, and follow a lot of bakers on Instagram, you may be seeing a lot of amazing pie crust designs. I absolutely love them! However, since I rarely make pies, I never get to recreate my favorite pie crust designs.

This pumpkin pie created an opportunity to do my very own pie crust design. Since I was making a chai spiced pumpkin pie, I wanted to create a simple mandala-like design on top. I used my extra pie crust to make various shapes, mostly circles (using the ends of my #10 piping tip) and tear drops (using a clay cutter from the craft store). I assembled them in the design i wanted on a piece of parchment, then put them in the freezer to chill.

Trouble is, pumpkin pie (or any custard pie), isn’t the best pie to add a crust design on top. If you put pie crust on top of the pumpkin pie filling, the pieces will just sink to the bottom. But if I am one thing, it’s ~~persistent~~ stubborn, and I will get it done no matter what.

There are two methods to adding a crust design on top of a custard pie.

1. Bake the pie until it is almost done, mostly set from the crust in, then take the pie out and add your pie dough design on top. Then put it back in the oven to continue baking. (This is what I did)

2. Bake the pie dough pieces seperately in the oven. Then when both the pie crust pieces and the pie itself are completly baked, remove from the oven and assemble. (This is what I wish I had done.)

Either way, the pie turned out beautiful and delicious! And the latter is what’s most important.

And boy is it! I have never finished even a slice of pumpkin pie before. With this pie, I not only finished 1 slice, I had another. I also may or may have also eaten it straight from the pan. Don’t judge. We all have our weaknesses. Mine is dessert.

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10 Treats to Make with Leftover Halloween Candy

November 2, 2017

Halloween may be over, but I would guess you still have lots of candy left over at your house. The problem becomes, what do you do with all that leftover candy?! Except eat it, of course!

When I was a kid, my parents would ration my candy and let me have a few pieces here or there. Funny thing, though, somehow the candy stash didn’t last as long as I thought it would. I wonder where all that candy ended up, mom?

Now as an adult, I try to find ways to get rid of the candy as fast as possible because I know if it’s left around long enough, I will just eat it. For the past couple Halloweens I have tried to find ways to make other treats using the leftover Halloween candy. One year I made a Halloween candy bark, which was as easy as melting chocolate and tossing chopped up candy on top. Another year I mixed them into some cookie dough.

Surprisingly, there are lots of things you can do with leftover Halloween candy other than eating it. I found 10 that look really delicious and quite easy in case you are like me and trying to get rid of all your candy.

1. Loaded Brownies (above) by yours truly.

2. Loaded Peanut Butter Cookie Bars by Pass the Cookies

3. Candy Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars by Joy, Food, Sunshine

4. Candy Bar Trifle by Lil Luna

5. Candy Corn Soft Batch Cookies by Averie Cooks

6. No Churn Snickers Cheesecake Ice Cream by Cook with Manali

7. Halloween Candy Cookie Cake by Baker by Nature

8. Butterfinger Pie by Life in the Lofthouse

9. Reece’s Marshmallow Peanut Butter Chip Cookies by Oh Sweet Basil

10. Trick or Treat Pretzels by 30 Handmade Days And if you still have leftover candy, just send a little bit my way! Please and thank you.

Lightened Up Chicken Pot Pie

December 30, 2016

I wasted absolutely no time putting two of my Christmas presents to good use. The first, as you can see, is this beautiful pie dish. One of my very thoughtful and perceptive friends got this for me after noticing that I never make any pies on the blog. Well, there was a good reason for that…I didn’t have a pie dish! Now I do, so let the pie baking begin!

The second is Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc cookbook. Another wonderful friend, who is also a big foodie, got this for me so that we try some of the recipes together. But I wasted no time and picked out his chicken pot pie recipe to try on my own first.

The trouble is that Thomas Keller, while a genius, doesn’t necessarily write the easiest recipes. Also, the chicken pot pie recipe was certainly not the healthiest. And after a food-filled holiday, my husband and I were craving something a bit healthier.

I started by sauteing the pearl onions in a bit of olive oil until they were slightly browned. I then added in the carrots, celery, and sweet potato, which is not only more flavorful, but much healthier than your average potato.

After a few minutes, I added in the chicken stock so that the veggies could soften up and become nice and flavorful. I also added some cooked chicken breast and frozen peas.

While all that was going on, I made a bit of a roux to thicken up the stock and make that creamy sauce around all the chicken and vegetables. Instead of a roux, Thomas Keller’s recipes calls for about a cup of bechamel sauce, which is rich, delicious, and very heavy. In other recipes, you will often see people add butter, flour, and heavy cream to get the same effect.

To lighten up my chicken pot pie, I made a roux/bechamel hybrid by mixing together butter and flour until I had a tight paste, then I whisked in some light milk and…..

Greek Yogurt!

My favorite healthy substitute!

After adding my roux to the pot, the stock tightened up immediately and became this creamy sauce that coated ever thing. It looked and smelled just like the filling in some of my favorite chicken pot pies.

The last change I made to the recipe to make it a bit healthier was to swap out the pie crust for some puff pastry. The pie crust alone probably adds a quarter if not a half of the calories to your average chicken pot pie. But the flaky puff pastry cuts out some of the calories and fat, and is equally delicious!

The worst part about this recipe was the waiting! We waited almost an hour for this bad boy to bake. But it was certainly worth the wait!

The puff pastry crust on top turned golden brown and nice and crusty, like you would expect from your chicken pot pie.

Once it was out of the oven, we wasted no time digging right in. We each had three slices of this pie, which probably negated any of the calories I saved by making all those healthy swaps. But we couldn’t help it…it was so good! I definitely didn’t taste “healthy”. Even though I didn’t follow Thomas Keller’s recipe to the T, I still learned a lot of took used a lot of his tips, which is why I am sure this resulted in one delicious dinner!

And in case your wondering…I did the math.

Mr. Keller’s recipe would have come to a whopping 1,500 calories per serving.

My recipe, was only 400! We probably could have finished off the pie and still consumed fewer calories than one of servings of his. I will certainly take that any day!

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