Category: Traditional Pies

Thanksgiving 2019: Six Pies

November 28, 2019

The pies of Thanksgiving 2019

This whole Pie Project really had its genesis last Thanksgiving. We made a bunch of pies throughout the month of November 2018 and that led to the decision that we needed to own more pie plates, and that led to the Pie Project as a way to put them to good use. A year later, after establishing pie as our be-all-end-all for the year, we knew we had to do something epic for Thanksgiving. We decided the way to go would be to have six pies, bringing our total for the year up to 66 pies. Each family member could choose one pie. It could be a repeat of a pie we’ve already had this year, or it could be a new one. As it turned out, we had two repeats and four new ones. In no particular order:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough “Ice Cream” Pie

Even lovelier than the one from June

Leah’s choice was the re-creation of the pie which prompted a friend to say “This is the best pie I’ve ever had in my life!” There is no actual ice cream in this pie, but it’s a frozen mixture of cream cheese, Cool Whip, cookie dough balls, and chocolate chips in an Oreo crust. It was one of the more popular pies of Thanksgiving, especially among the younger set.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

There is light-colored peanut butter hiding under that lovely chocolate ganache, promise.

Annie’s choice was the traditional chocolate peanut butter pie we have had every Thanksgiving for many years, but hadn’t included in the Pie Project till now. It’s essentially a buckeye candy in pie form: a powdered sugar/butter/peanut butter mixture for the filling, a chocolate ganache topping, and an Oreo crust. This was the first pie to be all gone – the kids went crazy on it on Black Friday afternoon.

Apple Pie

The prettiest pie of the year? Yup.

Someone had to make sure that there was an apple pie at Thanksgiving, so Ellie and Matt kind of combined forces. Technically, this was Matt’s choice, but Ellie accepted his suggestion for her choice. This is the traditional apple pie we’ve been making for a few years now, but with a new crust that we’ve discovered during the Pie Project, made with both butter and butter-flavored shortening. In order to make it special, Matt made the top a couple of days in advance and spent quite a long time on it. It’s hard to braid pie dough, but check that out. Breakfast the next day was awesome.

Cranberry Gingersnap Pie

The sprig of green came straight from our backyard. The sugared cranberries look great too.

What’s Thanksgiving without cranberries? But no one likes the cranberry sauce that keeps the shape of the can. This pie, suggested by Matt but technically chosen by Ellie, was the talk of Thanksgiving. We all expected it to be good (well, those of us willing to eat non-chocolate pies), but it exceeded all of our expectations. The filling is a cranberry curd made by boiling down fresh cranberries with water and sugar, and then mixing with egg yolks and lemon juice. The filling was tart and sweet and smooth and an incredible color. The crust was made from crushed gingersnap cookies (specifically Trader Joe’s Triple Ginger cookies) and a bit of walnuts. It was sharp and spicy and just the perfect compliment to the filling. Never before has a pie had such strong and distinctive flavors competing between the filling and the crust. I’m not sure we can ever have Thanksgiving without this pie again.

Chocolate Ganache Pie

This pie, chosen by Kate, has been a favorite of the family for Thanksgiving for some time. The filling is two different kinds of chocolate, heavy cream, and eggs. The crust is a chocolate pie crust (basically regular pie crust but with cocoa). Then it’s all topped off by whipped cream and chocolate shavings. It is heavy and rich and you can’t eat a very big slice – or even a very big bite – without gasping for milk. It’s a chocolate lover’s dream.

Atlantic Beach Pie

It looks like the crust reaches higher than the filling, but that’s just more room for whipped cream.

Finally, Shelly chose an Atlantic Beach Pie, which was one of the pies we chose for Thanksgiving last year that inspired us to look for more unusual pies, and led to the pie project. One of the first Pie Project pies in January was a lime version, but the traditional lemon version is better. It’s just about the perfect lemon pie. The filling is essentially the same as a key lime pie, except lemon: lemon juice, sweetened condensed milk, and egg yolks. The crust is saltine crackers, sugar, and butter. We crushed too many crackers and were eating the sweet, buttery, crunchy mixture for a couple of days afterwards. The salty crust is the perfect complement to the sweet, velvety, lemony filling.

Black Friday Pie Party

As has been our tradition for several years now, we once again hosted a Black Friday Pie Party: Bring your leftover pie to share. We had a good crowd show up this year, and we got a lot of good pie out of it. Some of the memorable pies to make an appearance (which don’t count toward the Pie Project because they were made by other families): berry pie, chocolate cheesecake, pecan pumpkin pie, and Costco pumpkin pie (which somehow we ended up keeping nearly the whole pie), sour cream cheesecake, and many more. It was a tasty evening of awesomeness.

Costco Pumpkin Pie

November 17, 2017

It’s autumn. We haven’t made a pumpkin pie (the sweet potato pie of last week doesn’t count). Costco’s pumpkin pie is out. Costco charges $5.99 for a giant pumpkin pie. Costco’s pumpkin pie is better than anyone’s homemade pie. So when Matt was at Costco this week for other purposes, he picked up a pie. That’s all the explanation necessary.

It’s lovely, isn’t it?

Ellie spent the next week eating pumpkin pie for breakfast every day. Because that’s the way she rolls.

Sweet Potato Pie

November 10, 2019

I (Matt) had a hard time choosing a pie this week. The year is running out, and there are still several pies I’d like to choose. But I reached out to my ally, Ellie, and made a pact. If she will make another pie I wanted for Thanksgiving, I’ll make this pie that should make her happy now. So sweet potato pie it is.

I’ve never tried a sweet potato pie, but have always been intrigued by it. I like sweet potatoes. They say it’s a lot like pumpkin pie and I like pumpkin pie. But without the Pie Project behind me, there’s always something that I’d rather choose. I think I just grabbed the recipe from Allrecipes.com, and turns out it’s exactly like pumpkin pie, except you’ve swapped out one mooshy orange vegetable for another.

Just look at that firm filling and that flaky crust

I’ve got to say, I think my execution on this pie was as good as it’s ever been this year. I used the shortening/butter crust recipe we’ve been using a lot this year, but switched the shortening to butter-flavored shortening. The crust was out of this world. flaky, flavorful, and thick. If nothing else comes out of the Pie Project, we’ve learned to make good crust. And the filling turned out perfectly – it was just the right firm consistency, not a bit over- or under-baked.

It tasted like a fantastic pumpkin pie. If you really strained and paid close attention, you could taste a bit of potatoey flavor. But it mostly tasted like “pumpkin spice” (that is, cinnamon and nutmeg). We even gave some to unsuspecting guests, who said “This is great pumpkin pie.” They were none the wiser. I’m not sure there’s a reason to choose sweet potato pie over pumpkin pie or vice-versa. They’re interchangeable. (Unless the great texture was the fault of the potatoes.)

Maple Walnut Cheesecake

September 29, 2019

As we established a couple of weeks ago with Annie’s Thin Mint Brownie Cheesecake, cheesecake is a kind of pie.  It has a crust, a filling, and it’s served in wedges.  Cheesecake is just a kind of custard, really, and we’ve had a lot of custard pies this year.

To celebrate the arrival of fall, it’s time to go maple (despite the fact that maple syrup is collected in the springtime).  So Matt went with a Maple Walnut Cheesecake.  It’s a pretty straightforward cheesecake: lots of cream cheese and eggs in a graham cracker crust, just with a bit of maple syrup thrown in.  We added a tiny bit of maple extract as well, and while we were a little afraid that would over-maple it, it actually turned out with a rather light maple flavor.  Without it, it might not have been very mapley at all.  On top, there are candied walnuts – covered in maple syrup/corn starch. Ellie threw in some cinnamon on some of them because Matt let her.

We probably should have tented the pie with foil and left it in the oven quite a bit longer. The top was getting well done, but the middle was pretty goopy and undercooked. With all those eggs, it probably isn’t a good idea to eat the point part of each slice. But the part that was cooked was smooth and delicate and luscious. The hint of maple and the very sweet and crunchy walnuts (this is the second pie in a row with nuts, after a whole year without any!) were great and perfect for a sort of chilly fall evening.

Roadside Blackberry Pie

August 18, 2019

Late August is blackberry season in Washington. Blackberries are the most pernicious weed in the area, taking over just about any untended patch of earth with their crawling vines and their evil, evil thorns. The best way to strike fear into the heart of a Northwest homeowner is to look at their yard and mention that you see some blackberries coming in. They require a lot of work and a lot of pain to contain (you can never defeat them). Blackberries are an evolutionary mystery: they developed these savage thorns which essentially tell any other living thing to stay as far away as possible, yet they also developed delicious berries that tell other living things to please approach and carry the seeds away.

The good news is that once Matt decided that this would be the week of the blackberry pie, it meant it would be the cheapest pie of the year. Blackberries are free. They are everywhere. Just park your car on the side of just about any road in our neighborhood and you can fill up a bucket with a pie’s worth of blackberries. The bad news is that you have to pay for them in blood. Matt and Shelly chose a thick patch of blackberries on the side of our church parking lot and got more than enough for a pie in 20 minutes of picking. But it was 20 minutes of both of us screaming, “Ow!” and “Just a little closer…” and “Augghh!” Pro tip: when going blackberry picking, wear long pants, gloves, and bring a stick to move the vines around.

They look so gentle and docile when they’re baked into a pie.

The pie? Oh, the pie was fantastic. We used a recipe that called for sour cream, which made it creamier, and Matt tried out a weird decorative lattice, but the blackberries, bless their sadistic little souls, are the stars of the show.

All the Berries Pie

August 12, 2019

As if having two pies on Sunday wasn’t enough, Ellie was visiting a friend on Monday and they were talking about the pie tradition, so they decided to make a pie together. They called it the “All the Berries” Pie, because it included blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and some cherries for good measure. Not bad for something made up by a couple of kids.

They put so many berries in, not even a top crust could keep it contained.

The cherries seemed a bit odd among the berries, cooked strawberries aren’t the best, and the crust was a little thin. But they got the consistency just right, and the berry slurry mixed together in a wonderful fruity melting pot. Here’s to trying something different!

Triple Layer Lemon Pie

August 11, 2019

For Shelly’s week, she tried yet another lemon pie (we’ll find the best lemon pie recipe yet). It’s a lemon pudding-based pie, with full pudding on the bottom layer, pudding plus whipped cream in the middle, and just whipped cream on top. She made the crust out of crushed Savannah Smiles Girl Scout cookies (the lemon ones).

The unusual crust may have been the best part.

The consensus was that this pie really wasn’t lemony enough. The pudding was a little softer than a custard pie would have been. It was good and it was enjoyed by all, but it could have used a richer lemon taste. Maybe some lemon zest next time?

Blueberry “Cheesecake” Pie

August 4, 2019

This week we had Grandpa Astle visiting from Utah, so we had to try two pies. We let Grandpa pick the second one, so this is the first pie that doesn’t come from our immediate family. We went through a few ideas, but since we didn’t have access to any rhubarb (maybe that’s a pie failing this year, but there’s always next year), he decided to make the traditional “cheesecake” that I grew up with. My mom made this pie all the time (usually with a cherry topping), and she just called it “cheesecake.” It is not cheesecake, though: it’s a goopy, sweet mixture of cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk. It wasn’t until I was an adult and had real cheesecake for the first time that I realized what cheesecake really is.

Grandpa and his pie, with toppings in the background.

But although this pie was not cheesecake, it was delicious. We made a blueberry topping for it that complemented the creamy sweetness very well. And it made me remember my mom, which was great too.

Recipe: 8 ounces cream cheese, 15 ounces sweetened condensed milk, 1/3 cup lemon juice. Whip it together, put in a graham cracker crust, chill, and over-eat.

Cherry Pie

July 9, 2019

We were driving home from Utah for Matt’s week, but fortunately, he snagged some cherries from his dad’s cherry tree and brought them home.  There weren’t quite enough, though, so we bought some more from the store, and Matt made it during the week.

The biggest accomplishment here was that we finally got our first lattice-top pie of the year. Shelly said, “Boy, those lattice strips are pretty wide.” Matt responded, “Well, this was my first try – I wanted to have fewer strips!” It turned out lovely.

Of course, no one ate it. Our family is made up of weirdos who refuse to even try yummy fruit pies. Ellie had a small piece, but the rest of the job was left to Matt.

Frankly, it could have been better. The recipe we used called for vanilla and almond extract, and next time we should omit that. The extracts gave it a kind of artificial taste. Though there wasn’t any chocolate in this pie, it reminded Matt of a cherry chocolate, with cherries and that liqueur goop around it that tastes a little funny, except not as sugary. And it was really watery and runny – we had to drain the pie before slicing, and even then there was a lot of liquid. Perhaps more cornstarch or less juicy cherries. But the crust was fabulous and it was still pretty darn good.