S’more S’mores Pie

September 1, 2019

Again, due to lots of guests, we got a second pie (at this rate, we’re going to finish the year with a lot more than 52 pies – we’re actually almost there!). Leah and Shelly kind of collaborated on the choice for this one: a different kind of S’mores pie than the one Shelly made a few weeks ago.

The crust was more of a graham-infused pie crust than it was a traditional graham-cracker crust. There’s other stuff in there: flour, egg, butter, sugar, vanilla. Then you add marshmallow creme and chocolate, and then a top crust. A weird thing happened that didn’t seem like it should have, based on the online recipe: during baking, the marshmallow creme seeped up through the top crust, turning it into a soft, marshmallowy gooiness. “Gooey” is the best word for this pie. When you cut a slice and lift it out of the pan, long, sticky strings of marshmallow resist your efforts, trying to keep the slice at home. The three main flavors (graham, marshmallow, and chocolate) really meld together. It was a hit.

Butterfinger Pie

September 1, 2019

Leah was thisclose to choosing a Nutella pie this week, which everyone was looking forward to. But at the last minute, she swerved and went for a Butterfinger pie. Leah is the queen of choosing a sugary treat that she loves, and adding the word “pie” after it.

That’s what crushed-up Butterfingers look like.

The pie was a pretty basic cream cheese pie, but with some peanut butter to enhance the Butterfinger flavor, and with crushed-up Butterfingers inside and out. We had the missionaries over for dinner and one of them declared “I think this is the best pie I’ve had in my life.” The pie was indeed good – just about everyone agreed it exceeded expectations. But Shelly and Matt chalked up the Elder’s comment to the fact that he hasn’t been around very long and hasn’t tried very many pies.

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Pie

August 26, 2019

Kate kind of got short-changed. For her pie week, we were on vacation in Florida. We had a full kitchen, but we didn’t have the tools or ingredients to make a pie, so we went to the local Wal-Mart and told her to pick a pie from the freezer section. She picked a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup pie. We thawed it and served it and though admittedly it might have been a bit smaller than a normal pie from home, it was probably gone faster than any pie we’ve had all year.

What’s the most exciting thing in this picture: the pie, the girl, or the artwork in our rental condo?

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.

Pineapple Pie

August 18, 2019

I have been looking forward to late summer to do a tropical pie. I’ve had my eye on a passionfruit chiffon pie recipe, and a strawberry-guava pie recipe. Of course, for my week in late August, I had to pick a blackberry pie because that’s when blackberries are free, but fortunately, we had another family coming over for dinner, so that meant I got to pick two pies. And despite the allure of passionfruit and guava, it was clear that we had to go with pineapple. Our friend John is a normal 12-year-old kid, except that he’s obsessed with pineapples. He wears pineapple print clothes and accessories all the time. His treehouse is called the Pineapple Clubhouse, and it’s decorated accordingly. So of course, we had to make him a pineapple pie.

It really looks good against that tablecloth, doesn’t it?

Apparently (according to this online recipe) pineapple pie is popular in Mexico. The filling is pretty simple: cook up some pineapple with cinnamon and cornstarch. The crust was a slightly sweeter version of a traditional pie crust, and I had to decorate it with a food-colored pineapple. The cornstarch in the filling got a little Jell-O-y and lumpy, but overall, the pineapple and cinnamon went very well together. It reminded me of grilled pineapple, which is awesome.

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!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Pie

August 11, 2019

Shelly decided that she deserved two pies this week, so one of them naturally was a chocolate peanut butter pie. Since it’s summer, it was chocolate peanut butter ice cream. That got whipped together with Cool Whip and swirled with chocolate syrup and topped with chopped peanut butter cups. The special part was the crust: it was made from crushed sugar ice cream cones.

The crust didn’t turn out as great as we thought it would. It was hard to cut, but then it was crumbly when we ate it. Perhaps it was because it was frozen, or maybe it needed more butter to hold it together.

Overall, this was a hit, especially with the kids. But next time, we should skip the ice cream cone crust and just stick with a standard cookie or graham cracker crust.

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?

Orange Creamsicle Pie

August 4, 2019

Ellie broke with tradition and made a pie that didn’t have any cinnamon in it. But at least it wasn’t a chocolate pie. We found an Orange Creamsicle Pie recipe online some time ago, but it wasn’t a sure thing that anyone was going to have the guts to pull the trigger on it. Ellie did.

It’s got two layers on top of the traditional graham cracker crust. First is a creamy cream cheese layer, just like the inside of a creamsicle. And on top is a thinner but stronger layer, powered by orange Jell-O powder. It pretty much nailed the taste of a creamsicle, so if you like that kind of thing (some members of our family don’t, seeing as how there’s no chocolate in a creamsicle), it’s great. It probably would have been even better served frozen, but we didn’t try that.

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.