Banana Cream Pie
This week’s Tuesday with Dorie assignment really had me worked up. I would have thrown in the proverbial towel for real had I had any towels in the kitchen. Banana Cream Pie. Who would’ve thought a little banana cream pie would do me in?
I’m joking.
Mostly. 
I think I was just distracted by the Scary Movie marathon on Comedy Central and was totally disorganized because of that. I actually love having baking experiences that aren’t 100% foolproof though, but I don’t love them at the time I’m experiencing them. It’s just those little checks and balances that make baking so fun and still challenging for me.
Seriously, even taking pictures of this pie made me frustrated. I couldn’t cut a good looking piece for anything.
But it tasted oh so good. It totally made up for the destroyed kitchen I had to clean up afterwards. I had stuff everywhere and a sink full of dishes.
My thoughts and changes:
Crust. I made Dorie’s graham cracker crust instead of the pie crust. It came out perfect and then I accidentally burned it to a crisp after I pulled it out of the oven. Tip: never put a pie plate of perfect graham cracker crust on top of a burner that you aren’t aware is still on. Fortunately I was able to salvage the edges of the crust and use those as a crumbly unstable bottom layer.
Custard. I used 2% milk for the custard. I curdled it, food processed it and everything was ok. But the custard was extremely thick and kind of gloppy. After chilling I added some more milk to it and put it in the food processor again to try to thin it out a bit. That helped.
Whipped Topping. I totally forgot the sour cream in this but it was still good.
Me and the boyfriend both LOVED this pie. I made a full recipe and it was gone by the end of the night. I can’t think of another time recently where that has happened (I think it’s a good thing that I can’t think of another time). This pie was a bit different than what I’ve come to expect from Banana Cream Pie though. Dorie’s version uses cinnamon and nutmeg in the filling which I really liked. I would make it again and eat it in one night again.
Thanks to Amy of Sing for Your Supper who chose Dorie’s Banana Cream Pie for the April 7th, 2009 edition of Tuesdays with Dorie. Stop by her blog to check out the recipe and read what she thought about her choice. Next week, it’s the 15 Minute Magic Chocolate Amaretti Torte chosen by Holly of Phe/MOM/enon that I’ll be testing out.
Thanksgiving Twofer Pie
This pie is an interesting one. It takes Pumpkin and Pecan pie, two traditional Thanksgiving recipes, and puts them together. I wasn’t exactly sure how I’d like this one going in because I am a Pumpkin Pie purist. And I don’t really like Pecan Pie at all. I’ve mentioned before that I generally dislike nuts in desserts, especially if they are a front and center ingredient. At any rate, I was going to make it and see what I thought.
I baked this morning in preparation for going to my Dad’s later on to celebrate our birthdays (we’re 30 years apart). Since I didn’t get to see him on Thanksgiving this year, I thought it was perfect to bring along this pie as sort of a make-up Thanksgiving thing. We are so much alike that he probably won’t be crazy about the nuts in it either, but he won’t tell me that and he’ll eat some anyway.
This pie was relatively easy to put together. It made a lot of dishes to clean up afterwards… truly a Thanksgiving type pie, right? haha. I caught a post over at Lady Craddock’s Bakery where she made the pie twice and adjusted some of the steps, temperatures and times in the recipe. After reading a lot of the problems people had (anything from overflowing in the oven, to a burnt crust, to an undone middle) I could see some definite benefits to following her advice. I did everything exactly the same from not pre-baking the crust, to baking at 450 for 15 minutes then dropping down to 350 for 35-40 minutes. Thanks, Lady Craddock, I had zero issues!
What I Thought: This is a good pie to choose if you want to mix it up a little for Thanksgiving dinner. It’s a twist, but not at all “too far out there” from traditional foods people expect on Turkey Day.
I’m grateful to Laurie for extending the deadline to November 30th on this one. I am so glad I had additional time this week, I really needed it.
Many thanks to Vibi of La Casserole Carrée for choosing the Thanksgiving Twofer Pie. Please make sure you stop by Vibi’s to check out what she thought of her choice and to see the recipe.
I’ll be back Tuesday with Linzer Sables as chosen by noskos of Living the Life. It’s going to be a busy, but awesome December for Tuesdays with Dorie. There are a lot of great choices coming up in the following weeks, I can’t wait!
Barefoot Bloggers: Vegetable (and Chicken) Pot Pie
I love Pot Pie. In my family, we exclusively have the “Slippery” version – not the kind that has a crust, lots of mixed vegetables and other stuff thrown in. I can say I’ve probably had the version with a crust only a handful of times in my life (and this would include Swanson’s). So when I saw that Deb of Kahakai Kitchen had chosen Ina’s Vegetable Pot Pie recipe for the second October Barefoot Bloggers recipe, I knew this would be a good one for me to push myself in a whole new Pot Pie direction.
I tried to stay close to the recipe but this one seemed like one where it would be ok to play around. I cut the butter down from 12 tablespoons to only 4. I was willing to add more if needed, but there was no way I was starting out with 12 tablespoons. Gotta save calories and fat where you can, right? I left out the Pernod because I can’t justify a purchase like that for such a small amount of liquor. I omitted the butternut squash, asparagus tips, frozen onions and fennel (these last two things were nowhere to be found at my local store). Since I left out so much I threw in whatever I had in the freezer like frozen squash and peas, just keeping the measurements to around 1 1/2 cups. I also added some roasted chicken so it would sound a little more appetizing to the boyfriend. I made a full recipe of this, so I had to have him on board with having it for dinner or I’d be having pot pie by myself for days.
I cheated and used store bought pie crust. Now I’m all for baking from scratch, but pie crust… 
. It’s the one thing that can really make me frustrated in the kitchen. I’m sure Ina’s version is great and I know I should’ve made it, but I wanted to save myself the frustration on such a peaceful late Sunday afternoon.
I knew I was really going to like this as I was making the sauce and putting everything together. At 20 minutes left in the oven, it smelled so good and was making me so hungry that I found myself rummaging around in my cabinets looking for something to eat to hold me over. I was like “What am I doing??” and made myself stop and wait. Good thing, because this Vegetable Pot Pie was awesome and I needed all the room in my stomach I could get!
Still staying true to my original life long preferences, I could take or leave the crust. The filling is all I really cared about, but as a whole it was really good. Thank you, Deb for choosing it. Make sure you stop by Kahakai Kitchen to see what she thought of her choice. Then stop by the blogroll to see what the other 111 Barefoot Bloggers thought.
Ina Garten’s Vegetable Pot Pie
Book: Barefoot Contessa Parties!
Show: Barefoot Contessa Episode: Pot Luck
Ingredients
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks)
2 cups sliced yellow onions (2 onions)
1 fennel bulb, top and core removed, thinly sliced crosswise
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups good chicken stock
1 tablespoon Pernod
Pinch saffron threads
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 1/2 cups large-diced potatoes (1/2 pound)
1 1/2 cups asparagus tips
1 1/2 cups peeled, 3/4-inch-diced carrots (4 carrots)
1 1/2 cups peeled, 3/4-inch-diced butternut squash
1 1/2 cups frozen small whole onions (1/2 pound)
1/2 cup minced flat-leaf parsley
For the pastry:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/4 pound cold unsalted butter, diced
1/2 to 2/3 cup ice water
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash
Flaked sea salt and cracked black pepper
Click here for Directions!
Summer Fruit Galette – TWD
It’s Tuesday again! This time, Michelle of Michelle in Colorado Springs chose Summer Fruit Galette for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie. I’ll admit that I let out a little whimper on this choice because I knew it called for pie crust. And me and pie crust don’t get along that well. It doesn’t seem to matter how many tips and tricks I study up on, I just don’t have the magic touch for it yet. But I’ll keep trying.
The Summer Fruit Galette consisted of a free form pie crust, jam/preserves, fruit and a custard that’s added towards the end of baking. This recipe gave the group many choices of what fruit and jams to use. I ended up going with peaches and Dorie’s suggestion of ginger preserves. This was a good flavor combination as the ginger preserves added a nice contrast.
I didn’t use as much fruit as the recipe called for (I only used five peaches) but there was a huge pile in the center anyway. I folded up the crust edges as best as I could but I did have some trouble and it didn’t fold up all nice and neat. I made the custard, then poured it over the galette towards the end of baking. It smelled great the whole time it was baking. It did leak a lot in the oven though, the leakage burned and things got a little smoky in the house. Oh well, what can you do?
I couldn’t wait for it to cool down to try a piece. It may not win any beauty pageants but damn this was good.
Thanks to Michelle for picking out this wonderful recipe, stop by Michelle in Colorado Springs and check out her version of Summer Fruit Galette. Then, like I always say, make your way to the Tuesdays with Dorie site to see everyone else’s.
For next week, Ashlee of A Year in the Kitchen has picked The Black and White Banana Loaf.
Double Crusted Blueberry Pie – TWD
I love blueberries. I love everything about them. They’re good for you, they taste good, they’re blue. What’s not to like? So I was happy about this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie selection Double Crusted Blueberry Pie chosen by Amy of South in Your Mouth. Well, in all honesty, I did have one little fear about it. Pie Crust.
But I got over that fear pretty fast. Dorie’s pie crust recipe is nice because you make it in a food processor. All of my cold ingredients were frozen before I started. I had some problems working with the dough though, it wanted to stick to everything. I may have added too much water but I did add less than the recipe called for. I started out rolling the crust on the counter top but quickly switched to rolling it out in waxed paper. Doing that took care of all my issues and from there I was good to go.
The blueberries came from our local Dutch Market as well as the bread crumbs. I thought the bread crumbs were an interesting addition to the pie and they seemed to worked out great. I made enough dough for a single crust and used a small tart pan to make one mini blueberry pie. It only needed about 40 minutes in the oven.
Saturday, I picked up some blueberry soft serve ice cream to go on top. There is a small ice cream stand on the side of the road near where I live that has every kind of soft serve flavor you could think of. It is always extremely busy and the line is just usually ridiculous. But since it was POURING down raining Saturday… guess what? No line! Next on my list of kitchen gadgets to buy is an ice cream maker, I really would have liked to have tried the Blueberry Sour Cream ice cream recipe in the book.
So, what did I think about the taste of the pie? It was excellent. The crust tasted good and the blueberry filling was really nice. The blueberry ice cream also really added something to the overall flavor. I would make this one again for sure and wouldn’t change a thing.
This Double Crusted Blueberry Pie recipe can be found in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home to Yours. Click here to see the recipe and to check out Amy’s Double Crusted Blueberry Pie. Then head on over to the Tuesdays with Dorie website to see everyone else’s. See you next Tuesday!
La Palette’s Strawberry Tart – Tuesdays with Dorie
I’ve taken the week off of work for a little R&R. Now, I love going on vacations where you actually go somewhere but I also like the ones where you can just stay home and do nothing. I feel like I hardly ever get to just be home for more than a few hours at a time. It’s been nice to completely clean the house, have my sisters over for pizza, catch up on Netflix movies and stupidly take scissors to my own hair and start cutting.
This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie selection was La Palette’s Strawberry Tart chosen by Marie of A Year From Oak Cottage. I just finished making this a little while ago. I kept putting it off since I knew I would have free time this week. Too much R&R gets in the way of things sometimes when you aren’t used to having it.
I love strawberry pies/tarts because they’re so light. You could eat a huge dinner and still manage to squeeze in this as dessert. Dorie’s version is really simple to make and tastes really good. It has a sweet crust with a layer of jam and sliced strawberries on top. Adding the optional whipped cream and black pepper made this especially good. I would make this again and try using different jam/fruit combinations with the same crust.
The recipe can be found in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours. Please stop by here to see how all of the other Tuesdays with Dorie members La Palette’s Strawberry Tarts turned out.
Next week, the selection is Peppermint Cream Puff Ring chosen by Caroline of A Consuming Passion. This one looks interesting, can’t wait to see how it comes out.
Let’s Go to the Movies
Waitress is one of my all time favorite movies. If you’ve seen it, you already know about the pies that the main character Jenna (played by Keri Russell) creates. If you haven’t, the main character Jenna dreams of getting away from her husband while she creates unique pies at a place called Joe’s Pie Diner (Joe is played by the *brilliant* Andy Griffith). Her plans to leave her husband are in motion until she finds out that she’s pregnant. Then things get even more complicated when she meets her married male obstetrician. 
It’s a great movie. It’s a little quirky, sad, sarcastic, funny and heartwarming all mixed up into one. Anyway, the pies Jenna creates throughout the movie take front and center stage. Like “I Don’t Want Earl’s Baby” pie, “Baby Screaming It’s Head Off in the Middle of the Night and Ruining My Life” pie or “I Can’t Have No Affair Because It’s Wrong and I Don’t Want Earl To Kill Me” pie. I have already made the Falling In Love Chocolate Mousse and it was REALLY good. I want to try my hand at the rest of them too. It’s great that these recipes can live up to the expectations of how good the pies were supposed to be in the movie.
So, here we have the Marshmallow Mermaid Pie.
I feel like a kid again. This is a pretty pie, don’t you think?
It’s not just pretty though. It tastes great, too. I was a little concerned about using Unsweetened Chocolate in the filling and more concerned after I tried the filling by itself because the aftertaste was very bitter. No worries though, once the filling is put together with the crust and the marshmallows, there isn’t any bitterness from the chocolate at all. This pie is even good on it’s own without the marshmallows if they’re not really your thing.
Please check out the link where I found the recipe here.
Florida Pie – TWD
This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie selection was Florida Pie chosen by Dianne of Dianne’s Dishes.
I couldn’t have been happier with this choice because Key Lime Pie is my absolute favorite dessert. I thought this recipe was interesting because it added coconut (which, if you’ve read my previous posts, you know I’m iffy on but just lately started coming around to) and meringue. I’ve never had either of those things in any of the Key Lime pies I’ve ever made or tasted… I’m a purist. But I guess that’s why this is called Florida Pie and not Key Lime Pie, huh?
Anytime you get to break out the blow torch… awesome.
This recipe was easy, fast to make and produced a great end result. I ended up liking the addition of coconut and meringue.
Florida Pie
adapted from Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan
1 9-inch graham cracker crust, fully baked and cooled, or a store-bought crust
1 1/3 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups shredded sweetened coconut
4 large eggs, seperated
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup fresh Key (or regular) lime juice (from about 5 regular limes)
1/4 cup of sugar
Getting Ready:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put pie plate on a baking sheet.
Put cream and 1 cup of the coconut in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring almost constantly (I got involved doing other things and totally forgot I had this on the stove but everything was fine). Continue to cook and stir until cream is reduced by half and mixture is slightly thickened. Scrape coconut cream into a bowl and set aside.
Working with a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl beat egg yolks at high speed until thick and pale. Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in the condensed milk. Still on low, add half of the lime juice. When it is incorporated, add the reaming juice, again mixing until blended. Spread coconut cream in bottom of graham cracker crust, and pour over lime filling.
Bake for 12 minutes. Transfer pie to a cooling rack and cool for 15 minutes, then freeze the pie for at least 1 hour.
To Finish the Pie with Meringue:
Put 4 egg whites and the sugar in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan and heat over medium-low heat, whisking until the whites are hot to the touch. Transfer whites to a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, or use a hand mixer in a large bowl, and beat whites at high speed until they reach room temperature and hold firm peaks. Using a rubber spatula, fold the remaining 1/2 cup coconut into meringue.
Spread meringue over top of pie, and run pie under the broiler until the top of the meringue is golden brown. (Or, if you’ve got a blowtorch, you can use it to brown the meringue.) Return pie to the freezer for another 30 minutes or for up to 3 hours before serving.
Please check out what the other fabulous members of Tuesdays with Dorie did here.
Next week’s TWD selection is Traditional Madeleines chosen by Tara of Smells Like Home. I am SO EXCITED to be making these. See you next Tuesday!
Peanut Butter Torte – TWD
This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie selection was Peanut Butter Torte chosen by Elizabeth of Ugg Smell Food. I was really looking forward to making this one because I absolutely love peanut butter. Unfortunately, I can only handle the taste in small doses now that I’m an adult. Man, growing up really is NO fun sometimes.
Anyway, this torte was super easy to make. And it tasted great, too. The peanut taste wasn’t overwhelming at all. I read that some of the other TWD members thought it was a little salty, but I left out the pinch of salt the recipe called for and used “lightly salted” peanuts instead of regular and didn’t have any issues. It never fails though, I forgot something on this recipe too. And I was so careful about checking off each step as I went along to make sure I got everything. I’m in my 30′s now, you would think i could follow a simple set of directions…. but noooooo. What I forgot was to butter the pans before I pressed in the crust. I was a little worried about this and how it would play out in the end, but I had no problems when it came time to remove the sides of the springforms. One of these days I’ll get everything right.
I haven’t bought a package of Oreos in forever. I forgot how good they are.
Chocolate + peanuts + sugar = Mmmm.
I’ve decided that I can’t cut a cake, a pie and now a torte. I’m ok with that. Really.
I had fun this week. This was my favorite recipe out of the three I’ve made so far. Check out other Peanut Butter Tortes from all of TWD’s talented and amazing members here.
See you next Tuesday for FLORIDA PIE (yay!) chosen by Dianne of Dianne’s Dishes.
adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan
1 ¼ c. finely chopped salted peanuts (for the filling, crunch and topping)
2 teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon instant espresso powder (or finely ground instant coffee)
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
½ c. mini chocolate chips (or finely chopped semi sweet chocolate)
24 Oreo cookies, finely crumbed or ground in a food processor or blender
½ stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Small pinch of salt
2 ½ c. heavy cream
1 ¼ c confectioners’ sugar, sifted
12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 ½ c salted peanut butter – crunchy or smooth (not natural; Dorie uses Skippy)
2 tablespoons whole milk
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate finely chopped
Getting ready: center a rack in the oven, preheat to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch Springform pan and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.
Toss ½ cup of the chopped peanuts, the sugar, espresso powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and chocolate chips together in a small bowl. Set aside.
Put Oreo crumbs, melted butter and salt in another small bowl and stir with a fork just until crumbs are moistened. Press the crumbs evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the spring form pan (they should go up about 2 inches on the sides). Freeze crust for 10 minutes.
Bake crust for 10 minutes, then transfer to a rack and let cool completely before filling.
Whip 2 cups of cream until it holds medium peaks. Beat in ¼ cup of the confectioners’ sugar and whip until the cream holds medium-firm peaks. Scrape cream into a bowl and refrigerate until needed.
Wipe out (do not wash) the bowl. Beat cream cheese with remaining 1 cup confectioners’ sugar on medium speed until cream cheese is smooth. Beat in peanut butter, ¼ cup of chopped peanuts and the milk.
Using a spatula, gently stir in one quarter of the whipped cream, just to lighten the mousse. Then stir in the crunchy peanut mixture and gently fold in remaining whipped cream.
Scrape the mousse into crust, mounding and smoothing the top. Refrigerate for 4 hours, or overnight; covering with plastic wrap as soon as the mousse firms.
To Finish The Torte: put chopped chocolate in heatproof bowl and set bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Leave the bowl over the water just until the chocolate softens and starts to melt, about 3 minutes; remove the bowl from the saucepan.
Bring the remaining ½ cup cream to a full boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate, gently stir together with a rubber spatula until the ganache is completely blended and glossy.
Pour ganache over torte, smoothing it with a metal icing spatula. Scatter remaining ½ cup peanuts over the top and chill to set the ganache, about 20 minutes.
When the ganache is firm, remove the sides of the Springform pan; it’s easiest to warm the pan with a hairdryer, and then remove the sides, but you can also wrap a kitchen towel damped with hot water around the pan and leave it there for 10 seconds. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
What I DID/CHANGED/THOUGHT:
This was a great choice and I think I would make this again in the future.
I used two 4 x 1 3/4 mini springform pans and halved the recipe.
Used Lightly Salted peanuts, regular Oreo’s, instant coffee granules and smooth Jif peanut butter. Left out the pinch of salt the recipe called for.
I had issues with the crust and getting it to do what I wanted it to do.
Forgot to butter the pans but this did not create any problems for me.
Didn’t use a hair dryer or a hot kitchen towel, just soaked the pans in a little warm water bath before removing the sides.
I have fallen…
I had been wanting to make the “Falling In Love” pie from the movie Waitress for a while. I finally got around to it late Sunday night and… Oh, it is love. Chocolate, some more chocolate and a little more chocolate. Everything a girl could ever want. Mmmm Hmmm.
It’s really easy to make too. The hardest part was waiting at least four hours for it to set. Since I started so late, I had to go to bed without trying it knowing that I would get to eat some in the morning. Well, I was up at 5:00 the next morning and downstairs opening up the fridge at 5:01. The ingredients are very basic, nothing too fancy. But it tastes gooood. Real good. The only thing I changed from the original “Falling In Love” pie was that I used a graham cracker crust. No big deal.
Chocolate Lovers must try this pie. Like… Tonight. And if you haven’t seen Waitress yet, run out to Blockbuster and rent it. It will give you something to do during your four hour wait.
“Falling In Love” Chocolate Mousse Pie. Enjoy!
Add some chocolate shavings if you want to get fancy. I did. I like fancy stuff.
Falling In Love Pie from the movie Waitress, please check out the recipe HERE.
